Shrimp, Frogs, Swatches, and Eel, None of Which I will ever Eat Again.

So, I've told you about the Tank of Doom, right? Last I mentioned it, I think I told you how Godot the Frog and Jumbo the Shrimp jumped ship. We found Jumbo the Shrimp on Girlfriend's bathroom floor that next morning and Godot was missing for about a month until he turned up in HWWV's closet at the bottom of his dirty clothes hamper.

Since then, we set up a much larger tank but the drama continues. The most notable occurrence was the new shrimp, Dinner the Shrimp, when he was about two days in the tank, mysteriously fell dead (or played dead). HWWV fished him outta the Tank o' Doom and wrapped him in a paper towel and deposited him in the kitchen garbage. The next morning, HWWV looks at me with a wry grin and says, "Real funny."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, it's realllll funny, you putting Dinner the Shrimp in the wineglass."

"I didn't put Dinner in that wineglass. Why would I put Dinner in that wineglass"?

Then, holding up a wineglass from the night before with leftover wine and DINNER at the bottom of it, he said "So tell me; how'd he get in here?"

Discuss.

On other news, I have lots of knitting that I'm working on, but nothing to show except for a swatch I knit that turned out really well (yes, I do swatch. I swatch a LOT). I was fiddling around with some chevrons and the good ol' afghan stitch and came up with this. I used scraps of Blue Sky Alpacas sportweight
wool. 

Some knitters just don't swatch but I do. I swatch for the heck of it, in fact. I try to make them all about the same size and dream of a future afghan that I can make some day. Think about it: You could totally do that if you swatched for each project you make. The good thing about swatching is the part about getting to know the stitch and the yarn before taking the plunge and knitting something that's going to take you hours and hours.

It's like a first date, you know?

I like how both sides of this one looks, but I think I like the wrong side even better.

And do you see that bottle of Eucalan Wrapture there? My friend, Kristin Omdahl, her name is on it. Turns out she's been working with Eucalan and came up with a signature scent for them. She wrote me and asked if I'd try it out, and since I'm swatching like a madwoman these days, I figured it would be a good way to give it a try as I rarely have to wash sweaters. (The weather's in the 90's today, really? . . .)

This is another no-rinse wash that you can use on anything that requires hand washing (like swatches). That tiny bottle will last me for a long time because all you need is a tiny bit. The scent is nice (jasmine) and once my swatch was completely dry, it had only a faint scent left over. If you like jasmine or feminine scents that aren't overpowering, you will love this. If you don't like anything scented, I also have the no-scent Eucalan and it works just as well.

So with that, I'm off to check on Bob the Eel. Yes, we have an eel. This morning we found him in the filtering system.

Probably because there weren't any leftover wine glasses hanging around.