a day of rain, courtesy of the remnants of tropical storm ida. fearing the wind would tear of the rain cover, last night i secured the cover with a few bungee clips wrapped underneath. looks like the bottom of the motorcycle will need another washing after the storm clears. beats a snowstorm though. i'm hoping we can get through the rest of the year without one. purely selfish reasons, it just means i can ride my motorcycle for another one or two. last year was the latest riding season ever for me, and i didn't put the motorcycle away in storage until december 18th - only to take it out a week later for a few more days during a brief warm spell. i've got a bit of a problem this year because i don't know if my new motorcycle will fit in my parents' garage. it'll be tight (like maybe the lawnmower will have to live in the basement temporarily). normally i'm very resistant to the idea of putting the motorcycle away for storage, but i feel better this season ever since i've rediscovered bicycling. of course i can't bike when there's snow and ice on the ground (not to mention zero bike lanes with all the snow pileups), but at least i'll still have a faster method of transportation than basic walking.

the only thing i had to do today was clean the fish tanks, something that i meant to do this week but kept putting it off. it's a bit tedious but has to be done. it's been more than a month, and already the walls of the guppy tank is covered in algae. i think it has something to do with me turning on water heater that caused the algae to flourish. i keep on thinking if i only had an algae eater that'd solve my problem, but at this point i'm trying to phase out the guppy tank and i don't want to buy anymore fish. turning on the heater also has the unintended side effect of more rapidly evaporating the water (lower by an inch). the big aquarium news today is i'm finally switching out the whisper filter and using a hagen aquaclear instead. i love these aquaclear filters because i can roll my own carbon insert, saving me some money. i bought 2 aquaclear 20 back in april (20 designates suitable up to a 20 gallon aquarium), i have an aquaclear 50 in the basement (more power than i need), and i'm currently using another aquaclear 20 for my minibow tank. the whole process of cleaning the 2 tanks took about an hour and a half. first i scrub off the algae, then i siphon out a bucket of dirty water. that dirty water makes for good fertilizer and i sometimes use on the houseplants. next i clean out the filter, and wash off any algae-covered tank decorations like the shells and rocks. i add the new filter medium and re-install the filter back onto the tank, adding clean water in the process.

as if i didn't get enough of the water cleaning the fish tanks, in the early evening i took a hot steam room bath. for dinner i had some more lamb stew with rice. january jones hosted tonight's saturday night live. she wasn't very good, occasionally missed her cues and tried hard to keep a straight face. the sketches themselves were funny but she wasn't (my favorite: jekyll and hyde). it's hard to predict how someone will perform on SNL. i'm still absolutely amazed by the quality of guest hosts: megan fox, ryan reynolds, taylor swift, gerard butler, even U2 (as musical guests). hopefully next saturday will be better with host joseph gordon-levitt.