I’d just stepped out on my back porch when I noticed a hummingbird at my feeder. I stood there a moment watching him drink when my husband, Steven came outside.

“Morning.” he said, holding out the newspaper for me.

“Shhh.” I pointed to the feeder, but just as I did, my little hummingbird friend zipped off into the trees. “Aw…” I looked over at Steven. “I can’t help it. I just love watching them! They remind me of the Jetson’s cartoon when the flying car zips off into the horizon.”

Steven laughed as he sat down to enjoy some time on the deck before heading to work.

“What are you up to today?” he asked.

I didn’t get a chance to answer before another hummingbird was hovering over the feeder. We both got quiet trying not to scare him away. He was only there for a moment before a second hummingbird dove down at him and chased him up into the trees. “Aw…it’s like they’re playing tag.” I said.

As I pictured them enjoying this game another hummingbird tried to get a sip of nectar at the feeder when that second hummingbird swooped out of the trees and chased him away too. I looked over at Steven. “Now I’m not sure they’re playing.”

We kept watching as they dove and spun around our back yard, circling the house. Each time one would try to land on the feeder, the other would chase them away.

“Wow, what a bully.” I said, getting annoyed at the one hogging the feeder. “How do you make a hummingbird play nice?”

“You Google it.” Steven said as he picked up his phone. “I just typed in hummingbird bully and there are a dozen articles on it.”

“Are you kidding me?” He handed me his phone to see. I opened the first link. After a few seconds of reading I had to laugh. “It says it’s usually a male.” I looked back at Steven.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he sounded surprised. “I always share my food with you.”

I didn’t say anything as I went back to reading. “It says the way you fix the problem is to put a bunch of feeders together in a cluster. This way he’ll get so exhausted fighting all the others away that he’ll finally give up and let them eat.”

“There you go! Problem solved!” Steven said.

“Problem solved?” I handed him back his phone. “So the only way I can stop this guy from being a jerk is to give him more of what he wants!” Now I was getting annoyed. “Talk about rewarding bad behavior!”

We watched as he chased two more from the feeder.

“You’re right.” Steven agreed. “Why should we reward that kind of behavior.”

“Exactly!” I watched as another never got a chance for even a sip before heading for the safety of the trees.

“Of course, if we leave it like this then you’ll be responsible for letting the others starve.” he added.

I looked over at Steven ready to protest but he was just shaking his head, a sad look on his face. “But what can I say.” he shrugged his shoulders. “It’s your decision.”

“Fine!” I wasn’t even trying to hide the disgust in my voice. I pointed to our flying bully. “To answer your question about what I’m up to today. I guess I’m stuck shopping for more feeders!”

“Did someone eat the half of a bagel I’d saved?” I called as I stood in front of the bread cabinet holding a container a vegetable cream cheese in my hand.

My son Alex came out of his room. “Were you saving that?”

“I was.” I’d been looking forward to having it for breakfast.

“Sorry about that.” he looked in the bread cabinet and pulled out a loaf of bread. “How about this?” he handed me the potato bread.

I held up the cream cheese. “Not the same on potato bread.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay, as long as you didn’t throw it out.” I looked over at him, trying to read his expression.

“Why would I throw it out?”

“Because last week you threw out the one waffle I’d left in the freezer!” I put the potato bread away and went to the refrigerator to put the cream cheese back.

“Who eats only one waffle?” Alex asked.

“I do!”

“Well, I don’t know anyone, but you, that eats just one.” he was shaking his head in disbelief, “Waffles should be eaten in pairs.”

“Says who?” Now I was shopping through the refrigerator to find something else to eat.

“Everyone!”

“I also eat just one pop tart.” I added.

“I know. That drive me nuts, too! You stick the one back in the box in a zip lock bag.” He was leaned up against the counter, watching me forage. “They put a pair of them in a foil pack for a reason.”

“Well, you don’t throw the one pop tart out.” I pulled out the eggs and put them on the counter.

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “It bugs me, but I figure you’ll be back for the other one in a day or two.”

“So why did you throw the one waffle away?” I’d gotten out a pan, getting ready to scramble an egg.

“That one waffle was in the freezer for almost two weeks.”

I looked over at him, “So? I wasn’t in the mood for a waffle.”

“So,” Alex reached in the drawer behind him and pulled out the spatula and handed it to me. “Every time you went grocery shopping you must have looked in the freezer, saw the box, and figured we didn’t need any.” he smiled at me. “I figured if I got rid of the box you’d finally buy more waffles so I could have some.”

I cracked the egg against the side of the pan and dropped it in. Alex reached in the carton and pulled out two more eggs. “I only eat one egg.” I smiled at him. “I’m weird that way.”

He was still holding out the eggs. “I know, but I was hoping you’d make me some too.”

I had to laugh as I took the eggs from him. “Can you make the toast?” I asked.

“Sure,” he went back over to get the bread. “One slice?”

“Oh come on!” I cried as I was reading the morning paper. “Why do they think everyone in New Jersey is so stupid that they have to make ridiculous laws to protect us!”

My son Alex walked out of his room. “What are you yelling about?”

“This!” I held up the newspaper. “Did you hear that they want to make a law that you can’t drink or eat anything while you’re driving?”

“Yeah, the Distracted Driving Bill. I heard about it.” Alex didn’t seemed fazed.

“So now if I want to take a sip from my bottle of water, I’m distracted!” I was still pretty fired up. Maybe because I never left the house without a bottle of water tucked under my arm.

“How about if I sneeze? What about then? You know you can’t sneeze with your eyes open.” I was now pacing back and fourth in the room. “Now my allergies are kicking up and I sneeze, I’m distracted.” I turned to face Alex. “Are they going to ban sneezing next?”

Alex didn’t answer. That’s when my husband, Steven walked in. “What’s going on?”

“Mom’s afraid she’s not going to be able drink from her water bottle while she’s driving.”

I was waving the newspaper at them. “According to this, if they pass this bill they can stop me if they think my head’s tipped back to far, finishing the last of my water.” I shook my head in disbelief. “You know, because my eyes will be off the road for a second.”

“They’re not going to stop you.” Steven reassured me. “That’s just the media exaggerating.”

“They’re not exaggerating.” I held up the paper as if it explained it all. “If I have a fender bender and they see an open bottle of water in my console they can say the fender bender happened because I was drinking water while I was driving.”

“If the accident happened because you were drinking then they’d be right, you were distracted.” Steven argued.

“Oh come on! Who’s side are you on?” I cried. “You know what’s really distracting?”

Steven and Alex looked at each other, afraid to answer.

“I’ll tell you what’s distracting!” I tucked the paper under my arm and went over to the cabinet to get a bottle of water. “Two kids strapped in car seats behind you arguing about where we’re going to eat that night, McDonald’s or Burger King!” I looked over at Alex. “Now that’s distracting!”

Alex looked over at his Dad. “Wow, that happened like twenty years ago.”

“And I still remember it like it was yesterday!” I said, opening the bottle of water to take a sip. “I almost hit a curb trying to break up that argument.” I looked at Steven. “So you think maybe the law will include driving with kids in the back seat?”

Steven and Alex just looked at one another.

“Well…” I said.

“I’m sure the bill will get amended before it goes through.” Steven said he took the newspaper from me.

“It better!” I took another sip of water. “They treat us like idiots!”

As they were both leaving the kitchen I could hear Alex whispering, “Wow, you threaten to take her water bottles away when she drives and she goes nuts.”

“You don’t even know the half of it.” Steven whispered back.

I was up early, wrapped up in my robe, sipping my cup of tea when I went into the living room to look out the front window to see if the newspaper had arrived. I could see it was waiting for me at the end of the driveway, but then something else caught my eye.

“Hey, Steven! Can you come here for a minute?”

My husband, Steven came in from the kitchen, carrying his cup of coffee. “Did the newspaper come yet?” he asked as he came over to the window where I was standing.

“Yeah,” I pointed out the window. “But look at all the dragonflies flying over our front lawn!”

Steven looked out the front window. “Wow, there must be fifty of them!”

“I know! I’ve never seen anything like it. Aren’t they beautiful.” We watched as they hovered then dipped along our lawn. “What do you suppose they’re doing?”

Steven shrugged his shoulders. “It’s been raining so much, maybe something hatched in the lawn.”

I looked at the neighbors yards. “Then why are they only in our yard?”

Steven looked around. “Huh, that’s weird.” We both watched as they frantically moved from one end of our yard to the other, but never crossing over to either neighbors’. “Must be something that only hatched in our yard.” he reasoned.

Just then a couple, out for a morning walked, stopped at our sidewalk to watch the dragonflies dashing and swooping along our grass. Steven and I backed away from the window.

“So…” I looked over at Steven. “Can you go get the newspaper for me this morning?”

“Why can’t you go?”

“Because I’m still in my robe.”

“That’s never stopped you before.”

“Well, I’m barefooted!” I lifted up a foot to prove my point.

“That’s never stopped you either.”

“Please…” I whined.

Just then our son Alex came into the living room.

“Oh great!” I said giving him a good morning kiss on the cheek. “You’re dressed, can you go out and get the paper for me?”

“Sure.”

I smiled over at Steven.

Alex opened the front door, then quickly closed it again. “Woo! Did you see all the dragonflies out front?”

“Yeah, aren’t they amazing!” I answered.

“Amazing is right! There must be a hundred of them!”

“Oh come on, it’s not a hundred.” I looked back out the window where our neighbors across the street were now staring over at our house. Alex walked over to look out the window. “I thought you were getting the paper for me?” I asked.

“I’m not going out there.”

“Oh, come on… they don’t bite.”

Alex looked over at me and laughed. “That’s not the reason I’m not going out.” He at Steven then back at me. “I’m not going for the same reason neither of you are going.” He nodded his head towards the window. “Because there’s a crowd of people outside staring at our weird lawn.”

Steven looked over at me and shrugged his shoulders as Alex headed for the kitchen. “He’s got a point.”

“But I love reading the paper first thing in the morning.” I whined.

Steven grabbed the television remote from the coffee table and handed it to me. “Looks like you’re getting the news from this today.”

My sister Liz was coming for the weekend and wanted me to plan a girls’ shopping day.

“I guess that sounds like fun,” My husband, Steven said as I told him about the plan. “I’m just glad I don’t have to go.”

I understood what Steven was saying. Shopping with my guys consists of going to the store to pick up what we need, then coming right back home. The goal has always been to spend as little time as possible in a store. I’ve gotten so good, at that kind of shopping, that I wasn’t sure spending the day mindlessly wandering around a mall was going to be much fun.

Boy, was I in for a surprise!

When Steven opened the door, later that evening, I was practically giddy. My arms were weighted down with all my shopping bags. Liz was right behind me laughing as I dropped my bags onto the nearest chair.

“Wow! You’ve certainly been busy!” Steven said.

“Oh my gosh, look!” I held out my arms to show him the deep grooves I had from carrying so many bags. “I hope these aren’t going to be permanent!” I said, rubbing my arms.

“She definitely had fun.” Liz said to Steven as she put her bags down too.

“What did you get?” Steven asked.

“You would not believe the sales they were having!” I reached into the first bag. “Isn’t this the cutest sweater you’ve ever seen?” I held up the black cardigan for him to see.

“Don’t you already have a black sweater?”

“Not like this one!” I tossed the sweater onto the back of the chair and reached into another bag. “They were having a sale on hand soap.” I held it up for him to smell. “Lavender.”

“It smells nice.” Steven looked into the bag. “So you got five of them?”

“It was a great sale!” I went for another bag. “Oh…and when we stopped to get some lunch it turned out to be National Cheesecake Day! Can you believe our luck?”

Steven looked over at Liz.

Liz nodded. “It was National Cheesecake Day.” she confirmed.

“Did you stop for dinner too?” Steven asked.

“We ate lunch so late that I couldn’t eat another thing.” I looked over at Liz. “What about you?”

“I’m still pretty full.” she agreed.

Steven looked at both of us. “Then I guess I’ll order dinner for the boys and I.”

“That’s a great idea! You do that while I start putting some of this stuff away.” I went over and gave Steven a hug. “Did I mention how much fun I had?”

“You did.” Steven started to laugh.

I began gathering up my loot. “I’ve been living with guys for so long I forgot how much fun shopping with a girl can be!” I couldn’t stop smiling.

That’s when Liz looked over at Steven. “I’m pretty sure that, right about now, you’re grateful that I don’t come for the weekend more often, huh?”

Steven smiled as he looked at all my bags. “You’re a mind reader.”
“Oh, by the way…” I held out one of my bags. “I brought you and the boys pieces of cheesecake too!”

“Thanks!” he took the bag and headed to the kitchen to put it in the refrigerator. “Now you’re a mind reader too!”  

I went out to my car, ready to run some errands, when I noticed my Adele CD laying on my console. “No-No-No-No!” I cried as I picked it up and went back into the house. “Who drove my car last?” I asked looking at my son Alex and my husband Steven, both in the kitchen making lunch.

“I did.” Alex said. “I had to run out late last night because we didn’t have anything good to eat.”

“We didn’t have anything good to eat?” I questioned as I looked at the packages of cold cuts he was making his sandwich with, along with the bag of chips and jar of pickles that were sitting on the counter. “I went grocery shopping yesterday and bought all of that!”

“But you didn’t buy donuts!” he said with a laugh as he pointed to the box on the counter.

Steven shrugged his shoulders. “We were both in the mood for a Boston cream.”

I could only shake my head because I had stopped trying to figure out their eating habits years ago.

Instead I held up my CD. “Why did you take this out of the player?”

“Oh,” Alex went back to making his sandwich. “I went to turn the radio on and I must have hit the wrong button because the CD popped out.” He looked over at me. “Why, is it scratched?”

“I won’t know that for about a week.” I said with a sigh.

Steven and Alex both had confused looks on their faces.

“Once you take the CD out of the player it refuses to take a new one for at least six or seven car rides later.” I explained trying not to show just how annoyed I was. “It’s one of the car’s new idiosyncrasies I’m trying to get used to.”

I love my car. I’ve loved it since the day we drove it new off the lot. As the years have passed it’s become temperamental, but that’s no reason to give up on it.

“Remember last year when the air conditioning would only blow on high?” I reminded them.

“I thought we got that fixed?” Steven said as he put his sandwich on a plate and went to the table. Alex followed him carrying his lunch.

“Actually, I didn’t bother fixing that one.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I kind of like it now, the car cools off a lot quicker.” I sat down with them placing my Adele CD carefully on a place mat. “”I’ve even gotten used to the driver’s side door freezing shut in the winter. I just climb through the passenger side and by the time I get to work it’s usually thawed out enough to open.”

“I thought I fixed that one.” Steven said. “Didn’t I give you a de-icer spray?”

“You did.” I gave him a quick smile. “But I kept leaving it in the car, so it kind of defeated the purpose.”

Steven didn’t say anything he just shook his head and took a bite of his sandwich.

“But the CD player is a whole different story!” I continued. “I’ve had to choose what I listen to very carefully because that CD will be playing on a loop for the next month before I risk making a change.”

Alex looked over at me, “Why don’t you just fix the CD player?”

That made me pause for a moment. “Well, I hadn’t really thought about it.” I admitted. I looked over at Steven for some back-up. “Don’t you think having a car is like a marriage?”

Steven eyebrows went up. “How so?”

“Well, when it’s new you love everything about it but, then as it ages little things can go wrong. You try to fix what you can but everything else is just an idiosyncrasy you learn to live with.”

Alex eyes got big as he looked at me, then at Steven.

Steven thought for a moment then nodded his head. “She’s got a point.” He looked over at Alex, “If anyone else told me they listened to the same CD for a month I’d think they were nuts. But when your Mom tells me that, I think, that sounds about right.”

“See!” I looked over at Alex. “That’s how you stay married for thirty years!”

“Thirty-one.” Steven corrected.

“Whatever!”

I was standing out on our back deck looking out into our woods when my son, Alex came out and stood next to me.

“What are we looking at?” he asked.

“Two morning doves.” I pointed toward the ground under the feeder.

“Where?”

“Right there. Don’t you see them?”

He looked a while longer until one of them moved. “Oh, now I do!”

“I know they blend right in with the ground!” I moved over to sit in my rocking chair. Alex followed me and sat down too. “I’m calling them Fred and Ethel.”

Alex laughed. “Okay why are you calling them that?”

“Because I’m pretty sure they mate for life and Fred and Ethel Mertz were married forever.” I picked up my phone and Googled morning doves.

Alex sat back to watch them. “They do?”

I found the site I was looking for. “Yup. It says so right here, they mate for life.” I looked up to see them both busy eating the seeds. I scrolled further through the site. “Wait a minute, it says they’re not always eating the seeds but might be collecting them in a pouch in their esophagus called a crop.”

“Okay, that’s gross.”

“Well, now that makes sense because I’ve been watching them for the past twenty minutes and I was beginning to wonder just how hungry they were.”

“They sure are busy.” We watched them let other birds come to the feeder over their heads but would chase away any bird that was interested in helping themselves to any of the dropped seeds by them.

I was back looking at my phone. “They don’t eat insects.” I called out.

“Okay.”

“Oh, here’s something I didn’t know.” I scrolled down a bit further. “It says they usually only have two babies and that incubation takes just two weeks!”

By now I’d found a video of them nesting and I hit play. A few minutes into the video Alex could hear the cooing sounds coming from my phone and looked over at me. “Are you watching a video of morning doves?”

“I am!” I turned the phone so he could see.

“We have them right in front of us!” he pointed to the two that were only several feet away. “Why would you want to watch a video of them on your phone when you can watch them live right here, right now!”

I shrugged my shoulders. “You have a point.” I placed the phone down on the table and looked back at the feeder where the two were still eating. After a few moments of quietly sitting and watching them do the same thing I couldn’t help myself. “You know I was only half way through the cool facts about them. Don’t you want to hear more?”

I’m sure the sound of my pleading helped change his mind because he just shook his head and laughed. “Sure.”

“Yeah!” I quickly picked up my phone and went back on the morning dove site before he could change his mind.

It was late at night and I was leaned up against the kitchen counter with a container of potato salad in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Steven walked in and turned on the kitchen light. “Why are you standing here in the dark?”

“I’m not in the dark.” I pointed the spoon to the nightlight next to the sink. “This gives me enough light to see what I need to see.”

“Why are you up so late?” he asked looking at the clock on the stove. “It’s 2:30 in the morning.”

“The potato salad was calling out to me.” I finished licking the spoon and dropped it in the sink. I put the lid back on the container and placed it on the counter.

Potato salad was one of the things I didn’t like to make myself, because I thought it was way too much work for a simple side dish. I also didn’t like many store bought potato salads. But there was one local store that made salads to go with their rotisserie chickens. I loved their salads! My whole family did! That’s why there’s rarely any leftover. So, I really couldn’t understand why he was questioning why I was up.

“Aren’t you going to put that back in the fridge?”

“Not yet. I have to wait and see if that was the last bite.”

Steven looked confused. “Than why did you throw your spoon in the sink?”

Now I looked confused. “Because I can’t stick a spoon in the container that I’ve already licked! That would be disgusting!”

“Than why don’t you just put some on a plate and not eat out of the container?”

“Because…” I was getting tired of explaining. “That would mean I’d have several scoops on a plate and I’d have to eat all of it.” I tipped my head to the container sitting on the counter. “This way I can wait and see if I’m full after the one scoop.”

Steven shrugged his shoulders and shook his head as he opened the cabinet and took out a plate. “I’ll show you how to eat leftover potato salad.” He opened the silverware drawer. “We’re out of spoons?”

“We are?” I peeked in over his shoulder. “Wow! I guess we are.”

He opened the dishwasher. “Is this clean or dirty?”

“Dirty.”

There must have been a guilty look on my face because Steven walked past me to look in the sink. “There must be a half a dozen spoons in here!”

“Please don’t judge me.” I hung my head in shame. “You know how much I love this potato salad.”

Steven put his plate back in the cabinet then reached in the silverware drawer and took out two forks. Handing one to me he took the container off the counter popped opened the lid and held it out to me.

“We can share the last of it.”

I had to smile as I stabbed a potato chunk with my fork. “I love that you get me!”

I was in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher when Alex came in and asked. “Why is it so hot in here?”

I stopped for a moment, “You know, now that you mention it, it is kind of warm in here.” I put the last glass away than took out the silverware basket. “The air conditioning is on, I can hear it. Can you go check the thermostat and see what it’s set for?”

Alex went into the hallway. “It’s set for 72.” he called. “But it says it’s 78 in here now.”

“Oh no.” I picked up my phone and called my husband Steven. “There’s something wrong with the air conditioning unit.” I said as soon as he picked up.

“I’ll have someone there by this afternoon.” he said.

I had to smile as I hung up the phone. “It’s always nice to be married to a contractor.” I said to Alex as I began putting the silverware away. “Dad said he’ll have someone here this afternoon.”

“Great.” Alex called as he headed back to his room to get some work done.

Two hours later the heating and cooling guy arrived with Steven pulling his truck in right behind him. The two of them walked into the house said a quick hello to me and went right to work.

I really wasn’t really paying much attention to what was going on as the attic stairs were pulled down and the repairman climbed up. I could hear them calling instructions to each other and I watched as Steven moved from vent to vent checking filters.

Twenty minutes later the repairman climbed down and the two of them stood in the hallway talking.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Steven came into the living room where I was working and sat down. “Bill’s a great guy and he likes talking about the science of heating and air conditioning as much as I do.”

“That’s nice.” I said, never really looking up from my laptop. “Did he fix the air conditioning?”

When Steven didn’t answer, I stopped typing and looked up from my work. Steven was just staring at me.

“What?” I asked, wondering what the problem was.

“Didn’t you hear the conversation Bill and I just had? We were talking to you, too. You even said “Sure” a couple of times.”

“Really?” I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“But we were talking about some really interesting things.” Steven persisted.

“The science of heating and air conditioning…are you kidding?” I started to laugh.

“Oh sure, when I talk about things that interest me you’re all wide-eyed and thinking, LA,LA,LA,LA, LA!” he said in a sing-song voice while he was bobbing his head back and forth.

“Hey!” I said, feeling a little annoyed. “Just because I’m not interested in talking about the science of heating and air conditioning doesn’t mean I’m sitting around all day thinking about unicorns and rainbows!” I cried.

Steven stopped and looked at me. “Unicorns and rainbows?” he had a surprised look on his face.

“Wow…” I shook my head, disappointed in myself. “I can’t believe I just said that either.”

Steven and I were sitting on the back deck, quietly enjoying the evening, when I noticed a tiny house finch had landed on our feeder. “Aren’t they the cutest little birds?” I asked Steven.

Steven looked over at our feeder. “I guess.” he said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I hadn’t really thought about rating birds by their cuteness.”

I looked over at our two bird houses. “I wonder why no one has wanted to move in to our houses this year?” I watched as the little finch finished eating and flew over and landed on the roof of the closest house. “Watch.” I said. “He won’t even peek in the door.” A few seconds later he flew away. “See I told you.”

“I wonder what’s wrong with them?” Steven got up to check.

I was right behind him. “I loved watching last year’s family. You could hear the babies peeping for food all the way up on our porch.”

We reached the first house. “Well, I can see from here this one needs a new roof.”

I started to laugh. “That’s a good one.”

Steven pointed to half inch space between the two pieces of wood that made up the roof. “Oh, it does need a new roof!” I cried. “I thought you were kidding!”

Steven examined the roof further. “It’s just two screws holding this, I can fix it tomorrow.”

“Great!”

We moved on to the next house. Steven peeked into the hole. “There’s a lot of old nesting material inside. Aren’t you suppose to empty it out?”

I looked at him confused. “I don’t know. I never really thought about it. I guess I just thought they’d use the old stuff and add a few new sticks to make it their own.” I took my phone out of my pocket and began a Google search on taking care of bird house. “Oh, good Lord!” I cried. “We’re slumlords for birds!”

“What?”

“We’re suppose to get rid of the old nesting material each season and scrub the house out with a solution of bleach and water!” I looked at Steven, feeling a wave of guilt come over me. “We’ve had these houses for a few years now and we’ve never done that.” I admitted.

“You didn’t know.” Steven said I could hear the sympathy in his voice. “Give yourself a break. You’re not a slumlord, you’re more of an absent landlord.”

“Thanks, but somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Steven went back to the other house to take some measurement for the roof. “I’ll fix this roof and you can clean them both out.” he suggested. “We still have some time. You haven’t lost the nesting season yet.”

That made me feel a little better. “Maybe you’re right. I’ll go make up the cleaning solution right now.” I headed for the house.

“I haven’t seen the hummingbirds lately.” Steven called to me. “When was the last time your made a new batch of food for them?”

That made me stop. I looked at the feeder hanging from the back deck. “Um-mm, maybe last week?” I said.

“Isn’t it supposed to be changed a few times a week?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I hesitated for a moment, looking at his sheepishly, “I kind of forgot.”

Steven just shook his head as I turned and headed back to the house.

I can’t be positive, but I’m pretty sure I heard him say, “Slumlord.” under his breath.