Tag: aquarium

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Service with a Smile

I must have fallen into some kind of customer service vortex today, where everyone was super happy to go above and beyond any expectation.

Last night, I contacted Cinemark with some frustrations I had about how late all the Spider-verse showings were for 3D XD. Out of five XD shows per day, only one was in 3D, and it was held for the very last one of the day at 10:15pm. I was pretty loud about how annoying that was. I wasn’t really looking for a response necessarily, but just wanted to be heard. I got a lengthy email back this morning from the general manager of the theater basically explaining that he wasn’t given a choice, but pulled some strings to get the matinee showings to switch to 3D for the next two days before Aquaman starts. He then offered for “any number” of my family to come to one of these shows for free. I misunderstood and thought he was inviting us to an early showing of Aquaman, but after a couple emails I think we’ve arranged to go see Aquaman on Thursday after the kids get out of school for Christmas break.

Work was even pretty decent, especially for having to hang a touch panel for Allen in London this morning. We managed to get everything we needed on the first trip, which was  big help. The teacher was pretty savvy, so the tutorial was quick and painless. Everything just kind of went perfectly. We had cookies sent to the shop from a vendor, plus cookies that Ben brought in earlier.

Allen, Brice, and I went to Taco John’s for lunch, and everyone there was super excited and friendly, but even slightly more so than usual. The girl that took my order even remembered that I normally bring my own water in and made a comment about it to ask if I wanted to order one instead. The food was great, but gave me a bit of heartburn after all those cookies I had eaten.

I got some more done in the afternoon, but had to leave right at 4:30 to pick Eaddie up from the nail salon because Summer got her appointment started late. Eaddie had to be at karate, so I dropped her off and made my way to my parents’ house for some fish soup for dinner. Afterward I went to Davis Pet Store to see if I could find brine shrimp or daphnia for the betta and some baby crickets for the frogs. One of the boys was there helping and did what he could to help while Mrs. Davis was talking with another customer. Then when she finally came around I bought a potted plant and snail, and she ended up giving me the snail for free! She didn’t have the other stuff I needed though, so I had to go to PetSmart. They were completely out of small crickets though, so I left there empty handed.

Back home, I got to work on a water change and cleaned up the bathroom a bit. The new snail took off across the tank. The betta still seems very lethargic but more violent in her splashing around when bothered. I ended up putting her into some deeper water with a full epsom salts bath. She’s still not interested in eating anything, but hopefully the epsom salts will help with the swelling and get her moving again.

I must be living right!

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This time I want to be sure.

We slept in pretty late today. Summer was exhausted from being on the road all day yesterday, and I was just lazy. When we finally did get up, she didn’t waste any time getting out to the gym and to get the girls.

I went to check on the fish and was baffled to find eggs! I don’t even have a male betta, so they were unfertilized. It wasn’t until after I changed her water to get rid of them that I realized it’s Christmas, and that I may have inadvertently discarded the Fishiah, born of the virgin betta to offer salivation to all those who look up to the great fish fry in the sky. She’s still a little bloated and lethargic, but I feel better that something has happened. Next up will be peas and epsom salt.

Loads of research and a shower later, I made it up to Summer’s for dinner. She made tacos with pico and guacamole all from scratch. She even steamed some rice, which I ate with what fell from my tacos. After dinner, Autumn played some Super Mario Party while I played Zelda. Eventually the girls went to bed and I had to run to Walmart for fish supplies.

I made a pretty quick run through Walmart, stopping to check a few clearance shelves I found, but nothing really piqued my interest. I got some canned peas and epsom salt for the fish, and a carton of orange juice for myself. As I was coming up to the self-checkout, I ran into Tasha and talked to her and her boyfriend for a little bit. Evidently they made a baby. It seemed defective because it was emitting some kind of squeaky noise.

Back home, I noticed on my calendar that today was Summer’s anniversary. That meant it was my anniversary, and I hadn’t realized it until nearly bedtime. I felt like a bit of a bum for that because I know Summer expects something more, but overall I’ve been pretty vocal about not celebrating or acknowledging events for the past several years. At the very least, it’s been less stressful being a non-participant. She didn’t much care for my jokes that she had reset our anniversary to May, or that I would deduct five calendar days from our year together. Overall though, it’s been a pretty decent one. Seriously, who saw that coming?

Won’t you tell me if I’m coming on too strong?

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Home Sweep Home

Summer and I got up and played some more Torchlight II this morning. I put on The Christmas Chronicles for the girls while they munched on whatever they could find for breakfast. Eaddie still wasn’t feeling the best, but she pretty well kicked it by the end of the day. Evidently she had a rough night though, and I had to get my carpet/upholstery cleaner for her bed.

While I was at home, I started up some laundry, cleaned up after the cats, and did some work on the aquariums. I didn’t get to visit PetSmart like I wanted, but I guess it was just as well. I don’t have the time or space to put much more effort into my tanks anyway. I got to a stopping point and headed back to Summer’s with the cleaner, then went to my parents’ house with Julie for some leftovers.

After dinner, I headed back home and did some more laundry and picking up. There’s still so much more to do. I also got a reminder that I have to call Sunday night to find out what day I have to go to Little Rock for what I’m assuming is jury duty selection. I’m tired of coming back home to so much anxiety.

At least I was successful in my controlled laundry shrinking experiment.

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Thanksgiving Pregame

Summer went to work at the shop today. I got up a little early to get ready for lunch with Jesica. She said there aren’t any good Chinese buffets in Fort Smith and was craving Mulan’s. I saw Ronda’s car there, but couldn’t find her in the restaurant, and then she passed by us on her way out and stopped by to say hello.

After we ate, we ran by Tropical Smoothie to get lunch for Summer, and then we decided to walk off a little of our food at PetSmart. She didn’t get any treats for her new dog Harris, but I spotted an aquarium plant that was just cheap enough to try out, and the guy even let me keep the hitchhiking snail for free since he didn’t belong in the tank. From there we went back to my house to drop the plant off, but were too lazy and fat from lunch to get out again. We watched a weird vegan YouTube cooking video, and then I drooled over a couple aquascape build videos.

We headed to Walmart to pick up some dinner materials a little before Summer got out of work, where I ran into Bradley and chatted for just a minute. When I found out the girls wouldn’t be home until late, we skipped that stuff and I just picked up a couple things I needed and we made it the rest of the way to Summer’s for the evening. I surfed Netflix for a while before landing on Red vs. Blue, which always seems to surprise the otherwise uninterested with laughs. The girls got home just before we finished the first volume, so we wrapped that up before Jesica left.

Summer was the only one around with any real hunger, and she needed to carb up for her 5K turkey run in the morning, so I called in an order to La Villa and brought her some chicken parmesan. I burned a bánh bao that Bác Vân had given me earlier while I was at home because it seemed to be raw in spots. Summer got a migraine and went to bed early. Autumn landed in her bedroom on her laptop for the rest of the evening, and Eaddie binged some more Arrow until I made her go to bed. I got lost on the internet for a while, then found myself tangled up in the can of worms that is Please, don’t touch anything!

If you put him on an F150, he would be Harris on Ford!

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Little Sleazers

I got a whole dozen 23 inch monitors in for the junior high today. They’ve been asking for a status update since school started, but now that I have them, I don’t have all the necessary cables, and the cables they did order were just thrown into the surplus/junk pile. I wish they’d ask me about stuff like that so we could reduce waste. Now I’ll have to go back again to finish the setup, and the stands they got are probably too big for their desks. The whole thing is laughable.

Ben called me in the middle of it and said I needed to check Chromebooks at Oakland to make sure testing tomorrow will be successful, but then texted later and said it should be fine, so that was a bit of a relief. I still didn’t get as much done as I wanted though, since I spent all morning on monitor stands. I went from nearly 40 work orders back down to 30 again. I even stayed late to wrap up a couple things. So much of what I have open is just time consuming, and I’m nearing the deadline for my time sensitive stuff for the audit.

After work, I ordered some Little Caesars through their updated app, which provided an above-average experience. Walking into the restaurant was another story though. It seemed there were a bunch of grouchy people there complaining about how long they had been there. It took me a bit to get to the head of the line, but once I did, my pizzas were fresh and ready when they were supposed to be. The app wins again.

I headed up to Summer’s and the girls and I ate while it was fresh, and Summer arrived from the gym about halfway through my plate. We ate and watched Criminal Minds until the girls had to shower, then I came home to set up my hospital tank for the betta. He’s still breathing, but that’s about it. I’ve got to get him to eat somehow.

I pay my personal property taxes late so I can collect interest and then use that interest to pay part of the credit card processing fee that I pay so that I don’t have to go to the stupid courthouse because organized society is stupid.

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Dogs are basically just really smart babies.

We slept in pretty late today, and I was worried it would keep me from falling asleep tonight, but after feeling sleepy all afternoon, I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem.

Summer went home to start some laundry and clean up the house while I got showered. Then I went to pick her up to go to Denny’s for an afternoon breakfast/lunch. We both ate way too much, but aside from receiving the completely wrong burger, the food was delicious. Our server was super weird, but cool. I highly recommend the Loaded Nacho Tots, and it’s basically a meal by itself.

Next we ran to my parents’ house to help Dad cover the pool. We didn’t stick around too long though, partly because I started getting really sleepy, but mostly because Summer needed to go to Walmart to pick up a baby shower gift for Isabelle. I told her I wanted to get something cow related that would last and not just get thrown away after a year or two, and suggested it should be a dog toy for its durability and cleanability. She glared at me with judging eyes, but she would soon see the way. She picked out a few limited-use things, and then we headed to Tractor Supply Company for the good stuff.

As soon as we walked in, she spotted a plush cow that she said looked perfect. It had multiple squeakers and was filled with noisy, crinkly filling in its extremities – all things a baby would love. That’s when she noticed the tough rope lining the edges. She had picked out a dog tug toy. Adorable and durable, and perfect in every way. Nevermind the K9 TUFF-GUARD badge sewn into it. The kid’s gonna love it, and I will maintain my reputation for being terrible with children.

A quick stop at Dollar General later, and we were back at her house to receive the girls. Once they got home, I headed home to start some laundry myself. I started digging around for supplies to better care for my ailing betta, but the water will need some time to stabilize anyway. I’m not sure how much good it will do, but I guess I should keep trying.

Shit, I really am the new phone guy. And sign guy. And SCCM package guy. Let’s kick this on-the-job learning into overdrive.

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Fishing for Help

I spent all morning back and forth between Oakland and the shop, and only had a few answers to show for it. I’ve got so many work orders to close all at once when these long jobs are finished. Ronda was going to go to lunch with us for $5 salads at Ruby Tuesday, but she ended up meeting Steven instead when our lunch hours didn’t quite mesh. I didn’t make it back to the shop in time to drive, so I met Jason and Allen there.

Most of the afternoon was spent waiting for a fix for PaperCut, and then an hour or so was spent on the phone with the VantageLED folks. The first half hour call I made ended up with me in a queue where I went from the first person in line to being the second person in line, and then I heard someone rattle a phone and hang up on me. The second call got me the resolution I needed, but still no answer for why my emails to tech support never garnered a response. They say there are notes that we were referred to an electrician, but that is both false and an incorrect diagnosis for the problem I’m experiencing.

The fix for PaperCut ended up being an update to the embedded printer software, and then I went to my parents’ house for a bit before deciding to go to the junior high to pick up Jessica’s dying betta. It looked dreadful, and Ronda felt like it was going to die overnight, so I decided to take it home to try and nurse it back to health. I hope it works, selfishly as an I-told-you-so moment. I wish I could impart some empathy and a willingness to properly care for fish, but I guess it’s just too small of a creature for her to care about.

When the girls got out of karate, Summer brought them to my parents’ house and we had most of a Christmas dinner. We didn’t stick around too long though, because the kids had work to do, and I had a fish tank to clean. I guess I’ve done all I can for now. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.

Thank you for holding. All our agents are busy helping more important customers right now.

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Home, Sweat Home

We woke up this morning and Summer picked up some breakfast. Once I got all of my things sorted, I headed home to start cleaning up around the house. It was pretty rainy all day, so it was a good day to break a sweat indoors catching up on the housework.

I fished out a couple more frogs out of the fishtank to release outside. I decided to put a couple in Bác Vân’s garden, so hopefully they’ll grow up and help with the bugs.

Summer came over after the girls left for her parents’ house and we had some leftovers for dinner. My parents came over to visit for a bit while they were out to go shopping, and then Summer and I got the new sofa in and out of the garage.

I still have the old one in the middle of the living room, but I’ll have to wait for a bulk item pickup day to get it out of here, I think. I guess I could always tear it apart into easily disposable parts. I don’t think it’s in good enough condition for anyone to refurbish.

We ended the evening with some more of The Office before bed. My own, squishy, soft, cuddly bed.

Frog went a-kkkkk-courtin’, and he did ride, kkkkkk-crambone!

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You can teach a new fish young tricks.

I brought one of my smaller tadpoles in to work today so I could compare size with the two monsters I brought in a couple weeks ago. The size difference is astounding. It’s crazy to me how stunted their growth was due to overcrowding.

Semester tests started at the junior high, but I didn’t really hear from anyone. It’s just one day closer to being a ghost town. I went to lunch with Ronda and met Steven at Ruby Tuesday for $5 salads. They didn’t have any of their delicious croutons out when we started, but I managed to fill up in spite of it.

After work, I came home and spent a little time with the betta. I thought I might try to teach her some tricks, so I’ve been handling and petting her when I feed her. I’ll need to make a hoop for her to swim through. It makes me want to put a fish in the water buckets outside to help eat the mosquito larvae. I could bring them in to a sorority tank during the winter.

I ended the evening with some pretty decent games of PUBG with Aaron. We haven’t had a chicken dinner in a while, but we got really close a couple times.

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t.