Whatcha doin' today?

**Rue** · 03-21-2011, 08:04 PM

...hubby, my daughter and I carpooled this morning...we turn out of the yard and start down the road and hubby asks "What's that noise? Flat tire or the rutted road?" Flat tire. So we hobble it back to the yard...now it's getting late...and we all pile into my KIA...

Rush to work...I go to set up my computer...left the power cord at home...my 4 hour battery lasted a whole 30 minutes - or less - great!

Decided to come home to work (I procrastinate much better at home

)...and for some reason the quad is out in the front yard, the back door is open...and my son's backpack hadn't moved. Although I did wake him up this morning (which involves turning on his light, yelling at him and pulling the covers off...) he managed to fall back asleep and miss his bus.

I have rehearsal tonight...since I'm not doing any work...I should go for a nap.

I like having a flexible work scheduale...very handy...

**mermaidwannabe** · 03-21-2011, 08:55 PM

Had some business in town, today. Got that out of the way, then fed RootBeer and the fishes. Gave fresh water to the cat.

Next trip to Lewiston with my jeep, I'll be picking up my 65-gallon tank.

I've taken a good look at that stand and how it's constructed, and how the tank is supposed to rest upon it, and I don't trust it the way it is. I'm going to have one of our local woodworking people that we know really well build a solid top for it and add more vertical support in the middle, and balance that with additional vertical support at each end. I can't believe they constructed this stand open at the top with the aquarium to rest only on the outer edges. There is nothing in the middle that comes up to touch and support the center of the tank bottom. When filled, this tank will weigh 700# plus! The strut in the middle stops short of the tank's bottom, leaving nothing but open air between itself and the tank. I just don't get the reasoning behind that! Obviously, that strut was designed solely to serve as a divider, and nothing more. So, this stand will be getting reinforced and made stronger, with a solid top added so that the weight of the tank is evenly distributed across the entire stand and the whole aquarium will actually be resting on something, not just its outer frame with nothing but open space beneath the rest of it.

Makes you wonder if whoever constructed that stand is even familiar with how much a full aquarium of that size weighs! The guy at my LFS says that's all the support the tank would need, but I have serious doubts.

That's probably one reason it wasn't that expensive. They have a whole bunch of those, and are trying to move them, so they've marked them way down.

I'll also be having some black laminate added to the solid top, once it is made, so as to protect the wood from any water damage.

I just hope the tank won't leak ....

-- mermaidwannabe

**Cyberra** · 03-21-2011, 11:42 PM

Managed to drag my carcass out of bed for my early class and lab... On my way to the car I noted that even though the ground's still pretty frozen and we're still getting heavy frost, the day lilies in the front garden are starting to send up new leaves.

Came home after lab for a nap, managed to sleep through my alarm and missed my evening class... Good thing we're doing speeches, so I didn't miss much >>; Dug out my needlepoint and am working on the red section of the tail; pic will be posted after I get the red done.

**Alasse** · 03-22-2011, 07:31 AM

Went and got the staples out of my arm....oh yay

Drove to where i get my tanks made to catch up and say g'day. Bought some large pellets for the O's. Priced a new 3ft tank.

Went to my LFS, price a double 3ft T5 unit (eek) Checked out the canisters (eek). Finally foung the heater covers, gotta pick one up tomorrow for the O's tank.
They also have a bird there, its only 4 months old and OMG i want it, but sadly WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY outta my price range *L* Its a handraised blue Macaw, and it just loves scratches and for you to just be there and talk to it. If i win the lotto though i'm gonna go in and buy it, honestly it is just precious!.

Then i headed to the Petstore thats on my way home just to have a sticky beak. They have 2 canisters there half price, darn, why is it when you really dont have the money *LOL* If i can talk the otherhalf into it, i want the big one to use with the O's, so they'll have the 2 canisters on their tank.

Started for home, got a call on the mobile, had to pick up youngest son, so chucka-uie and off to the other side of town to pick him up, waited 40min for his bus to arrive *sigh*

Yay, finally we get to go home. And here i am *L*

**190MPH** · 03-22-2011, 01:15 PM

Having my buttered roll and coffee now in this little slice of hell(oil refinery), while I contemplate my set up of a 55 gallon for some new wild caught Malawi mbuna arriving on Thursday.

**Rue** · 03-22-2011, 02:43 PM

Since yesterday didn't pan out...and I ended up procrastinating at home...I decided to come to the office...

...now I'm procrastinating further...

Maybe after my 2nd coffee I'll get on a roll...

**mermaidwannabe** · 03-22-2011, 05:09 PM

Did a 45% water change and rinsed out the pre-filter sponge. Fed some freeze-dried bloodworms to the upper feeders, and some O-Nips to the dojos. They get nothing more for the rest of the day, though beg they will! Quite a show they put on, too!

I'll wait about an hour and test the water.

Everyone in the tank seems happy, is active and feeding well. All good signs.

Refilled the heated birdbath outside. It snowed again a little last night. Yesterday was the first day of Spring ??? Yeah, right!

Now, just taking it easy and posting here. Will have a bite to eat shortly.

-- mermaid

**Trillianne** · 03-22-2011, 07:47 PM

Thus far I have.... cut some lumber down to size for the solid disposal trip with a handsaw.

For an Eagle Scout... my bf is surprisingly not prepared sometimes. ¬.¬

During this project I occasionally used my powers of psychological warfare by looking intently at the board with my evilest gaze as I was sawing and saying, "I really hate you." This seemed to be most effective.

After I finished I gave it my best non-shouted battle cry of "She-ra!" before coming inside to contemplate if I should have embraced the aged geek quotient of it more by shouting or if that would just make the neighbors nervous.

**Rue** · 03-22-2011, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by Trillianne

...During this project I occasionally used my powers of psychological warfare by looking intently at the board with my evilest gaze as I was sawing and saying, "I really hate you." This seemed to be most effective.

After I finished I gave it my best non-shouted battle cry of "She-ra!" before coming inside to contemplate if I should have embraced the aged geek quotient of it more by shouting or if that would just make the neighbors nervous.

...looks for the mushrooms...