Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Help ... Can't stop

There is a hobby rapidly spinning out of control at my house. It started with a little 10 gallon fish tank. I bought it to give me peace after stressful days. I bought the cheap setup at Wal-Mart and away we went. A frog, a few tetras, a little catfish and 2 red Dwarf Gouramis found a home in my little tank.

And it did give me peace. All was working well ... a little too well.

My husband decided he needed some peace as well. But his fish of choice lovingly refered to as the "man-eaters," would not go in my community tank. So we bought a 29 gallon. Everything was fine until 2 of the man-eaters decided to pair up and make little man-eaters. This meant the rest of the man-eaters were no longer allowed in 90% of the tank, thanks to vicious pair hearding everyone away from their brood.

Enter a 2nd 10 gallon tank for the three evicted from the family tank.

Not to be outdone by my husband's 2 tanks. I find a good used 55 gallon tank and it moves into our living room. It was quickly populated with kissing gouramis, catfish, tetras, dwarf rainbows, red-tail sharks, snails and ghost shrimp.

By this time, I've been spending far too much time researching fish on the Internet. And that's how I discovered nano-reefs -- a small way to test the saltwaters as it were. Enter a 12 gallon show aquarium with live rock for the reef, a couple of turbo snails, a blood shrimp and a clownfish (I can't turn down the 7-year-old who's seen Nemo too many times.)

At that point 2 more of the man-eaters have decided to settle down and the single girl is no longer welcome which is where our sixth aquarium comes in.

"Hello, Aquariums Anonymous..."

Wednesday, July 7, 2004

Tour de Lance

I know it may seem strange for fat woman to be a bicycling fan, but I am. I have a red, white and blue Trek that is way out of my league. I love watching Lance. I adore the idea of the brash Texan taking the beloved Tour away from the French for a sixth time. But I must admit I am getting sick of one thing this race -- Sheryl Crow. I think I've seen more of her this week than I saw of Lance's former wife in the 5 years they were married. Attention fawning sportscasters: She's a singer, not a bicycling expert.