Phoenix Love Birds

No, this isn't a post about kissy,kissy people in Phoenix (gag) but rather the peach-faced or rosy-faced lovebirds that populate Phoenix.

At various times while running on the canals, I'll see the wild love bird parrots flying from tree to tree.  After visiting Peru, I realized I can recognize the lovebirds call and know these birds are close by. I've seen them settling into palm trees at dusk and just recently I've heard them outside my back door hanging out on my sunflowers.  I'm now obsessed with learning more about them and trying to capture pictures of them as they annihilate my sunflowers.

According to Birdwatcher.com, the peach faced love birds originally were part of an aviary and the owners set the birds free in the 1980's.  These 15-20 birds, started a population of birds that although previously lived in captivity, thrived in the warm area and were able to survive in the wild and reproduce quite well in the Phoenix area. One website estimated the current population to be 2,500 birds.

Outside of eating my sunflowers, they also eats cactus fruit, apples, palm fruit and seed pods from mesquite and palo verde trees. I'm quite happy to participate in the feeding of the birds unless they start in on my real garden.  John says be careful of what I wish for because loving the birds now may not be a good thing if they eat everything I'm trying to grow.

In 2010 there was a love bird census where computers were hooked up on trees and lines and based on the weight and pressure of the bird, it registered as a love bird or not.  Wouldn't that be a great April Fools Day story?  Actually people walked and rode bikes from Apache Junction to Scottsdale to Phoenix to count 948 lovebirds.  There is an awesome chart showing where and how many birds they found in each area.

These love birds are keeping me entertained and I was thrilled this morning to go out and see four lined up on a sunflower and another four on other flowers.  Eight love birds tearing the crap out of my sunflowers.  It was awesome.

My Favorite Apps

My top five favorite apps is the topic for  first theme day in the Blogathon.  I consider Apps to be smart phone programs and while I have downloaded some and used them for a short time, I am not handcuffed to social media to continually check and update.  I can never remember my facebook password to sign on with my phone, I don't tweet and haven't fallen down the Pinterest rabbit hole, yet.

So instead of smart phone apps I'll tell you about my top five regular applications that I use at home.

1. Lightroom by Adobe - Last year I got a DSLR camera for my birthday and now I spend time taking pictures and editing them in Lightroom.  Everyone always asks me is that like Photoshop?  The end result is similar but Lightroom was designed for photographers by photographers so it's user friendly and not confusing and complicated like Photoshop.
2. iTunes- I love listening to podcasts on my work commute and am often in iTunes to download current episodes or search for new podcasts.  My latest favorite podcast is 'I Should be Writing' by Mur Lafferty. 
3. Excel- I do everything on spreadsheets and will even open up a spreadsheet to add numbers together.  It's so much easier than taking out the calculator.
4. Quicken -  I have my personal accounts and rental business accounts on Quicken and daily enter information, download data from the bank, run reports or reconcile bank accounts.
5. Outlook- Gotta check my emails

I feel pretty boring in that 3 of the top 5 apps are business related but that's just the reality of what is.  One app I do have on my phone is the bubble app.

  I can pull out my phone and confirm my stove is not level which is why my cakes aren't level. 

Pic from Cake Wrecks

What are your favorite apps?

Rain + Color = Wet Color Run

Rain is something that happens in other places in the country.  In Phoenix it doesn't rain it spits.  Unless of course you sign up for a Color Run and it rains and rains and rains.  The color ended up being a muddy mess (think of adding every color of the rainbow, mixing it in water and dumping it on yourself).  Despite the rain me and my co-workers had a fantastic time.

For The Color Run everyone wears a white shirt and at each 1K, a different color is thrown at you.

Michelle and Trisha are thinking about being a blueberry for the next Halloween

The plastic bags we were wearing were ditched because 1) we were already soaked anyways, 2) what fun is it if you're all covered up?  It's all about the color!

Not only did I want to color my shirt blue but also my hand and Trisha's face too.  Actually she managed that herself by wiping her face with her wet, color ridden glove.  Even after showering when I got home I still had blue on my skin and in areas that weren't directly touched with blue. I wonder what Trisha's face looks like now?

At the blue station there was so much water we tromped through giant colored puddles and I couldn't help but jump through the puddles.

Sandy, Karen, Christina, Michelle, Paulina, Trisha

We are already planning on next year participating but hopefully no rain!

Happy Running!

International Flag of Friendship

With the American flag pinned to my leg, I carried it 13 miles around the Crater Lake Rim. The international flag of friendship, started by Johann in South Africa, back in February 2011 he posted

I’ve been thinking about a big flag with small flags from various countries on it for some time now and decided I can just as well start it with this little flag. I then decided as this flag went through a race with me why not cover a big flag with small flags that were carried through races?

My idea is to create the International Running flag of Friendship. This would be a white flag covered with small flags that were carried in races by anyone that would like to get their name on the flag like this:

When the flag was first announced I wanted to run with it, shortly after it starting its journey it went to the USA, and I figured my chances were slim. After all, there are so many USA runners that are Johann groupies, the probability seemed slim I would get it.  When my Italian friend Giorgio asked me if he could send the flag to me I was flattered.  Of course!

Here are the countries the flag has traveled to:
South Africa (twice)
Australia (with a cute vegemite pin)
USA (three times)
Canada
Italy (twice)
Quebec/Canada

Here are the rules (easy peasy)

1. Someone will nominate you to be the next person to receive the International Running Flag of Friendship. You are free to decline in which case the person will nominate someone else.
2. Decide which small flag of your country, state, province, family, sports team or whatever you want to add to the big flag(banner).
3. Carry the small flag of your choice during a race or run. You don’t have to carry it in your hand and can even have it in your pocket or backpack.
4. Take photos of the event and small flag.
5. Attach the small flag to the big flag(banner). Don't worry about a pro job. We are not giving points for the best sewing or cleanest flag. Mine still carries the battle scars from the Odyssey Ultra Johann carried it in.
6. Write your name underneath the small flag.
7. Take photos of the big and small flag and your name.
8. Nominate the next person.
9. Send the big flag to the next person who does the same until the flag(banner) is full.
10. The last person will (must please) return the flag(banner) to Johann
11. Johann will carry and/or display the flag at chosen events I participate in.

You don’t have to carry the big flag during a race or run. You only carry the small flag of your choice and then attach this to the big flag with your name underneath.

The next stop is France. My friend Frederic (who I met through Linked In) will run with the flag in October.

Here is what the flag looks like now.

Full flag

Left side

Right side

Australia Flag with a Vegemite pin

Go Vegemite (the stuff tastes terrible)

Next stop...France

Happy Running!