I’ll start off with the knitting. This was General Conference weekend for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is a two day satellite broadcast that happens every 6 months. The twelve apostles and the prophet and other general authorities give talks over 5, 2 hour sessions. It’s fantastic and I love it. So uplifting and inspiring. Additionally, I get a LOT of knitting done.

On Saturday, I got up to the armholes on the front of Clark’s sweater but had to stop because I’m about to start the V neck.

That would require too much counting to pay attention to Conference, so on Sunday, I knit one and a half of Abby’s fingerless mitts. (Rotten picture).

It really does look nice on her hand, when it’s not all shriveled up with the ribbing. I’ll finish up the second one quick and then knit the brown ones so you all can tell me which amount of silk you like.

Now, on to fish.

Remember back in February of ’07, when I bought my ryukin?

Well, Cecily died recently. I’m not upset. She was kind of boring. I didn’t really like her, and the reason I bought the two of them anyway was to establish my nitrogen cycle with cheap pet store fish so I could eventually buy some really nice ones online. Well, not surprisingly, I’m too sentimental to get rid of my fish. Plus, I really like Zuko. So I’m looking online, and was trying to remember how long I’ve had Zuko when I looked back on the blog and found the post.

He’s grown a LOT, and he’s beautiful.

He’s 4 1/2 inches now. He should be bigger, but there have been long periods of time when I wasn’t taking as good care of them as I should. Not cleaning the tank out often enough, and when I ran out of the good fish food I buy online quite awhile ago, I bought some pet store food to get me through ’til I ordered more and… never quite got around to it. I think that was Cecily’s problem. She wasn’t getting the nourishment she needed. I feel bad.

BUT, I just bought some new plants and food, moved the rocks around a bit, bought an enormous contraption that sterilizes the water like an ozonator which means that I can have the light on as much as I want and the water will still be clear. I’m so excited! And I’m looking online at fish.

What I REALLY want is a nice, big, fat orange ranchu to call Calcifer*. But there’s this ryukin that I think is stunning. Wouldn’t he look GREAT with Zuko?

Aaaand, there’s a really expensive black ranchu that is so stinking cute, I can’t stand it.

I want to pinch his cheeks!

Aside from the fact that I can’t go dropping several hundred dollars on Goldfish right now, or potentially ever, I think the maximum amount of fish I can keep in my tank is 3. I already have Zuko, mixing ryukin and ranchu isn’t the best idea, tho’ depending on the personalities you end up with, it could be fine. I think Zuko is gentle enough to be with a Ranchu. He’s so sweet. I don’t know about that other ryukin though. They can be scrappers. I could just get the ryukin, which is the cheapest, and be done. But I’ve ALWAYS wanted a big ol’ ranchu. They’re so cool. And I think the big orange one would look nice with the two ryukin, if they all get along.

What to do, what to do.

I realize it’s completely trivial to be fretting about fish, but Zuko is all alone now. And honestly, I love my fish. They make me happy. It’s therapeutic, you know, to watch fish. That’s why they’re in hospitals. And tropical fish bore me to death. I like these big, individual water animals with character and personality. Except for the jerky ones, like Frank from my old post, or that blue lionhead I had to get rid of a few years ago. Stinkers.

* Then I’d have both a fire bender and a fire demon in my tank. Of water. Can’t hardly resist that. :-).