MONSTER Picture Post(s) in Process...

Just to let you know...



I just finished processing 85 pictures, preparing them for this blog. It is actually taking a little while for them to upload. When they finish uploading, I'll start working on the actual links to them. What should happen is that several posts should pop up earlier than this post, and as a result, you might need to hit the "refresh" button to see them. [The "F5" button will cause this page to refresh.]



And as always, the pictures can also be found in the three links to the right: Pictures of Aquarium, Pictures of Christian and Other Pictures.



I will also place a "final" post to let you know that I am finished with the links...

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Note about Pictures...

For website space reasons, I have stopped making the pictures posted "clickable" to a full size image - meaning that the pictures posted here are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). If you would like to have a copy of the full size picture emailed to you, simply email me which picture you would like, and I will send it to you.



This also means that the images in the Pictures of Christian to the right are also WYSIWYG. Sorry, but I was getting fairly close to my maximum of storage at www.toddcomp.com.

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Back at Work...

I've fallen behind in updating this blog. I've taken a bunch of pictures for the blog, I just haven't had the time - or felt well enough to do anything about them.



On the aquarium side, I injected CO2 into the aquarium using the Jungle Labs CO2 Fizz Factory this morning. I also fed the killifish in a new way: I simply killed a few of the small pond snails with the aquaclips. The killifish attacked the remains of the snails with gusto! Hmmm... I may have found a renewable (and free!) food source for my killifish.



Anyway, I've got a ton of work to do and quite a few picture posts to prepare. I'll post back here when both are finished (at least, when the picture posts are done.)



Later!

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A Few Pictures from Meg's Birthday Party

Meg Cardin is one of my nieces. She turned 9 this week and her parents gave her a birthday party at her grandparents' house. Meg was so busy that I didn't really get a chance to take a great picture of her, but that's ok - it was her birthday party and I'm glad that she got to do what she wanted to do.



Here's Meg





Here's Maddie (Meg's younger sister)





I've put the other picture from this set in the Other Pictures link to the right.

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Aquarium Development

Actually this post would be better titled: "The Cat Has Discovered The Aquarium".



This morning I couldn't find the cat anywhere - usually Thumper will walk around with you looking for an opportunity to trip you. She's a little more persistent in doing this if you haven't given her food yet. But this morning I didn't notice her anywhere, but when I went back to feed the fish, I found the cat. Specifically, I found the cat staring, almost in a trance, watching the killifish. Here's a picture:



Thumper Checking out Aquarium





The rest of the set can be found in the Other Pictures link to the right.

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And More Pictures of the Boy!

Does not the title say it all?? Two pictures here, the rest in the Pictures of Christian link to the right.



Christian Playing with His Bugs





Christian Is Quite Ticklish on His Neck

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Getting to Work

I'm just now getting started on work. I should note that I have four blog posts that are sitting in "draft" mode and as soon as I get a chance to edit and clean them up, they will be posted. I also have an additional post that I need to make that has some new pictures of the boy from last night. So that makes five posts that I am *behind* on. Anyway, I have lots of work to do...



Later!

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More Pictures of The Boy...

I took pictures tonight as fast as the camera would record them. Here are three of the pictures...



2004-06-22 Christian after Supper





2004-06-22 Christian after Supper





2004-06-22 Christian Playing with Momma

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Water Changed by Tank

I got home this afternoon and found that a good portion of the water in the aquarium was MISSING!!! I immediately realized that I forgot to remove the flexible tubing connected to gang valve on the back of the tank, and as a result of the CO2 injection this morning, a siphon started and emptied at least 3 gallons of aquarium water onto the floor.



I went to work immediately on cleaning up the mess. Fortunately, most of the water stayed in a small area directly below the aquarium, and I used my Wet/Dry ShopVac to vacuum up as much water as possible. I also used our Bissell Little Green deep cleaner to vacuum up the remnants of the water that the ShopVac couldn't get. After a good hour or so on my knees vacuuming and drying, I was ready to refill the water that my aquarium decided to change out. I quickly mixed some replacement water - this time just treating the water with SeaChem Prime, and added it back to the aquarium.



Right now, it looks as if everything is ok. However, I'm not sure how the plants might react to being exposed as they were for as long as they were. I'll post updates as to the status of the aquarium later this week. (I'm a little surprised that my Visi-Therm submersible heater survived being half out of the water for as long as it probably was exposed.)

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Morning Aquarium Schedule

I injected approximately 175 ml of CO2 into the aquarium this morning. I also added 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel and 1.0ml of SeaChem Flourish Iron. Everything looks ok, except the japanese trapdoor snail hasn't been moving too much recently. I'll keep a close eye on him, hoping that everything isn't just looking "ok."



Off to work! Later!

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Christian at RainGard

Here's a picture from Christian coming to the office (he played while Mommy worked! )



Christian in Playpen at RainGard





There are three pictures in this set - all can be found in the Pictures of Christian to the right.

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Pictures from Father's Day

These are a few of the pictures that were taken today with my *NEW* Konica Minolta Dimage Xg camera. These pictures were taken throughout the day, and are shown here in approximately the same order in which they were taken.



Christian Playing with The Gift Paper (that the camera came in)





My Family on Father's Day





Christian Playing with Nana's Necklace





Christian Playing with Forest (my nephew and Christian's cousin)





Christian Ready for Bed





As always, the rest of the pictures can be found in the Pictures of Christian to the right.

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Water Changed

It's Sunday, so it must be water changing day... I removed 3.5 gallons and added back almost 4.0 gallons, as always, I performed some cleaning/removing of dead leafs. For the replacement water, I used a *new* recipe:

• 4.0 gallons of tap water
  
  
• 0.25 teaspoon of SeaChem Acid Buffer
  
  
• 0.5 teaspoon of SeaChem Equilibrium
  
  
• 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish
  
  
• 2.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel
  
  
• 0.4 ml of SeaChem Prime
  
  

I collected two samples of water - the replacement water and the existing water before the change. After I finished with the water change and cleaned up the room, I tested the two samples:

Replacement Water Sample

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	0-5 mg/L
CA (calcium)	3 drops = 3*20 = 60 mg/L
PO4 (phosphate)	0 mg/L
FE #1 (toxic iron)	0 mg/L
FE #2 (chelated iron)	0.1-0.25 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	8 drops = 8*20 = 160 ppm = 8.96 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	6 drops = 6*10 = 60 ppm = 3.36 dCH
pH (low test)	7.0 pH

Yes, that pH is low as compared to what the water in the aquarium will test, but I think that it will be buffered fairly quickly back up to the tank normal. However, I am also hoping that the lower pH will help to drop the overall pH in the aquarium

Pre-Water Change Sample

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	5 mg/L
CA (calcium)	3 drops = 3*20 = 60 mg/L
PO4 (phosphate)	0 mg/L
FE #1 (toxic iron)	0 mg/L
FE #2 (chelated iron)	0 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	7 drops = 7*20 = 140 ppm = 7.84 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	9 drops = 9*10 = 90 ppm = 5.04 dCH
pH (high test)	8.0 pH

Yep, the pH in the aquarium is as I thought - still high...

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Pictures of Aquarium

I just wanted to show a picture of the aquarium taken with my new camera! I took a few pictures and wanted to picture document the aquarium.



2004-06-20 Aquarium





The rest of the set of aquarium pictures can be found in the Pictures of Aquarium to the right.

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Father's Day!!!

This was my first *true* Father's Day.



I can't express how much I love my wife and what she has done for me, but I can tell you that I can't imagine life without my beautiful son. (One day, Christian is probably going to be upset that I wrote that about him being "beautiful".) Children truly are a gift from God, and I am grateful to Him that He gave me my beautiful wife - who has become a wonderful mother - and my son.



So this day was a special one for me as I reflected on how priveleged and blessed I am to have both my wife and my son in my life. Thank You, Lord.



On a totally different track, my wife did give me a gift - one from my wishlist: a Konica Minolta Dimage Xg digital camera. I have already taken a bunch of pictures with it, and I need to get some of them posted for you all to see. I've also updated my wishlist to reflect Christy's gift to me on Father's Day.

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Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Thank you for being my father, my friend, and my "Dad".

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Just Finished Round of Golf

The morning is over, and it's time to relax a bit. I just got back from playing a round of golf at Eagle Point Golf Club. I played decently well - "well" considering that this was only the 6th or 7th time I've played golf this year. I shot an 85 from the Blue tees - the back ones. Not bad at all! I played with the Saturday morning dogfight group from Church at Brook Hills. I was a "donater". (Meaning I put my $5.00 into the pot and never saw it again. That's not completely true, I could have seen the money being distributed to the winners....)



I got back to the house, and the little boy was in bed, so it's time for me to take a shower, and try to get presentable for the afternoon.



More posts later!

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WooHoo!!! I've Got Gmail.

Yippee! (No sarcasm intended.) Shortly after Christy and I got here in Birmingham, I decided to login and check my blog settings and activity at Blogger.com. I immediately noticed an invitation on the Blogger home page to join in the Gmail beta. I wasted NO time in accepting the invitation. In fact, I need to go back and read the "terms of acceptance" because I sort of skipped through them to get my gmail account active.



I've wanted to get a Gmail account since I first read about the offering of the Gmail beta in InfoWorld. Little did I know that opening and maintaining an active blog was a *shortcut* to an invitation. (See, I told you to start a blog Al!)



Anyway, if you want to email me, you can now Gmail me!



Now, back to Gmail.com to read that terms of acceptance that I accepted.

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Heading to Birmingham

Oops. I almost forgot that we were headed to Birmingham for part of the weekend.



So when I got home today, I went ahead and jumped a day ahead of schedule on my aquarium stuff: I injected 175 ml of CO2 and added 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel and 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Iron. I've noticed that the japonica amano shrimp sort of freaks out when adding the Flourish Iron, I wonder if it does something to the shrimp. I also fed the killifish some frozen brine shrimp. As soon as I finish this post, it's time to get in the car (my wife's car... a 2003 model) and head to B'ham!



Later!

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Continued...

As I blogged a few days ago, I am keeping to a new schedule for nutrient/fertilization for the aquarium. This morning I injected 175 ml of CO2 into the aquarium, added 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel and 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Iron. Since Sunday is my new water change day, I will check pH tonight to make sure it's ok. On Sunday, I will have a pre-water change sample to fully test.



As far as I can see, everything looks ok (I'm not saying good - the last time I blogged that, a few animals died within days.)



Off to work!

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"Historical" Posts Are Finished

Ugh. I have finally finished blogging the history of my aquarium. It should be fairly complete - as it contains all of my computer based notes that were made before I started this blog. I do have a few housekeeping items that I want to create and keep up to date here (as links off of the main page): a graph of the water test results over time, a list of maintenance tasks (how often performed and corresponding results), and a current *recipe* list for the replacement water (I always have to come and find my latest recipe before the weekly water change.)

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Civic Duty Performed!

I got a juror summons a few weeks ago.







This was the second juror summons that I have received since moving back from Portland, Oregon. The last time I was summoned, I was dismissed because I had not been living in Etowah County for the previous twelve months - as is required for a prospective juror.



So this morning I showed up at the county courthouse to perform my civic duty. One major difference between last time and this time is that I remember that only a few of those who had been summoned did not show up, but this time, it seemed like at least half of those summoned were not there. Which meant that I was pretty sure that I would be chosen for jury duty. But Alabama has changed... Ever since the budget crisis in Alabama happened, the state has been looking for ways to save money. One way they decided to save money was by having the judges schedule jury trials for the same time - so that the juror pool spends the least amount of time waiting. However today only a few judges had jury trials on their docket. Of those, one juror pool was assembled of thirty prospective jurors. Once that group was seated and organized for going to the court, the rest of us were asked to wait for a possible second juror pool for the next possible jury trial. Shortly before 11:00, another group was assembled for the second juror pool. I was the last one chosen. After we were seated, we were given some instructions and were told that we would know shortly if we were going to be called into court. We then received news that both possible jury trials that we were gathered for had been settled and that we might be needed later - but for the time being, we were free for lunch.



When we came back from lunch, the two prospective juries were again seated. The first prospective jury was taken to their trial for questioning by the attorneys. The second prospective jury - of which I was still a member - was told that only one judge left had a possible jury trial. Later, we were assembled again to be told that no judge would need another and we were going to be dismissed.



To complete our civic duty we were asked if we need a certificate of juror service for our employers and how many miles were travelled from our homes to the judicial building. Of course, I didn't need a certificate but I reported my round trip was about 22 miles. For my "civic duty," I was paid a total of $11.10 - $10.00 for the day, and $0.05 per mile for the travel.







Yippee!



Oh well, back to work tomorrow...

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Aquarium Post

Today, I started a new schedule of maintenance on the aquarium: I injected 175 ml of CO2, and added 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel and 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Iron. I plan to add these items every other day. I'm hoping that with this new regimen I can lower the pH in the tank, and sufficiently nourish the plants. I will test the water tomorrow to find out if the new regimen is having any effect.



I am also going to build a snail trap using a 35mm film canister. Since my homemade projects for the aquarium haven't panned out, I'm hoping this one works out a little better than the others... Pictures of this and more, later!

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Aquarium Update

I'm still fighting the pH battle, so I injected approximately 175 ml of CO2 this morning using the modified nursery enclosure and the CO2 reaction chamber from the CO2 Fizz Factory. By the time I got home from church, the 175 ml of CO2 had already been absorbed into the water. I'm planning to inject this same amount into the tank every other day - as well as adding appropriate amounts of SeaChem Flourish Excel and SeaChem Flourish Iron.



I didn't get around to my normal Friday water change, so I did it today - Sunday. Before changing the water, I spent about thirty minutes killing snails. It looks like they are going to be a bigger pain than I thought that they would be: I found another egg sack - even though the largest of the snails is very small - less than a quarter of an inch in length. Anyway, I killed snail after snail after snail before finally removing water for a water change. I removed approximately 3.5 gallons of water and added back in approximately 3.80 gallons of replacement water. I used the same mix as I did last time (with the reduced amount of SeaChem Equilibrium and reduced amount of SeaChem Acid Buffer). After the water change, I cleaned up around the tank and then replaced the hood. After replacing the hood, I was able to see more snails and so I ended killing at least eight more of the suckers.



I then tested both the existing aquarium water and the replacement water with the following results:

Pre-Water Change Sample

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	0-5 mg/L
CA (calcium)	3 drops = 3*20 = 60 mg/L
PO4 (phosphate)	0 mg/L
FE #1 (toxic iron)	0 mg/L
FE #2 (chelated iron)	0 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	8 drops = 8*20 = 160 ppm = 8.96 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	8 drops = 8*10 = 80 ppm = 4.48 dCH
pH (high test)	8.0 pH

I can only hope that that pH doesn't represent a mid-low due to the addition of CO2 this morning (meaning that the pH was running much higher.

Replacement Water Sample

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	0-5 mg/L
CA (calcium)	3 drops = 3*20 = 60 mg/L
PO4 (phosphate)	0 mg/L
FE #1 (toxic iron)	0 mg/L
FE #2 (chelated iron)	0.1-0.25 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	8 drops = 8*20 = 1600 ppm = 8.96 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	8 drops = 8*10 = 80 ppm = 4.48 dCH
pH (high test)	7.6 pH

That pH is still high on the replacement water. I think that I will go back to adding more SeaChem Acid Buffer to the next replacement water

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Christy's Wish List Added

As the title states, I have added Christy's wish list to the blog... You can find the permanent link to the right under the area titled "Links"! I'll try to keep it as up to date as possible (removing items that have been purchased as they are received!)



This development is your fault Dad!



One quick note on Christy's wish list: I've checked with Brown's on Fifth, and the Ming pattern of Vera Bradley is retired and so any piece of that pattern might be easier found on eBay.com than anywhere else.



Later!

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Picture Post

Well, this picture post took a while to get here! The pictures are from June 1st and June 2nd. There are a total of ten pictures from June 1st, and four from June 2nd.



Enjoy!



Christian Playing in Box

Christian thought that this box was just his size!

Thumper Checking The Box

And then Thumper wanted to know what was so special about this box! More pictures of Thumper in the Other Pictures link.

Christian Trying out A Sippy Cup for The First Time!

He missed his mouth a little as evidenced by the amount of juice on his shirt.

Don't forget to check the rest of this set in the Pictures of Christian link.

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The Boy Is Cutting Teeth

There is one tooth that can be felt - Christian won't let you see it, he sticks his tongue out if you try to hold his mouth open. Actually, you can see it, you can really only see it briefly.



I'm sure am glad that the boy is cutting teeth. When Christy came back from Knoxville on Sunday, I asked her where were the aliens that took and replaced our son with this whining, crying, fussy boy? We both were wondering what happened to our always happy and laughing boy. But on Tuesday, Christy's dad came and visited and while here, felt the tooth. It was sort of a relief! Based on the fact that the boy still is cranky and fussy, I've got to believe that there's more teeth just shortly around the corner.



Oh well...



On the aquarium side, I did some aquarium maintenance after getting home from work today: I went snail hunting! I removed at least 4 1/8" size snails (the larger of the pests) and about 5 to 10 of the microscopic size snails. After a short while of removing these, I went into exterminator mode and simply started squeezing the suckers. Hopefully to death! Lots of fun!



I'm working on some pictures to post, and will post here when they are uploaded.



Later!

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Wish List Status

Dad pulled a big one on me yesterday... He claimed that something was wrong with my wish list at Amazon.com. I checked everything out and could duplicate what he saw - namely that externally my wish list was empty even though when I accessed it from my Amazon account, it wasn't empty. So I fired off an email to customer support at Amazon.com asking what was wrong.



Then I talked to Dad. He laughed. He had purchased everything on my Amazon.com wish list and that was why it was empty. Of course, he didn't tell me until after I had emailed Amazon.com.



As a result of the above, two things have happened: 1 - I updated my Amazon.com wish list, and 2 - Christy wants me to get her a wish list created! I'm working on that one and will of course, provide a link and post when Christy's wish list becomes available.



Later all!

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DUB Saga Continued...

I checked Charter Communications website last night and since it showed that cable internet is *still* available for my home, I ordered it again.



This is now the third time that I have ordered cable internet from Charter - the two previous times, I was told that it is not available in my area. But my feeling is that if they say it's *available* on their internet site, then it should be available at my house! I'm fighting stupidity / willful ignorance with feigned stupidity and willful ignorance!



One day DUB shall die!

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Happy Anniversary to Mom & Dad

Happy 39th Anniversary!    

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Blog Status

Yeah, I haven't posted anything in a while. I do have some pictures to get up here, but I also need to get caught up on some work...



In the mean while, Dad reported that the Amazon.com Wish List is showing nothing, so I will need to try to figure out what is going on there. I'll post back here when everything is updated and working.

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Weekly Aquarium Maintenance

Today was Friday - and that means that I did a water change! I removed four gallons of aquarium water and added back in four gallons of replacement water. This time I *dosed* the replacement water as follows:

• 4.0 gallons tap water
• 0.5 teaspoon of SeaChem Equilibrium
• 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish
• 2.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel
• 0.125 teaspoon of SeaChem Acid Buffer

I've noticed that my general hardness has been rising fairly drastically in the aquarium, so I cut back on the usage of SeaChem Equilibrium, and I also didn't want to spend a great deal of time aerating the water after the acid buffer addition to raise the pH back up to normal, so I reduced the amount of SeaChem Acid Buffer added.

I also took some time to kill some more snails. Ever since that false identification of "killifish eggs" that were, in fact, snail eggs, I'm seeing a large number of egg batches and tiny snails. I'm planning to kill any snail that I can get to with my Azoo Aqua aquaplant clip.



On another note, my CO2 injector has thus far proven to be a failure: I'm pretty sure that I created something that *could* regulate CO2 and even could inject CO2 into the aquarium. However, I failed to think or plan for the fact that my CO2 holding tank would simply be holding CO2 at atmospheric pressure (or even a little above that). The reason that this caused (and causes a failure) is that the diffuser and even pumping air into a tank needs to be under a greater than the pressure exerted by the water at whatever depth the CO2 receptacle will be (whether that be a glass diffuser or a holding tank for CO2). At this point, I guess I will be looking for a more professional CO2 injection system - and hoping that I don't have to spend a bundle to get/create one...

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Quick Note in The AM

I just wanted to post a quick note this morning on what's going on - what's changing and what will show up sooner or later...



I've been requested to put a "wish list" somewhere - so in the "Links" section to the right, I will put a Byron's Wish List link. The items are, of course, things that I would like, NOT need! And of course, you can get a basic idea of the kind of stuff I usually like. That list should be available later today.



I've got two separate days of pictures of Christian. I'll post them later also. Note: I will post them on the date that they were taken, so if you don't want to scroll down this page, simply hop over to the Pictures of Christian link to the right.



I've got some news/development concerning the snails in the aquarium... I'll be posting what steps I'v taken and what I will be doing next. I also need to complete the setup and testing of my CO2 injector. I have pictures of it that I will post in the Pictures of Aquarium link.



Later!

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Trying to Catch Up

Wow, I just can't get caught up...



Work stuff: I'm trying to get us converted to another accounting program, keep us up to date with the current financials (I'm the comptroller), and perform miscellaneous duties concerning employees...



Todd Computer Solutions stuff: a TON of computer related reading, logging and billing of customers, financials to catch up through May, and get computer(s) ordered and installed for same customers...



Personal stuff: a bunch of pictures organized, new pictures of Christian touched up, organized and blogged, and old aquarium related posts...



But I'm working toward that "caught up" state...

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Removing Snails And Adding *Moonlight*

Since I discovered that the eggs that I thought were killifish eggs are really snail eggs, I need to get them out of the aquarium before the snails take over. I came home and used a 1/8 teaspoon measuring spoon to remove what eggs I could see off of the plant leaves. I then also removed the five snails that are the cause of these eggs. I noticed that I already have some smaller snails that must be the offspring of the ones I just removed. If I couldn't remove them, I used my Azoo Aqua aquaplant clip that I purchased from Drs. Foster Smith online to kill the little suckers. I know now that I'm probably going to be fighting the snails for quite a while.



After messing with the snails, I went ahead and removed the Penn-Plax Aqua Nursery (no need to have a *nursery* for snails that I don't want in the tank!) I also re-installed the moonlight that I purchased from Fish Tails in Rainbow City.



I just recently finished reading "The Simple Guide to Marine Aquariums" by Jeffrey Kurtz. Based on something that he wrote about replacing carbon filtration (waiting a few days after a water change before changing carbon to lessen the impact on beneficial bacteria), I waited until tonight to change out the carbon filtration in the aquarium. I'm also going to forego my "48-hour" water testing and check the water tomorrow to check water quality. As the aquarium stands, the killifish seem to be acting normal, as well as the japanese trapdoor snail and japonica amano shrimp.



After all that, I cleaned up the outside of the aquarium and the took a few pictures - some "daytime" and some "nighttime":



Daytime Version





Nighttime Version





As always, the rest of the pictures can be found in the Pictures of Aquarium link to the right.

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Daily Baseball Reading

I check out a few baseball columns on the internet almost daily (They're listed on my front page.) I do this to keep up on the thinking side of baseball: Too much of today's baseball coverage is full of tired, old cliches and sometimes unfortunately WRONG information.



One *thinking* reporter I have read since 1997 or so in ESPN's baseball coverage is Rob Neyer. Since I've been reading Rob's columns, they've always been provided as part of the free ESPN baseball coverage. But today, I read that ESPN has decided to move Rob's columns to their "ESPN Insider" coverage.



Combined with the ESPN dumbing down of baseball (How the heck does just playing the game, make someone an expert and/or a worthy commentator/columnist?), this just reduces the amount of truly knowledgeable sources of baseball information available for free on the internet. I'm probably going to subscribe to ESPN's "Insider" so I can get my daily fix of Neyer from time to time, but it is sad to see the site move...

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Charter Extending DUB...

I called Charter Communications back today. The person that I talked to told me upon initially checking that "Yes, cable internet is available in your area. Let me get your account setup."



I thought "Woo Hoo, DUB is coming to an end!!!" But alas, only after giving my social security number (for checking my credit, I was told), did the customer representative tell me "Whoops, cable internet is NOT available for your area yet."



DARN!



I guess I'll wait another week and then check Charter's website again. If cable internet still shows available there, then I'll order it again...

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Developments around Todd Household

We got home from Birmingham and then visiting with my parents around 8 PM last night. I checked the aquarium and found more of the egg batches all over several leaves of the amazon sword plants. Which leads me to believe that that picture labeled "Killifish Eggs?" should really be labeled "Snail Eggs - Uggghhh!" Crud. The bad part is that now I have to try to remove the gellish batches of eggs off of the plants without destroying the plants themselves. This is going to be fun...



One other note of interest about the aquarium is that my homemade CO2 injector progress has been stymied by the lack of holding ability of silicon. The silicon that was used to hold the airline connectors in the cap of the Aquafina bottle broke loose last night and I'm probably going to have to use some epoxy to do the job. I thought I might end up using epoxy anyway, I just wished I had found out before last night.



Last night I also installed the moon light that I purchased from Fish Tails in Rainbow City. I'll take some pictures and upload them as soon as I get some time (which may be a while!)



Last note - I checked on the mocking bird chicks this morning before leaving for work, and they're gone. Wow, on Sunday afternoon, they were squawking, chirping and making a general racket and just two days later, the nest is empty. I guess I didn't realize how close they were to leaving the nest.



Well, off to work I go - with the holiday, this week is going to be very busy: Five days of work to be squeezed into four days...



Later!

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