Reno

Approx 5 min into Reno trip, and already things are going swimmingly. I thought it would be a problem to get seats with Hubby since we got our tickets through different purchases. But not only did they hook us up with seats together, but we got exit row seats, baby! And. And!! Since the group of us are travelling on Military orders (except me, the dependent) we got shuffled through security in like 1 minute, with the regular line trailing back through the corporate offices and bathrooms.

Continued:
We're back now. It was a fun trip for me, since it was no work and all vacation. Hubby got tagged by his boss, who wasn't even supposed to be there (wrong MOS) and had to do "daily accountability". That means he had to have one of NCOICs gather phone calls and emails confirming everyone was still alive from the night before, send them to Hubby, and then he sends the 100% back to the boss. Yeah, youngest person there is a specialist in her low 20's. Young, but still an adult. But other than never getting a break from the micromanagers, I think Hubby had a good time too. Their conference wasn't too much work, and everyone always got the nights off. Me, I just had to occupy myself while they were busy. All I have to say about that is I don't know why I wasted my time with slots; I should have manned up way earlier and gotten on the Blackjack table on day one. I got enough back on Blackjack to not be embarrassed by how much I lost on slots.

This is the main downtown core. The tall buildings are all casinos, but there are some regular town-type buildings in this area as well. We were in the green one, the Silver Legacy. Pretty nice place, cheap rooms, so-so maid service, very nice dealers.


This one is the first morning, before all the snow melted. It snowed later that day, but none of it stuck in the valley the town is in. Up there with the houses is where my Dad's uncle lives, and from where the night picture was taken.


There was a blizzard in Denver the day before we left, and it messed up some people's flights but not ours. So our flight to Phoenix was overbooked from moving all the Denver people around. Flight out of Phoenix was also overbooked. No, we did not volunteer to get bumped. Yes, I'm selfish.

So. The scene to which I returned. One dead lizard and one dead fish. Lizard I knew about, because I got the frantic call midweek. I didn't know about the fish, but the tank is algaey and the guy taking care of the place probably didn't know how many there were to begin with.

The lizard that died is the little Beardie, who I got to replace Lazarus. He had just come out of brumation a few days before we left, so I was loading him on tons of worms. He was VERY (even caps is understated) excited to eat, so I kept giving him lots. So I think the thing that killed him was not crapping out all the poop, so he probably died of some obstruction.

The fish that died, I don't know about. Yeah, that tank's dirty, but not enough to kill fish. It was the orange one who bit it, and he (and his female) are older than the other fish in the tank. Who knows. Maybe now with him gone some of the babies will survive.

Gecko's hanging in. He's been getting a steady supply of crickets for the past couple weeks, so he's is eating mode. I saw him giving the fish the "I'm going to stalk and eat you now; hold still" look this morning, so I gave him a couple crickets. He usually isn't into eating very much, but maybe watching the fish has gotten his appetite up.

Cats are still alive and well.

OK, that's all.


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Potpourri

* The discus tank smells like meatballs. The cichlid tank smells like dirt.

* I can see the beginnings of life in my yard: the trees are just starting to bud.

* You know you're a chemistry geek when the first thing you think upon reading "PP" is polypropylene instead of Planned Parenthood.

* Biscuit is shedding like a banshee with the warm weather coming.

* I think the mom cichlid that had at least one baby in her mouth ate her baby. I can't find it in the tank anywhere.

* Also, the discus still don't know how to get anything to happen with their eggs. I blame the male.

* My microwave is so dirty I think I may have to get out the steam cleaner to get it clean.

* I just filled out a second survey about the BMW. It was suspiciously similar to the first one. Almost like one company writes them all. Oh, and sign me up to win $1000? Fine, but I suspect you're only doing that because it's way cheaper than sending everyone a $1 bill.

* I want to find an ice pick to get the Bee Gees out of my head.

* My new electric toothbrush makes my whole head vibrate and gives me flashbacks to the dentist.


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So that's what happened to him

I cleaned the cichlid tank today, and I was poking around the back of the thing with a flashlight. I found a dried up little guppy down there! I though Pleco had eaten him, but looks like not. That's fine; I don't really want them in there anyway. They came as stowaways with the original cichlids (feeder fish for other fish in the tank they came from). So I guess I'm surprised this last one has lasted as long as he has.

Totally unrelated: I set up my golf net and was hitting some balls (badly). I thought to set up the webcam and have my pappy tell me what I'm doing wrong, but alas, webcam could not find the wifi. The house has aluminum siding, which is good when you're inside for blocking neighbors' signals, but bad if you're on the outside trying to get in!


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Huh

On the topic of webcams: I finally decided to see what would happen if I tried to access the camera with my Mac. The stream automatically goes to Java, so Mac can view something when they hit the camera page. [remember guest/guest]


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Fishies has a sad

We just got home to discover the two fish tanks totally dark and silent. With everything unplugged the breaker still is popping. Last time this happened we had a wet outlet from rain. We do have snow melting, so maybe that's it...


~~TO BE CONTINUED~~

Hubby being an electrician found out that the problem is the Instahot. I just just used it this morning, so I don't know why it would trip something now. You may be wondering how fish tanks and Instahot are related circuit-wise. You are wise to wonder that, since the Instahot is in the kitchen and the fish tanks are not. Well, we discovered on like day 2 of living here that the wiring in this house is completely effed up (For example: the two fish tanks were down, but the Beardie on another outlet in the same room was up). Wires criss-cross all over the house and common breakers don't make any sense at all. So naturally when we saw the fish tanks (downstairs, dining room) we checked to see if things were working in our upstairs bathrooms, bedrooms, etc. Not logical.

Anyway, tanks are up and running again, Instahot currently unplugged. It's OK because I left my travel mug at work anyway.


P.S. in case anyone can see the webcam it's unplugged at the moment.


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I think the birds finally found the birdfeeder.

Just a couple birds, but Mr. Cardinal looked nice with the way the sun was shining on him.

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Snow + wind = just plain crazy

Yesterday was a crazy snowy windy day. Work turned out to not be cancelled, even though the roads were a lot worse than other times work was delayed or cancelled. The problem was even after plowing, the wind would just blow the snow back in, so that half an hour later it looked like nothing had been done. It was still snowing until noon, and after that the only snow in the air was just from blowing. Walking to the car for lunch was an adventure, only because I was shielding my eyes from the wind and didn't see the foot deep snow bank placed randomly in the middle of the parking lot. Actually, that part was pretty cool: the wind was blowing from the direction that swept snow up from a large empty field. As it blew between the cars parked on that leading edge of the parking lot, snow banks we created. Some were pretty impressive, and I wondered if the little 2WD sedans would be able to get out. Facilities guy saved the day with the mini plow. But the Wrangler just busted through that stuff like it was nothing. Now today it's just cold, probably won't get above freezing again. Kinda makes me wish I was in Hawaii, like some other poopfaces I know.


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This'll have to do

So, apparently the webcam is visible to the outside world, even though I thought it wasn't. (that'll teach me to test with an iPhone: is it not connecting because I have so signal? or because it actually isn't going to work?)

Link: fishies!

This site is ActiveX, so go here if you don't have it and you're on a PC. Sorry, see title of post.

login/pwd: guest/guest

I still want to get this into a website, but so far haven't been able to get it to work.

Yeah, the tank is dirty. I think the camera is actually looking through a film of algae.


P.S. to add: Mac users will only be asked for a login, but they will not be able to see any video. It automatically comes up as Java for Macs, apparently. Also, ActiveX only works with Internet Explorer. Forgot to say that part.


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