Weekend

It's crunch time at work.

My survey I've been working on is going to sponsor testing this week and external usability testing next week. That just means I have no time to blog.

OK, so I'm making time, which is why this'll be short. Sort of.

We went to the in-laws on Saturday to visit Dan's folks. When we got back yesterday, I started working on my 55 gallon fish tank.

The tank is set up in my bedroom along the rail that separated the sitting area with the sleeping area. I've always had algae problems in this tank for some reason, but never in the tank down in the family room. The difference? Dunno. Both are neglected. I don't vacuum the gravel nearly as often as I should, but I think the tank upstairs is in direct sunlight part of the morning.

I was so inspired walking in the Caribbean to get my tank clean and stocked again. We had seen a school of small fish so large it cast a gray shadow in the water. I walked into the school and just stood there watching thousands of these small fish swimming back and forth around me. I decided to stop procrastinating and get my tank back in shape. I wanted a school of fish.

So yesterday I siphoned all the water out (it was so green, I hadn't noticed there weren't fish actually swimming any more) and took out and washed the gravel. I cleaned out the filter box and bleached the plastic plants. I got the stand moved to the opposite wall and Dan helped me get the tank back into place. Now it's full and the water is cycling through. Looks good, but I think I'm going to set up the diatomic filter too just to make sure the water is sparkling clean.

Tetras are great schooling fish, so I want to buy a large school of them for my newly cleaned tank. I talked to the owner of the pet store here in town, he places orders on Mondays for Tuesday shipments. I should be able to get about 50 fish for a near wholesale price, and I'll order whatever small tetras are on his order sheet today, green or black neons would be pretty.



Despite the work I did get done, I could have gotten more accomplished. Every time I went downstairs for something I was sucked in to the TV. Dan had the travel channel on. It was running a marathon of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. If you like travel or food, or drinking, you'll like this show. Except for the fact it renders you immobile, you just have to keep watching. Tony travels to a different place each show and learns about true local cuisine and drink, not necessarily the food we Americans think of when we think of that country. Far too captivating. We finally turned off the TV at 10:00. Sheesh. I think the new season premiers tonight at 10:00 pm.