Random Thoughts

There are several different methods of checking things like pH, ammonia, nitrites, & nitrates in your aquarium.

I HAVE been using those dunk strips with the colored pads on them, that you just check the various colors off the chart on the bottle, and boom, you’re done. Takes about 30 seconds. Works great if you’re just checking once in a while.

But with all the water testing that we’ve been doing with the new guppy tank, we’ve been going through those things like crazy, and they’re not particularly cheap. So I opted to go back to the one that looks like a mini-science lab, with the itty bitty test tubes, and the drops, since that’s what I’d used before and while they do cost a bit more than the strips, I’ve found that they lasted a LOT longer than the strips when you test a lot. (And supposedly the drops are more accurate as well, so that’s a good thing.)

They’ve complicated things since I last bought one of those kits! Sheesh! I just ran the water through all four tests this morning. If I remember correctly, it went something like this:

PH check? Not too hard, 3 drops in a test tube of water, shake, compare to chart, you’re done.

Ammonia? Not quite that easy, but still pretty uncomplicated. 10 drops from this bottle, 10 drops from that bottle, shake, let sit for 5 minutes, compare to chart, done.

Nitrite? Just about the same: 5 drops of this, 5 drops of that, shake 5 seconds, let sit for 5 minutes, compare to chart, done.

Nitrate? Who makes these #%%#! things up?!? 10 drops from bottle one, cover and invert back and forth for 5 seconds, while at the same time shaking the contents of bottle 2 for at least 30 seconds. Add 10 drops from bottle two, and shake test tube vigorously for a full minute, wait 5 minutes, then compare to chart.

Then you’ve got four test tubes to rinse out and put away along with all the bottles of solution.

OR just buy the test strips next time and do all the tests in 30 seconds and be done with it! LOL.

On the bright side, it DOES make for a nice lineup of rainbow colored test tubes sitting on the sink. Looks like we’re ready to dye very VERY skinny Easter eggs.

Oh, and the test results? pH normal (which was odd, we tested it last night, and found it to be on the high side so it dropped considerably overnight), and as expected after dumping in another 5 guppies into the tank Friday night, ammonia level and nitrite level are pretty high (added some stuff to help take care of that), and nitrates are acceptable.

Now, if we could just get the last of the baby guppies out of MY tank, move 4 or 5 of the males from upstairs back downstairs, I can start thinking about getting a few more REAL fish into my tank. Just about ready to try 2 more clown loaches. When I lost my last two, and didn’t replace them, the snails (which apparently loaches just LOVE to eat) just took over the tank. Now have more snails than anything else in the tank, except maybe for algae.

Stay tuned…

Originally posted May 10, 2010

BLUEBIRDS FIRST: Here we go again. First there’s a new nest, then eventually 1 then 2 then 3 eggs

As of this morning, we are up to FOUR eggs. She will most likely lay one more, then we wait 15 days for them to hatch. Hopefully. That’s what we thought last time, and the whole lot turned out to be duds apparently.

Don’t worry Mom and Pop! We promise we won’t drop them or turn them into omelets!

THE NEW AQUARIUM: IE: The new 10 gallon guppy tank. Well, we TRIED to set that up today, moved a bookshelf to make room, measured everything out to make sure there was enough space to put the new tank, and was all set to take it outside to hose it off as suggested, when *bum Bum BUUUUM* I discovered a chip and a crack in the side of the tank. Ugh! Had to put everything BACK in the box, and we’ll take it back to the store sometime this week and try to set it up NEXT weekend instead. Guess the guppies will be free to breed for another week. *sigh*

New Favorite show: Doctor Who! Never watched it before, but got hooked on its spinoff show “Torchwood” back in September. And with all the fuss and bother about there being a new Doctor this season, AND the fact that we finally got digital cable in the house, which finally allowed us to have BBC America, thought I’d go ahead and give it a look. So watched the 1 hour special that was on earlier this week “Doctor Who – The Ultimate Guide” to try to get me up to speed at least a little bit, and liked what I saw well enough to check out Episodes 1 and 2 on BBC America On Demand. Very cool show. The Doctor, with his sonic screwdriver, reminds me of MacGyver and his Swiss army knife. Mac was never quite THAT wigged out all the time, but between having one tool that did everything, and not being one to want anything to do with guns, there ARE certain similarities. And they way they go to different times and places in the universe is very Stargate SG-1. They just travel through wormholes in different ways: one show goes through a big metal ring, the other, well, a phone booth. LOL. Will definitely be watching more of Doctor Who, just as soon as the summer reruns kick in.

And the latest on the DVR. Turns out that we DID have to call the installers back yesterday to come and replace the DVR, since as expected, the one that he left with us did keep losing signal sporadically. So call the installers yesterday morning, and they get someone out about 12:30 that afternoon to replace the box. However! About a half hour or so before they get there, it suddenly occurs to me that if they pull the DVR to put in the new one, we’re going to lose about 10 hours worth of recordings that we’ve set it up for since Tuesday night: About 7 hours of regular weekly tv, plus three hours of the movie “Pulp Fiction”, which we’d never seen. Tried once before but had so much audio drop out that it was unwatchable, so thought getting it on AMC-HD would solve that problem. Found out that if we didn’t mind paying the extra $7 to rent a second DVR, they’d go ahead and install the new and improved box, but we’d be able to switch back to the old one to watch everything we needed to watch to clear up the box, then we could take it back to Time Warner ourselves. So between yesterday and today, got all the weekly shows cleared up, and just deleted Pulp Fiction (it’s on SOME network pretty frequently, so we’ll just catch it at a later time). Then I unhooked the defective box, swapped out all the cables into the new box, shoved everything back into our entertainment center, and have the old box ready to go back to Time Warner tomorrow. Hoping that since we’re getting it back so quickly, and the fact that we only had to have a second box because there hadn’t been a better box on the installer’s truck originally, that they won’t charge us for having it one day. We’ll see.

Originally posted January 17, 2010

• Non-Cat LoLCat! "Sometimes Rufus wished " – http://twlol.com/tw/?v1-228514 #lol #ichc #
• Just got my credit card bill in the mail today, with the last of Christmas, AND all the car repair expenses! :-O *faints* #
• @EdgeFest Anyone you can SHIP your luggage to? That's what's recommended now, costs less to ship than it does to check it at the airport. in reply to EdgeFest #
• @EdgeFest So it's CATSA that's saying you can't bring carryons from CA to US!? Weird.The FAA is usually the ones to play hardball like that. in reply to EdgeFest #
• @U2Trinn: RT @probablybadnews: I don’t remember THAT Sesame Street character… http://bit.ly/5jxiTQ #fail // Who proofread THAT!?! ROTFLMAO! #
• @TDfan I know, I saw that the morning after I ordered the Roku & went :-0. But the Wii is stuck at 4:3 SD, the Roko is 16:9 HD.So now I'm in reply to TDfan #
• @eMSY & they don't look like a BRAIN this week like they did last week, lol. Saw just the top half of the ones last time, & went what the?.. in reply to eMSY #
• Well, enough fun stuff. Off to get dressed, start the laundry, & figure out how to use our borrowed leaf mulcher to clean up the yard. Meh. #
• @U2Trinn Oooh, KFOG! I used to listen to them when I lived out there. *sigh* Oakland Coliseum. Saw 3 U2 shows there before I moved to NC. in reply to U2Trinn #
• … I've now got tired muscles where I didn't even know that I HAD muscles! Whew! No shortage of workout videos to stream from Netflix. Yay. #
• Just found another use for the Roku box. Just got finished with a 42 minute yoga/pilates workout DVD via the stream from Netflix…. #
• @thirdday So Book of Eli was good? The local paper gave it a D, absolutely hated it. I trust your reviews more! #
• @eMSY Secret Life of Bees — I saw that a few months back, that was the one with Dakota Fanning, right? Good movie, if I remember right. in reply to eMSY #
• Watched "Up" on DVD so we could get it out tomorrow, then ended up rewatching "Bolt" just to see how the Roku box did. Wireless N=excellent! #
• My Roku box came in tonight. Piece of cake to get up and running. No more streaming Netflix stuff on my PC! Woot! #
• @EdgeFest Seriously? Carry-ons banned? :-0 I had no idea. Always amazes me, airport security, what they will and will not allow these days. in reply to EdgeFest #
• My new matching website/blog themes are up. Still need a bit of work, but they'll do for now. http://www.happyhybrid.us/wordpress #
• @EdgeFest The trick 2 not paying thu the nose 4 luggage? Travel light & don't check a bag. Think carryon only. Makes packing a challenge. in reply to EdgeFest #
• RT @AgnewsDei: You RT my cassette tape pics or @derekwebb's death metal rooster, now RT for Haiti! http://ow.ly/WeR6 #
• RT @TDfan @bebonorman: Haiti. Donate 2 Compassion's Disstr Relief. Bebo will give $5 4 every person that RT's this link http://bit.ly/8VNyfF #
• @NathanFillion Serenity outtake? LOL. Just saw that for the first time on Sunday, I remember that scene! Well, not THAT particular one, LOL. in reply to NathanFillion #
• @NathanFillion Please say Rick and Kate are NOT getting together any time soon, it's the kiss o' death for a show. IE Cheers, Moonlighting.. in reply to NathanFillion #
• @taianderson "Would you like some car insurance?" // You're a much better spokesperson than the Geico gekko. I'd buy from you! LOL. in reply to taianderson #
• @eMSY Do you get any of our ABC half hour comedies there? Modern Family, The Middle, & CougarTown? All funny, but The Middle is bestest. in reply to eMSY #
• @eMSY That's okay. Seems like everyone thinks that Modern Family is THE best of the Wed nite comedies, when I think The Middle is funnier. in reply to eMSY #
• @eMSY All bars & restaurants here went smokefree as of Jan 2, I think. The gripes of the smokers are being drowned out by cheers of the non. in reply to eMSY #
• Oh, I DID manage to set off the metal detector when I went through it on the way in to the courthouse though. Stupid belt buckle. Doh. #
• Court date went off w/o a hitch this am, checked in, waited about 5 mins for the DA, handed my insurance letter to him, case dismissed.Whew. #
• @eMSY … you got rid of that coach, the cheerleaders, the football team, and the wife. Then Glee would probably be great. in reply to eMSY #
• @eMSY So much for not so subliminally trying to get you to not like Glee before you watched it. I tried. It might be a good show if… in reply to eMSY #
• And it's off to the courthouse tomorrow, to see about getting the citation for my fenderbender dismissed. It'll be $155 more otherwise. #
• Well, returning the "better" mousetrap back to Amazon. We HAVE caught mice since we set the new one up, but only in the OLD trap! Doh! #
• …very jarring to hear Rick Castle/ @NathanFillion speaking in that space-western twang. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours, tho. #
• Watched "Serenity" w/ @NathanFillion for the 1st time tonight, just to see "Rick Castle" in something different… #
• Just checking to see if the Post Tweet Option actually works from my blog. This is only a test… had this been a REAL tweet, etc. etc. #

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Originally posted May 24, 2010

So Don’t Panic!

Originally posted February 27, 2010

Pretty basic, but took a while to wrangle up the lightbox code for it, so didn’t get as far as I thought I would. It’s a start though. New Astronomy Photo Page