Cindy and Kiwi come nose to nose

On Thursday morning, Shannon felt cold and tired and decided to spend time with her girls instead of dashing off for a run.

After a few hours in lab (interrupted by an afternoon run with Andy), Shannon headed home. She had hoped to swim in the evening, but the pool was closed! Silly online calendar lied ...

When Shannon returned home, she was greeted by lots of cheerful chirps emanating from Kiwi's cage! Such happiness abounded! Shannon settled down on her bed to update her blogs and enjoy an extended Christmas Eve Eve with her favorite girls. Cindy hopped around the room as usual, and Kiwi divided her time between Shannon's shoulder and the top of her head.

Around 7:30pm, both Shannon's friends Brandt and Raymond signed on the Gchat, which made Shannon endlessly happy. Raymond was off with his family in Burlingame, while Brandt was a world away in Thailand! Brandt and Shannon exchanged animal pictures, although Brandt's were much more exotic - elephants and monkeys, oh my! While chatting with the two boys, the girls were off creating mischief of their own.

First, Cindy found Shannon's new hiding spot for the millet bag, causing Shannon to find an even higher spot away from nosy bunnies. Then Kiwi got into a nippy mood and wanted nothing more than to perch on Shannon's glasses and nibble Shannon's ear. This became painful after a time, and so Shannon decided that Kiwi should spend some time in time out. Which wasn't really time out, but more time by her food dish, nibbling some sunflower seeds.

While Shannon's ear healed, Cindy hopped up on the couch beside Kiwi's cage, going nose to nose with the little green chirpster! Shannon was lucky to be able to capture this precious moment on video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmWczZ5FXio&feature=feedu

As the evening progressed, Cindy grew ever bolder. She reclaimed her old perch on the back of the couch, and sat there for a while looking down into Kiwi's cage. Cindy even tried putting a few toes on the top of the cage, but decided it was not very stable. Good girl! She hopped up and down many times, but Kiwi did not seem fazed by the action. She fluttered back to Shannon's shoulder and Cindy decided she wanted to join in the fun, and hopped onto the bed beside Shannon. This must have made a very cute picture, but Shannon was not fast enough in capturing the moment.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and Shannon will be journeying south to Sunnyvale to spend the day with her parents. But she will return on Christmas day for some special time with her two best girls. :)

Cindy discovers Kiwi's millet stalks

By Wednesday morning, the girls had all settled into a good routine. Shannon would awaken, and feed and water Cindy while Kiwi slept in the comfort of her towel-shrouded cage. Then Shannon would eat her breakfast and let Kiwi come flutter around the bedroom.

Wednesday in lab was not very productive in terms of science, but everyone had great fun with agar creations! The previous week, Shannon and Ertan had poured some waste agar into a rubberglove and let it harden. Dorothee and Shannon had completed this experiment a year ago with denser agar, and had already had difficulties in removing the glove while preserving the hand inside. This time, Dorothee had the brilliant idea of removing the glove while the agar hand was in a beaker of water. This way, the fingers would be supported and remain attached to the palm. Miracle of miracles, it worked!

Then Shannon remembered that she had even more waste agar left, with an even higher concentration of agar. The group decided to repeat the experiment, this time dyeing the agar with exces

s vitamin B12 solution (left over from making Wolfe's vitamins), which turned the agar a lovely shade of pink. While waiting for the agar to solidify in the new glove, Dorothee played around with the first hand be slipping a ring onto its finger.

The best was yet to come, however, as Dorothee began to play around with the new pink hand in its watery vessel. Enjoy!

On Wednesday evening, Cindy grew bolder and bolder. By now she had already decided that she enjoyed munching on Kiwi's discarded sunflower seed shells. While prowling the couch for more crumbs to attack, something caught Cindy's attention. She discovered the glass cylindrical container of the sunflower seeds, and proceeded to tip it over and roll it around the couch. In doing so, she bumped into the bag of millet, or, as Anna and Shannon refer to it, "birdy crack".

Cindy was quite intrigued by the bag and sniffed for a few moments before snatching a sprig of millet by its stalked end. She sat at the edge of the couch, staring at Shannon, before she hopped off and dashed under the bed with her prize. Shannon was worried that again Cindy had found food not suitable for rabbits, and so she had to squirm on her stomach and wriggle under the couch to retrieve the millet from Cindy's grasp. The millet by this point was covered in Cindy fur and was promptly thrown away.

For the rest of the evening, Shannon battled with a stubborn Cindy, who was intent on sniffing out and munching on more millet stalks. Unfortunately the millet bag did not have a resealable top, and so Shannon was forced to move it to higher ground, away from giant white balls of fluff.

Just prior to the millet incident, Shannon captured a video of Cindy exploring the couch area. At the end of the video, you can see her turn towards the bag of millet ... sneaky Cindy.

Cindy discovers Kiwi's sunflower seeds

Tuesday morning, Shannon left the girls to their own devices while she went for a bike ride. Afterwards, she quickly got ready for work and fed and watered the bunny and bird.

In the evening, Shannon had a nice long swim, and even got a ride home from her friend Carlos. Shannon didn't go straight inside, however, as she hopped into her own car for a trip to Whole Foods where she purchased some fr

uit for herself and some spicy-looking jalapeno peppers and serrano chiles for Kiwi.

When she got home, Shannon went to work to make the girls feel loved and special! Cindy came out to hop around the apartmen

t and Kiwi sat on Shannon's

shoulder while they watched Beauty and the Beast.

After a while, Kiwi fluttered back to her

cage, and perched on its roof. Cindy, smelling something intriguing, hopped up on the couch beside Kiwi's cage to investigate. There she found some discarded sunflower seed shells and took a nibble. Cindy decided that she liked the sunflower seeds very much, and continued munching until Shannon noticed and shooed her away, as Shannon was unsure whether the seeds would agree with Cindy's stomach.

Luckily, it appears that Cindy's digestive system was not impaired by the little seeds and so all was well.

Monday, December 20th

Monday the 20th was a sad day for Shannon. Christmas Eve is so close, and yet so far away! Shannon was very much not looking forward to going to work this week, as she much preferred to spend her time with the girls at home.

Still, Shannon went for a run in the morning, entertained little Kiwi as she readied herself for lab, and then left the girls to their own devices during the day. Monday in lab was fairly uneventful. Shannon worked on her computer to try to analyze her newest data, which was met with difficulties at every turn. She was very happy to return home at the end of the day for snuggles with Kiwi and Cindy.

Cookie weekend

Shannon has realized, sadly, that she has been quite remiss in keeping dear Anna apprised of the goings on at the menagerie and for that she is truly sorry. She will attempt to make amends be recalling incidents from the past few days.

Sunday, Dec 19th, was fraught with excitement for Shannon as she had been looking forward to Liz's cookie party for many months. Kiwi recalled how sweet Liz was from when she visited last year and was sad not to get to visit herself. But Shannon knew that the chocolate in Liz's cookies would be harmful to the little bird, and so Kiwi stayed home with Cindy.

In preparation for the cookies to come, Shannon spent the morning with her girls. She considered going for a bicycle ride, but the rain would not abate. Thus, Shannon watched movies and ate lots of fruit with Kiwi perched happily on her shoulder.

Around 2:30pm, Shannon dashed off to Liz and Dan's cookie-filled apartment, where she reconnected with old friends (including Jorge, and Shannon can testify that she saw him eat a cookie!), new friends, and sweet little children.

Afterwards, Shannon had to go back to lab for a bit. Luckily Ertan was there to keep her company until it was time to go home.

Kiwi has a Hawaiian adventure

On Saturday, December 18th, NBC graciously decided to broadcast the 2010 Ford Ironman World Championships from Kona, Hawaii. In honor of this momentous occasion, Shannon invited several friends over to celebrate, watch the show, and eat lots of delicious food.

Shannon started prepping food earlier in the day, so that all would be ready for the guests to assemble kabobs according to their

liking and start broiling before the start of the race. She was concerned that Kiwi would be anxious around the new people and the cooking process, so Kiwi was left in her cage with Cindy to talk to. The girls gossiped and giggled while the humans were merry in the kitchen.

Soon it

was time for the race to begin, and Shannon thought that Kiwi would like to meet some new people and enjoy some quality time on the couch. Shannon changed into her Kiwi shirt, and the girls joined the boys on the couch. Kenny was very intrigued by Kiwi, and kept trying to entice her over to his finger. She decided that this was not a good idea and began pecking at him. Kiwi then proceeded to bury herself in Shannon's pink shirt and rummaged around there for the next two hours. Kiwi was very excited to find a navy bra underneath the shirt and went about pecking at the straps. Shannon did not like this very much, as bras are expensive, so she shooed the little chirpster to a portion of the shirt more near her stomach where Kiwi could nibble to her heart's delight, which Kiwi gladly did. Every so often, Kiwi would meander to Shannon's back, which was very ticklish. Shannon was worried about having a tickle spasm and squashing the little bird, so she gently shifted Kiwi back to her stomach again.

Every so often Kiwi would emerge from Shannon's shirt, and Kenny would again try to entice her to his finger. After a few attempts, K

iwi decided that hopping up was ok, but very quickly would flutter back to her surrogate mother, Shannon.

This went on the the two hour show, after which the guests left and Shannon began the cleanup process. Kiwi was very helpful in this regard, as she liked to peck at the leftover rice. However, the sticky rice soon became stuck to the tip of her beak, which was very amusing to Shannon.

Kenny helped cleanup, which was a little awkward as Shannon is particular about her dishes and her methods of cleaning, but she tolerated it. After the cleanup, Kenny again attempted to win Kiwi's affection, and this time she stayed a little bit longer on his arm, but to no avail.

Sadly, Shannon had to put Kiwi back in her cage for a couple of hours, as she went out on a mission to find paint pens to decorate Ki

m and Liz's shiny Christmas water bottles. When Shannon returned home, she decide

d that keeping Kiwi in her cage was best, since the pens are quite toxic to humans, and probably to little birds as well. After the painting was over, Kiwi and Shannon settled down to read some Virology together. And then, exhausted, they went to bed, but not before saying goodnight to Cindy.

A new morning, new holes in Shannon's shirt

Good morning Kiwi and Cindy, said Shannon on the morning of December 18th.

Shannon had awaken two hours before the Kiwi, because she wanted to get some chores out of the way. She cleaned the bathroom and showered, cleaned the kitchen, and then finally vacuumed the bedroom. Shannon was sure that Kiwi would be revived by the loud sounds of the vacuum, but she was quiet as a mouse on Christmas morning. Finally Shannon removed the towels from Kiwi's cage, and the little green bird began chirping happily. She accompanied Shannon while she cleaned water bowls and filled food dishes. She sat on Shannon's shoulder while Shannon ate her breakfast, now and again flying back to her own bowl for some nibbles.

Shannon and Kiwi decided that they would watch another episode of Criminal Minds together, since Shannon's chores had gone so smoothly and she could afford to take a little break. Kiwi spent most of the time inside Shannon's shirt, chewing holes from the inside out. Shannon did not mind, except when Kiwi's feet would tickle her stomach. Then Shannon was afraid that Kiwi would become squashed if Shannon laughed too hard, and she helped the little bird climb back to her shoulder. Kiwi would always find her way back inside the shirt, clever girl.

When Shannon began typing her blogs, Kiwi thought it would be fun to stand on the keyboard, but this inhibited the typing process, so she climbed back into Shannon's shirt again. When Kiwi poked her head out of the bottom of Shannon's shirt, Shannon thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to snap a picture. Kiwi did not like the flash of the camera very much, and flew across the room. She turned around and then landed on Shannon's feet. Kiwi then spent the next ten minutes flying back and forth from Shannon's feet to Shannon's head. Perhaps she has seen too many episodes of America's Next Top Model, and has taken the idea of "modeling head to toes" or "H to T" to heart?

What will that silly green girl get into next?