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.