Our quest for a pet

One night at dinner last week, one of the girls somehow suggested that we get a fish to keep in the kitchen. I know, weird. The joke was that we'd keep him in the blender.. without the base on it. So no risk of fish smoothies. Now, past experience has taught me that these pets are pretty, but get a little smelly and never die unless it is on accident OR they live to be like 4023894038 years old. Not really, but that's what it felt like. Then it came up again, and the decision was made- we were going to find a betta fish. Pet stores are hard to come by in City Centre, so after a few Google searches, we located a shop cutely named 'The Goldfish Bowl'. Once I escaped my comatose state this morning, Allison, Kelly, and I set out to find this beloved pet. Our friend Becky gave us directions last night, and it sounded cool, definitely an exploration to a part of town we hadn't frequented yet. We walked. And walked some more. Kept going. I wore my pedometer, and it was about 3 miles, one way. At one point, we weren't sure if we had gone too far, but the guy working at Oxfam assured us it was just another 4 blocks away, then a turn for a few more. No biggie. The sight of the storefront was a 'hallelujah' moment, to say the least. We were shown the wall of bettas, and a really nice guy working there helped us get all the supplies we needed (chlorine drops, food) so our little pet will survive all semester. If he lasts longer, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The walk back was hilarious as we switched off trying to walk smoothly with the fishy bag, with the occasional dart into a store that we thought might have marbles for his (I think it's a boy) home. Variables currently up for debate: the gender and name. Right now, the name pool consists of something like Chaucer, Elmo (he's red), Toto.. who knows what else. I think I heard a Fluffy thrown in there at one point. The whole thing ended up costing 2.40 GBP a person, so totally doable. Let's just hope we can keep him cleaned and fed consistently. Poor dude.

I deviated from the direct walk back home, and spent time browsing stores on High Street, which were all pretty cool. I also walked in and out of many a University apparel store, searching for the right hoodie. It's so frustrating when you have a mental image of exactly what you want, and can't seem to find anything that will approximate it. All in all, I basically walked for 3 hours straight today. Goodness.

Tonight's dinner was the first flop. I tried to make polenta and spinach, both of which were terribly bland and reminded me of baby food. No good, plus they burned my tongue. I wasn't in a super mood after that. Took a little nap, then caught a bit of Olympic speed skating, which was so intense! The athletes had ridiculous leg muscles. Norway was pretty good. Go motherland!

I baked my cookies for tomorrow! The brown sugar here is really weird.. it kinda has a molasses flavor, so they turned out a little differently, plus the temperature conversion cooked them a bit fast on the outside, which I finally perfected by the last batch. They should be edible, at least. Aaaand I purchased the present for my secret valentine. Boys are so hard to shop for.

Happy Valentine's Day! :]