I've been kind of bummed with the time change since now when we close the bird store at six it's dark outside. Tonight I was cursing my idea of putting out 9 life sized penguins near the highway as advertisement as the dark settled in. As I picked up a large plastic penguin a shape appeared above the highway with shallow wing beats. The lights from the parking lot revealed a white bib and tan and brown coloring--a great horned owl. I ran through the store, grabbed Melissa and went behind the mall to see if we could spot where it landed. Sure enough there was a large lump on a tree in the distance. We tried to hoot at it, but the traffic from the highway drowned out any response it might have made.

On a side note here's a piece of advice: If you are someone who shows up to work no matter what (rain or shine, in sickness or in health) it generally is not a good idea to have one of your employees prank call your assistant manager the day after Thanksgiving (the busiest shopping day of the year) and say you never showed up. The assistant manager will not assume you were too hung over to come in but imagine you chopped to bits and dead from carbon monoxide poisoning and call the police right away. Also, when said prank is revealed, the assistant manager will start speaking in tongues so acidic, it would make a stevedore blush.