Long Weekend, Part 1

It's been almost a week since I last posted. Here's what's been going on, split into two parts to help break it up.

Thanksgiving was nice. It was just the three of us, and we lounged around while the turkey was cooking. I screwed up and put the turkey breast-down, so it took a little longer than expected, but everything turned out just fine. We made a couple of menu modifications, though. Here's what was on the menu:

• Turkey
• Stuffing (that wasn't very good)
• Mashed potatoes & gravy
• Watergate salad
• Fruit salad
• Cheese ball
• Deviled eggs
• Veggie platter
• Pumpkin pie, apple pie, apple crisp, and a Skor cake
• Strawberries & a fruit dip made from marshmallow fluff & cream cheese

In standard form, I forgot a couple things: rolls, which I seem to forget every time I make a big dinner, and a green bean casserole, which I don't feel too badly about because I was only making it for traditions sake - I don't know that anyone was really craving it in the first place.

Friday (Ed's birthday!) we cruised to Petsmart to get some new fish for our 15 gallon tank in the bedroom. I added three neon tetras, a black molly, a swordtail wag, an algae eater & a frog (that already died - I think we got a sick one from the petstore). We also exchanged a couple of XBox games at EBGames, and picked up Area 51 for me, Heros of the Pacific for Ed, and two copies of Rainbow Six 3, so we can system link.

After I got home, I floated our fish in the tank (this is done to match water temperature, so it's not a shock to the fish when they're introducted to the new environment), and got to work cleaning and prepping our 55-gallon. I was very close to getting rid of the large aquarium, mainly because it's been sitting empty and unused since April of this year. However, when we were at Petsmart, I spent a lot of time admiring some of their large tanks, and it made me want to get mine going again.

I scrubbed the inside with a diluted vinegar solution, and then attacked the hood sections with straight vinegar. There was some awful hardwater build-up on the hoods, so it took a lot of elbow grease, as well as some scraping with a butter knife. It took me about an hour and a half to get the tank scrubbed down and ready, but it looked almost brand-new when I was finished. Not bad for a 5-year old tank. :-)