Well Hello There Mr Winter

I live in a cubicle eight hours a day with my back to the windows and I have to crane my neck and body or flat out get up to see out.  I have been very busy with end of month stuff and kept my nose to the computer all day.  I got a call from my Huz who was home with a very sore back and realized I hadn't looked out once since lunch.  It was really windy this morning on the way to work and even more windy when I walked over to the other building to pick up a monster baked potato for lunch (which was awesomely wonderful), but the skies were clear.

Andy called to tell me to be careful driving home. Huh?  Then I got up and looked outside.  When did the weather decide to remind us that it is in fact still winter?  This season has been the most mild winter I've ever seen I think.  Only two times I can think of that snow actually stuck for more than a day, but not much longer, and that was only a couple of a handful of times it decided to snow at all.  Brown grass and trees and it hasn't even ever gotten all that cold.  Until today.

This is the view coming out of the parking garage

Visibility sucked

This knucklehead was dancing and waiving at everyone
(Don't worry, I was stopped)

My view when I stopped for dinner (going to be a lazy night)

Our backyard

I got home and promptly put on my jammies and crawled under a blanket next to my huney.  As of right now, it's still coming down out there.


*Update*
6:30

 9:30

Dog legs

Romancing the Home Brew (part 1)

My husband has been mulling over the idea of making his own beer for quite some time.  Like all things the Huz becomes interested in, he researches, and researches, and asks around, and becomes a type of connoisseur of whatever has caught his interest.  Anyway, home brewing caught his attention and he has been researching it and mulling it over for the past year or so and finally decided that he needs to try it out.  He loves to cook and he loves to please people with his cooking.  Beer brewing isn't too far of a leap from that.  About the time I started working on getting my aquarium set up, he starting working towards getting supplies.  A few weeks ago, he finally brewed his first beer.

He drinks for taste and quality not quantity, I sip for taste explicitly as alcohol in generally is not my thing.  I have however found a few beers that are okay.  With taste and quality in mind, he looked into various recipes and ran hundreds several ideas past me on different types and flavors he could possibly make.  He wanted to start out with one I might enjoy as well.  Being a, jump in with both feet, kind of guy, he decided to skip simple, easy, what you should do first, recipes, and went with one that falls into more of the, I've made quite a few batches and they've all turned out well so time to step up my game, category.  He likes to challenge himself.

He decided to go with a Blood Orange Belgian Wit.  I'm not totally up to speed on the whole process, but it involved cutting up blood oranges and putting them in a mix of hops and extracts and liquid malt and things of that sort.  He bought a big ass an eight gallon stock pot to boil it all in and made a mess of the kitchen, but he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

boiling the blood orange slices

Bringing the whole mix to a boil

I'll get a wider shot of this pot the next time he brews, these just don't do it justice.  Anyway, once it was boiled and had been forced cooled (putting it in the sink full of ice and repeatedly filling the sink around it with cold water and more ice), he poured the whole mix through a funnel with a sieve in it into a big glass jug (6 gallons) called a carboy.  He then plugged a rubber bung and a one way valve on the top and we got to watch it bubble at the end of the hall and Andy got to agonize about the whole thing being infected and ruined for about 17 days.  Being his first brew, there were many possible points that the brew could have gotten an infection and be rendered worthless.

That foam is called a krausen. He waited for it
to bubble and then dissipate to determine
when it was done.

Tune in tomorrow for part two.

Borked

I have had a photobucket account for a while, but never really used it.  That is until I discovered the photobucket app.  I have been frustrated with upload speeds from my phone to facebook and whenever I try to do a blog post from my phone, the picture ends up small and I can't resize it.  The app allows me to upload all the pics I want at record speeds and then when I want to post them somewhere, it's quick as a whistle to attach.  It has been wonderful!

Until I decided to actually organize photobucket and create albums.  Now, If you look back thru my last several posts guess whats missing?  The links for my pics are all broken!

I may or may not get around to fixing it.  It's not going to be an easy fix it looks like.  I have to try and remember what pic I put where and repost it.  How frustrating.

Oh well, at least I know why and how and it won't effect any future posts.

Baggins

They're all so pretty

Can I eat them now?

Milk bones and Hugging the Pail

The other night I let Lily out and in a bit she started barking.  I didn't think much of it cause she always does, but it wasn't her normal, "There's someone going by I don't know." bark, it was a happy, "Hey, I know you!" bark.  She stopped quickly tho and so I didn't go look.  When Andy let her back in, he started laughing like crazy.  I got up to go see what was funny and there's Lily, happy as all get out, with a giant milk bone in her mouth.  We both realized Mitty had been by to say, "Hi" to her.  We have this neighbor that has no dog, but he always has milk bones.  When he first started giving Lily bones I thought it was so weird, but then I realized he just loves dogs even tho he doesn't have one.  We've caught him a couple of times at the back gate sneaking them to her when she's out alone.  He's so cute with her.

I don't remember just what was said, but after we quit laughing over Lily and her bone, I ended up calling Andy a dork and this ensued in a chase.  For anyone who has been to our house, you know that the kitchen and living room are connected by two doors, well Andy started chasing me around and around this in a game we often play when we are teasing each other.  It drives Lily nuts and she ends up barking at us and that just makes us laugh all the more.  Any way, we decided to stop so the dog could calm down and decided it was time for bed, so Andy turned out the lights.  I got a glimpse of him heading towards me again just as the light went out, so I took off.  I know the house, I know what's where, so I had no fear.

Wrong

I took the corner too sharp and collided with the dog food bucket!  My foot hit and I knew I was going down!  My leg hit.  It was on it's side.  I felt it give and thought it would break.  The rim dug into my upper thigh.  And I ended up on the floor, in the middle of the kitchen hugging the bucket in a kind of fetal position. I heard Andy gasp and he flipped the light on and I knew he thought I was seriously hurt, but when you're on the floor laughing so hard you can't make a sound, it's kind of hard to reassure anyone! When I finally could make a sound, it was a huge squeaky belly laugh!  He then relaxed and started laughing his head off too!  How could you not!  I went to bed with my gut hurting from laughing and my left leg and boob hurting from the bucket.

The next day, while I was in the bathroom at work, I looked down to see this huge half moon bruise on my upper leg and burst out laughing again, right there in the ladies.  I'm sure the few people that were in there thought I was nuts!

A Little Friend

This little robin has been showing up a couple times a week to eat the apples left on the ground by our carport.  She stands and watches while we get in the car in the morning, unconcerned, and then continues her breakfast.  I hope she sticks around and maybe nests nearby this summer.

She's right in the middle of the picture, my phone camera's zoom isn't that great and I didn't dare get any closer and spoil it by scaring her.

Pictures

I have decided that I need to do some reading or actually take a class and learn how to better use my cameras.  I have my phone, a point and shoot (can't remember the name right now), and a cannon and I keep taking crappy shots considering the cameras I have.  I know I can do better.  I also need to find my tripod, I think it walked away...

Anyway, I realized that I didn't include all the pictures I wanted to in yesterday's post so here they are.

Updated full tank shot

My cute, shy gourami

The best pic so far of my painted swordtails

We decided to name this guy squeegee lol

Some of the danios and the four lemons

One of the ottos

Weekend and Fish Stories

I had a good weekend despite being on call and not daring to leave the house really.  We have been testing a system upgrade at work and it went live this weekend and I was placed on call from Saturday to Monday night to be called to connect remotely and validate that everything still worked as expected.  I was dreading getting called in at 3:00 am as my boss and coworker were.  I thankfully didn't.

Because I didn't dare leave, I put my time to good use and got a lot done.  I got the little room rearranged and cleaned out so it doesn't look like a catch-all room anymore and we can enjoy the fish tank better.  I got a bunch of bedding washed and excess laundry done and all of it folded and put away. I got the living room picked up and a bunch of other stuff done and it felt good.  I need to get all the dog towels and bedding washed tonight and then a few more blankets and I will be fully caught up on laundry!  Yay!  Next big project will be to go thru the office downstairs and get it clean and organized.  That will be so nice.

I need to break out the carpet cleaner too and get the living room carpet done.

Since the little shrimps, pleco and danios did so well in the tank all week and my water parameters have been totally stable all week, I decided I was good to go to finish stocking.

I went to the same store since they had gotten some more lemon tetras in and the danios and pleco I got from them were all doing well.  This time their lemons all looked good and fought getting netted as they should so I bought all they had (six) as well as four ottos.  I was also going to buy a pearl gourami, but then I spotted these cute little, bright yellow gourami (s?) and asked about them.  They are honey gourami and I just couldn't resist them, so I bought two.  I also wanted to buy some swordtails, but they didn't have any males and I didn't like how their females were acting, so I didn't get any.

I got them home and put the bags in to float so the temperatures would match. Took some pics and then turned the light out so they would calm down.

One of the honey gourami and one of the ottos

The six lemon tetras I started with

Once they had floated for a while, I opened the bags and clipped them to the tank and then very carefully took out about half the water and then very slowly poured in the same amount of water from the tank.  I repeated this several times over the course of about an hour so they could slowly acclimate to my tank's water.  This way they don't get shocked by the difference when you put them in.  I then carefully netted them and placed them in the tank.  They all promptly hid.  I checked on them from time to time and everyone seemed fine.  

Despite by best efforts and doing everything "by the book" this time, I found an otto dead the next morning and one acting stupid.  Not too long after that one died as well.  This was very frustrating to me as I took all precautions so this wouldn't happen.  However, ottos are very sensitive and their deaths are not uncommon when being placed in a new tank, mine were just unlucky.  

Saturday afternoon, after a good visit with my parents and on the way home from their house, we stopped at a different fish store and purchased two more ottos and the three swordtails I wanted, a male and two females. They are called painted swordtails and are really pretty.  I took a little more care with these and did a drip acclimation with them, which is just floating the bags to match the temp and then pouring them all in a bucket and then running a line from the tank to the bucket with a knot in it so the water just drips slowly into the bucket and then going in now and again and removing half the water from the bucket until you're sure it's pretty much just tank water from your tank in there.  I did it for about two and half hours.  This method acclimates then slower and more evenly and is said to be a much better method. 

Later the same night however, after placing the new fish in the tank, I found a lemon acting stupid and it also died.  What the heck?  Sunday morning, I found another lemon dead.  What the crap? Sunday night, another otto died (from the first store, the first four all had stubby tails, the two from the other store looked a lot healthier and had fuller tails from the get go).  I was so sad and discouraged!  Five fishies dead.  This isn't supposed to happen!  I tested my water after each death and everything is perfect, I acclimated them, so it wasn't shock, but then I got to thinking about the fish store I got them from.  The lemons acting funny the first time, the swordtails acting funny the second, the difference in appearance from their ottos and the ottos I got from the other store, and decided it's not my fault.  I did everything I could to prevent deaths.  I've decided I won't buy fish from them anymore.

The remaining otto from the first store worries me because he's not active and I don't see him eating like I do the other two, but everyone else is acting normal and healthy.  The gourami are being terribly shy and don't come out unless I sit back from the tank and sit very still, and even then it's only for a sec.  I hope they get comfortable soon.  The shrimp have all gone into hiding because of the swordtails, but I hope they come back out soon too.  I did briefly spy a shrimp with eggs, that was cool.  I think I have enough hiding spots for the shrimplets since I can't find a single adult. lol

Wordless Wednesday

Update

I know, I know, another boring tank post.  *big grin*  It's my current obsession what can I say?

I've added new plants and rearranged and finally added some fish!  I'm having a brown algae/diatom problem at the moment but it should go away once the tank settles some more, it's due to its being a new tank or so I've read.

I'm liking how it's shaping up tho.  Our new fish are fun to watch and are starting to show some fun personalities as well.  I bought an albino bristlenose pleco who is all over the tank and doing a bang up job of cleaning off the plants and making them look pretty again.  S/he is very active and not at all shy like most plecos.  S/he is also really cute!

Here it is on our big amazon sword plant.  It's only an inch and half or so long right now, but should double that as an adult.  I like this species because they don't get as big as other species that can reach 10 or 12 inches or more.

Here's a little video I took the day after we added everyone. (please note, I didn't realize I was recording sound.  Also note, I was just getting over a cold, I'm not normally a mouth breather lol)

Some of you may have seen this next video already but I have to post it again.  This shrimp did this ALL day long.  Round and round only stopped for a sec here and there.  He hasn't been doing it since thank goodness, I thought he'd lost it.

The red cherry shrimp and the fish you see swimming are all under an inch long, some are just under but some are around a half an inch.  Just babies.  I have to wait for them all to get to their adult size of just over an inch before I can go buy the bigger fish I want so they won't get eaten.  The shrimp and the pleco will help keep things clean.  I'm starting to get green stuff on the glass tho so I need to go buy one more set of fish for my cleanup crew called otos.  They are small sucker catfish that will keep the walls clean while the shrimp and pleco will keep everything else clean.  The idea is to not have to clean a whole lot myself.  Hopefully I'll end up only having to do light gravel vacuuming and water changes and that's it.

The small fish you see in the video are called celestial pearl danios and they will be really pretty once the mature and get their full color.  I couldn't get any decent pics of them cause they are crazy and don't realize they need to sit still for the camera lol.  Here's a google image of some tho.

The next fish I buy, besides the otos, will be lemon tetras since they are also kind of small, but I'm finding most stores don't know what they are or don't have them in stock.  The one store I found that had them wouldn't sell me any because they were all acting funny.  They looked fine, but all but one would not run from the net or fight getting caught.  This is not normal behavior so the gal wouldn't sell them.  I thought that was pretty cool tho.  She took my name and will call me when they get more in.

Here is a current picture of my tank.  I added some plants and some moss to the wood and swapped out the big log for another piece of driftwood we had.  I may have to put the log back tho simply because it won't fit in the 10 gallon tank I have that I also want to get set up.  I didn't think that thru before swapping it out.  I may just go buy another small piece however.  It'll be a bit before I get the 10 up and running anyway.

You can see some of the brown icky stuff in the left side of the tank at the bottom.

Games and New Friends

Andy talked me into playing Dungeons and Dragons several months ago and we have been playing almost every Monday since.  We made friends with a new couple and have been having fun playing.  For those that don't know its a table top paper game played with dice, figurines, stat sheets, and lots of imagination.

Here's our set up.  Sometimes dungeon maps will be drawn on the board for reference.

I have a cool set of dice in a chain mail dice bag the Huz bought me for Christmas.  It's pretty cool.  I get bored with character set up, but once we get going, I enjoy the encounters.

We've started hanging out with Brent and Amber and been having fun.  Sunday we went to lunch and a movie with them and then stopped for frozen yogurt.  It's fun to get to know new people.

Car trouble

Our car has been running noisy and grumbling a lot and has been getting really bad gas mileage.  I put it off thinking that's it's winter and the car just hates the cold as much as I do and let it go.  Well late last week, as we were coming out of a fast food place we went to for lunch, I noticed something hanging under the car, so I bent down to see what it was.

Yup, that's our muffler pipe hanging there!  Stupid joint came apart.  I got thinking about it and decided it probably got jarred bad when we got rear ended a month or so ago and our tail pipe bit into another car's bumper.  My guess is that sheared one bolt and the other one has been working itself out since then cause it was missing.

Good thing we have a great mechanic!  $35 later and all is better.  The car is much happier, no more grumbles, and our pocket book didn't have to get emptied!

This has been such a good little SUV, this is the first actual repair we've had to do in the five years we've had it.  Well, I guess we did have to have the washer fluid line reattached, but that was so minor.  It's been nothing but maintenance.  Lets hope it stays that way!