It seems that my workday is just not complete without the "help" of my office manager George. The fact that he's only 5 1/2 years old doesn't seem to matter, nor the fact that he can't read. But he unerringly seems to find just the right pencil or pen to use, just the right paper or notebook and bring them to my attention.

Truth be told, the only reason they come to my attention is as you can see in the photo, he's doing all this "managing" right in the middle of my desktop. What is really "helpful" is when he stands on the keyboard of my computer playing tug-o-war with a sticky note...the green boy does love sticky notes!

George is an Amazon Double-Yellow Head parrot and he does sing the "George of the Jungle" song complete with Tarzan yell. In fact, he and "daddy," (he refers to my husband as daddy, hollaring loudly every morning "Daddy! Breakfast!) have a Tarzan-yelling identifer thing they do back and forth.  One of these days we're going to video George singing the song and put it up on YouTube...I think it would be a hit.  However, just like a child does, whenever we want him to perform he never does.

One of the things I love about having a home-based business is the luxury of spending time with my pets.  We also have two busy parakeets named Ruford and Pippin.  Most of the time George asks to "Go to work, gotta go to work" with me in the mornings.  I have a playstand for him in my studio/office.  He'll stay in there until about 11:30 a.m. or so then head off back to his big cage for his afternoon nap.  Parrots actually need more sleep than humans.  But I love having him sit by me while I work.  Usually he'll just sit and clean his feathers on the edge of my desk or stay on his stand and play with his toys and eat.  It's those times when he "helps" that are the most fun...just don't tell George that!