Fish Water

In order to change the water in my fish tank, I have to suck on the end of the gravel vacuum to get the suction going.  I then put the end in a bucket and the vacuum sucks all the water out of the tank.

In nearly three years of having a fish tank, I have never once accidentally drunken any of the fish water.  Until today.  It was absolutely disgusting.  I choked on it and it got all over my face.  Surprisingly, it didn’t taste that bad.  It didn’t really taste like anything.  It was just really disgusting.

I blame it on the annoying new gravel vacuum my brother bought.  I had a nice gravel vacuum that I used successfully for a few years, but then my brother threw it across the room while he was mad at his fish tank and it broke.  Unfortunately, they don’t make that kind of gravel vacuum anymore and he had to buy one with a wider opening and less flexible tubing.  The stupid thing fell out of my tank and then all the fish water spewed onto my face and into my mouth.

RIP Weasley

When we came home from vacation two nights ago my sister Linda was looking at Weasley and she noticed that he looked pale and his fins were torn. I went over to see and she was right. He pretty much turned all white on his body and his fins were transparent. He’s always been a very vibrant red with a beautiful double tail.

My bro diagnosed him with dropsy, and despite the fact that we had 3 different fish medicines in the house, none of them were the correct one. Since it was midnight when we got home, I had to wait until the next morning to buy the right stuff.

Unfortunately, the medicine didn’t help. I got one dose in yesterday and then this morning he was dead. It’s so hard to save fish. They get sick so quickly and I’m not even sure when he got sick. He was fine when we left last Friday.

RIP Weasley, I’ll always remember you.

It’s Like We’re Moving…

A couple weeks ago my bro’s fish tank leaked all over the carpet in his room and he had to rip up some of the carpet.  My parents decided that they might as well just replace all the carpet upstairs instead of just that little corner of my bro’s room.  They had been thinking about redoing the upstairs carpet for a few years now, but they hadn’t done it yet since it would be so much work.

A lot of work?  That was an understatement.  We’ve spent the past few days taking everything that we have upstairs and putting it in the basement, living room, family room, and office.  It only took me a couple hours to move my stuff, but my bro and one of my sisters took a couple days to gut their rooms.

They’re doing the carpet today and we’re hoping it only takes a day.  Then we get to move everything back.

I took some pictures of my room and the piles of stuff in the basement.  It looks like we’re moving or something.  I never realized how much junk we have.  It’s kind of funny.  I made the pics really big just for yoon.

First, mine and my sister’s bedroom.

And here is the basement.  There’s hardly any room to walk down there.

I’ll take pics of my room once the carpet is finished and all my stuff is back in it.  Poor Weasley is spending a few days in a fish bowl.  His tank will be the first thing I move back to my room.  My room will probably be the cleanest it’s been since we moved in once I’m done moving everything back.

Damn Mosquito

Only a few short hours after I posted on yoon’s blog that I haven’t seen many mosquitoes this year, I saw one flying around the office.  The blood sucking pest was flying next to the wall, a perfect place for it to be squashed by a shoe.  I grabbed a nearby slipper and tried to hit it about five times.  The damn thing got away.  I saw the thing a couple more times while I was on my laptop, but it always got away when I grabbed a shoe.  I still haven’t gotten it.

On a related note, my brother told me last night that there had been a mosquito in his fish tank a few days ago.  Apparently the fish pulled it apart.  Go fish!

Who Would’ve Thought?

Yesterday after I dropped my sister and her friend off at dance class my brother and I went to this one shopping plaza that I really don’t like to go to that often because it’s 20 minutes away from my house.  But it’s only 5 or 10 minutes away from my sister’s dance studio, so I thought it would be a good time to go.  I had to get some knitting needles and yarn for the Gryffindor purse I’m knitting and I also wanted to use this coupon I had for PetSmart.  It was a birthday thing for Benny and got him a free toy.

First, we went to A.C. Moore so I could get my needles.  They didn’t have the right color yarn, so we had to go to Wal-Mart.  I really don’t like Wal-Mart.  One because it’s so big, two because the ‘express’ lanes are 20 items or less.  How does 20 items constitute ‘express’?  Where I work, express is 7 items or less.  Third, because they only have 5 or 6 lanes open when there are 32 lanes total.  What’s the point in having that many if they’re never open?  Third, the whole issue about their ethics.  But, whatever, I had to buy yarn and Wal-Mart is the only place around me that sells cheap yarn in Gryffindor colors.  My bro wasn’t too happy since he hates Wally World even more than I do.  We walk in and I bypass the greeter without getting a sticker for my A.C. Moore bag, hehe.  I find my yarn and head over to the registers, where I have to wait an insane amount of time in the ‘express’ lane to buy 2 items.  Then, we hightail it out of there.

Then my brother came up with the crazy idea of looking for fish in the stupid pet store that sells puppies.  I wasn’t too happy about this, but I dragged him to Wal-Mart, so I agree to go.  I hadn’t been in there since PetSmart went in which was a year and a half ago.  I immediately start feeling bad for all the puppies and the other animals they sell since they’re all housed in horrible conditions.  I wander around a bit and come upon the dog food section.  My jaw drops as I see Canidae, Eagle Pack, California Natural, Innova, and a few other high quality foods.  I never thought those were sold at this horrible place!  I would never consider buying them there, but still.

My brother then finds something even more amazing.  He had been looking for a kind of fish called Endler’s Livebearers, which are a variety of guppy.  They’re extremely rare and he looked at every other pet store in the area without success.  It seemed like the only place he would find them was the Internet, but for obvious reasons he really didn’t want to buy fish online.  But in one of the dirty fish tanks at this store, were Endler’s Livebearers, labeled ‘feeder guppies’.  They were tiny, only babies.  And they were only twenty cents.  So he decided to buy five of them and see how they would do.  His guppies keep on dying and there is only one left, a leopard print one named Lucius.  I immediately dubbed these tiny Endlers, Lucius’s Minions.

Poisson D’Avril

Happy April Fool’s Day, everyone! Did you know that in France today is known as Poisson D’Avril? It means April Fish. In France, on April 1st, everyone makes fish out of paper and writes ‘Poisson D’Avril’ on them and then stick them to people’s backs. We did that in French class when I was in high school.

So happy Poisson D’Avril from me, Weasley, and Moony! And stick a fish on someone’s back….

I will get pics of Moony at some point.