Before I forget,

I should record this: Once in a while, I see something that inspires me, that makes me feel better about life in general, at the gym. Once, I saw an affable, stocky little guy doing clean, quiet deadlifts with eight wheels (that's 405 pounds, folks). It was beautiful.

Recently, I saw a wiry young fellow -- maybe 19 or so -- teaching a middle-aged woman how to power clean a 7' barbell. Saw me doing deadlifts, and said something about "the best exercise there is." Almost brought a tear to my eye.

fish

I finally forced myself to do a water change on the downstairs aquariums.

giantPainInTheAss();

The good part is that I tested the water before changing it out, and I read undetectable ammonia, undetectable nitrite, and a neutral pH. This means I can be much lazier than I thought -- I can easily go two weeks between changes and still have good water downstairs. It's probably because those are bare aquaria, so no debris can accumulate, and no food goes uneaten.

For Christmas, I want a sink in the basement. Who needs kettlebells when you have 84 gallons, two buckets, and some stairs?