Meanwhile in fish pond news. We'd had the idea to make some PVC-and-net covers for the pond so we could easily cover them at night and uncover them during the day. To do this we needed to buy some PVC pipes and after a couple rounds of redesign I think we've got one that will be easy enough to put on and take off while being heavy enough to discourage predators from our goldfish. The pipes were easy; we bought them from Home Depot.

The nets. Well. We ordered them from a local pet shop despite bunny_hugger's sense of dread that we would ever see them. She's had experience with that strange, subtle unworldliness of a local business. The pet store seemed to be living up to her worst fears, as the first time, when the nets should have been in ``Wednesday or Thursday'' they ... apparently forgot to order them. I learned this by calling them, and waiting long enough for someone to run out back and check that I went to see them in person.

Despite this the nets did finally come in, while we were off at Morphicon, and now we just have the challenge of assembling the things. Also of catching the many baby fish in our basement to set them outside again.

If you befriended my humor blog, or if you read it on RSS you already know this, but I've had a string of posts the past week, as often happens. Things you missed if you didn't read it include:

• It Turns Out I'm Unreadable, according to some authority, somewhere, that says something almost but not exactly like that. Just saying.
• Statistics Saturday for April Or Whatnot, in which I face a mystery: I had fewer readers than I wanted in April. I don't understand it.
• Statistics April, Concluded, with a list of what people did like and where they came from.
• Robert Benchley: Keep A Log, the master humorist's great advice about improving travel.
• Robert Benchley: Hedgehogs Wanted, inspired by wondering about a newspaper advertisement.
• Statistics Saturday: Nations of Asia Ordered By Length, drawing this bizarre and pointless project closer to its conclusion.
• Betty Boop’s Life Guard, her first post-Production Code (enforced) cartoon. Includes some comparison to Betty In Blunderland too.
• Those Who Do Not Study The Pasta Are Sure To Reheat It, last week's major piece, inspired by that pasta technology book.

Trivia: Britain's 1815 Corn Law raised the cost of food sufficiently that steam-driven rather than horse-drawn railroads became economical. Source: The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the 19th Century, Wolfgang Schivelbusch.

Currently Reading: Daydream Believers: How A Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power, Fred Kaplan.

PS: Reading the Comics, May 4, 2015: Hatless Aliens Edition, a group of mathematics-themed posts that I figure is my fourth since the last roundup of mathematics posts here. It got a little crazy this week. Sorry.