What a weekend so far

I have no idea as I sit here uploading this video, if you'll be able to see the swarm of little fish. All these little babies were schooling so big, it was almost like swimming in a 'bait ball.' And, when we first went out in the water, I didn't have my camera. So naturally, no camera in hand, we found a fabulous cuttlefish. A cuttle fish is from Phylum Mollusca, Class Cephalopoda. They are related the octopus and squid. If you've ever put a white cuttle bone in a bird cage, then you've put in an internal piece of a cuttlefish's mantle (head/body region) for the birdie. They are rather intelligent critters. This one, didn't swim away from us as much has he'd swim sideways to us checking us out as he'd change colors to match the bottom. He was about 12 inches/24 cm long. Really cool critter.

http://www.tonmo.com/articles/basiccuttlefish.php This website has some good info and pics of cuttlefish. Unlike this website, I don't feel that they'd make good pets. Yes, they are fun and intelligent, but their ink and their octopus like craftiness would make them difficult to deal with. One would also probably a fairly good supply of live crabs. A very good friend of mine used to be involved in a cuttlefish breeding program for neurological research (their neurons are huge and very similar to humans'). I went an visited him once at the lab. The cuttle fish would 'follow' him around in their tanks. And, if I remember correctly, if they saw him with a food bucket and they didn't get fed, they'd ink in their tank and generally make a fuss. Yup, intelligent critters. Great fun.

Now to change subject....We finally bought patio furniture last night. They had what we wanted in stock and in the boxes still. We inquired about delivery, but found out that it'd be about 3 days before we'd get it. So...being 'us', we loaded the boxes in the SUV ourselves including tying a large box to the cargo rack on top. I also bought 14 bags of aquarium gravel at the same place. Well, you can probably imagine the few spectators we attracted loading our own stuff. I don't think folks here are used to seeing ex-pats loading their own stuff. Yup. Gotta keep it real.