Follow-Up on our "Pets"

Since I last wrote about our "pets" we had two caterpillars, several tadpoles, and a fish. Well, I'm happy to report that the caterpillar did transform but sadly not into a butterfly, instead into an ugly little moth and then died since we didn't know what to feed it. I'm also happy to report that a few of the tadpoles did turn into frogs, but met the same fate as the moth, probably also because I didn't really know what to feed them. On the other hand, Kellin loved feeding our fish, and would feed him tons of fish food every day. So would all of his friends that came over and sadly, our fish also died, not of starvation but of "stuff-vation". So, now we just have a bunch of empty fish bowls and frog containers - death traps for any little critter that comes to live with us!
Things have been pretty quiet around our house the last few weeks, just settling into summer and trying to keep myself and the kids from going crazy around the house all day long. I try to get a few activities planned each week so I don't wake up Monday morning with 5 long days stretched out in front of me with nothing to do besides house chores and errands. But with gas prices so high, anything outside a 5 mile radius is pretty much out of the question. I keep trying to think of alternate forms of transportation to cut on our gas usage. The only options I can think of are riding my bike with the kids in the bike stroller - which I guess might work for little errands but just seems torturous when the temperature is starting to reach into the mid-nineties. I have also considered using the public bus system - it just seems like it would take so much longer and I'm also a little worried about the type of crowd bus travel attracts. I know that sounds judgemental and snobby, but my bus experiences up to this point have included a singing Mexican and a ranting Hawaiian. So that pretty much leaves me stuck at home or paying $4.15/gal for gas. What to do???