We stopped at Airway Variety Store on Admiral Place (an old alignment of 66) today. Airway is a mom-and-pop store that reminds me of nothing so much as the Ben Franklin store we had downtown when I was a kid. You can buy craft supplies at Airway. You can buy fake flowers at Airway. You can buy random odds and ends at Airway. And you can buy birds at Airway.
I think we have long since established that when it comes to pets, any restraint exercised in this household is purely the result of Ron threatening to divorce me if I bring in a cat or a fourth dog.
Airway had some extremely cute juvenile zebra finches for $12.99.
Welcome to the family, Hedwig….
Emily
Red Fork Hippie 
As you know, I love Airway. Congrats on the new birdie!
Where did that name come from?
ROFL! I gather Ron never said anything about birds?
Mom: Hedwig is the transgendered title character in the rock opera Hedwig and the Angry Inch. As we are not 100 percent sure of our new friend’s gender yet (pretty sure we have a female, but at this age, the grown-up feathers haven’t come in yet), I decided to go with something kind of gender-neutral. š
I think Hedwig was also the name of the owl in the Harry Potter books, but I’d forgotten that until just a minute ago.
I grew up around many a zebra finch. I think I used to call them clown birds because of the red/orange circle on the cheek.
For a good overview of the “Hedwig” movie, this segment of the song “The Origin of Love” will suffice:
The film came out about six years ago. I was initially skeptical about the subject matter. But the humor and especially the music carried the film. It was like listening to David Bowie, glam rock and punk all rolled into one.
I guess I assumed the HP owl, but I see where you’re coming from …
I once named a young budgie “Patrick” because we weren’t sure of its gender. I’d just seen To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. I figured if the bird turned out to be male, we’d keep calling it Patrick, and if it turned out to be female, we’d just refer to it as Vida … or shorten its name to Pat, after the gender-confused SNL character.