Sunbird

I can do Saturday in the afternoon or evening this week.

The topic title "Random Stuff" sums it up pretty well. Basically a general chat thread for whatever thoughts have been floating around in your head that don't fit into other topics.

You know you're a Sanderfan when you try to type "creamy" but your phone Autocorrects it to "cremmy."

I got the neatest thing in the mail today: a letter sealed with actual sealing wax! Will post photos tomorrow.

Utah apparently didn't get the same memo as the rest of the US about turning into Siberia. I had to swat off a pair of mosquitoes on Saturday, no joke!!

I've used this one in discussions on Facebook twice in the last 2 weeks. "A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."--CS Lewis

This week I should be able to do any day except Friday. Same for next week.

Some moar bird photos from last week Brown Creeper and Red-tailed Hawk (2 photos): Particularly photogenic ducks at the park (2 photos): Cooper's Hawk (2 photos):

@Kaymyth I'm so sorry you lost your dear kitty. I've been there, and it majorly sucks. She's beautiful, and she's lucky to have had you to give her a better life.

No, I meant to post an image of a Photobucket error message; that's what it's supposed to look like. If you look at the image URL of what I posted, it's not even from Photobucket.

@Pagerunner is pranking us. Those are the same image file, modeled on one of these Photobucket error messages: There's no memes hiding; those ARE the meme.

I found a cool bird on Sunday--a small falcon called a Merlin. She (I think it's a female--hard to tell with this species) was sitting on top of a telephone pole having dinner when I found her. None of these photos show any blood, but I've separated them into two groups: photos where the prey is visible and photos where it isn't. (@Mestiv Please let me know if any of the images I've posted go too far.) @Kestrel Maybe you know how to tell male and female Merlins apart better than I do? Merlin WITHOUT prey visible (2 photos): Merlin WITH prey visible, but no blood (2 photos):

Thanks, @Del-light-full!

Thanks! Being in the hospital for the infection was pretty scary, but I actually found the diabetes diagnosis much less worrisome. My family tree has a loooooong history of diabetes, so I already knew a lot about how it works and how to manage it since so many of my relatives have it. Even if I hadn't made such good progress by now, I'd much rather live with diabetes than plenty of other medical conditions, including certain other non-life-threatening ones.

I got some fantastic news today!! But it requires a bit of backstory before it will make sense. So the week before Thanksgiving, I had to stay in the hospital for a few days to treat an infected wound in my leg. (I think I posted about that on the Shard back while it was happening or shortly after.) While I was in the hospital, the doctors ran some other tests: They measured my fasting blood sugar, found it was higher than normal, and then did a test called an A1C, which measures your average blood sugar levels for the past 3 months. My A1C came back with a result of 7.0. A1C results of 7 and above are considered diabetic because it means your blood sugar has been consistently higher than is healthy. So I had to start testing my blood sugar twice a day and changing my diet to include less sugar and fewer simple carbs (breads/pastries, potatoes, sugary desserts, sodas, etc). All that happened at the end of November/start of December 2017. Since then I've made a major effort to eat better: avoiding things that will raise my blood sugar and replacing them with vegetables, lean meats, fish, and snacks that are less carby and more fat/protein like cheese, nuts, olives, Slim Jims, and so on. Today I had a follow-up appointment with my primary doctor to check how I was doing, and they tested my A1C again. This time the result came back a 6.0! For reference, an A1C of 5.5 is considered normal and non-diabetic. So I am very pleased about having made that much progress in only about 5 weeks. I've also lost about 9 pounds (~4.1 kg for all y'all metric users) since my last visit to the doctor, also 5 weeks ago. I haven't been able to lose any notable amount of weight for... wow, at least 8 years (since I started high school), so to drop that much just by changing my eating habits is very rewarding. My doctor said she thinks I'll probably have made myself non-diabetic when I see her again in 3 months, and I think she's right.

(Ignore the quote box. I hit it by accident and cannot get rid of it.) Haha, managed to get rid of the superfluous quote box! Thanks for clearing that up, @Mestiv

Perhaps you could put them under spoiler tags with a warning about the blood so that they're available for people who want to see, but people who don't want to see don't get ambushed.

As promised, scenery photos from Dauphin Island off Alabama's southern coast (its only coast, in fact )! 5 photos under each spoiler:

Thanks! Here are some more birds for y'all to enjoy Photos in this post were taken on Dauphin Island, which is a little ways off Alabama's southern coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Two types of sandpipers, including the kind the Pixar short "Piper" was based on (2 photos): Seagulls and an odd sea bird called a skimmer (2 photos): Two types of terns (2 photos): Pelicans (2 photos): Red-breasted Mergansers, a type of duck (2 photos): Northern Mockingbird being ridiculously photogenic (2 photos): Tune in later (probably won't get to it until next week) for scenery photos from Dauphin Island.

It's not often you find a good yodeling pun.

Good luck to you both!!!

Dating is usually awkward, so I'd say you're doing well. *thumbs up* And my good news for today is more like good news for the past two weeks... I've been on vacation with my parents. We decided to take a road trip to Alabama to escape the hideous, bitter cold that is Ohio right now, and mostly succeeded. It's still been abnormally cold for the South, but heckin better than the subzero Fahrenheit lows in Ohio. Ugh! We've visited several wildlife refuges and bird hotspots and found lots of cool stuff! First place we stopped was a place called Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alabama. Behind the visitor center is a big marsh/lake combo where thousands of birds had congregated: Sandhill Cranes and a few different types of ducks and geese. They make quite a racket, especially the cranes! I got some nice photos of birds, though not of the cranes. Various ducks (4 photos): Two kinds of geese (2 photos): Wheeler is a pretty big place, and we wandered around a bit on trails in the woods near the visitor center. Here are some photo highlights from our hiking. Eastern Bluebird and Northern Cardinals (3 photos): A woodpecker with a funny name, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (2 photos): Tune in later this week for more vacation photos, this time from Alabama's Gulf Coast.

AAAHHHHHH THIS IS SO COOL Please keep us updated on your progress with Revali! He's gorgeous and adorable and fierce all at once, and I love him.

@Kestrel Cutest Barn Owl ever!! I'm glad you're back.