Sitting in the hotel

Actually, I am laying on the bed in the hotel. I need to get up and take a shower and walk over to Cafe du Monde. The trip hasn't been as great as I had expected, and being that this is the last night here, I'm not sure if tonight will make the trip a success. I hope that once Michael gets done working we can decide on a nice dinner somewhere (maybe NOLA or Emeril's since he's been wanting to go there every day since we've been here). I've been very disappointed in my food here up until now. We did eat at a really good Thai fusion restaurant on Saturday night but since then, our meals have been mediocre at best. We ate at this place that catered to me on Sunday where I got a vegan gumbo and black beans and rice dish. They were both extremely bland. I had to add in Cajun spices and hot sauce that were sitting in the middle of the table just to make them more edible. For dinner we ate at a pizza place that was good, but it's hard to screw up pizza. On Monday we ate lunch at this place where you dress your own burger. I had to have them cook the veggie burger on a skillet instead of near the meat. The food here was pretty good and I left full. That night we ate at a tapas restaurant that I had high hopes for, but didn't cut it for me. Yesterday morning I ordered cheese blintzes with strawberries from a place that had gotten pretty good reviews. It was OK, but nothing to write home about. And then last night I ate at an Indian/Pakistani/pizza/burger/fried chicken joint that had gotten good reviews for it's vegetarian food. I was really disappointed in this place. I was expecting a hole in the wall with good food. I definitely found the hole in the wall to be true, but the food (I ordered a spinach and chick pea Indian dish over rice) was not that great. I've eaten some amazing Indian/Pakistani dishes in my time and this was definitely not even close to middle of the list. And now we are to the present time and I don't know what to expect for the food that is going to come. Hopefully it will be better than the last few days.

I'm getting a slight headache so I think I'm going to get off here and take some ibuprofen before it gets worse and then head out to eat some food. The weather has been pretty cold every day here but today it's supposed to be in the mid-70's so I need to bask in the nice weather while it's here.

New Orleans bound

Tomorrow afternoon we leave for New Orleans for 5 days. I'll be back on Thursday morning and Mike will be home Thursday evening. I'm looking forward to being in warmer weather for a few days even though they are calling for rain while we are down there. I'm also looking forward to trying a King Cake (which was promised to me by my husband 3 years ago and I still haven't gotten that gift yet) and also eating a beignet at Cafe du Monde. The last time I ate there, I was 19 years old. Maybe I'll even go so far to have a cup of Cafe au Lait as well. On Saturday night, we are going to the House of Blues to see Better Than Ezra and on Monday afternoon, Cowboy Mouth is playing a free concert at some restaurant. Those are the only two definite plans we have as of now. Mike has to work starting on Wednesday and he has a dinner he must attend on Tuesday night so I'll be fending for myself on those days. I'm sure I will find plenty of things to do especially if the weather is right and I'm able to walk around the French Quarter without rain pummeling me.

So now that I've been procrastinating all morning, I have lots of stuff to do before tomorrow morning. Since I have to take care of the Petsmart kitties Saturday morning, I have to prepare for the trip tonight. I need to feed the ferals, I need to go to Petsmart and get some supplies for my kitties and fish, I need to pick up a refill for my nose spray, I need to pack as much as I can, I need to wash my coat (it has some weird looking white stuff on it....makes me wonder if I got pooped on by some birds sometime), I need to vacuum and clean up a bit and I'm going to try and use up any perishable foods in the refrigerator for dinner tonight. With this last thing on my list of to-do's, I'm going to be baking a buttermilk pound cake. I figure, I can at least bring it with us on the plane and eat it next week in New Orleans if nothing else. I'm sure there are more things to do that will come up as I'm doing everything else.

OK...I'm going to start on the list of things. The first thing that must happen is move Skye off of my lap (he seems to spend the majority of the day there now-a-days), take a shower and get to feeding the ferals. I wouldn't mind a nap right about now either but I guess that needs to wait.

Here I am again...way behind on my updates

OK. The last time I wrote I was on the way to bury my fish. I did this in the backyard and felt really sad about his loss. I feel better now though and hope I buried him deep enough that no wild animals will come and dig him up. I put a rock over the dirt so hopefully that will be enough.

Since last Monday, I have been feeding the two colonies of feral kitties out here. It's hard to call them all "feral" because I'm pretty certain that at least a few of them could be tamed. But, they are all spayed and neutered and seem happy enough outside with their buddies. It's just a shame there are so many unwanted animals that need homes. PEOPLE...SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS!!!

This Saturday was the second time I went to Petsmart and cleaned the kitty cages and played with all the cats. They also had a special adoption fair for Valentine's Day, so for 4 hours, the cats that normally reside at Petsmart were open to the public, and about 6 other kitties in foster homes were also brought out to be shown. We had 3 kitties adopted that day. Every Sunday they hold another adoption fair and that next day 3 more were adopted. It makes me happy to know that these cats are finding homes, even if it is a slow process.

So, for Valentine's Day I got Michael a necktie that is a base of blue and has small Marine Corps logos in gold all around it. He's been wanting a Marine Corps tie to wear on Marine Corps special days, and I think this was a surprise to him. I think he likes it, but, since he can't tie a tie, he hasn't worn it yet. I need to get him that tie that has the directions to "how to tie a tie" printed on it. I think he'd still ask me to do it for him though.

Michael made me a play a Jeopardy game show all about me and him. I think he spent a long time on all the questions and creating the game, so that was cute. Unfortunately, I did very poorly on the "game show" and only got about 25% correct. The questions were ridiculously difficult. One in particular was to name ALL the cars he's ever owned. I think I did pretty well with the 5 I named correctly, but this wasn't good enough for a "correct" answer in his rules. He also wanted me to name ALL his roommates from TBS. I didn't even know he had more than one! And the one guy I could remember has a crazy name (Chigqueta sp?). I couldn't remember the guys name, but I remember his face which I think is more important anyways. I'm not good with names.

Since Saturday I don't have any exciting news to reveal. I think today, after I feed the ferals, I am going to wash some clothes and clean the fish tank. Oh, I did receive 10 free guppies last week from a guy whose parent guppies had 75 babies!!! So, my tank is really filling up! I need to set up that bigger one so that I have more room. We haven't decided where to put it as of yet though.

Tragedy

Today I had a tragedy occur. To explain, I must back track to last Tuesday. When I got home from my interview, I found one of my fish (Banded Leporinus...vertically striped black and yellow fish about 6 inches long) had gotten stuck in one of his rocks. He thought he was small enough to fit through the hole, but only his head to his gills and one of his front fins made it. I tried to push him out, but his scales and gills wouldn't allow it. I ended up calling multiple vets trying to get their advice on what to do, and finally decided to take him and the rock, put him in a separate bucket with aquarium water, and go to work. I took my drill and very small bits, and drilled onto the rock. After losing two drill bits (they broke in half after a few tries), I finally made enough holes to stress the rock. I then got out some cutting pliers and pressed the rock in enough places that it broke off allowing the fish to be released. I was ecstatic I saved him, but he was really battered and bruised from trying to release himself for several hours prior to me getting home. I talked to an aquatic vet and he told me to separate him and put in some over the counter antibiotics and artificial slime coat to the water over the course of a week or so in hopes that his wounds would heal without becoming infected. I did this with an air stone, but had concerns since I didn't have a filter in the bucket. After a couple days, the water in the bucket started becoming cloudy, but I didn't think too much of it. This morning, I picked up his rock that I had for him to hide in, and he was upside down. I feel so bad for the little guy. He went through so much only to die anyways. His wounds looks pretty pussy and all I hope is that he died of his wounds and not because I didn't have a filter in his bucket. Unfortunately, it could be a combination of the two since he was already stressed and I had him in a place where the bacterial levels were probably elevated over the big tank. I feel really guilty. I need a quarantine tank so if a fish needs to be separated in the future, he'll have a place that has a heater and a filter and has a better chance of survival. I just hope I did all I could and that he didn't suffer too much. I currently have him in the garbage, but I'm starting to feel guilty about that too so I think I may have to fish him out (pardon the pun) and bury him in the back yard somewhere.

Besides this sad occurrence today, the rest of the weekend was fun. On Saturday I began volunteering for Fancy Cats Rescue. I am now the Saturday morning girl who goes to Petsmart and takes care of the kitties up for adoption there. They have some amazing cats that need homes. My favorite so far is Molly. She is an over-weight calico that loves to be held and petted and will lick your face while you hold her. She's great and deserves an equally great home.

On Saturday night, Mike and I met the rest of the volunteers at TGI Fridays for a gathering. It was nice meeting some like minded people, but I probably would only get along with one of them on a constant basis. Some of them are just slightly over the top about their cats and that was all they could talk about.

I also started feeding a couple feral colonies out here in Springfield over the weekend. I'm going to be feeding them Tuesday through Friday. So, I now have responsibilities again which is nice.

Yesterday the weather was beautiful so Mike and I took a walk to a nearby park, Lake Accotink. There is the start of this trail right in our neighborhood. Well, the hike around the lake was supposed to be 3.4 miles around. We started walking on it at 3pm. It kept going and going and going. By 4pm and no lake in sight anymore, we decided to ask some passersby where we were. Apparently we had gotten on a wrong trail somewhere and had to turn around. We kept walking and walking and finally ended up at a neighborhood. We asked a man with his bike how to get back to the lake and kept walking. We finally made our way back to our original trail and we made it home by 5pm. What was meant to be a casual hour long stroll ended up being a more than 6 mile hike around to nowhere. We found out that the trail we were on was the Fairfax County Connector Trail and goes for many, many miles. I'm not even sure where it starts or stops but we know we could have walked to the Vienna metro stop in Fairfax, VA which would take us about 30 minutes or more to drive to.

Anyways, we were exhausted by the end of the night. I would have slept well had it not been for Stumpey taking up half of the bed, Sabrina taking up the foot of the bed, my husband complaining about being cold and me burning up smashed in the middle of it all! But I survived and now have Skye sleeping beside me on the couch. Life is good. Now I must go bury my fish.

So, it's been a long time

Sorry that my last post was so long ago. Since I haven't been using my own computer in quite some time now, I forget that I need to post on here. On my computer, I have an icon set up at the top of the screen that I can just push and come directly to the site. And since it's in plain view every time I get on my computer, I remember I should post. On Mike's computer, there is no icon and, therefore, no reminder. So, here I am a couple weeks after my last post.

I'm sure a lot has happened in the last couple weeks, but I will just mention the things that I can remember off the top of my head. Weekend before last, we went into D.C. and actually got to go into the Washington Monument. I would recommend this to anyone visiting the city and not afraid of heights because you can see all the important sights from above and it's beautiful. I took lots of pictures of the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Capitol and White House from above. I also got a picture of a plane taking off from Reagan National Airport which is remarkably close to the Washington Monument.

We then went to the Capitol and took a tour. A couple years ago we did this before we had moved to the city, but it was a good refresher to go again. And being that we went the weekend after the inauguration, a lot of the seats were still on the ground in front of where Obama spoke and everything was pretty much the same as the few days prior. So that was kind of cool to imagine all those people there when it was happening.

We then walked over to another area of Capitol Hill called Eastern Market where there was a farmers market/street fair going on. We found a little cafe to eat lunch which ended up being pretty good. Then we walked back over to the Air and Space Museum and went in there for a short time. It was getting close to closing for the night and Michael had a headache, so we didn't get to see hardly any of it, but I would definitely like to go back sometime to explore some more.

Fast forward to last week. On Monday night, it started snowing. By Tuesday, we had snow all around. By Wednesday, it was very icy on the roads and covering all the snow from the day prior. Michael didn't go into work that day for fear of running off the road before making it out of our neighborhood, but on Wednesday night, we went and picked up a 30 gallon fish tank that I found on Craigslist for $40. This included the filter, heater, light, gravel, decorations in the tank, food, water purifiers, net and 4 small fish and 2 larger fish. He didn't know what these fish were, so, after almost a week of research, I think we have a Banded Leporinus, a Feather Fin Catfish, 2 Glowlight tetras, a glo-fish (which is a zebra danio which has a mutant protein which makes it's body bright orange instead of the natural grey/brown color) and a male Cherry Barb. This past weekend we went and picked up 2 more fish from people giving them away and we added to the tank a Suckermouth Catfish (aka a common Plecostomus) and a Striped Raphael catfish. By the next morning after adding these last two fish, I have been unable to find the Striped Raphael catfish. I'm not sure if he's just hiding REALLY REALLY well, or if the other fish consumed him during the night. He was a fairly large fish, so for him to have been eaten would really surprise me, but he has definitely disappeared. Everyone else seems to be doing well though.

Tonight I'm going to pick up 2 Neon Tetras, a Silver Mollie and an algae eater from another guy. After that, I'm going to let them all get acquainted to their tank and then get them some friends. I need to get at least 2 more Glo-fish, 4 more Cherry Barbs, 2 more Glowlight Tetras, a few more Neon Tetras and some more Mollies. I've been researching their needs to grow healthiest, and these fish need to be in schools. In about a month I'm going to be adding some black Mollies to the tank and some Endler's Livebearers. And that will complete my tank until some start dying. I've had fun with the tank so far and have enjoyed watching them all fight over hiding spots. I need to invest in a few more rocks for my bottom dwellers to stay in during the day and I'm also going to be getting some more real plants for the schooling fish to rest in. And all of this so far for $40! I think I did pretty well.

Tomorrow I have an interview with a contract company that is hiring for another company for a Lead Microbiologist position. I'm a little nervous about the interview, but since I'm much more educated on microbiology and have almost 3 years in the industry, so I hope to have a more positive outcome of this interview versus the last one. I don't really have much experience in a "Lead" role, but I do always take control of the situations, so I'm going to play up my natural leadership abilities and how I used to schedule projects and divided them up throughout my group without anyone telling me that I needed to do this. Although we didn't have a "supervisor or manager" per say, I was one who did take on a lot of those types of responsibilities. Hopefully this will be enough to put me up at the top of candidates. The contract for this job is only for 6 months, but they have the option to hire me on permanently after that. The job pays about $50K/year which is a little less than I wanted to accept out here, but with the way things are currently looking, that salary looks pretty good to me. Wish me luck and we'll see how it goes.

Here is a picture of Michael "sledding" in our backyard. If you can't tell, the "sled" is a piece of cardboard from some left over moving boxes! I have a video of this "sledding" experience, that is pretty funny as well, but it doesn't want to upload. You can just use your imagination as to what it looked like.