The next time you move, be sure to hire a couple of really strong men, particularly if one of them is 6' 9". Wow! (That's 1' 3" taller than I've ever wished to be!) It makes the whole process much easier. Mind you, even a couple of strapping young men can't make up for the fact that moving is really annoying. Oh, it's not just the boxes of stuff everywhere, it's also the strangeness of the new space.

The first morning, the Finsters — who are still in the "hospital" cage pending the cleaning and rebuilding of the Finsterium — were seen sleeping inside the bath dish. Inside the bath dish! Poor, damp Finsters. You can pop up a picture of that bath dish here, but don't get your hopes up — we still only have two finches. This photo is from when Ginger and Cinnamon were among the big batch of new Finsters back in September, 2004. Usually when subjected to the cramped quarters of the hospital cage, as many finches as can fit there sleep perched on the entrance to the bath, facing in. And that's where Ginger and Cinnamon have been sleeping since that first night.

The first night, Harley was so nervous about the new place that we had to wait until he was practically asleep before he'd stay on his Sleeping Perch for the night. He still isn't convinced about bed time. And the first morning, Harley was apparently so startled at seeing new surroundings that he fell off his perch. (We can run downstairs very quickly, as it turns out.)

But everyone is starting to settle in now, at least during the day. Here are Bruce and Harley, watching TV, and drinking beer and apple juice. You'll notice I didn't take a picture of them hanging around in their underwear — but they do both have their feet up. We have a new couch for the living room (with piping that's just perfect for curious beaks), but you'll notice Harley is still in the middle of everything.

The living room and the kitchen are set up the best. Our bed is made, but that's about it for the bedroom. The basement is still full of boxes — although the network is set up. The den/bird room won't be completed until the Finsterium gets set up again, which is taking longer than we'd planned. But it's partly their own fault for pooping so much — silly me figured with less than a handful of Finsters in there since the last big cleaning, and several new nest boxes along the way, I wouldn't have to make a whole set of new ones. But I was very, very wrong. How can such tiny creatures poop so much?

Here's Harley on the breakfast bar Harley bar. Along with the counter in the bathroom, and the top of the shower door, this is one of Harley's favorite places to be so far. At first we thought the main attraction to the Harley bar is that he can drop things off of both sides — and that's pretty darn fun! He's dropped spitballs from the box everywhere, and squished carrots from several meals both into the sink and onto the chairs. I'm sure he'd love to throw some pony beads around, but I'm not sure the disposal would handle them very well.

But it turns out that the real attraction of the bar is the faucet. Who knew Harley likes shiny metal things as much as I do? Here he is being KING OF THE FAUCET. Even if he weren't so possessive of this spot that we need to resort to using a stick to get him off it, there are a few obvious reasons why this could be really, really bad.


Go ahead, list them for yourself.

As I predicted, there's still stuff left at the old place. A surprising amount, in fact. It's hard to believe we managed to stuff so much...stuff...into such a small space. Of course, it might not seem like such a mess if there weren't so many spitballs floating around. Everywhere. I can't imagine where they came from.

Can you?