Today I spent 10 hours of my life preparing to paint, and then painting, the kitchen, dining room, and downstairs hallway. Part of preparing to paint involved taking stuff off the tops of cabinets in the kitchen, dusting them off, and packing them into boxes. I shall be sick of boxes by the end of all this.
Cleaning greasy sticky grime off of pottery and other stuff is gross and annoying. At times, however, it is also enlightening. "Wow, this pitcher is actually white?" If I have to do this again I shall scream.

Uber Ralph is one freaky little hermit crab. He is way smarter than a creature with a brain smaller than a pea has any right to be. Like, back before Dex died, when I thought Dex was molting, UB kept trying to eat him, and like, whatever I did to try and protect Dex, UB would find a way around it...climbing over cardboard...burrowing under cardboard...trying to figure out what the hell plastic wrap is...
And now, Uber Ralph has apparently figured out that one of the lids of the tank lifts up quite easily. Last night, I had UB and Mallow out in my room for a while, but before I went to bed, I put them both back in the tank and closed the lid. This morning, when I checked on them, Mallow was there, UB was not. I was like..."okay...he must just be burrowed under the sand somewhere." But then my dad knocked on the door and said "Did your hermit crabs have a breakout?" UB had somehow gotten out of the tank, out of my room, and over to the stairs. Okay...
I put him back in the tank, closed the lid, went on to 10 hours of painting. When I checked the tank again, Mallow was there, UB was not. I found him in Sam's room. So, apparently, during the 10 hours I was gone, Uber Ralph, climbed up the wall of the tank, across the top of the tank, lifted up the lid, crawled out the lid, fell onto the floor, crawled across the floor of my room, under the closed door, across the hallway, under the closed door of Sam's room, across Sam's room, and hid under Sam's desk.
I just wish I knew how Uber Ralph figured out that the lid lifts open. How do hermit crab thought processes work?


The thunder struck, the clouds appeared
Our fearless crew was not prepared
And pretty soon the boats came for us
Half a million strong
We gathered arms, we fired shells
We build a wall around ourselves
And pretty soon the spirit was a lot like
What it used to be back home