those salsa peppers i got from my garden yesterday? well, turns out they're hot. really hot. which is a good thing, since the same plants growing at my parents' place are just mild at best. i think the secret is how much you water. water too much, and the peppers stay mild. keep them dry and they get fiery.

sunday errands included archiving some more data onto dvd's and cleaning the male guppy tank. didn't realize how filthy it was. most of the plants have already died, long ago choked to death by the ubiquitous algae bloom. i siphoned out 2 buckets worth of murky water (4 gallons), dumping them in the backyard as fertilizer. i replaced the filter insert and scrubbed everything clean, including the algae-coated seashells. even though the tank looks fine now, i still need to do another water change tomorrow in order to get rid of all that dead algae debris on the gravel surface. at some point i'd also like to consolidate my two guppy tanks. i separated the males from the females to prevent unwanted pregnancies, but any newborn fries won't survive long in a tank full of adults anyway.