t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


in case the crocus photos i took a few days ago didn't make it clear that spring is upon us, let me post another photo just to drive in that point. i left the house briefly to deposit a check (money for mortgage, health insurance, and utilities). the weather was a little brisk (temperature in the 40's) but the sky was blue and the sun was shining. here and there, along edges of condos and houses, were emerging bud tips of underground bulbs.

survived another work day. the tension has been ratcheted down a notch, but it's still a few weeks before i'm completely done with the project. call it a temporary reprieve. working at a more leisurely pace, i was able to catch a rebroadcast of the japanese red sox game in tokyo. for lunch i had a pouched egg on a bagel but the bacon strips i added didn't completely cook so i probably ingested some raw meat, no big deal.

when evening came around, i took a shower then performed water changes on my two guppy tanks. the corkscrew valisnaria i bought (in early february) for my male guppy tank have pretty much all died. i suspect maybe nocturnal snails have been feeding on the plants but i've been too lazy to do a surprise night inspection to look for them. the bigger concern was the female guppy tank, which for some reason evaporates much faster than all my other tanks (i think maybe the heater is set too high). i also replaced the filtration inserts for both tanks, a biowheel and a whisper filter. for the whisper i'm using a doctors foster and smith brand filter, which seems more robust than the traditional bio bag. hopefully tomorrow i can do a water change for the minibow. i noticed today that i'm missing a glowlight tetra. could i have accidently buried it under the large driftwood? or maybe carried it away with the gravel vacuum? or possibility it just died and get sucked into the filter? hopefully i'll have an answer tomorrow. it's weird because all the tetras have been doing really well. if there was a death, it has to be foul play.

for dinner, i finally cooked up the rest of my bacon and ate it with the leftover pasta from a week ago. i was glad to throw out the trash and clean out my fridge a little bit because it smells something fierce. a combination of leftover sauerkraut mixed with my homemade fried chicken from god knows when.

just an update, still haven't caught any mice yet. i think i might've lucked out, maybe they left the house just when i put out the traps. also i'm even more careful with my food and wash the dishes as soon as i'm done with them. why any mouse would want to live here is beyond me since there's nothing to eat.