Cats Aren't The Only Ones.....

who love a cardboard box.

That would be Surly Teenager in a rare non-surly moment.

Sadly, I didn't get one of Hubby in the box with the nieces and nephew.

Then And Now

Then.....

Now......

Weekend Wrap-Up

Saturday:  Hubby had clinical again.  This time in Labor and Delivery.  He got to observe 2 C-Section and 1 “regular” deliveries.  Surly Teenager was home this time, but she slept in and then stayed in her room.  I was once again able to keep the house picked up for several hours in a row.

  

The rest of the day was just so exciting that I can’t even remember it.

 

Sunday: We went grocery shopping.  Woo-Hoo.  We lead such an exciting life.  After that Hubby worked on work stuff he had brought home.

 

I cleaned off the back porch and started painting it.  I almost quit several times because of those pesky little bugs.  Those little gnat looking things.  They kept flying into the paint bucket.  And landing on the brush.  And landing on the fresh paint and getting stuck.  And flying up my nose.  Between that and the dog - who every time I turned around was back up on the porch, squeezing her big hairy butt between me and the wall and getting paint on herself and hair in the freshly painted wall – I really wanted to just walk away and put up Christmas decorations.  But I painted until about 1 hour before dark, and got about 1/3 done.

 

I paint slow.

 

Hubby was supposed to bring in the Christmas stuff from the shed, but first had to clean up his stuff from all over the family room so I would have a place to put the stuff.  So of course it never got brought in.

 

Aquarium Update:

 

Sealant applied and left to sit for 3-4 days.  Tank was filled with water to test.  We were planning on having it sit until Wednesday, full of water, to make sure it was fixed.  Then drain it while being away for Thanksgiving, and set it back up after that.

 

But…..

 

Tank FAILED the water test, as it started leaking after about 3 hours.  It was leaking from a different spot, water is coming out right above where you see the jug, last time it was the rear corner, but it was still leaking.  And, see that brown amongst all the black?  That is where the particle board stuff expanded from the water and cracked the plastic-y coating.

All in all a bad purchase.

 

So now what?  Well, we drained it.  Hubby will reseal the new spots.  And then we will get rid of it, try and sell it as a dry use only aquarium. We are afraid to trust it alone in the house.  We are going to buy a stand for the new 30 gallon tank, which was going to be temporary and will now be our only tanke, and that will be it for now.

 

One of these day I may eventually get a new 55 gallon tank, on a new stand.

 

What I want to know, is how did those people know the exact right time to sell it, before it started leaking in THEIR house.

 

Good Point

Friend of Mine: Why haven't you posted very much lately?

Me: I don't know.  I just really haven't had anything to say.

Friend:  Well that didn't stop you before.

Interview

I had an interview today.  Same company, different department.

There were two interviewers and I was the only interviewee, thank goodness.  Nothing makes my brain freeze, and my tongue tie worse than a group interview.

It mostly went well.  Thanks for asking.

I still managed a moment of brain freeze though.  I can't even remember the question, but I just went totally blank.  Could not even remember how to speak, much less think up a clever answer.  Then it got worse because I became aware that I was not saying anything.  And the moment just went on and on and on and I just sat there and blinked stupidly at the poor ladies.  One of them finally said "Um?" and I busted out laughing.  I know I turned beet red and I apologized and told them the truth.  My mind went totally blank and I couldn't think of anything that applied to the question and then I couldn't even think of anything to make up that applied and then I couldn't even think what the original question was.

Good thing I don't really need the job.  I was just getting bored with what I am currently doing and thought this would be an interesting change.  It wouldn't even be more money.  Just something different.

Oh well.

Early Birthday Present

Getting Surly Teenager an aquarium for birthday, made me want one.  I haven't had a tank since the mid 90's.  I have only had 10 gallon tanks.  I have always wanted a big one.  On a stand.

We found it on Craigslist for a pretty good price.  It had some issues. Like looking like it had not been cleaned in quite a while.

So I scrubbed while Hubby worked on the other stuff.

Oh yeah.  It also came with this:

Oscar

Oscar was about 12 inches long.  After doing some research on Oscar, we decided to give him a new home.  He was a fine fish and quite amusing; he liked to move the gravel around and make hills and valleys.  But I wanted lots of smaller fish.  So we gave him away to someone with a bigger tank who would appreciate his personality.

We waited a week or so to let the water balance.  We actually ended up buying about 15 or 20 gallons of filtered water because our tap water is apparently very hard.  And then we started stocking.

These are Red Minor Tetras.

They are all named Loretta.

Now, I did a bit of research on different fish, how many fish the tank could hold, what ph levels they liked, where they liked to hang out, and how they got along.  Stuff like that.  We even spent a couple of days at the pet stores just writing down the names of ones we saw that we liked so I could look them up.  Naturally, I made a spread sheet with all the info.  Hubby thought this was very amusingly geeky of me.

So we go to buy new gravel (it came with neon colored gravel) and we get all carried away and want to buy some fish.  Hubby liked the Red Minor Tetras.  They had not been on my list.  I did not know anything about them, other than what the little tag at the pet store said.  And Hubby's view was "They are tetras.  They can't be that much different than every other tetra".  So we bought some.

Now we are up to last weekend.  We go to the pet store again.  And this time we buy some Glowlight Tetras and 2 Dwarf African Frogs.  The next morning we buy 2 Dwarf Gourami. Which I don't seem to have a picture of.  Sorry.  Go Google if you want to see some.

The frogs were an impulse and no prior research was done.  They were not on my spread sheet.

The frogs were not happy.  They squished themselves down into a corner and just stayed there. So I looked them up, and a couple of places mention having trouble with them in big tanks.  I scooped them out and plopped them into Surly Teenagers little tank.  Now they are happy and moving around.

The Gourami's started to get picked on by the Loretta's.  I finally got around to looking them up and it turns out they are not like every other tetra.  Every other tetra (just about) are very peaceful.  These are border line semi-aggressive and will nip at slow swimmers.

See what happens without the spread sheet.

So we have been discussing a possible 2nd tank.  Maybe after Christmas, for some semi-aggressive fish.  I like Tiger Barbs.  And again, no picture and too lazy at the moment to make a link.  Google.

Hubby came home yesterday and the aquarium water level was down about 3 inches.  And there was water on the floor.  And in the closet.  Being soaked up by his cloth gun cases.  

So now my aquarium looks like this:

He drained the tank and made temporary fish housing in some plastic storage containers.

They spent the night in there last night.  This morning, we had lost one and the others were not happy.  No one would eat and they weren't swimming around.  The sealant to fix the aquarium takes 2-3 days to set and then will have to be tested.  Hubby made a quick trip to Walmart to fix the problem.

It's a 29 gallon.  I don't know where we are going to put it permanently, but the fish are happy again.

Hopefully it won't spring a leak.  

And Hubby has promised to stop mocking the spread sheet because I WAS RIGHT.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Saturday:

Hubby started his clinical rotations this weekend.  Instead of an emergency room, this time he went to an “Adult Stabilization Unit”.  That’s where they keep the crazy people.  And yes, they let him out.

 

Surly Teenager spent Friday night at a friends house.

 

So I had the house to myself!  I did housework.  It was greatness.  It stayed clean for several hours in a row.

 

Until Hubby came home and went to make microwave popcorn.  He unwrapped the package and laid the cellophane outer wrapper on the table, then put the popcorn in the microwave.  Never mind that the trashcan sits RIGHT NEXT TO where the microwave is.

 

Sunday:

We ran errands in the A.M. and in the afternoon we worked on the outside of the house.  Hubby did the high parts, because I am a chicken, and touched up paint on the new trim.  I worked on the window trim.  I got 2 scraped and primed, and the third partially scraped.

 

I hope we get a couple more nice weekends so we can get the outside stuff done.  It gets dark too early during the week to get anything done after work.

 

We also went to the pet store and bought stuff for my early birthday present.

Which I will show you tomorrow.

 

One Of The Funnest Things About Being A Girl

HO HO HO

A little early, but....

it was on SALE!

All 46" of it!

Wal-Mart had a "Pre-Black Friday Sale" yesterday.  We just happened to be in the store before 8 AM when the sale started.  

We had been saving up for a 42", of the exact same model.  But this was on sale for about $100 LESS than the 42".  We had to throw in some money from our other envelopes to pay for it, but it was such a good deal we decided it was worth it and the other stuff we are saving for can wait a little bit longer.

Yummy Stuff

One night a while ago I was being bombarded with the "what's for dinner" and I had no idea.  After listening to the whining and moaning and "I'm hungry! Is it done yet?" (and I had not even started!) I just grabbed some stuff and threw it together in a skillet, poured some rotel tomato over it and called it good.

They loved it.

I started getting specific requests for Stuff.  "What's for dinner?" "I don't know."  "Ohhh, can you make some Stuff!"

So we now have Stuff on a regular basis.

Tonight, Surly Teenager decided it needed an accompaniment.  

So now Stuff has become:  Stuff and Cornbread.