
Monday: My back still hurts, and keeps talking me out of doing things. I did manage to get another load of tomatoes in the dryer, which is a good thing, as I don't want them going bad. The hermit crab book says they like little bits of fresh fruits and vegetables, so I tried them on a little slice of tomato, but as far as I can tell, they didn't eat any. Of course, they don't eat much. I got a little plant mister and sprayed Julian and Cassiodorus with a bit of warmed distilled water (the book says they need high humidity), and they were more active afterwards, walking around their terrarium and climbing on things.
Went to another firehouse jam session. I took the mandolin this time instead of the guitar, because there were so many guitars there last time, and I figured a bit more variety would be a good thing. Lots of songs I didn't know, of course, but I'm picking up a couple, and getting better at faking it, I think. One of the other mando players (I was the second to show up, and a third came in later in the evening) said I ought to be playing breaks (which I think means playing fancy solos while the singing drops out for a verse, which he (the other mando player) does extra-ordinarily well). I told him to give me a couple of weeks to learn the songs :-).
I came home with chord changes ringing in my ears again, and Kip and I took Julian and Cassiodorus out of their terrarium and let them explore the dining room under supervision. This convinced me that I need to sweep the dining room again; Cassiodorus in particular was covered with lint when we recovered him. I expected them to stay close to each other, but they wandered into separate corners of the room. Julian in particular stayed under things--the table, the chairs, while Cassiodorus tried to climb the walls. He could get a little purchase on the molding but couldn't go any farther. When we returned them to their cage, I looked at Kip and said in a hermit-crab voice (soft and squeaky, in case you were wondering) "you'll never believe it honey, I was kidnapped by aliens." Kip replied "yeah, and taken to a different plane."