Of the many things that hatched in my little tank, only one Aquasaur survived. For a while I had two Aquasaurs and two fairy shrimp that had reached adulthood, but they died off one by one. The one that remains is feisty and really quite ugly. No really. Just look...

For reference, the blue marbles are 1/2 inch in diameter. He's big enough now to move them around to get at food. Scott really hates the desk lamp that must shine on the tank 24/7, and will be glad when the little guy's lifespan is up and the light can go out. He is sort of stinky and creepy, but he has his moments. When it's feeding time, he'll swim up to the little food pellet, grab it with his gazillion legs, then hold onto it upside down and sink to the bottom. He looks so thrilled, laying there, nom-nom-nomming on his munchy.

My little pine trees are doing well. Three have sprouted, and they look good- hopefully I can continue to not kill them.

Work has been hectic, but the overtime will come in handy when it comes time to fix up the house. Also, we're hoping to get a tax refund this year, as homeowners. If the tax calculator we found online is right, we might even have enough to do the floors! For now though, we are focusing on getting the front door replaced. We called a few places for estimates, and so far Lowe's is winning. Initially, we hoped to only replace the door (or "slab" as the contractors say) and not the entire frame, but we learned that doing the whole thing won't cost much more. Plus it will be more secure, as there are apparently some fancy-pants new features we don't have now.

Once the door is replaced, we can paint the living room, put up new window coverings (probably wood blinds) and replace the lighting fixtures. Then we can do the floors downstairs, and maybe even throughout the whole house. Yay! Hopefully we can accomplish more this year than last.

I'm a Murderer

It's true. I accidentally killed the Aquasaur last week. It was time to clean out the little "tank" for the first time, and the instructions explicitly say NOT to use tap water due to the chlorine content. Foolishly, I thought it would be okay if I let the water sit out uncovered for a day or so (letting the chlorine evaporate). In theory it would work, but in practice it did not. Either all of the chlorine did not evaporate, or there is something else in the water that killed him. I knew something was wrong when he started swimming around erratically, sometimes laying on his back on the bottom of the tank. It was pretty terrible. He died withing a few hours (although I kept hoping he would get better), and went to his porcelain grave the next day. The cheap ass tank that came with the Aquasaurs was pretty impossible to clean so I just pitched it. The reviews on Amazon aren't kidding when they say a Coke bottle is more sturdy. Karma dictates that I try again, and make sure to give the new batch of Aquasaurs the best life possible.

Friday, I went to Petsmart and bought a better plastic tank, a little fake plant, and stick on thermometer. I had some little blue marbles left over from a previous craft project, and decided to stick them in there too. Everything got rinsed off with spring water, and the eggs went in the tank. Yesterday they started hatching, and today I can see at least a dozen little things swimming around in there. It's too hard to tell how many are Aquasaurs vs. Fairy Shrimp at this stage, but it should be clear in a couple days.

It's hard to justify buying $10 worth of supplies for giant sea monkeys that only live 3 months, so I've decided that once the Aquasaur perishes (hopefully due to natural causes) we will get a feeder goldfish for the tank. Or maybe a few guppies.

The little pine trees are starting to grow too, or at least one is. Hopefully at least one more will sprout in the next few days. I'd like better odds, as apparently I have a tendency to kill things on my first try...

Yay Robots!

I love my new robot friend. I have yet to decide on a name for him, but I'm thinking of something androgenous like "Sam." We've had loads of fun together over the past week:

We ate Slim Jims.


We played with the new mixer.

He may have tried (just once) to kill Scott.

We did a little knitting, to soothe his robosoul.

And eventually he and Scott made up over a couple beers.

Also, Robosapien has a certain fondness for the toaster.

His miniture friend still comes to life spontaneously and unaided, which is super creepy. But also a little fun... it keeps us on our toes.

The Aquasaurs that hatched turned out to be mostly Fairy Shrimp and one Triops, which was a little disappointing. Hopefully he'll make it to adulthood, and he can eat all the Fairy Shrimp once he's bigger. And only half the eggs went in, so I get a second chance at more Aquasaurs once he kick the tiny bucket. They are all mesmerizing to watch, and so far worth every penny! Once he's bigger, I'll try to take a picture.