Wanna piece of me?

Meet Squirt.

A right dandy specimen of Betta Splendens.

Bettas have a well-deserved reputation for getting in the face of anything that moves, regardless of relative size. Aside from the usual severe tenacity, this one has personality-- flair, even-- making him an ideal subject for portraiture. He currently resides in a ten-gallon villa with a pair of Corydoras and several danios, who find immense enjoyment in annoying him by darting hither and yon. He finds the Corys more to his liking, and can occasionally be found lounging about alongside them or, in a desperate plea for acceptance, even feeding on the bottom (quite a maneuver for an anabantid).

Return of The King

First and foremost, to my throngs of admirers: You have not been forgotten. No more tearing out your hair. Enough throwing yourselves on your swords. End the madness, I say! I've had an interesting couple of weeks. Some highlights:

· My laptop died. Worse, it thought that the most convenient moment to do so was in the middle of a rather important bit of programming.

· The two feet of permanent snow and ice melted. The usual mires and flooding everywhere as temperatures rose into the mid-50s.

· We promptly got 14 inches of very wet snow dropped on our heads. Temps dropped into the single digits; wet snow froze solid. Slipped on the stone steps, flew headlong into the car. I love New England.

· All melted again. Mud, mud puddles, mud pies, mud football, mud wrestling, mud puppies. Muddy, muddy dogs. Why do canines have an intrinsic fondness for muck?

· We have added two goats to our motley menagerie. They make a noise like a screaming toddler whenever it seems to them as though you might be remotely interested in feeding or petting them. I chuckle softly when I imagine what the neighbors think of all this.

· Been playing a whole lot of music. All over the place. It's that time of year, dontcha know.

· On that note, I've eaten more corned beef and cabbage than I care to admit. There are perks to being a working musician.

· Made best friends with an elderly Scots lady. I am now of the opinion that everyone should do this.

· Got caught in an ice cream storm. Really-- ice cream poured down on my head. No kidding.

It sure has been interesting, this life of mine.

Not for the faint of heart

Today I did the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life.

I wore mismatched socks.

The really awful part is that they're not even entirely mismatched, just two different phases of the same sock: Pedis occultus v. niger and v. albus. And that's how cool I am.