Two New Fish Plus a Bonus Marine Creature

Seen above: Two fish and a snail. The snail was the only one who was thoughtful enough to sit still so I could take a picture.

J and the boys made productive use of their day off school today and bought some new wildlife for our kitchen. They bought two fish, guppies, who have yet to be named. They also bought a snail. If you're a SpongeBob fan, you know what I named the snail. (If you're not a SpongeBob fan, the name is "Gary", because that's the name of SpongeBob's pet snail. On the show, Gary meows.)

Once the tank was up and running, and Gary and his two fish friends were playing get-to-know-me, J boxed up the cats and hauled them off to their yearly checkup. Forget President's Day - it's Animal Day at our house.

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Let's keep things in perspective.

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There was a big snow last night for us here; it was probably as much or more than the blizzard we had a few weeks back. Funny how sometimes these winter storms sneak up on you and the next thing you know there's 8" of snow in 12 hours. I did some shoveling last night even though there was a lot to do. I haven't been exercising as much as I should lately, and I tried to make up for it.

We're all doing well here, and I'm keeping my perspective on things, much as the comic above teaches me. We should all be so wise as the Chickens.

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What's-Their-Names: RIP

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The small tank in our kitchen is home to a plastic castle, some fake seaweed, and two goldfish that we got from K's first grade teacher. 

Unfortunately, after a long life together, the fish went floaty two days apart.  I'd like to say I'm sad about it, but their companionship left much to be desired.  Actually, I'm surprised they lived as long as they did, if you call swimming tight circles day after day in a one-gallon tank "living".

Each member of the family gave them different names (Calvin and Hobbes, Spongebob and Patrick, Inky and Blinky, Mr. and Mrs. Bubbles, etc.) but I knew them best as The Fish We Got From Mr. Schwartz.

I'd post a picture of them but who hasn't seen about a million goldfish? 

RIP, little goldfish.  You didn't get eaten by a cat, so you beat the odds. 

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I wish I could draw.  If I could, I'd spend all my time drawing pictures like these.  Wow.

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I know, I know, I was hard on the fish.  Maybe I'm just hurting inside from the loss and am using humor as a defense mechanism.

Nah.

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"I Would Love To Be A Snowflake" - By K. B.

Illustration by K.B.

I Would Love To Be A Snowflake
By K.B.

I would love to be a snowflake;
to drift across the sky,
feeling the brisk winter wind.

I would love to be a snowflake;
to listen to a converstaion that isn't mine,
learning secrets without the children knowing.

I would love to be a snowflake;
to be pushed by the harsh winds,
being blown to different places for which I can explore.

Flying everywhere on the globe,
bringing cheer to many people,
and bringing the signal of nature to our world.

Snowpocalypse! Stormageddon!

A picture of the very large snow hill in the middle of the court.  M is third from left, and K is the middle person.  The rest of the kids live nearby, but I won't say who's who because I can't recognize them when they're all bundled up like that. 

The snow wasn't as bad as predicted - we got maybe 6-7 inches, and the drifts were pretty high in some places.  The snowblower made it through four driveways and hundreds of feet of sidewalk with hardly a complaint.  When this one croaks, I'm definitely getting a bigger one, though. 

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