Ants, crawdads and a goldfish funeral

Perhaps it is because we are nature lovers. Or maybe it is just that we are easily amused. I am not sure what it says about us, but the entire family has been absolutely mesmerized by a Christmas gift that Em and The Dude gave to Jack this year. At any given time of the day you can see one, two, three, or as much as all four of us huddled around a tiny blue 10 inch square. Upon closer observation, one would discover that it is an ANT FARM! Honestly, this is the coolest thing to see. I mean, I can remember trying to have ant farms as a kid. You know you get just-the-right-dirt, and then dig up just-the-right ants. Then they dig one tiny hole and all die. THOSE are the ant farms of my childhood. ANd if you were raised even farther south than I was then it only took one experience with Fire Ants to know that you didn't want to farm those beastly things anyway!
But this. This is so cool! You can view the ants from all sides and the blue, jelly like substance that they are tunneling through is both their food and water. They require nothing! It has become an addiction. When we arrive home someone invariably yells, "WOAH! Look how much the ants have done!" So, yeah. We are impressed. But then, we also have a crawdad who has happily taken up residence in Frodo's old tank(remember, the deceased gold fish, who was cryogenically frozen?)....so....I guess we like that kind of stuff!
Speaking of Frodo, we did finally bury him. It was quite the service. Jack insisted that we all participate because, "You know.........he was family". I cant remember all of the eulogy,(you can thank me later), but I did hear myself saying the words, " Frodo was a good swimmer. He was the best.MYyyyyyyy...how he did swim". And then later as I became even more desperate, I said "And he was always there to wave a happy fin at anyone who passed by". (groan) Jack was happy and the gold fish is out of my freezer. But God help us if the dog dies.

G'night,
melissa