Fish Scales

This, my friends, is a fish scale. I believe this one is from a northern pike. It is the largest I have seen so far and I found it in my basement on the carpet by the wood stove. I have had a plague of scales here lately and have quietly declared war against them. I have not said a word about it to my wife because I don't want her to notice them too. Recently, after cleaning fish in the garage for the umpteenth time this last 6 weeks, I literally vacuumed my garage, including the floor where we park cars. I saw lots of scales by my fish cleaning table and apparently I track them indoors because I find them all over the house. I hate getting a scale in my mouth when eating fish, so I wash my fillets very well. But, I have seen a scale or scales stuck to the side of the garage/house entry door, in my bedroom, in the living room, in the basement rec room, etc. After vacuuming the garage I vacuumed the entry rug. I vacuumed the basement rec room and swept the garage and swept the kitchen and dining area. Still, not a word to my wife about scales. So far so good. She hasn't mentioned them. I used to enjoy seeing a stray scale around to remind me of the fun I had catching and eating fish. Sometimes one will stick like a suction cup to my hand and not be noticed for days, even after cleaning them multiple times. Now, I see a couple of scales and go for the dust pan; whisking them in with the hand sweeper. Shhhhh. Don't tell....

PS. See below for a partial source of all those scales I am cleaning up. The fillets are so delicious.