Gucci, guccu Johnny/Giant-Girl

I came home from picking up Mason at school and discovered the lifeless body of my beloved Johnny/Giant-Girl at the bottom of his tank. Mason and I gave him the traditional farewell, "Gucci, gucci, you were a good fish" over the toliet bowl and sent him on to his final reward with a flush.

I'm sad, but I knew this was coming at least. The most depressing thing has been walking past his empty tank. I find myself looking for him. I finally had to drape a scarf over the tank as a kind of shroud.

Ms. All Ball is doing her best to cheer me up right now. She's lying on her back with her feet up in the air and trying to catch her tail. Apparently, even though she's caught it a couple of times, it's still alluring in that special way that makes a cat have to bat. I have to say, she's doing a good job of putting a smile on my face.

As for the empty tank, Mason, Shawn and I are still in negotations about what to put in there next. Shawn has advocated for another betta. The tank is, of course, perfectly conditioned for a betta. Plus, they have to be one of the easiest fish I've ever kept. However, Mason would really like a "bait ball" (aka "schooling fish") like the white cloud minnow we have downstairs. That has it's appeal to me as well, but it also brings to mind the horrible tetra nightmare of last year's WisCON. I keep saying I want to do some research before we settle on a fish, but the truth is, I'll probably walk into A World of Fish with the 20% off coupon they so nicely sent me in the mail and impluse buy the first fish that looks at me funny.

Having been overwhelmed by the news of my taxes, I've neglected posting about all sorts of other things that have been going on around here. First of all, our hawk visitor came back. Shawn noticed him/her on the compost pile on Sunday. He was clearly eating something (later, I inspected the remains = pigeon.) I tried to get a picture with my digital camera, but my hands were really shakey because I was in an awkward position in the upstairs bathroom. Still, I'm planning on putting them up on Tate's site later today, and I'll put a link here when I do. S/he is a MIGHTY hunter as Mason would say.

Mason has also got a new obsession: the carboniferous period. Yeah, of course. Who doesn't love the carboniferous period, right? What the hell is the carboniferous period, Lyda, you ask. Well, Mason's the expert, but it's the period in Earth's early history when there were giant fern forests and the arthropods were, in a word, gianormous. What does that mean to a four year old? There were BIG BUGS!!! Centepeds the size of cars! Spiders the size of human heads! (You can kind of see the appeal, can't you?) Anyway, I've been trying to find good books about this pre-dinosaur era for him, but I've been striking out. We found one book about life before the dinosaurs called, "WHEN BUGS WERE BIG," which is actually all about the carboniferous period, and then at the grown-up library, we found another couple that are written for teens that tell the whole story of Earth's pre-dinosaur history. But, finding books about this specific period has been kind of tough. If you have any advice, I'd love to hear it.

Also, jiawen joined Mason and I at the "big zoo" on Friday. Mason had a great time showing off all his favorite things, particularly the hissing cockroaches (speaking of bugs that have been around since the dawn of time) and the coral reef aquarium in the tropics trail. Even though it was quite cold, I think jiawen would have liked to linger in the Minnesota trail, but Mason was, as usual, Mr. Run Ahead Excitedly. Still we had a great time watching the wolverines tussle over a pine branch, that we suspected was a much coveted tootbrush. Mason still talks about that.

And, I'm getting over the sticker shock of the tax bill.