That chicken suit link is a hoot! It really cracked me up because my husband and I just wrote and illustrated a picture book with a chicken fashion show. I made sculpted chickens and had a ball making high heels for chicken feet. I'm sure they wouldn't work on real chickens, though! You can see the runway scene on our website. Click on "incubator." Even though we don't have our little flock anymore, I like to read this forum. I miss my hens! MJ Here is a link that might be useful: Poultry in Motion

OMG! I am laughing so hard, I can't breathe and am coughing! I can't even read all of the comments. Having 3 dogs,one who loves to upchuck everything, anywhere, I can empathize. But I must say wait til you have a dead frog in your drier! I did, couldn't figure out where the smell was, kept rewashing stinky clothes. Then I got out my flashlight and stuck in the lint trap was this poor flattened frog. I don't know how he got in there unless my son, at that time around 6, had it in a pocket. What a stench. I think I used a few boxes of fabric softner sheets before it finally smelled okay. I hope you wiped the chunks up before you ran the machine!

I adopted a 25 year old bird (Amazon parrot), so hopefully I will outlive him. I play with and train Zack 1-2 hours a day. I am also in my office where he lives for usually a few more hours and make sure that I talk to him while he's in his cage. Zack is pretty non-demanding, unlike a Cockatoo and some of the other species. I made sure of that before I took him home. Since he is just growing out his feathers from several years of being clipped, I am training him to fly to me when called and to go into his cage when commanded. He's pretty stubborn but we're making progress. Once he is reliably coming when called, I am going to train him to a flight harness and start taking him outside. He is good with step up and I can do routine procedures on him such as a complete physical exam, nail trim, and beak trim. I have not gotten him to the point of him being restrained for blood draws yet, but he is getting better. I am also training him to get into his travel carrier better. These things make his life much less stressful for the inevitable trips to the vet (me, eventually) and on fun outings. Zack doesn't talk, but he makes pleasant noises. He also imitates my laugh which is hilarious. African greys are very good talkers for the most part, so you could spend hours getting them to say things and imitate phones, etc. There are good breeders and bad breeders for everything. Some bird breeders do pump out thousands of birds per year without regard to the health or quality of the birds. Others are much more careful. I prefer to rescue my new family members rather than purchase them, but that's just me. I wouldn't purchase a bird from Petsmart, Petco, or any other big box pet store. I don't feel like good breeders would sell their birds to a place like that. There are some boutique pet stores that do a great job in birds, but that's all they do, and they get their birds from excellent breeders.

And the mudroom too, please! What does 'pushing back the house' mean - new foundation or extending new foundation (or hopefully, neither)? We did a lot during our renovation (including new foundation, new front steps, new front door, new windows, moving interior walls, lots of drywall, insulation, new wood floors, etc., etc.). I loved our builder, who worked on a cost plus 15% for himself. We're on the North Shore but I know he does work in Boston too (I think you are there?). I have all the receipts so could give you names if you would care to and are comfortable going directly to the (sub) contractors (after, of course, requesting and checking recent references).