First of all, Happy New Year. Yup, today is the Chinese New Year. That was irrelevant.

Okke, well Merlin's been getting on pretty well. He's eating steadily now. He eats more than Chipper did. A growing budgie needs his seed after all. I got him some decent toys last week. Chipper destroyed all the other ones, so all we had was a wall mounted mirror. I got him a swing and those little jingly plastic net ball thingies. He was scared of them at first, but now he just sort of ignores them. I'm not sure that he knows what to do with them. What do budgies do with their toys anyway? (Other than chew them up, that is. Chipper could gnaw through plastic. She kept chewing off the hooks that hung the toys from the top of the cage. *sweatdrop*)

I wanted to take some New Years pictures with Merlin on my shoulder, but Dad (and therefore our camera) is not on this continent at the moment, so it'll just have to wait.

Friday night, I thought I lost Merlin. Mother made me leave him on the table while we went somewhere and when I got back he was gone. It turns out, he was perching on the wires just beneath the hole where they go through the desk. I couldn't see him when I looked under there because the keyboard tray was blocking it. I finally noticed him through the hole. That gave me quite a scare. From now on, Merlin is strictly not allowed to perch on wires or be loose on his own, no matter what Mother threatens me with. The safety of the budgie is worth a few bruises.