Rest in Peace, Bob

Angry Husband sent me a text yesterday, "Bobs Dead".

Who is Bob? Bob is one of our saltwater fish. We had Bob since November of 2007. He was the biggest fish in our tank. He had the best personality. He would follow you around the tank, like a dog. Plus, Bob was always hungry and willing to eat.

Bob was a Vlamingi Tang.

I noticed that Bob didn't look quite right the past week. He kept hiding in the back of the tank. Bob is usually swimming back and forth in the front of the tank. Angry Husband found him frozen solid between some rocks in the tank.

We had previously discussed, "The Future of the Tank" a few weeks ago. Angry Husband said that if "Bob dies, I'm taking down the tank". I asked him what he's going to do about the tank. He doesn't know yet.

I'm kind of sad. He was a really cool fish.

Air Conditioner Nazi

My mom is a total air conditioner nazi. She does not have air conditioner in her house. She doesn't think she needs it. Oh my god, it is soo hot in my parents house though. Seriously, every time I go over there, I'm sweating. She thinks that they get an afternoon breeze there, umm no. They actually own three houses and no one of them has air.

I am quite different than that. Having air conditioning is one of my guilty pleasures. I love it. I run my air 24/7 during the summer and warmer months.

My mom is currently freaking out about finances. This woman has no need to freak out. But, she called me this morning and was like, "Have you turned off your air? It will lower your electric bill. It's going into the Fall months." Umm no mom, I like my house to be at the temperature of a hotel room. I can't sleep when it's hot in my house.

We live in a one story house that gets extremely hot. There is no breeze. Plus, we have a 125 gallon salt water fish tank. We need to buy a chiller for it. A chiller cools down the water. Unfortunately, Angry Toddler still gets into everything, and we don't want him to break the chiller. So we just crank the AC on so that the fish tank won't get too hot.

You can tell when my mom has been in the house too. Everytime she comes over to watch Angry Toddler she turns off the AC. Angry Husband always comes home and announces, "Dammit, did your mom turn off the AC, it's like 80 something degrees in here."

I'm sure she will turn off the AC and give me the lecture sometime this weekend too. Mom, we still have another month of heat in California, maybe more, please let me enjoy my AC.

Bye Bye Stripes

So we have a 125 gallon saltwater fish tank in our dining room. The thing is huge. We have a little collection of fish. Angry Toddler has named them with cute names, simple for him to use.

We've noticed that one of our fish has not been cooperating lately. He's got a nasty attitude. He's been picking on the smaller fish, taking food from the other fish.

The last straw was Friday night. We brought home five small fish. I named them the Jackson 5, since they all looked similar. Stripes aka fish with a Bad Attitude, was chasing them around the tank like a shark. It freaked me out. These poor innocent fish being stalked by this Angry Fish. I told Angry Husband that Stripes had to go. Angry Husband tried for at least 30 minutes to get Stripes out of the tank. Angry Fish was smart and kept hiding from AH. Angry Husband finally gave up.

Yesterday, Angry Husband called me and he seemed very happy. He told me that he was able to get Stripes out of the tank. He had to empty out some of the water along with moving all the rocks around. He said that he had to use his bare hands to get him though. I met Angry Husband at the Fish store, where we took back Stripes.

Stripes was in his little holding cell tank when I got to the store. He still looked angry. We got a replacement for Stripes. Angry Toddler named him Bungee. Maybe, I can get a picture of Bungee later this week.

Secret Santa-ism

It's the time of year for gift giving.

Angry Julie loves to participate in the Spirit of Christmas and all this gift giving. I'm on several message forums. Going along with these forums, are several types of Secret Santa events. Silly me, has four people to buy for. I have a problem of taking too much on.

So I went shopping today. I really need to get all of these things in the mail. I'm sure with the weather acting up all over the U.S., it's going to slow the mail down. I of course, over spent, yet again. I'm such a perfectionist. I make a list, I really try to stick to it, but I never do.

For example, I'm participating in an ornament exchange. We are supposed to buy one ornament. Do I buy one? No, I buy two, plus candy. That's how I roll. Then, I have to wrap them all cute. Plus, I need to add in one of my personalized cards with a little note. This is how it begins, with one little ornament.\

Then Angry Husband is participating in a Secret Santa, on his Saltwater Fish Forum. He actually went and bought the gift himself. I was very proud of him. But then, I have to step in and take over. I asked him last night, "Oh, do you want me to wrap it up and package it to mail tommorrow?" He gave me that look, the "why are you taking over my project", look~ So I'm sitting here, looking at his Secret Santa gift right now. I think I'm going to wrap it anyway. He can sign the card, right?

Well, I hope everyone enjoys their Secret Santa goodies from me. I went totally overboard. Why can't I follow the simple rules? The funny thing is, I'm in charge of one of the ornament exchanges. I made the rules, which I can't even follow properly.

Come Meet the Fishies!

I haven't updated you all in awhile about the Great American Fish Tank Build. It's taken some time, but it's coming together. We moved all of our smaller fishes to the bigger tank. We moved our smaller fish tank out of the kitchen, so now we have a usable kitchen counter back. We have added some new additions to the big tank, so let's meet them. Oh, and Angry Toddler named all the fish.

Biffy




Bob





Snake

The Great American Fish Tank Build Part 2

So I previously blogged about our fish tank build, September post.

I thought I would update y'all a little bit. The Angry Husband has been working alot on his days off to get some funds to complete this project. I know it's a totally expensive hobby, and I hate seeing money go towards it. But, I was really sick of looking at this six foot long, empty plastic tank. He saved up enough money to get his sand, rocks, water, and lights.

I'm including the pictures taken a few days ago. It's got a neon glow to it. And it's hella loud. Like soooo loud, that it sounds like our dishwasher is running 24/7. The husband said that it's the pumps, and that he needs to UPGRADE them. Well of course he does.. My husband never does anything simple. The man must always upgrade things.

My mom is freaking. Seriously, everytime she comes over our house, she gets anxiety. She keeps thinking that the tank is going to break and that water is going to destroy everything in our house.

I will actually be happy when we get some fish. I'm tired of looking at ugly rock. I want to see pretty fish. I told Angry Husband that I want the tank to look like the one at the Pediatrician's office. It's soo purty.

The Great American Fish Tank Build

I'm such an enabler. I admit it. I bought Angry Husband the 12 gallon saltwater fish tank for Father's Day. I thought it was cute and small, sometime for him to do. Angry Toddler would love looking at the little fishies swimming around. I was wrong. I should know better by name, AH obsesses, I mean obsesses when he gets a new hobby.

I should know better. There is a quite a cult of fish people at work. All they talk about it their coral, new fish, chemical measurements, water evaporation, etc. I have joined the cult. The local fish store knows us by name now. The owner has become friends with AH. We discuss my co-workers fish tanks and what they have learned from the experience.

I could have fore casted this, but I didn't. AH wanted a bigger and better tank. His first thought, saw out the wall between the dining room and garage. Umm, no, we are not sawing out walls for a FISH TANK.

Then it came to him, he was going to turn out dining room buffet into a tank stand. Hence, the Great American Fish Tank Build. Oh, yes, 125 GALLONS of acrylic fish tank.....

My dining room before:


Dining room after, The Great American Fish Tank Build:


The tank isn't done yet. AH needs to buy lighting, rock, and water still.........

I have no clue how much money he's spent on this. Thankfully, he's been doing some side work for my friends...

The Aquapod

My goal is to out-do myself every year on Angry Husband's Father's Day gift. Last year, I did a photo montage with Angry Toddler. I got the idea from one of my many mommy forums. It had five photographs, each with a picture of Angry Toddler holding a letter, spelling out D-A-D-D-Y. I was quite precious. I look at it every day when I walk by our bedroom door.

Angry Husband has been bugging me for a very long time about getting an aquarium. Heck, what the hell do I know about fish and aquariums. I had a goldfish once, it came from the Fair, and lived like 3 years. Angry Husband wants one of those 150-gallon huge-o things. All I cna imagine is Angry Toddler, getting into it, and 150 gallons of saltwater on a our distressed-highly-expensive, wood floors. You get the picture. If you know my child, you know what I mean.

So my friend Kim, tells me a couple of weeks ago, she got this 6-gallon Nano Pod aquarium thingy. She says that she wants to raise seahorses. So she shows me this aquarium-fish tank thing online.

I had a moment...

Oh, this is what I could get Angry Husband for Father's Day. An itty-bitty practice/starter aquarium. Perfect!!!!

So I go and buy this AquaPod, all 12 gallons of it. Kim said I should go bigger than the 6-gallon she bought. I go to my local fish guy.

I posted a photo above of what the final result looks like. No, this is not our tank.

Angry Husband loved the tank.

We are now in the process of letting the tank cure. It has live rock, live sand, and salt water in it. No fish, no coral, no crabs....

I hope this works for us. I don't want to sit and watch all our little fishies die. That would be soo traumatic for Angry Toddler and I. Poor Angry Toddler keeps asking everyday, "Where's the fish?".