This is just a beautiful piece. LA Light from Colin Rich on Vimeo.
Category: General
Fun & Food
There's a lot to be happy about this weekend. First, it's the weekend. On top of that, a long holiday weekend. Another point: the project I've been working on for Allison is finally done and it went extremely smoothly. Last in the list, but the part I'm most excited about is what is to come: going to Alex and Nel's tomorrow for a 4th of July cookout. I'm bringing a pork and pineapple skewer dish, a fig jam/apple/cheese appetizer, and will be making a trifle. So today is grocery shopping day (Alex cancelled our trip to Miami). I'll be prepping food tonight and finishing everything up with Nel tomorrow. Monday I'm most likely going to Jeff and Lauren's for the day to hang out and have more food. All this is so relaxing when you don't have to worry about work.
New Residents
Arn swung by tonight and brought me a whole bunch of fish, a ton of fake plants, a pump, and some scenery. I finally took the 20 gallon tank out of the back of the truck (it's been in there for about a month), cleaned it out and filled it with water and threw some fake plants. Even though this is just a temporary setup, I still treated and pH balanced the water. I'll tear this and the 10g tank apart next weekend and then everyone will live happily in the same tank. Tomorrow I'm heading up to Alex and Nel's to watch the kids for them for the weekend while they go off to St. Augustine to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. I'm so happy to be able to do this - I've even lined up a little surprise for them. I should be at their house around 3:00pm,...
Pancakes, Pucks, and pH
Friday night I had dinner with a former co-worker at Hooters. We caught up on a ton of things for a few hours and I generally enjoyed myself. Saturday, Alex and the kids met with me for breakfast at Tampa North, who was having a pancake breakfast to support the Civil Air Patrol chapter that is based out of the airport. I took the kids down to the flight line to see the planes and we all went over to see a helicopter that came. Generally, I think it was a great turnout, as several pilots flew in for the event. Alex invited me over to watch the Lightning game that night (the first of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Bruins), so I ended up hanging out all day in the Luts/Wesley Chapel area. I flew, went shopping, and had some great pork chops at Primebar. Around 7:00pm, I...
Hammers, Soup, and Bits
I took Friday night off to grab some dinner at Chipotle and go see Thor with Arn. We decided to not see it in 3D, as I've heard it's not worth the extra money. All-in-all, I thought it was a pretty awesome movie. Definitely portrayed Thor's power well. And was a lot of fun to watch this franchise come to life. Asguard was beautiful. Best part: The sound that the Destroyer made was incredible and really projected how menacing of a device it is. Saturday I went with Arn to Auburndale to go pick up a large saltwater tank he wanted to get. I helped him take it apart, load it in the truck, and unload it at his place. We then grabbed a bite to eat at Holy Hog BBQ. After running a few errands on Saturday, I ended up coming home to work on Allie's project and spent...
Upswing
General health issues aside, I actually felt better today than I have in a while. Probably not coincidence that this was the first day I took my new multi-vitamins. I'm sure my energy will return over the next few days. I just hope I start feeling better. I celebrated Cinco de Mayo by working all night on Allie's project and making a bean, steak, and salsa burrito. I've been having tons of headaches the past few weeks. I hope it's the stress I've been under with all the work. If it doesn't go away after I'm done working this weekend, I probably should go see a doctor. Here's a fun picture I found on failblog.org: Image not available
Damn You, Google
This one made me tear up...
Relief
I think I have the night off. Tried to do some work, and the system that the vendor was supposed to fix is still broken. Never been more relieved that software is broken. Think I'll cook some smoked sausage and play some Gran Turismo 5. And for the record, the military killed Osama bin Laden yesterday. Just figued I'd mention it here to bookmark it.
Success
I went out and ran some errands today and got a few new things for the fish tank. I'm still using the 10gal tank, but I wanted to add some toys. I got a 25lb. bag of lighter-colored gravel (mostly for the new tank), two Sword plants, two Moneywort plants, some plant food, a freshwater testing kit, and some new 15-watt accent light bulbs for the ballast. I added some of the gravel in to thicken the bed so the plants had rooting area. Then, I added the plants in. The fish seem to be interested and genuinely like the additions. I'll let everything settle until tomorrow then will test the water. Also, got the slow-cooker. Currently am soaking 3lbs. or beans and will be making a soup tomorrow morning.
Fish Tanks and Slow Cookers
On Thursday, I got a new fish tank from Arn, who picked it up in a deal on Craig's List. It's still sitting in the back of my truck, but I plan on getting it up into the apartment this weekend and cleaning it out. There's some brightly-colored gravel and a large fake rock reef that came with it along with a lighting fixture. I believe it's a 20 gallon tank. Hopefully it's still small enough to fit on he existing stand. I've also decided to pick up a crock pot this weekend. I want to start slow-cooking things; it'd be nice to put food in it in the morning and come home from work with dinner already made (dinner for multiple days even). I'm going to start out with some soups, to learn the heat settings and understand fully what to expect out of the cooker. This won't be...
