Sick Weekend

I was sick all weekend, but at the very least, I wasn't bedridden. Just a gross, annoying cold.

At lunchtime on Friday I went to Aquatic Variations to look at their fish. I didn't find any fish, but they had a pistol shrimp, which was something I'd been looking for. They sometimes form symbiotic relationships with watchman gobies, where the goby will watch the shrimp's tunnels, and in return, the shrimp brings the goby food. Anyways, I asked them to hold it for me so I could pick it up after work.

It's a good thing I did, because when I went back to pick it up, the guy told me that someone had come in 20 minutes after me and had wanted to buy it.

So I brought the shrimp home, and coaxed it out of the shell it was hiding in (okay, coax is a bad word, more like I scared it and it came out). It only had one claw! It had one huge claw. I thought they gave me a defective shrimp. I was going to call them, but fortunately I checked online first, and it turns out they really only do have one claw. Which is pretty funny looking.

The shrimp went and dug himself a hole under the rocks and I haven't seen him peek out since.

We rented The Forgotten that night. Wow, that was horrible. It might have worked as an X-Files story, but in a situation where there's no pretense for how these characters would act, it just seems silly. Save yourself the agony and don't rent this movie. You'll never get those two hours of your life back.

Kenny and Leslie stopped by too, but they only watched the last half of the movie, lucky for them.

Saturday morning I drove down to Aquatic Gallery with my predatory snails (the ones that came out and attacked my other snails). They're called whelks. I only found six of them, although I thought there were more. The guy who owns the place, Dr. Le, had told me to bring them in. I wasn't sure why he wanted them, since they were baddies, but he said he'd give me store credit for them.

I think it was really just for his own personal curiousity, because when I brought them in, he said, "you know, this is going to sound bad, but I'm going to have to sacrifice a snail so I can see this for myself." He seemed pretty excited about it.

But he gave me $10 of store credit, which I used to buy some good snails, which was pretty cool.

The weather was clear on Saturday, so I was able to take Bandit herding. We made some real progress - he was stopping and walking when I asked him to, and doing a much better job. Jan says we might be able to think about entering some trials in the spring. I think I'd be a nervous wreck at a trial.

I'm also supposed to buy a herding whistle, which I just found out costs $25! For a whistle!

We had dinner with Steve and Erin and the kids that night. Jacob and Allison were as cute as ever. I don't know if I'm ready for kids of my own, though! Marc and I squabble enough about the dog, I don't know how we'd do with kids. I think I'm still too much of a kid myself anyways.

Sunday Marc and Steve went up to Elk Grove to start cleaning up their parents' house before they put it on the market. I took Bandit to class at Petsmart (he got real stressed out by some kids running with a rake), and then stopped by a few fish stores to look for fish.

I finally found another six-line wrasse, but it was still not very big. This one made it through the night, but was dead by the time I got out of the shower this morning. Sigh. I just don't get what's going on, but I may just need to have them try to order me a bigger one.

We did get a 4" crocea clam last Thursday, which seems to be doing okay.

Clams are neat.

I put up my Olympus digital camera and guitar up on eBay this weekend. Anyone know someone who's looking for a camera or guitar? :)

Lastly, a funny Stubby story. I have the fish quarantine tank upstairs, on the built-in desk that's adjacent to the staircase. On Sunday I had the six-line wrasse in there, and the cats always love to watch the new fish.

So Marc and I were downstairs, and all of a sudden we hear this "THUMP." Marc says he saw something fall down onto the stairs from upstairs. The next thing we see is Stubby walking into the living room, shaking his head. We're guessing he was sitting on the ledge, watching the fish, and somehow slipped and fell all the way downstairs. Aside from shaking his head a few times, he seemed perfectly fine. Crazy cat.