bluebirds, funerals and strange words

This is just a simple photo of a bluebird captured outside our kitchen window this morning. It is the first one we have seen in our yard.  If you knew how long and how hard hubby has worked trying to attract this breed of bird to our feeders you would understand why I had to post it. 

I feel as if we spend a small fortune each year on keeping the feeders full and the only birds that seem to use them regularly (excluding a pair of gorgeous cardinals) is a chattering of starlings. 

That is right I said a chattering of starlings.  Hubby just told me that my use of the word flock was incorrect. Sorry hubby but, I had to check with Google to make sure you were right before I changed it.  

Now that knowledge has changed the theme of this post.  What started as a simple piece on the problems of attracting bluebirds (like the noisy firehouse across the street and the huge squirrel nests in almost every three in the neighborhood) is being redirected to all the strange words that have crossed my path recently.  

Just yesterday when I asked a friend to look across the room at a group of ladies I was corrected and told that a group of ladies is called a bevy. She also said a group of boys is a blush.  Don't understand that one at all.  I'm sure if I told my grandson that he was part of a blush when hanging out with his friends I'd never hear the end of it. 

My mother has taken to using the word peckish when she is hungry and several times a day she lets whoever is in hearing distance know that "old age is not for sissies." 

It has been a rough week for us. As I posted a few days ago, my mother spent last Wednesday and Thursday in the hospital.  On Friday a call came from the nursing home informing my sister that her mother-in-law was failing.  She passed away on Monday at the age of eighty-five. The funeral is tomorrow. The women of my family are all working at putting together the Lazerous Dinner.  I have been asked to do desserts.  

On top of that, hubby is not feeling well.  He went out this morning to run an errand and a truck sideswiped our car destroying the front quarter panel and drove off.  No one was hurt and we have good insurance so the car will be quickly repaired but our deductible is high so that is a bummer. 

To top off our day, we were informed that the special cat food we feed our diabetic kitty has been recalled because metal chips were found in some of the cans.  So I had to return our stockpile to the store and settle for a less effective brand until a new supply is received. 

Hope your week is going better than ours.  I better get back to my baking.