I don’t want to spoil House for anyone, but let me say that I like the direction things are taking. You can’t make an omelet without killing some people!

Short Story Long:

Sometime last week, we started hearing strange noises in the house. Tom would get up at 3AM and wander around thinking, “HOME INVASION!” only to find our house completely secure.

Well, one morning, we heard pigeons cooing IN THE HOUSE.

Only, there were no pigeons in the house. It was coming from UP. INSIDE. THE. FIREPLACE.

“Oh, shit,” we thought, “we are homeowners and somehow we are going to have to get those pigeons off or out of our chimney!”

Given that we are not in any position right now to get pigeons out of anywhere (no ladder, and ladders = $$$$$), we figured that we’d wait until our friend Martin could bring over a ladder. No big whoop.

Well, on Saturday, there was a terrible metallic scratching and clanging coming from UP. INSIDE. THE. FIREPLACE. and I thought, “Those stupid fucking pigeons are roosting in my floo!” And resolved to shake my fist at them once we scared them out after we got the ladder.

Or to turn the fire on if I got really annoyed (not really, idle threat).

So, today I got home from work and was minding my own business when Tom yelled, “THERE IS A PIGEON IN THE FIREPLACE!” and started laughing.

As you can see from the above photo, the thing was covered in soot and totally mellow.

Earlier in the day, Tom had opened the floo in the hopes of confusing and/or convincing the pigeons that this was NOT A GOOD PLACE TO ROOST but had succeed in freeing a trapped pigeon instead (that’s our theory, anyway).

Tom put on some gloves, got a box, and prepared for injured pigeon work. Once he opened the glass doors, though, the pigeon was like “SWEET!” and totally flew out! Straight into our ugly maroon wall where it left a big sooty smudge! AN IMPROVEMENT!

We then scared it out the patio door and it flew off and joined the Pigeon’s Union Local to report on it’s week long job of alternately scaring, concerning, and annoying the owners of the Third Chimney on the Block.

As my good friend Annika says, OH MONDAY.

I had a follow-up by accident today. Apparently, mistakes were made.

Still no appointment with the ENT specialist. But I got a referral to an allergy specialist for testing AND to do a lung function test because I may not have asthma per se – it could be exercise induced or just lung damage. YAY!?

When I said to my doctor that it was relief that I didn’t have strep, he said, “But you still had a bacterial infection in your tonsils. That’s not good. We’ll get it figured out.”

I don’t know how to react to a doctor who isn’t dismissive.

And this brings up an interesting idea about House – an asshole, yes. Dismissive? Maybe. Maybe not. He can’t really afford to be dismissive of patients because he might miss symptoms. But he is dismissive of his staff and they are often the only ones who interacs with the patients early on in their treatment. AND THAT IS WHY HOUSE MISSES THINGS ON HIS OWN CASES BUT SOLVES CLINIC CASES IN LESS THAN A MINUTE.

Ooh, those writers are so clever.

I am really looking forward to watching House, putting up my Xmas tree, setting up my computer, and completing all of my Christmas Knitting in one magical night!

Well, we moved all of the big furniture over the weekend and now it’s just getting all the odds and ends and technology from the old place into the new place.

The kitchen was painted (mostly by Martin, Lisa, & Doug) as well.

I am exhausted. But I’m at work.

Annika wrote this post about “going home” for the holidays and that combined with moving reminded me of how my aunt Sue asked someone about some pictures of a house they were showing at a family gathering once – she asked, “Is that your home?”

I don’t think that I had ever heard anyone else ask that question that way – always heard it as “new house.”

“Home” sure means a lot more.