Not the merriest time of year

Everyone can yak on about how this is a time of sharing, giving, brotherly love, yadda yadda yadda... all I can say is, you must not work, nor have ever worked, in retail. Christmas is possibly the nastiest season of them all. People are hurried, rushed, and it's your fault. They tend to be snappier, ruder, more impatient, and it's all your fault. I get more grinches this time of year than all the other months combined. Sometimes people insult you personally, sometimes people act like you have personally wronged them. But I can assure you that customers can be HUGE jerks... and when you're dealing with hundreds of people a day, it really starts to wear you down.

Parrots DO argue with each other

Havoc, my severe macaw, is just learning to talk, and lives in my great room. Pickle, my quaker, lives in the bird room, which is adjacent to the great room. If no birds are out for fly-time, I leave the bird room door open. The coversation between Havoc and Pickle went like this:

Pickle: "Pickle, Pickle, Pickle!"
Havoc: "TICK-LE. TIIIICK-LE."
Pickle: "PICKLE PICKLE PICKLE!!!"
Havoc: "What? TICKLE."

Proof that birds do argue. I hope she didn't convice Pickle his name is Tickle.