Pigeons, and the like

Joe is out of town, but he’s coming back tonight. He’s been gone since late December for eagle work, though there is some flexibility in his schedule which allows him to stay home for a few days at a time. This will be his last outing for a while, so I’ve been trying to think of any last minute changes I can make that he would normally object to. So far nothing has come to mind, but in case you’re interested, Joe left me with a pet pigeon before his latest departure. I’d say I came out the loser in that exchange. The conversation went something like this: “Emily, can you feed the pigeon while I’m gone?” I had not been properly listening, as the latest episode of The Bachelor was on, so I gave a brief nod in his general direction which his misread as a definitive yes.

Our pet

[He’ll make me clear it up when he gets back, so I might as well confess right now that I wasn’t watching TV, largely because we don’t own one, and that when asked if I would feed the pigeon I simply said yes.] If curiosity has gotten the better of you because of all this pigeon talk and you’re wondering “why on earth…”, there’s nothing much that can be said to that. Joe brought home a few pigeons the other day. Then he put them on our patio. Then he took a few away, and left one here—the one that needs to be fed. I find profound agreement is often the path of least resistance.

Moving on to brighter topics, two things happened last week that are worth mentioning here. 1) Joe had a birthday and 2) we sent out our save the date cards.

Making the STD cards

For his 3*th birthday dinner Joe wanted a big salad. And that is precisely what he got. After several weeks of eating out, he just wanted a plate of fresh greens. He arrived back in Vegas the afternoon of his big day, which was the nicest part about it. I was really excited, and had to keep up a party atmosphere because Joe has consistently tried to convince me that birthdays are not a big deal.  (For two people who spend most of their time reading alone in the dark, it’s not hard to create a party atmosphere, it simply requires turning on an additional light.) I’d say this year was a success. He got a great big giant salad, with sides of mashed potatoes and stuffed mushrooms for dinner. He had a pile of presents to open, which were as follows: a pan (because he is hugely dissatisfied with our current options), a menu book (so when he asks for a list of dinner options I can hit him with his new book), and an apron that has a double arrow pointing to his arms and reads ‘GUN SHOW’. Then we watched a Brazilian movie and fell asleep. Not a bad day at all.

Cutie cute Joe, with all his cute presents

Shortly after his birthday extravaganza, we found ourselves at the post office to send off our save the date cards. For the entire process our conversation went like this:

E: Are you sure you want to do this?

J: Don’t throw them in the slot so hard, you’re missing the basket on the other side.

E: This means we’re really getting married.

J: See?! You did it again.

The face Joe makes when he's humoring me