Fishies go 'pook pook pook'

Did more erranding around Stanford yesterday, came back to the apartment and played a bit of Tetris Attack, then found our way to the nearest pet store in Mountain View to look at fantail goldfish. Henri had an empty tank, which we brought with us from Boston, and soon it shall be swimming with fishies, which will give me something living to care for and stare at, and will hopefully help to assuage some of my longing for my beloved parrots, who are far away with my family in CT.
I'd buy a parakeet and fill the empty cage I have, but it makes sense to get a low-maintenance pet, since Henri will likely be doing field research for his thesis, and if we decide to go away to South or Central America for a semester or something like that, it will be much easier to ask someone to feed fish every now and again than have to take care of a bird every day. This does not stop me from desperately wanting to pet the cockatiels and budgies in the store.. but I'll be good for now and let them go to other homes. *sigh*
At least I can still hear Murphy and Emerald making their usual array of noises in the background every time I call home, and I'll see them over the holidays. Hopefully they won't hate me for having been gone so long.

Today I'm going to attempt to make the livingroom more presentable, and maybe build the bookshelf or the filing cabinet that's sitting in its box on the floor. Then I shall reward myself with fish. *grin*

Later.

-Me.

Adventures in fish acquisition..

We got the tank filled with gravel and let it sit overnight, put the hood on top and turned on the light, only to discover this afternoon that one side was cracked. The crack became more obvious when the tank was well-lit, as we'd both missed it before bothering to get it set up. *grr*

So, this afternoon we went and got all the rest of the bits we needed.. including a new 10-gallon tank, and all the bells and whistles like a filter, air pump, nifty grecian ruin for the air to bubble up through, and several pretty live plants.
Three fantail goldfish caught our eyes, each alert, active swimmers and with unique coloring giving them a bit of personality. I opted to avoid the weird bug-eyed ones, which of course Henri thought were highly nifty. Boys like bug-eyed things, I think. Must be all the cooties affecting their brains. *grin*

Water's been tested and treated, everything arranged, and the fishies are now happily swimming about, investigating their new home and marveling at how much less crowded their environment is.

It's really nice to have a fish tank again. We had a tank full of goldfish when I was little, and we kept up with it until about 1996, when the rather old and large goldfish we had left went to live at Matthew's house. So, it's probably been 10 years since I've had fish, but the sounds of the filter and the water bubbling are vestigially familiar, and comforting, especially since the old tank was in my bedroom as a kid, so I went to sleep with tank noises (and birdy noises) every night at least until I was 12. At that point, I couldn't stand sharing a room with my sister anymore, and moved into the basement until my room on the newly-built second floor could be moved into.

Time to make some dinner.. I'm interested to see how this vegetarian kielbasa and sauerkraut comes out.

Later.

-Me.