There is nothing wrong with eating toast in the shower!

Some pictures of my fish, Fred, whose full name is Frederick J Goulash (don’t ask) are now up. I like the last one especially, you can see him going after some food. After I’m back from the holidays I think maybe I’ll get him a friend.

Fish are a funny pet. They say that when you keep fish, you’re really keeping water. How true. Ammonia levels in Fred’s tank have not been dropping as fast as I thought they would and I’ve been testing it frequently. I must admit that since getting one I’m jonesing for more. And bigger. In particular, I’ve really been thinking about getting an Oscar. These are smart (supposedly as smart as a dog!) big (up to 14″ long) fish from South America. The downside is they need a BIG tank to live in. Like 50+ gallons big. So I’m not sure I’m quite ready to go that far, ya know? I think I’d like to have a small tank for more than a few months before putting $350 into a new tank, stand, filter… I mean who knows? Maybe I’ll want to get a hedgehog, or gasp maybe even a dog? Or maybe do something else with my money. Chinchillas are kinda cute too, but they are indiscriminate poopers. Unacceptable — next!

Went and saw Spontaneous Woo and TPS Report on Friday. TPS’s main dude Ashish (great stage presence) is in my group, and I’m friends with SW’s gutarist, who is an Intellian also. It was good to see them play, and it was at The Arnada, which is funny because it’s the only place that Templeshock could reliably gets gigs so we were there a LOT. (BTW I think Spontaneous Woo is a GREAT band name.) I also like how even the most local of bands now has a website. Ha.

On Sunday I helped my friends Sharon and Derek rebuild the deck to their front door. This consisted of putting pylons in the mud, and a lot of leveling and standing around (like real construction workers). I also helped find their power main my digging down 3 feet. I was very glad when it was found without anyone experiencing electricity via a shovel. Aaanyways… 🙂

Looking fwd to seeing the family soon. On my dad’s side we’re trying to tone down the gifts a bit, so we’ll see how that works. Had a good talk with the old man tonight, too. He says he plans on living until he’s 85. Is that so? Let’s see what you say when you’re 84! I bet a few more years won’t sound so bad then!

Finished reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Wow. Kinda took 150 pages to get going but once the magic started flying it was pretty good. The villain was fantastical, but I think more realistic and menacing than, say, Voldemort. Even the silly 18th century style of writing was OK after a while.

I am now running gaim on my Linux box at home, so I should be online more often. For the record, take your pick:
AIM: groverkillelmo
MSN: andy (at) groveronline.com
Y!M: asgrover

Also, thanks to my friend Oliver for turning me on to some new tunes!