Friday, August 24, 2007

Freddy Town

Wednesday after work we picked up Thomas and headed out to the beach at Gardner Creek to shoot the opening segment for my pilot. It went very well and was a gorgeous day. We were all done by 7.

Was up in Fred'ton yesterday filing my passport application. It was a surprisingly quick process with only one person in line ahead of me. We stopped at the pet store while there (of course) and got some live rock for my 25 gallon nemo tank, and then headed home. The entire round trip took four hours...not a bad way to spend a Thursday really.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Spare Change

So I'm on my way to the gym yesterday afternoon, first time in a couple weeks :( ...things just kept getting in the way, and a guy wearing $200 runners asks me for spare change. Don't ask me for change if you're wearing better shoes than me!!!

Good work out though.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Update

I haven't really been keeping up with this blog very well, and it's been a week between posts.

Last week was pretty good. Darrell was out of town on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday was his birthday, but he wasn't around we went out to dinner at Romanos on Thursday instead with Bertis and the Bonds. The computers at work are still acting up. Darrell finally got the editor up and running and everything working beautifully, then we went to install this program called ghost so he could make an image of the working computer for future installs, and everything f^%ked up. So... no I don't have Cabaret finished yet.... but I swear it is the very first thing I am going to do when the computer works again.

The weekend was really good. I got a little bit done on the new cabinet on Friday before runnign out of wood. Saturday I got somemore wood, then went to Kizzy's birthday party. Lots and lots of fun. As usual there were plenty of guitars players on hand and lots of singing, and catching up with everyone. I stayed until about 1am, I was going to leave sooner, but Jeff Scott showed up with his guitar and we got busy singing, and the next thing you know it was 1.

Sunday I got a little more work done on the cabinet, then Brian and Helen dropped by for a visit. We watched Sicko and a few episodes of Little Britain. If you haven't seen Sicko yet, you really should. It's very well done. I used to think Canada had a great medical system, and compared to the US it does, but compared to Britain, France, and Cuba... it needs some work. Britain, France, and Cuba's systems are head and shoulders above Canada's and all of them are light years ahead of the United States. Any time you hear a politician start talking about a more private health care system more similar to the US, grab the biggest hardest thing you can find and bean them in the head with it.....Remember MPs all live locally. The doc showed footage of one of the richest university hospitals in the United States taking patients who couldn't afford their care and dropping them off on skid row in front of a shelter, and a man who cut off the ends of two of his fingers having to decide which one he could afford to have put back on.... and that was just the very tip of the iceberg. I could start a huge rant right now, but will spare you... this time.


We are still as fish crazy as ever. I am endlessly fasinated by the female Clarkii clownfish and her relationship with the Bubble Tipp Anemone. It is fun watching her nest inside it, and feed it, and chase off other fish. She will even come right up and take little pieces of cut up shrimp out of my fingers to feed the anemone. It is sooo cool.

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I was going to be part of Shakespeare, but several weeks agao I pulled out. At the time my schedule would've allowed me to do it, but there was potential that it was going to get very packed and I would have to pull out later, and I didn't want to do that. Now I'm glad I did, but the potential I foresaw has been realized and I would be pulling out now, at the last minute instead of giving them time to replace me before they even started. At the moment my classes at Atlantica are closed down for the rest of the season (except for my summer camp on tuesday mornings) and due to start up again in September. In September I'll be teaching a total of nine classes. I have three beginner animation; ages 7-10, 11-17, and adult, Three beginner painting; ages 7-10, 11-17, and adult, and two beginner acting; ages 7-10, and 11-17. All this is in the evening after work... so I'm going to be very busy. There is a broshure floating around the city, but if you haven't come across it and are interested in knowing anything else about the school, just give me a shout.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Long Weekend - The Sequel

We took Friday off and had a second long weekend. It was glorious!!! hahaha

There was a guy on the Reef forum whose Bubble Tip Anemone split and he was selling the second one. I messaged him, but didn't hear back, so I thought it may already be gone. On Friday we decided to take a trip up to Moncton and check out Noble Aquariums while we were there. It was a very expensive trip!! I picked up a 25 gallon tall tank that was on sale. I'm going to use it for my ocellarus clownfish (like Nemo). A couple months ago I took them out of the main tank because we had an ich outbreak and now I can't put them back in, because the larger more agressive Clarkiis are well established in the tank and will pick on the little ocellarus to death. I had planned on putting them all in at the same time when I get the 130 up and running, but still wasn't completely convinced, so when I saw the 25 gallon tall tank on sale it changed my mind. I am going to set that up for my little guys with some live rock and really good lighting, then when it's established enough I'll get them a Riterri anemone that they can inhabit and possibly breed in.

At Noble's we also got a couple new corals, a decorated goby fish, and a Bubble tip anemone since we hadn't heard back from Ray and Noble's had some. Of course the second we got home and I checked my messages on the forum I heard back from Ray (he had been awy for a couple days) and he was willing to sell me his Bubble Tip.... no problem we have rooom for two.

Saturday we took a trip up to Sussex and visited Ray. He had a really cool tank with some of the biggest colt corals I've ever seen. (Darrell's probably seen lots larger, but I've never been diving). We got the Bubble tip (which was twice the size of the one we got the day before) and a frag of another SPS coral from him.

In an aquarium Clarkii Clowns are not fussy and will host in nearly any anemone you put in the tank, in fact they'll host in a frilly mushroom if there's no anemone around, but in nature they they are mainly found in Bubble tips, so I shouldn't have been surpised that by Sunday night the female clarkii was sleeping in the larger anemone.... I was... because I was under the impression it took a little time for them to discover and warm up to the anemone, but our Clarkiis were over investgating the second I put the firt BTA in the tank, so Saturday when the second one came along they must've been ready. This morning when I fed them she was still in there wiggling around. The Male was on the other side of the tank and I'm not sure if he's as interested in the anemones as she is, plus she tends to push him around a lot so I don't think they've decided to pair off yet, but maybe the anemone will change her feelings toward him for the better and they may even spawn... fingers crossed.

This is why keeping a reef tank is so addictive, there's so much learning and it's all so interesting. Basically you're setting up a self contained ecosystem and watching it mature. Anyway...there's pics on facebook and Flikr.

Sunday I finally got back to my tasks downstairs and got the seams on the ceiling sanded and another coat of mud on them. It is very hard on the shoulders sanding a ceiling, so I broke down and bought myself a ceiling sander on a pole thinking that would make it easier. It did a little bit but my shoulders were already sore by then so it was hard to tell the difference. I also got the boards all ripped and the main base for the new cabinets built, then I ran out of wood.

Darrell mustered up all his bravery and decided to go ahead and drill the 130 gallon tank. He cut a 2 inch hole in the back for the outflow pipe and it went beautifully. He tossed the drilling idea round for a long time before he finally mustered up the nerve. It's quite a risk really, if you screw up and break the panel you just ruined a $500 tank, so you really have to take some time and think about it before rushing in. I just wish someone had of told us before we ordered it that for $35 we could've had the factory predrill it before they shipped it out and then there would've been no stress at all. Oh well, live and learn, and now Darrell has a more interesting story to tell about how he drilled it himself and the events leading up to it etc, instead of saying "oh we bought it that way."

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Things that Smell.

The long weekend was a really good one. We took Friday off as well and turned it into a four day holiday. I still had to come into town on Friday and teach my class, but that just helped break up the day. We didn't have any plans to go anywhere, because Duke was still with us, but there was plenty to keep us occupied at home.

We got a good dent put into the work downstairs. Darrell got the sockets all wired up, and we got the insulation put back into the wall, the vapor seal back on, the strips of drywall taken out of the ceiling screwed back up in, and the wall closed back up with plywood. There was only one little strip of drywall that was too damaged to put back up but luckily Brian & Helen had some left over from when they did their bathroom and it was the right thickness.

Brian & Helen came over Saturday night and we hung out and watched The Incredibles.

Sunday I got the ceiling taped and the first coat of mud on it. I also got a start on planing my 2x4s down to 1x2 for my cabinet framing. Mike got back from his holiday and came too pick up Duke. Duke was really excited when he saw the truck pull in. Sunday night we popped over to Sylvia's next door and watched Finding Nemo (it was a real 3d kind of weekend), she had never seen it before and it's such a cute movie, we don't mind watching it a few times.

Monday I got the joining and planing done on all my boards and am now ready to rip them to width this evening.

In the Fall we got a really nice Jasmin vine when we were in Ontario at one of the nurseries there. I have it in a window box up on the window ledge for the stair way, and it has started blooming. Now whenever you open the door to go downstairs you're greeted with this awsome scent of blooming Jasmin. Plus after planing all those board s, the whole house smells of pine.

This morning I was in a rush to get into town in time to teach my class, and my car wouldn't start. I don't know why, it just won't fire up, so Darrell will have to look at it when we get home, because, while I could learn how to do it and have done it in the past.... I'm not mechanically inclined and he is. I'll fix it if I have to, but I'd just as soon have someone else do it. How's that for a guy who grew up in a family of professional truck drivers and heavy duty mechanics? At any rate, we got into town, late, but it didn't matter because the school was all locked up. I guess they decided not to have the summer camp this week because of the short week, but someone forgot to tell me.

Hopefully the car car thing is something stupid and easy to fix, or just one of those things where you get home it fires up and you never really know why it wouldn't before.... that would be nice.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

What's New.

In a word...nothing.

The Weekend was fine. We didn't do too much. Ended up pruchasing an airconditioner to keep the living room at moderate temps, so far it isn't working all that well and we have a service guy coming on Friday to check it out.

Last week my cleaner wrasse jumped out of the tank while we were out and I found him in the plant too late to save him. I'm really sad about it too because, even though he was a purchase done without research and I vow never to get another one because they belong in the wild and mostly die in captivity, he was doing really well. He was eating prepared food and getting along famously with all the other tank inhabitants .... in fact he was one of my favourite fish to watch. The heat must've raised the tank temp to a place he didn't like so he abandoned the reef in search of cooler places ... :(

We are still puppy sitting. Duke has made himself very at home, and doesn't whine or do any of the things Mike said he would, but then again we're dog people. I don't think I'd actually ever own a beagle though. Don't get me wrong they're cute as all get out and have lovely personalities, but they need even more care and attention than most other dogs. Of course once Underdog hits all the theatres and families fall in love with that superdog, kids everywhere will be wanting a beagle of their very own... here's hoping their parents do some reading first so they know what they're getting into (doubt that but here's hoping). Beagles are hound dogs, and they smell like hound dogs which is a considerably more pungent musky aroma than even the dirties lab or shepard. Beagles also track things like all other hound dogs, and have a tendency to stick their nose to the ground, find an interesting scent, and follow it wherever it may lead, completely ignoring the world around them and your calls for it to come back. (that's the whole needs extra care part... you have to keep them very clean all the time and you always have to spend hours upon hours with them when they are young to train them to stay, and even then you have to monitor them or keep them fensed or on a leash.) So in summary.... lovable, cute, adorable, small dogs.... but they stink and they wander.