I have . . . fish. . .

Last Friday I was in the teacher's lounge when a group of six students (4 of mine, 2 I didn't know) came in very excited. "Beesley, we got you something!" One of them produced from under his hoodie this:

I said, "Ya right. What are those really for?"

"No really, for YOU!"

"crap."

I'm actually pretty sure that last one I said in my head, but I did mention that I now had to go buy a tank and, "thanks . . . guys . . ."

I first went to Petco, where the fish had been purchased and thanked the nice man for selling six goldfish to a group of high school students so they could gift them to me. He looked rather sheepish. Then I proceeded to spend $43 on a very basic setup drove back to school and decided I didn't want a real tank so I ran across the street to Walmart and got a big glass jar-like-thing. I filled it with water and stuck the bag in there to equalize the temperature.

Then I decided the "tank" needed rocks so I pulled out the baggy and decorated a little.

Yes, much better.

Then I did some water mixing and eventually let them be free!

And then I fed them and left for the weekend, terrified the whole time they would all be dead when I came back Monday. I don't like death. Imagine my excitement when all six, P.D., Sugar, Cinnamon, Spice, Candy, and Splenda were all alive and accounted for after those two days! But, then Candy and Cinnamon did not survive allegedly (via anonymous note on the tank) because there was not enough surface area to give all of them the needed oxygen. So I had my T.A.s fill up the bigger tank and I put in the filter (it has a cool waterfall action going on) and hopefully the others will live. Even if its in a way less-cool tank.

It looks lame, but decorations are expensive, so . . . at least they're alive!

P.S. I did not name the fish, they came pre-named and P.D. actually stands for "Pimp Daddy." Can you see why he's going by P.D.?

P.P.S. Okay, maybe I named Splenda.

Halloween, you know, that thing that happened 4 months ago.

Last summer while we were in Oregon James and I bought masks. Super Sweet Masks! We found them in one of my all-time-favorite stores, The Pirates Plunder, located in the Aquarium Village in Newport. Reasons why its favorite: 1. IT'S HUGE 2. It has everything from awesome antiques to cheap butterfly knives (a fight about one of us not buying the latter ensued) 3. It has pirate in the name = obvious quality. Anyway, we bought the masks for Halloween mostly cause we wanted them and Halloween is a legit excuse to wear them. Then we had the luck to be invited to a masquerade at a haunted mansion in Ogden! It was a beautiful house with a ballroom upstairs (holes in the floor, not where the party was). It was a very fun night and we had a blast dressing up.

As a note, I am wearing everything I've promised to wear although for whatever reason it doesn't look like it in these photos . . .