Thank God for three day old pizza and toaster ovens. That’s what’s going through my mind after a four-hour marathon board meeting on the Monday preceding the 10 busiest days of the work year for me, at 10 p.m. in the evening, only 15 minutes after I walked through the door. The Monday after missing essentially an entire week of work because of the flu (and no, it’s not swine flu and no, I haven’t been to Mexico recently). And that’s all I will say about that.

On a no less frustrating but much more humorous note, I would like to introduce you to the most preoccupied and stupidest bird I think I’ve ever met. This here Mr. Robin, pictured above, has been terrorizing the car mirrors belonging to us and my closest neighbours. He seems to have staked out his turf among our houses, and he is putting all his efforts into sharing this fact with his arch enemy, found in the side mirrors of each vehicle.

It was funny when my mother and I watched him going nutso on the truck parked in my neighour’s driveway across the street a week and a half ago as we unloaded compost from my dad’s truck and filled up my raised beds. But the joke is on us, because the little bugger proceeded to attack his reflection in first my east neighour’s car, then our cars, and then our west neighbour’s cars. Now all of us have baggies over the mirrors and a lot of cleaning up to do.

I guess the bright side is that if the law of nature really is “survival of the fittest”, if he doesn’t get down to business soon with a Mrs. Robin, at some point he’ll be ousted by other viable males. So far, any lady-friends are steering clear of this little OCD guy.