Improvisations

I just came back from a voice lesson and I haven't had a chance to handle any of my babies yet. My teacher (an amazing one, by the way) wants me to put together a recital, to get me back on my feet again. It's been a while since I've performed, for more than one reason, but I trust myself enough to know that I will be just fine when I get up there. I know how to deal with performer's anxiety...and hopefully I did not just jinx myself. The last thing I need is to hear the introduction to a song and faint, or fall on the floor in a seizure. The drama...

Explain this to me, my sister has asked me to bake a pecan pie. In June. I bought all the ingredients yesterday, but I still can't get around the fact that she wants a pecan pie on the first day of summer. I don't have corn syrup, though, so I am going to make one that doesn't require it. Improvisation is one of my skills.

Barbossa has still not shed, and neither has Coral. She is still blessedly in her cage, and has not attempted to escape again. Really, I promise, her cage is not substandard at all. It is actually a beautiful one, with clean mulch and fresh water. What's the problem, Coral? I am really not that bad, you could do worse.

Ok, I was almost mauled by blue jays.
I was minding my own business, baking, when I see a big blue jay land on the ledge outside the kitchen window. I thought "ah, how cute". I kept going on with my business. After three or four times of this, I thought, either the bird smells the pie already or he's a spy contracted to track me down. Since I have not committed any crimes against the avian population, I went outside to see what was going on. Below the ledge we have a bush, and there was a little ball of blue feathers. A baby blue jay. I knelt down beside it and picked it up to make sure that is was fine. Of course, it let out a blood curdling cry that had the parents on me in less than a second. I got pecked all over. I examined the baby, and he seemed fine but was still too small to fly. I looked all around for a sign of a nest and nothing. If the baby were laying in a safer place I would have left it, but I knew that as soon as I let any of our dogs out it would be inside some one's mouth very quickly.
I went back inside, put on a hat, because being pecked in the head is not fun, and brought out a container to place him in. I think the parents would have torn me to pieces if they had been able. Granted, I was birdnapping their baby.
So now he is on the big table we have outside, in the container, where he is at least safer. I left food outside for the parents to eat and to feed to the baby, and I can see them and hear them from the computer. They are really not happy, but I think they and I would be a lot less happy if the baby was torn to shreds. We'll see what happens.