February 2004 Archives

I'm on the phone right now with Marc going over how to handle what should be the last batch of live rocks we need for the aquarium. We had them shipped overnight, and they arrived this morning (Marc has today off). So he's going through the arduous process of prepping the rocks to go in our tank, which involves dipping them in carbonated saltwater to get any bad critters out, and then dipping them in regular saltwater before plopping them in the tank. Hopefully we won't have a ton of stuff dying on there and polluting up the tank - I had him smell the rock and they smelled fine to him (bad smell indicates that something is dying).

I can't wait to get home to see how it all looks, these should be pretty colorful rocks.

New Trick?

Last night I was sitting on the living room floor cuddling with Bandit (when the breeder told me that male Border Collies were more cuddly, I didn't realize she meant THIS cuddly). He was sitting there in front of me, when I blew in his face - he's never liked it when people blow in his face. So I do that, and he falls to the floor on his side, and rolls over onto his back, like I just blew him over, LOL. I did it a few more times, and he kept doing it. So I praised him a bunch each time, since it's kind of a funny trick. What a goofball.

I'm trying to clicker train Stubby too. He'll sit for food now, which is pretty cool for a cat I guess. Lately he's been quite the attention hog, he follows me around everywhere when I get home and just meows incessantly. I think he's jealous of the time I've been putting into the fish tank. That should be settling down soon, so I can give the little butthead the attention he's used to. ;)

I've definitely reached my saturation point with pets! Poor Hammy is probably getting short shrift right now, although I try to take her out and let her roll around in her ball for a while (the other night she was rolling all over the place between the office and the bedroom). I don't think I have time for any more! Well, maybe another dog when we get a bigger house and yard. :)

So last week in class my boss asked the instructor what format the test was going to be in. Doug (the instructor) says, "Oh, multiple choice and true/false. I used to do short answer essays, but it's just too much trouble to grade." So I go into the test with the mindset that it was going to be in that format.

WRONG. Almost the whole freaking test was short answer essay. Pissed me off, because you hate to start a test being thrown for a loop. My boss was a bit annoyed, and even brought it up with Doug, who just kind of shrugged. I think my boss was actually pretty annoyed, because he brought it up again at the end of the class.

Nerdycom

So I just finished booking my plane ride down to LA in May for the E3 expo, which is an industry convention for well, video games. Or as my brothers like to call it, Nerdycom. Anyways, this isn't normally something I'd make a trip down for, but the admission (and you have to be in the industry to get admission) normally is a few hundred bucks, but I get to go for free, so it's hard to pass up. It's a pretty cool convention, basically every game manufacturer goes there and showcases all their new and upcoming games. They give away a lot of free stuff too, most of which isn't any big deal, but it's free.

Anyways, I'm sure I'll get a lot of ribbing for it like I did last year, since this is such a geeky thing to do, but I don't care. I had fun last time. And I take pride in my geekiness!

I spent most of last night studying for my first test in molecular pharmacology. That was pretty painful. I'm going to study some more here at work, and then go review with my boss later in the afternoon. It's a multiple choice test, so hopefully it won't be too bad. Nice thing is, we get to get out of class a little earlier tonight. Woot!

A couple days ago I had gotten up really early to let Bandit out to pee. I walked into the hallway (it was still dark), and spotted something on the ground, shaped like a small cucumber. My first thought was that it was the puffer, and that one of the cats had someone gotten under the tank lid and gotten to him. So instead of turning on the lights like a smart person, I just bent down and poked it. It wasn't the fish (incidentally, I probably could've walked 3 feet and just checked the damn tank). Peering at it closer, I realized that it was a piece of cat poop. Lovely. I called Marc, and we found two more pieces of litter-covered poop in the hallway. We didn't know what the hell was wrong with our cats, and I finally looked it up today. It actually has a name. They call it "poop hockey" and apparently cats will get bored and pull poop out of their litter box and bat it around for fun. I'm not sure how that's fun, and I'm guessing one of them has to pick it up in its mouth, which is gross. Of course, the dog likes to eat that poop, so I guess he's worse.

Anyways, we're going to be buying more toys for them now.

Big Rant

So yesterday was my mini rant, and I'm gonna get on the soapbox again today. I try to avoid being too serious here, but this topic really pisses me off. So I'm listening to the news, and they're talking about how Bush is announcing today that he's going to back a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. You know, because he has nothing more important to do. It's not like there's a war going on or anything.

But I mean, who CARES? What is the big fucking deal? I find it ironic that the party that's supposedly against big government is suddenly all for usurping state and local government laws. But seriously, I don't get why people care so much about what other people do with their own private lives when it has absolutely zero impact on their own. It's not like I as a married person suddenly felt this shockwave effect when all the same-sex couples got married in San Francisco. My own marriage doesn't suddenly feel invalidated. I mean, it's a celebration of love, it's a good thing, and it doesn't hurt me or anyone else at all. Let people do what makes them happy. No one's being hurt by it.

It should be appreciated that these people love each other and want to celebrate that with marriage. People might say, well why can't they just get civil unions? Well, that's not really good enough for the rest of us, is it? Our Constitution grants that every person should have equal rights, and there's no reason it shouldn't apply to this. It wasn't too long ago (and hell, I think it still exists in some states as a law on the books) that many states banned interracial marriages. People weren't considered equal then, and they weren't afforded the same rights. That's changed now, because we know better, and most of us wouldn't think to question the validity of an interracial marriage. And the same should apply to sexual orientation.

Everyone talks about the sanctity of marriage and how gay marriages somehow defiles it. Someone explain to me how a heterosexual couple getting drunk off their asses and getting married in Las Vegas and then having it annulled the next morning isn't defiling marriage (hi Britney!). Or how about the fact that 50% of the people who get married end up getting divorced. There are plenty of shitty heteros getting married these days who do plenty of damage to the institution of marriage. And people are concerned about two people who really love each other, and take marriage seriously and want to make a lifelong commitment to each other, just because they're gay?

These people aren't trying to ruin marriage, they're celebrating it. And they're trying to celebrate love just like anyone else. That's something that should be embraced, not fought. It's like gay couples that want to adopt - isn't a child better off with loving, caring parents, then a couple of cracked-out, abusive, heterosexual parents? There are plenty of kids being raised out there by people who have no business being parents other than that they're a man and a woman. But that's a whole different topic, and I'm not gonna get into that.

I have hope that people will come around in time, just like they did when it came to race (for the most part). Bush can take his amendment and shove it, and I hope it never sees the light of day.

Climbing off my soapbox now...back to poop stories! ;)

I found out this morning that Ralph Nader is running for president again. I wanted to go bang my head on something. Why oh why? I mean, you try, you fail, you help screw the country over for 4 years...do you really need to do it again? I have nothing against the guy really - but had it not been for the votes he took, we wouldn't have ended up with the asshat we have in the White House today. My boss joked that he must be getting money from Republicans somewhere. I wish he'd use that money to buy a clue.

Fishy Thoughts

So when we started out with this little aquarium project, all I'd really thought was that saltwater fish looked cool, and I wanted to have a saltwater tank. It wasn't until I started researching on the Internet and going on message boards when I started realizing the seriousness of the hobby.

I don't mean the money or anything like that (although it's serious money!). Rather, I'm talking about how the hobby impacts the environment, and how important it is to respect and value the fish you care for. It was never something I gave much thought to when I had a freshwater tank - I killed my fair share of guppies then. But at least with freshwater, the environmental impact is less, since most freshwater fish are tank-bred and raised. A lot of saltwater fish, on the other hand, still come from the ocean. There's a few tank-raised breeds, like our two clownfish are, but most are still wild-caught, like our puffer is. In the past, most of these fish were caught by blowing up coral reefs with TNT to "stun" the fish to make them easier to catch. Nowadays, more are using humane methods, but you're still removing animals from the wild.

Since I've started learning more about this hobby, I've come to have a lot more concern for our fish. If I'm going to take these guys from their homes, then I'd better take good care of them. Hopefully as time goes by they'll be able to raise more fish in captivity. It doesn't mean I won't care for them less, but it'll make me feel a little bit more comfortable about this hobby. When we start to do a reef tank, I'm going to make a concerted effort to buy tank-raised corals or fragments from other people's corals, rather than purchasing new wild-farmed ones. And I'm making sure to research the fish we buy, so we don't buy ones that really shouldn't be removed from the ocean, either due to fragility, or importance to the ecosystem.

Anyways, I never thought I would care this much about fish! I'll be pretty sad if we lose one, and upset with myself personally. I'm sure it's gonna happen, but hopefully we can keep it to a minimum. :)

And that's enough seriousness out of me for one day!

Our puffer is still in the quarantine tank, but his spots seem to be fading, and he seems to still be doing well. Once in a while I get worried, but I've been diligently keeping tabs on him and trying to make sure he's doing okay. I took some videos of him this weekend, which you can see in the Diary. The little bugger is certainly still hungry enough, as I found out when I went to go take the heater out of the quarantine tank. While my hands were in there, the puffer came and clamped onto my finger! I pulled my hand out of the water, and pulled the puffer out with it! Luckily, he let go, and plopped right back into the water. I have no doubt now that he has teeth, and strong ones.

Marc and I went to Connie's Saturday morning to check out their bag sale, which they have every Saturday. That's when they get in their shipment of fish, so they sell the fish for cheaper while they're still in the bags. We ended up picking up a flame angel, which is a pretty cool looking fish. It's been shy, and hiding out in the rocks, so I haven't been able to get a picture of it yet. It seems to get along with the Nemos just fine though.

On Saturday we were also supposed to go up to Jan Murphy's farm to help rebuild some fences (and maybe get a herding lesson in for Bandit). Unfortunately, it was raining, and when we drove by there, no one was outside working. I didn't have her number on me, so we figured they just called it off and we went home. Hmm, that was pretty non-worthy of a mention at all, but on the other hand, it shows I was willing to do some work!

That night we went to go see Barbershop 2, which was pretty funny, although I probably could've waited for it to come out on DVD. I think I liked the first one better too.

Today was spent taking Harvey to obedience class, having lunch with my parents and my grandma (dim sum, yummy!), taking a long nap, and doing yet more aquarium stuff. It will sure be nice when we can one day just, you know, look at it.

On a tangent - Cynthia and I had a long AIM talk the other day about how I should've been born a guy. ;) Marc says this to me all the time too. I mean, yeah, I like cars, sports, video games, and comic books (well, used to). I'm pretty handy and I don't mind getting grimy. And yeah, I know the words to half a dozen Eminem songs. But I also like puppies! And bunnies! And Care Bears! So what if I swapped out the shifter in my Mustang all by myself? I like to think that this makes me the ideal wife. I mean, what guy doesn't want a wife who will go with him to football games, likes to talk about cars, and at the same time, can help him match a shirt and tie and make a mean souffle? So anyways, Cynthia and I came to the conclusion that this must be why I got married so early. I agree!

Since Marc and I carpooled yesterday (due to my mom being temporarily out of commission), we stopped by Pet Club in Mountain View to look at aquarium canopies. We wanted to get one because we hate the current cover we have on our tank, and we need something better to keep the cats out. So we picked up this wooden canopy that fit our tank perfectly. It makes it much taller, so we now have this behemoth of an aquarium in our living room. We're giving it a trial run to see if we want to keep it or not.

After that, we went to IKEA to buy a frame that we needed. Amazingly, we managed to walk out with just the frame. Then we stopped by Connie's to pick up a bag of salt, and then it was on to Target, where I picked up a trash can for the aquarium water changes, and we bought a new phone for the office, since our current phone really sucks. We also bought a toy sheep for Bandit, since he hasn't had a new toy in a while (and all his current toys are carcasses lying around the house), and he played with it ALL night. I put it in his crate last night when we went to bed, and this morning, when Marc let him out, he ran out, then ran right back to his crate to get his sheep. A few seconds later, as I'm lying in bed, I end up with a dog lying on my chest and a stuffed sheep plopped on my face.

Our little puffer fish was a lot less shy last night. I walked up to the tank and he swam right up to me. I pulled out some krill for him, which he ate from my fingers. It was too cute. He's such a messy eater though, and a huge pig. The fish is like a bottomless pit. He's very curious though - Stubby was sitting on the counter looking at the fish tank, and upon spotting Stubby, the puffer started swimming right up to him. We had a small scare this morning when Marc couldn't find either of the Nemos, but it turned out they had just holed up in this little corner to sleep. They're pretty funny when they sleep, one of them just floats on the top on his side and lets the currents move him around. It scared me the first time, I thought he was dead!

Well, it turns out that my mom needs surgery on her thumb. Looks like she managed to cut a tendon. So she's been having to go in for a chest x-ray and an EKG and other stuff. She has surgery tomorrow, and is staying home all week. All for a little thumb! Hopefully she'll feel well enough to celebrate her birthday on Wednesday. :)

Busy Busy

Thursday night Deepali came over to watch Friends. It was the episode where Phoebe got married to that "Clueless" guy. We also watch The Apprentice, which I'm really starting to enjoy. Donald Trump horrific comb-over and all.

Friday night we babysat for Jacob and Allison, my nephew and niece in-law, so that Steve (Marc's brother) and Erin could go out for an early Valentine's dinner. Allison was sleeping while we were there, so we were mostly charged with keeping Jacob entertained, which turned out to be pretty easy when armed with a DVD of "Finding Nemo." Jacob is a lot of fun though - while Marc was picking up pizzas for dinner, he brought out his Leapster to show me (the Leapster is like this educational Gameboy for kids). Knowing that he had to be quiet so he wouldn't wake up his baby sister, he says to me, "I'll turn it down, I'll turn it down." And I watch him press the button to turn down the volume. The funny thing is, right after that he presses the button to turn UP the volume! Once we put "Nemo" on, that pretty much held his attention until it was his bedtime. Marc and I tucked him in (he asked us to leave a crack open at the door), and a few minutes later we hear him calling to us, saying, "You forgot to turn on my turtle light." Oops! It was too cute. :)

Marc wussed out on the snowshoe hike! So no snow for Bandit. :( So instead, on Saturday morning Marc and I got up super early to scoop the crushed coral out of the fish tank. We take it back to Connie's, and they give us live sand in exchange. We see a cute little porcupine puffer, but I'm hesitant about getting one the same day we do the sand, so we decide to wait. The sand exchange goes fine, and I decide that I can't wait for the puffer, it was just too cute. So that afternoon I go back to Connie's. Unfortunately, they'd sold it after we left. I found another puffer in the store, but this little fella was so skinny, and looked to be in pretty bad shape. So I left disappointed.

Bandit also had his sheep-herding lesson in the afternoon, and did much better than last week. He didn't shut down at all, and was really interested in the sheep, getting closer to them than I've ever seen him get. Jan says he'll be much more confident once he's a bit more mature, since he's still a baby. But she says he's doing just fine. He loves her now, gets all excited when he sees her because he knows that she's going to take him to sheep! It's amazing to watch him in there with her, because she just has to put a hand out to him, and he'll lay down and stop herding the sheep.

That evening we got dressed up and drove to downtown Palo Alto for our Valentine's Day dinner! We ate at a place called Maddelina's, and the food was terrific. When we first got there, it was a bit chaotic, since they didn't really have a host stand, and the host had no idea who was there first, and he was just kind of seating people willy-nilly. We're like the first people in the door, and some other people follow us in. This one Asian girl walks in last. The host comes up and asks who was first, and before anyone can say anything, this girl is like, "I was." One lady scoffs, and Marc is like, "Um, we were here first..." but not loud enough for the host to hear, since he's already seating this chick. One of the other people waiting is nice enough to point out that we were next when the host returns.

We had cappellini for our appetizer, and we weren't really sure what it was, but it turned out to be pasta, and turned out to be pretty yummy. We both had Caesar salad after that, and for our entrees Marc had the filet, and I had scallops and prawns. Mmmmmm. For desert we shared a tiramisu and a creme brulee. It was an awesome dinner!

By the way, I didn't get flowers this year! Marc says it's because I manage to kill them every time. It's not like I don't try to keep them alive, it's just that I was cursed with a brown thumb. So I didn't get any flowers this year. :( You can send all chastising e-mails to Marc here.

Sunday morning Kenny and Leslie bring Harvey up for his obedience class. He farts on the way to class, and we have to open all the windows in the car. The dog has amazing gas, it's the most toxic I've ever smelled. It's a small class, just us and this one couple with their little dog. We start working on sit and "watch me" and Harvey seems to have trouble focusing in class. He's more interested in the trainer's dog, Lucas. We get him to sit a couple of times, but for the most part we spend our time just trying to get his attention. We're convinced poor Harvey is not, shall we say, the brightest bulb in the doghouse. When we get home, I try the towel test on him, and surprisingly, he extricates himself in a couple seconds. If you're not familiar with the towel test, it's one of a number of intelligence tests that supposedly indicated how smart a dog is. You throw a towel over their head, and if they can get it off in less than 15 seconds, they're considered very intelligent. If they just walk around with it on their heads, they're considered not-so-smart. So maybe Harvey is smart, and just doesn't know how to apply himself at school yet!

After that, we drove down to Fremont to look for a puffer at Mermaid Aquarium. We find one, and instantly love his cute little face. So he goes home with us, and does okay until he sees Bandit. At which point I think he was a bit startled, because he puffed up a tiny little bit. He and Bandit stare at each other nose-to-nose through the glass for a few minutes, which is funny, since Bandit never seemed to take interest in the fish before. A few minutes later, the puffer finally deflates, and burps out two big air bubbles. He puffs up again later when I go to look at him, so we think he's shy still. We're trying to think of names, and we need help! You can see his picture here and give us name suggestions here.

Last night, as Marc and I were driving home, my mom called me on my cell phone and asked if we could come pick her up and take her to the emergency room. It turned out she had cut her thumb open when she was trying to open a bag with a knife (note to you kids - use scissors!). So we picked her up and drove her to Washington Hospital in Fremont. The emergency room was packed. We figured my mom was going to be there a while. Kenny and Leslie came a few minutes later, and the plan was that they would drive her home. So after maybe like an hour, Marc and I left for home, since we figured we didn't need four of us crowding up the waiting room.

I called a couple hours later, and my mom STILL hadn't been seen. My dad had finally shown up, so my brothers were on their way home. So I called the house at 10:30 pm, and my parents STILL weren't home! I think I probably could've gone to medical school and learned how to suture myself in the time it was taking her to get a few stitches. Sheesh! I don't know what time they finally got home, but I called this morning and they were there, so at least they finished before dawn. :P

This morning we saw Nemo 1 using his clay pot! See, we bought them a clay pot because we didn't think we could keep an anemone alive (yup, just like in "Finding Nemo," anemones do host clownfish - it's pretty cool, because the clownfish will often bring food to the anemone). I'd heard that tank-raised percula clownfish (which ours are) often would take to using a clay pot, since that's what they raised them with. Ours had been hosting with anemones in the store, so I wasn't sure if they would take to the pot or not. They'd pretty much ignored it for days, but today Nemo 1 was snuggling away in the pot! It was too cute.

While driving to work this morning I saw something pretty funny. The road I'm driving on is a pretty busy street, and the two directions of traffic are separated by a concrete/landscaped median, with the occassional gaps for people to make U-turns and such. So this car in front of me swerves into this gap, presumably to make a left turn. Well, apparently the gap he was using was meant for U-turns only, because I heard this noise, and looked in my rear-view mirror, and this car is freaking sitting on top of a small triangular piece of concrete median! The purpose of which seemed to be precisely to keep people from making a left turn rather than just a U-turn. What a boob.

Oh yeah, last night we went to Petsmart to look for a backpack for Bandit. It was $45!!! So it looks like we're going to be carrying his shit after all.

I don't really have much to update, but I'm doing it anyways, since I'm pretty freaking bored at the moment.

The other night Marc brought home flowers and a big stuffed frog that said "I Love You" on it, to try to make up for the error of his ways. It didn't stop me from being mad, although I'm better today. It should be noted that I will soon be running out of room for all my big stuffed animals.

Last night was my boring class again. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am notorious for not being able to stay awake in a class. I was really fighting it last night. I can't, repeat, CAN'T fall asleep in this class! Why? Because the instructors work here at Roche, and they are not little peons like myself. Oh yeah, and my BOSS is taking this class.

Cynthia pointed me to a website dedicated to that American Idol contestant, William Hung. He was the Chinese Civil Engineering student who goes to Berkeley who sang "She Bangs" by Ricky Martin. It was quite possibly the funniest shit I have ever seen on that show. He was a total geek and a FOB, but I kind of felt bad for him, because he seemed pretty humble and sincere, and everyone's having fun at his expense. But you know, that's what the show's about, ha. Anyways, he's become a mini-celebrity now, so it's all good I suppose. Check out the website, it has his original audition clip as well as some other clips people have put together. Also, I think Cynthia lurves him.

Anyone have good Valentine's Day plans? Marc and I are planning on going up to Tahoe for a snowshoe hike with a bunch of other people and their dogs (we're going to go look at a backpack and booties for him tonight, neither of which I expect him to tolerate wearing). After that, we'll hopefully be back in the Bay Area in time to make our dinner reservations. If not, we may just have dinner up there somewhere.

Well, that killed like 10 minutes of time. Now to go spend some money online.

Addendum: Deepali just asked me why Bandit would need a backpack. My response was, "so he can carry his own shit." Just to clarify for those who may have the same question.

Friday night Kenny and Leslie came over and we rented "Out of Time." It was an okay movie, although it started out pretty slow. And it's one of those movies where you keep yelling at the TV because the main character keeps doing inconceivably dumb things. So I'm glad I waited for this movie to come out on DVD rather than catching it in the theaters. Afterwards, we played some Super Monkey Ball and Mario Kart. I kicked mucho ass. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Saturday we took Bandit to his sheep herding lesson. I didn't bring my camera with me, but he was kind of out of it that day. He seemed to shut down when she'd correct/reprimand him, which is the way he is with most things. We had a little scare right before his lesson, when this little girl came up to him and tried to get him to approach her. Now Bandit is pretty freaked out when it comes to kids and certain men. We don't have kids, and we don't know many people who have older kids, so it's near impossible for us to socialize him properly around them. This girl was doing things right for the most part, but he wasn't having any of it, and when she tried to creep up on him, he got aggressive. We talked to his obedience trainer, who told us that in instances like that, it's just best to break it up sooner and tell the kid to step away. It's something I really want to work on, but it's a slow process, especially with kids, who tend to just run up to dogs and try to put their hands on their heads. I never had a problem with Betsy, who was so amazingly tolerant of kids and so sociable (pretty incredible for a lab-raised dog), so this is pretty new to me.

Anyways, back to sheep herding. We had a little bit of excitement this time - at one point a sheep at split off from the group, and Bandit was chasing it around in this corner, with Jan standing behind him. The freaking sheep JUMPS over Bandit, right into Jan, and knocks her down to the ground. Marc and I both freaked out, and we're like, "OHMIGOD, ARE YOU OKAY?" Luckily, she wasn't hurt. It was pretty scary though!

After that, we went to the San Jose State Auction for the athletic department with Bill and Brenda. Marc and I bid on a few things, but didn't win any of them. :( We almost got an annual membership each for a gym, but got outbid at the last second. Grr!

When we got home, we rented "Radio," which was better than "Out of Time," even though it was a bit overly sentimental.

Sunday was pretty uneventful, Kenny and Leslie brought Harvey up to Dublin, and we took him to Petsmart for his first obedience class. It was all orientation, so we didn't do any actual training, and during the class, Harvey let out the stinkiest fart known to man. I swear, if you ever wondered what someone's fart would smell like after they ate a bunch of rotten eggs, you need to come meet this dog. I always thought that Bandit could clear out a room with his gas, but he has nothing on Harvey. He farted some more as we were walking down the toy aisle. My brothers said that he farted a ton when he was at the vet's office, so we think it might be stress-related. I don't know, but we need to try to do everything we can to make sure he's never stressed out!

After that, Marc and I went out and bought more live rock and then napped and watched some of the Pro Bowl in the evening. It was uneventful until Marc and I got into a huge fight (well, I was really the only one who was mad). I won't say what it was about, but I'm still pretty steamed about it. I don't think we've ever gone to bed mad before, but I definitely did this time.

And on that cheery note, there endeth my weekend update!

Last night was the first night of my Molecular Pharmacology class. If you're wondering what this has to do with vet school, the answer is nothing. This class is actually for work, and I've been putting it off for, oh, about 3 years. It's actually taught by two people who work at Roche, and one who used to work at Roche (and incidentally was my mom's old boss). If I do well, I'll probably take it for a grade, and if not, I'll just audit it so it doesn't show up on my record at all. So far it seems okay, and it really is good for me to know this stuff for work, so I suppose the one-night-a-week pain is worth it.

Since I got home so late (Marc arrived home from the airport just a little before I did), there wasn't much time to do much of anything. For dinner I had gotten a polish dog and soda at Costco before class ($1.50 for both, I could live on the stuff). So I got home, said hi to all the little critters, and got ready for bed. Marc and I had a mini contest to see who could get Bandit to go into his crate. The night before, he did something really cute when I was going into the bedroom to sleep. He gave me this look like he knew it was bedtime, but I didn't say anything to him, since I was going to brush my teeth and stuff before I put him in my crate. So he watches me brush my teeth for a couple minutes, and then I see him slowly walk over and into his open crate and plop down inside. I gave him a "good boy!" and he stayed in there until I was all done getting ready for bed, at which point I closed the door to the crate. I guess he was pooped and didn't feel like waiting for me to be ready for bed. ;) Anyways, we had a mini contest to see who could get him to go in, and after several vain attempts by Marc, I told Bandit to "go to bed" and he grudgingly walked into his crate. I win!

Tonight I'm going to buy a couple more pumps for the tank since we're not getting good enough circulation (man, this thing is costing a small fortune), as well as maybe pick up 10 or 20 more pounds of live rock. I'm crossing my fingers that the bacteria-in-a-bottle that I ordered online arrives today - it's supposed to cycle the tank in a day rather than a month. Which means fishies sooner! I'm sure we'll find a way to kill them though.

So on Saturday we went skiing up at Sierra at Tahoe with my friends Cynthia and Deepali. We went for just a day trip, leaving at 5 am and getting home at 7 pm. The snow was icy, but it was still a ton of fun. I pushed myself this time, tackling some harder blues and only falling once. Whee!

Anyways, we stopped in the lodge to grab some lunch, and as I'm walking back to our table, some guy taps me on the shoulder. I look back at him, and he says, very matter-of-factly, "Hi." I don't recognize this guy at all, so I just give him a half smile and walk away. So he continues to stare at me, and it's really freaking me out. I sit down at our table where Marc, Deepali and Cynthia are already sitting, and he's still staring at me. Totally creepy. So I tell them what happened, and Marc gets pissed, and says, fairly loudly, "A little young for you, don't you think?" Embarrassed, I just hope the guy didn't hear that.

After that, I don't give the incident any more thought. Then today, as I'm walking through the coffee area at work, I glance over at a bunch of people who are sitting around chatting and drinking coffee. One of the guys there is looking at me, and it's kind of creepy. So I'm thinking, "hmm, that guy looks familiar....OHHHHHH." Apparently, I work with ski guy. And I realize that I've seen this guy tons of times around work, but I totally didn't recognize him when I saw him in Tahoe. Yeah, I'm that bad with faces. After realizing this, I had to run back to my office because I was about to bust a gut with laughter.

Next time I see the guy, I suppose I'll have to make amends, hehe.

Catquarium

So last night I filled the aquarium with saltwater, and started setting it up. (See the Fish Diary.) This morning I woke up and noticed that the cats weren't in the bedroom, and hadn't been in the room all night like they usually were. It dawns on me that I'd forgotten to put the top on the tank when I'd finished. I head downstairs, afraid that I was going to find a cat floating in the aquarium. Luckily, I didn't. Instead, what I found was Snuggles sitting on the kitchen counter looking at the tank, and Stubby standing on the glass piece that went across the middle of the tank! Poor cat looked a bit confused, like he had no idea how the heck he was going to get off of there, and I have no idea how long he was up there. He seemed glad to see me though.

Oopsie, math error

When I exchanged our protein skimmer for the new filter, I ended up with a $10 dollar store credit. The guy who was helping me, Matt, seemed to have a little trouble figuring out how to make the adjustment on my credit slip. He crossed out the original $100 credit that I had on there, and wrote, "Balance, $90." I didn't notice this till after, and I figured it was probably some way they did it at the store that made sense to them but not to me. So today I went back to the store to buy some live rock for the tank. It ended up costing $50 plus tax, and I handed the guy (a different guy) my credit slip first. He took it, and gave it back to me with $35 credit on it. I told him I should've only had $10 credit on there. So he gave me $5 off for "being so honest." Which was cool. I could've walked out of there no problem with free stuff plus more credit, but I believe in karmic debt. ;)

OMFG

Tonight I finished setting up the new wet/dry filter. Talk about a PAIN. I had to get it done though, because I had $50 worth of live rock sitting in bags waiting to go into the tank. That reminds me, I still have half of my spaghetti dinner that I set aside to finish working on the damn thing sitting in the microwave. Anyways, head over to the Fish Diary to read more about it.