This is a long post. But you can do it.

Our last goldfish died yesterday.  I hardly paid any attention to the little guy, maybe he died out of pure loneliness? I probably wouldn't have noticed that he was dead until I went to feed him, but while my visiting teacher was over with her daughters yesterday, the oldest girl went to check him out and found that he was floating on his side! She wasn't even sad or anything, but I was pretty sad. He was over two years old, which is like seven hundred years in goldfish time.

We actually started out with four goldfish: Saddam, Albie, Chet, and Peggy. We bought them when we were dating and they lived at Jack's house. Saddam and Albie were mercilessly murdered by Jack's roommates (ok, both deaths were accidents...so does that make it manslaughter? fishslaughter? ) and Peggy died just last semester. I suspect that Chet and Peggy were madly in love and he just couldn't go on without her. Anyhow, we will be making a trip to the pet store for some more little fishies. (Not Wal-Mart! Fish abuse happens there! Once we saw a whole tank full of dead rotting goldfish and the few that were alive were eating their dead friends! Fish are people too, Wal-Mart.)

Well the good thing about today is that I took my new bike out on its first ride! I got it cheap on ksl. The guy who sold it wanted me to be there on a Saturday afternoon to pick it up, but I work on Saturdays and he lived far away. So I bribed Jack with an IOU for 8 massages and my next plasma donation money to pick it up for me.  He went to Sandy in the pouring rain and somehow fit that bike into our tiny car just for me! So today I rode around for a long time and visited the horses that live by our Wal-Mart. (Why do horses live by Wal-Mart? Because Utah Valley is so mixed up like that. I mean, are we in the city or the country? I bet you didn't know that there are horses by the University Mall too!)

Best for last. Jack's dad John came to visit last weekend for the wedding of Jack's dear cousin Travis. It was a great visit and we had lots of fun. We can't wait to see both ma and pa Taggart next month!  Anyways, my in-laws must really love me because Marilyn sent a really cool sewing machine with John and I get to have it! It looks like this:

Cool, huh? I am so excited about it. Many thanks to Marilyn for her talent at finding cool sewing machines and to John for lugging that heavy thing here all the way from NC! I love it.