As I mentioned, my 10-15 year old Tilapia Big Guy passed away today. I inherited Big Guy from Carl Ebeling back in 1997 who has just gotten him from Soha Hassoun, one of his students who recently graduated. Carl was nervous about keeping Big Guy, as back in the day Big Guy was rather aggressive and would go after hands in the tank. and considering his mouth was bigger than a quarter in diameter, this was a bit intimidating.

Anyway, after nearly ten years with MK and I, Big Guy finally went to fishy heaven. Here are some pictures from 2002, showing him in his prime:

So, while today was a beautiful sunny day in Seattle, turns out it was a bit of a suck day. On my ride with Union Bay Cycling, I managed to slide out on the hairpin turns heading down Lake Washington Blvd. Two new holes in my ancient Pearl Izumi tights is no biggie, but shredded a bit of the back of my Pastry Powered jersey. Well, at least Lauren has some extra XLs, so I’ll claim one of those. I also have a huge bruise on my left hip, and some smaller ones on my left knee and upper forearm right below my elbow. Not sure why I slid out besides not having the right center of gravity. Oops. Luckily, the cool guys from UBC helped repair the flat and even donated a spare tube, as the one in my bag apparently also had a hole in it somewhere. D’oh!

Post-ride, I noticed something weird in the bottom fish talk… and yes, sadly, Big Guy was no more after a long (2+ years) fight with hole-in-the-head and lateral line erosion. Considering he was 10-15, he lived a good, long life. More in the next post.

Then, while sitting on the couch to rest my sore left side, I watched my Steelers lose to the Falcons in OT, when they probably could have won it on the last play were it not for a lame penalty. At this point, they’re going to need a lot of helkp to make the playoffs.

Bah.