(no subject)

My fish tank is full of snails. I have no idea how this happened; the only thing I've introduced into the tank in the last several months is tap water, water conditioner, shrink-wrapped filter cartridges, and fish food. No new fish or plants. So do snails just spontaneously generate? I noticed a single one a few weeks ago, and thought "huh, that's weird" and promptly forgot about it. Then when I looked again a couple of days ago, saw that there were tons and tons of them.

I'll have to double-check, but I don't recall that snails in your aquarium are bad unless you have live plants (since they'll eat them) which I don't. So, go snails, I guess.

(no subject)

I had some pretty good eats this weekend.

Friday evening, Eric and Threeve and Amanda and I went to Bob and Mike's Chicken in the Arbor Walk shopping center. I am still trying to at least pretend to diet, so I had a grilled chicken tenders basket with cole slaw and corn cakes. The tenders looked gnarly but were moist and delicious. The cole slaw would have been better, except it had celery salt in it. I am convinced that there is some gene that determines if you detect flavor in celery, because I've had enough people tell me that to them, celery barely has any taste at all. But to me it has a very noticeable nasty flavor, so bleh. The corn cake was sort of a bread pudding consistency with corn kernels in it, and quite tasty. For a $7 or so meal, I give it a big thumbs-up. Everyone else had fried tenders and liked them fine, and their beer batter fries were excellent.

Last night JD and I went to Nutty Brown Cafe to see the Eggmen. The concert itself was delightful, though we bugged out before their 3rd set because I was tired; but we'd had a good 2 solid hours of music by then and cover was $5 which is a pretty good deal. I usually get the chicken fried steak there, but again- diet. I got a veggie platter and okay, fried okra isn't really diet-friendly but the corn, salad, and spinach were, and all were prepared well. JD had some enchilada platter which he didn't seem hugely impressed by, but it seemed serviceable. I meant to get a praline before I left... I'm not generally a huge fan of pralines, but they do really outstanding ones that have distinct coffee flavor in them to me- though I asked, and they said it was just how the caramelization tastes,and they were just sugar, nuts, butter, and a couple of other things. Well, I forgot, but I still recommend them. I dunno if NBC is worth the drive (they're out past the Y in Oak Hill) when Hoover's is almost as good and a lot closer (though with less healthy/veggie options), but if you're out there anyway or want to catch some music, check them out.

Today we were looking for somewhere relatively close and relatively healthy and tried ZuZu's for Mexican food. I had a delicious spinach and chicken wrap with spanish rice and corn relish. They're a good place to get healthy Tex-Mex- no lard, and lots of fresh crunchy veggies. The rice and corn were a little bland, but they had a salsa bar with several different things you could spice your meal up with. I also tried the tortilla soup, which had more of a stew-like consistency than most tortilla soups I've had, and was savory. It's not a fancy place, but we weren't in the mood for fancy. Another thumbs-up.