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so that's where i spent most of my nights, in a little sofa chair, with my laptop, watching television, getting my drink on. my poison? root beer and its derivatives (including birch beer and sarsaparilla, and i also include ginger ale in the same family). i don't drink too much because people tell me it's the easiest way to get fat (and who wants that, right?) but after a hard day's work, i like to unwind with a can of the root stuff. if i ever invite you over to my house and you want to bring a bottle of wine for a present? don't bother, because that wine is probably going to just sit there and turn to vinegar. but a bottle of root beer? friend for life! i've been trying out the generic market basket root beer, and it's surprisingly decent. in a blind taste test, it tastes just like barq's root beer.

friday! i made it through another week! the weekends are good for catching up on my sleep. for those of you who've been keeping track of my bouts of insomnia, i'm happy to report that i'm sleeping better now. 9 times out of 10 it's probably manifested from some sort of stress, even though i like to think that i have a pretty stress-free lifestyle. i think ever since i got paid and now i have some money in the bank, i've had no problems sleeping.

after more than 3 days of curing, the mended aquarium was finally ready to be tested. i set it down on the floor with a paper towel over the cracked corner. if the napkin started to get wet, i'd know that the fish tank was still leaking. i filled it up with 2 gallons of water. no problem. 4 gallons. no problem. 6 gallons. no problem. 8 gallons. no problem. 10 gallons, maximum capacity. CRACK! the aquarium split diagonally across the glass, and water started to leak out. there was no way i could lift a 10 gallon filled aquarium to the sink or the tub, so i had to improvise. luckily i had an empty 10 gallon trash can and quickly scooped out the water with a vase. i should've known from my engineering training about the dangers of stress creep. the glass originally had cracked in 2 places. one line when all the way through, but the other only went to the center of the glass. i was afraid that over time the crack will move and eventually split all the way across, which was exactly what happened. however, now that it's cracked completely through, if i patch up this new fault line, it shouldn't crack again. so after drying the tank, i reapplied the sealant on the new crack. by sunday i'll be ready to test again. if it still continues to leak, i will call it quits and throw out the tank. a new aquarium costs $10 anyway, it's almost not worth it trying to patch up a cracked tank and pray it won't crack again. i was also going to do a water change today but the problem i have is the temperature of the tap water is too cold and it takes too long and too much effort to warm it up. so borrowing a tip from my fish breeding book, i'm using the empty 10 gallon tall kitchen trash can as a cistern to hold treated tap water at room temperature so i can have a ready supply constantly on hand.

in the evening i made what i called "wino fresh herb fettuccini," a blend of used red wine, heavy cream, parmesan cheese, basil, arugula (gift from bruce), scallions, capers, and fettuccini. it was okay but because there wasn't any meat in it, it felt like a light dinner.