I finished the safety report for the city. 300 hours of video footage reviewed in total, I hope the city's departmental purchase order is forwarded to me soon so I can get paid.

As promised, the scratching post. THAT I BUILT. 

 

This is definitely the most lovely cat ever. Justin told me she climbed on top of the fridge today. I'm so proud! 

 I GOT 2 JOB OFFERS TODAY

Either the other candidates they interviewed were rubbish

Or I'm even more charming than I thought I was! 

Or they like puns! 

 

I think it's gonna be harder to solve the non-academic case of the two-body problem than I thought but I'm pretty frustrated already. It's been nothing but a series of mostly-long-distance relationships since ~2013 and it's not even like it's that long of a distance, just 120km, but sitting in a car for 3 hours a day does nobody any favours. Sitting in a train for 4 hours a day is marginally better. But not good! Or we could move to Mississauga, a pothole, and be equally miserable. 

I want to adopt a cat. 

THE BEAVERBUX IS WORTH MORE THAN 0.77 EAGLEBUX RIGHT NOW, THE PYROTECHNICS ARE EXPLODEY, AND THE STRAWBERRIES ARE RIPE. 

Today I picked-my-own strawberries, looked at the goods of sketchy Canada day vendors, and learned the etymology of "blacksmith". My mother appears to like my boyfriend now, we played scrabble with my brother, and my professors have given me the thumbs up to submit my thesis and my conference paper! 

Thought I'd get some of my thoughts down on planted tanks.  

Since last time I've changed my mind (big surprise) and decided to go for a 20g planted tank with a pair or trio of honey gouramis and as many harlequin rasboras as the tank can support. I can try my best to get a peaceful betta but it's still a gamble that it won't turn out to be a murder fish and go Liam Neeson on a school of whatever microrasbora I've decided to stock the tank with. And even if it starts peaceful... there's always a chance that something will snap in its fishy brain and it will decide that it not only wants to be the hawttest fish in the tank, it wants to be the ONLY fish in the tank. No thanks. Honey gouramis and harlequins are both said to be gentle fish. Also I like the "feelers" on the gourami, and the harlequins are classic fish often recommended without reservation for the beginner hobbyist. 

Also, paradoxically (or not?) larger tanks are easier to maintain than smaller tanks, which are more prone to chemical fluctuations and accidents. 

I also plan on using the Walstad soil + sand cap method and buying my tank bits separately rather than in a kit. Tank hood LEDs aren't generally strong enough to grow plants... but sunlight is! In seventh grade I maintained a perfectly OK tank for a science class with hornwort, water hyacinth, and one feeder goldfish. Admittedly the goldfish never got a water change (I was doing it wrong :( ) but he survived until he was moved to a low-light location, at which point the plants died and the fish was soon to follow. This is relevant because sunlight is said to cause algae growth but I never experienced it in my tank. As long as I can get some fast-growing floating plants established I will be able to outcompete algae. 

In other news. 

The profs have delivered "glowing" praise of my thesis draft, so full steam ahead until it's all done, I guess. I must be nearly almost done now. 

The new geocaching.com map shows sad faces for my DNFS so that is nice. 

Today there was a dog on the tracks at Kipling. It delayed the train for about 15 minutes while they crawled under the train and coaxed it out with biscuits.


Also, I think the dog got a guy fired by making him late for work. Literally fired by cell phone. 

The dog was small and curly with black hair, anyways. 

Justin's brother got married on Saturday.

I cried during the ceremony.

And I danced during the reception.

I thought it was important to mention that part because the boozahol had worn off that point but it was the first time I'd danced like that in 7 years.