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seeing the male guppies huddled near the surface of the aquarium gasping for air and trying to stay cool stirred me into action. i immediately did water changes on all 4 of my currently active fish tanks. several gallons of aquarium water were siphoned out, replaced with several gallons of cold tap water (treated). i also added some ice cubes into each tank, which at the very least temporarily lowered the temperature by a few degrees.

i went to the garden to do some watering. i read that cucumbers need constant watering otherwise the cucumbers grow up shriveled, which was the case in the two i harvested yesterday. i've got a lot of green tomatoes, all of them perfectly shaped and without cracks. one of the bigger tomatoes has even started to turn a little bit red. before i left i spotted two monarch butterflies visiting some flowers. back at home i watched as a neighbor tried to catching a fall cactus and immediately let it go after she got pricked. i also called a woman searching for her lost black cat named paco (missing since wednesday). she'd put up some signs around the neighborhood, and i remember seeing a black cat in the garden today. turns out it wasn't her cat, the one i saw had white paws. "paco has green eyes," she informed me. i told her i wasn't really that close to notice the cat's eye color.

too late for naturing (i'll do some tomorrow, visiting a secret bog), i decided to go catch a movie instead. i went to the somerville theatre to see the 4:30 showing of the bourne ultimatum. cradling my concession-stand-dispensed small pepsi and large bag of popcorn, i was ready to get bournetized. verdict? this movie has been getting glowing reviews from critics, hailing it as the smart man's summer action film, but i thought the movie was just okay. a couple of chase scenes, some close-quartered fighting, solving the mystery of jason bourne's identity - is this new? - because it feels old to me. there was one memorable car chase, where instead of police cars chasing a perp, it was a perp chasing a police car. for my money, i think this summer's best action movie (granted, i haven't seen most of them) is die hard 4 (i watched a poor quality bootleg telesync copy). john mcclane is the working man's action hero, and die hard 4 has more comedy (the bourne ultimatum is deadly serious) (although the plot of die hard 4 is far less credible). the bourne ultimatum features the improbable return of julia stiles' character. she seemed to be an ill-fit on the first movie, yet somehow she's managed to be a constant throughout the whole trilogy. we learn that minor spoiler she and jason used to be a couple before he got amnesia. thankfully no romance was rekindled. i personally can't stand julia stiles. something about her rubs me the wrong way. maybe it's her big head (i'm talking to you too reese witherspoon!).

back at home, i finished two loads of laundry, including my bedsheets. later in the evening i searched online for a cheap place to buy maple candy. i didn't realize it but it actually looks like something that might be pretty easy to make. next project: homemade maple candy!