Amy's Journal

I got a load of stuff done today. I have really needed like a full day to just get shit organized in my house. I reorganized one of our cupboards and cleaned up the computer room so all the extra computer bits aren’t just lieing on the floor, but are actually stored away. This meant I could actually VACUUM that room which is really important seeing as we may have a bit of a flea infestation still. I vacuumed the whole house very thoroughly today, including all around the baseboards etc again. And the animals are treated. So the house just feels like a better place. I also organized all our sheet music collection so I can find things again. We have a ton of music. I even found some of our duets I thought we had lost, so tonight we played through a few more, including one we had never learned before so that was really fun. I actually played quite a bit today, because in between cleaning and organizing I kept picking my cello up for bits here and there. I started playing actual music today, not just etudes.

The shitty thing that happened today was, we ran out of oil again. I knew it was going to happen because the weather has just gotten colder, and that’s always when it happens. It wasn’t too bad until later this evening, when the house really started to cool down. We have a space heater on in the living room which makes it tolerable in there. I had to run out and buy a second heater for our fish tank, since the one from Petcetera was barely adequate when the room temperature was normal (now it’s 61 degrees in here and dropping, we normally keep it at 66 during the day and 68 in the evenings when we are at home and up). Still pissed off about that piece of shit heater but don’t know what we are going to do about it. The new heater will be enough on its own, once we have heat again. Apparantly the oil is being delivered tomorrow morning, so we won’t be cold for long. Other times this has happened to us, we have been without heat for several days.

I was really pissed off earlier, because we have been planning on getting a heat pump, and it’s just been taking so long for it to happen. I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault in particular, because Trevor (upstairs neighbor) and Peter (downstairs neighbor) have been working really hard to get all the permits and everything we need to get it installed. But I’m just starting to feel fed up with the whole idea. I want to be warm NOW. Last winter we ran out so many times because we kept thinking the heat pump was just round the corner.

But it sounds like we are actually getting the heat pump, for real, before the end of the year. So, I am over feeling like I don’t even want it anymore afterall. I know it will be a great thing once it’s here and working. It’s just such a bitch freezing to death in the mean time. It would have made more sense to me to pay for oil this winter, on a payment/auto-delivery plan, and then got the heat pump in the summer when we don’t even need the furnace. Of course, the logic behind getting it ASAP is that there is money to be saved by doing so. I can’t argue with that, and I have to be grateful for the work my housemates are putting in on this project. I just wish it wasn’t taking so long.

Well anyway that’s enough of a rant. Like I said, I think it’s all going to work out. If we don’t get the heat pump before the half tank of oil that is getting delivered tomorrow runs out, I will probably shit a brick and possibly go postal on everyone who was ever involved in the idea of having a heat pump. But we will see.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

So we definitely have mice in the house. This morning Carolyn called me, asking me to bring Pao up to try to help flush out a mouse she thought was in her cupboard. She said she heard scurrying and “chewing” noises coming from in there. I brought Pao up, and we emptied out the cupboard, but could not find any mice, although we did see evidence they had been there (droppings, and chewed up bits of cracker crumbs and things). I left Pao up there for a while but she never did find any. Apparantly Pixel (downstairs cat) has caught yet another mouse though. Griffyn (upstairs cat) is kind of hopeless. He is a cat who meows at the birds in the tree, asking them nicely to come down, and no he doesn’t have much luck hunting that way. Pao and Pixel both seem to be good at the catching of mice, and I think Phaibun would probably be good at it too because he’s very quick and stealthy.

We bought some neons for our aquarium today – a little school of 6. We miss Sammy though, he was a really cool fish. Probably not right for our tank anyway, considering how big bala sharks can grow, but even so, I really liked him a lot.

Not much else to report. Today was a pretty lazy day. I had physio, I might be being discharged soon so that’s good news,  my knee is doing quite well and I’m almost at the point where I can start an exercise program on my own at the rec center and not need to go to physio anymore. I haven’t been biking much because the weather has been pretty lousy, but I have been out a few times and I think it’s helping to strengthen my knee up. I’ve been playing cello a little bit almost every day and enjoying that too. I have tomorrow off too so I might do some more house cleaning then. I want to do a really thorough vacuum (like move the furniture, and go all along the baseboards etc) to really try to clear out any remnants of fleas, now that we have the animals all treated at once and with decent stuff. Ciaran seems to be scratching less and actually really seems to like me rubbing the lotion into her tummy. I think it feels soothing to her skin because normally I don’t think she’d like something cold and slimy on her! I am starting to believe in home remedies, at least in some cases. Obviously there are some things that require actual medicine. Another example of home remedies is the tea I have been drinking regularly, which seems to be greatly *greatly* helping my stomach. The fennel tea in particular is really good if I start feeling crampy in my bowel. I’ve also got a really nice tea from aronia berries that Tyler found for me. Plus a whole cupboard full of different teas that I have been delving into (because I always get given tea, or buy it from time to time if I see something that looks really good, but rarely actually DRINK the stuff.. up until lately anyway).

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

We flushed Sammy the bala shark today. He was fine yesterday, then today, just floating for no apparant reason. No injuries I could see. The tank has been sitting at 73-75 though which is apparantly within his comfort zone, but maybe lower than he’d like. We are still having issues with the heater. It isn’t even coming on all the time. I could argue that it was just not able to heat the water, if it was actually on all the time, but it isn’t. It’s just stupid. Sammy was my favorite and I’m sad he had to go. We will probably buy a new Sammy at some point though.

Today I ran errands all afternoon, including a bit of Christmas shopping, and buying some Advantage for the animals (flea medication). I just don’t think the stuff we had been using was working well enough. Maybe it would have if we could actually spray the animals all over without them freaking out/running away. But Ciaran hasn’t stopped scratching since we first saw fleas around, and her poor little tummy especially is getting really red and irritated and she is now starting to lose some fur. I saw another flea on Pao the other day, and flea poop in her coat. The Advantage is freaking expensive though, but from what I have heard it really works well. We might just keep them on it year round. Its actually not that pricy if you look at it on a monthly basis, it’s just because you have to buy it in a 6 month pack, and buy it for cats and the dog, that makes it so expensive all at once.

I used a recipe I found online to concoct an anti-itch lotion for the dog. I hope it’s OK for her. It’s mostly aloe vera, with some witch hazel and tea tree oil in it. It’s supposed to be really good for bug bites on humans too. I just put it on her tummy where she is really irritated, and she seemed to actually like me rubbing it on there. She hasn’t been trying to lick it off and it seems to be helping with the scratching. She’s still scratching occasionally but not as vigorously or as often as before.

I’m still pretty tired from this weekend – two fourteen hour days in a row – so I’m basically laying low for the next few days I have off. Then, I will do next weekend, and all the craziness will be over – school and craft fairs both. My last exam is Sat night. I’m not too worried about this exam but it will still be nice for it to be done with.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Pao totally caught a mouse today. I saw her in the kitchen acting sort of funny, and then realized she had a mousie in her mouth. I followed her into the bathroom. The mouse was now nowhere to be seen, but she was batting at the shower curtain. I lifted it up and the mouse was racing around the bathtub! Then Pao leapt into the bathtub and caught it again. I grabbed her, and grabbed the camera. She didn’t drop the mouse so I got a few photos. I put them both outside. It was awesome.

[nggallery id=65]

I am very tired, on my dinner break, after work I am so going to crash until at least mid afternoon tomorrow. It’s been a long weekend. Today our sales seemed a bit better though, I didn’t stay until the end because I had to go to work, but I am feeling hopeful that we did OK!

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

It is just wild out there tonight. Super stormy with some snow flurries, mostly just really crazy winds and cold. I didn’t have to be out much thankfully, just to my car and a short drive home from work.

Today was a long day and I am about ready for bed. It was about the same as yesterday sales wise. I got a bit of Christmas shopping done. Trevor paid the house insurance today and now I owe him about $500, ouch. I still have a decent chunk of money in savings but I’m scared to use it since I need some of it for school. So I guess I am a bit bummed we don’t seem to be having as good a sales this weekend as we did when we did this fair two years ago. However, the sales haven’t been completely terrible, it’s just that they were SO good the last time we did this show, that it is a bit disappointing. Craft shows are just so unpredictable. And you never know, maybe next weekend the Moss st will be better. Or, it might be awful. Just can’t know. Either way we will manage to pay the bills and all that, but wow owning a house is expensive!

Here are some photos from the show. Our booth sure looks good anyway!

[nggallery id=64]

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Today was the first day of our first show. It was a long day – the show actually went from 10-8 today. My mom stayed the whole time, for some reason she was OK with me leaving at 4 so I didn’t argue! My feet and legs got really achey from standing for so long, and I was just tired from all the chatting and from having been up early.

Anyway it was sort of disappointing. It wasn’t TOO bad, I mean we had OK sales but not really that great considering how long the day was, and comparing to how we did at the same show two years ago (we didn’t do last year). It was weird because there were a ton of people there, but they didn’t seem to be in a major buying mood. And the ones that did buy were more likely to buy small items. Also sort of unusual but good for me was that my jewelry was a big seller. I usually find that it’s really hard to sell my jewelry. I probably should make efforts to improve my jewelry display and sales tactics, because when I look at actual jewelry sellers’ booths, they are way more organized and professional looking than mine. I’m more about the beads than the jewelry design itself. I don’t know, I guess that’s a thought I will finish later. Maybe next year at the Moss st market I will make an effort to have a better jewelry display. But, whatever I am doing seemed to be working today. My lariats were my best seller.

There are so many factors to consider when you wonder why you did well or poorly or average at a show. It kind of makes me crazy because I start obsessing. Here are some thoughts I had on today…

- we have a lot of different products right now, and maybe we are competing with ourselves
- the venue was overly crowded and all the people were clearly feeling claustrophobic (some people even said this out loud at our booth, that they were enjoying the show but it was way too crowded for them)
- the economy is still sort of shitty and people are nervous
- there was another vendor selling wine bottle platters at this show

I think the crowded aspect was big today. And while the show did have a really good vibe, in terms of the energy of the crafters anyway, I didn’t feel it as much from the audience. People seemed hesitant and lots walked by not just our booth, but seemed to walk by almost everyone’s. There was just a feeling of people shuffling around a large area trying to get out of the crowd. And perhaps the craft fair as an entertainment event rather than a shopping event was more peoples’ focus due to the economy.

Also I never know how to find the right balance between leaving people alone to browse, and trying to chat them up. I’m not very skilled at the sales pitch thing but I do try. Sometimes I feel kind of pathetic in my attempts (especially when people don’t hear me saying hello to them, because my voice is too little.) However sometimes it gets very tiring when many people seem very disinterested in what you have to say, and you feel like you’re saying the same thing over and over.

At any rate, we still have two more days, and it’s really hard to know what will happen. So I am optimistic that we still might make some good coin. I’m not depending on this money anyway, it is basically determining my Christmas shopping budget, so if we don’t make a ton then I will just have to be a little leaner with my gifting.

I trimmed my hair tonight. I do have proper hair scissors but I was a little worried it was a bad idea. I don’t think I did too bad though. I really just took off about a half inch from the bottom and didn’t do anything in the way of layers, except for the layers I sort of have around my face, I noticed one side was really lopsided so I trimmed that but now I think it looks worse. I decided to stop before I ended up with really short bits. You can’t really tell anyway since my hair is all long, so what the hell, I guess this will tide me over for a week or two until I can get a proper hair cut. It feels like I got the worst of the split ends and stuff off, it’s way less tangly now. I find that split ends make my hair tangle sooo much and then it gets snagged, and I start losing bits of it. Actually when I washed it tonight, I felt like less hair was shedding.

We bought three more zebra danios for the aquarium tonight because one of our original three was getting picked on by the other two (tail nipping). Apparantly danios do better in larger schools and don’t bug each other as much. So now we have 6 of them. No more floaters in the tank though and everybody seems to be doing quite well!

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

My hair is damaged and staticy and pissing me off so bad. I need a hair cut and I just can’t seem to find the time.

Today we did the setup for the big christmas show this weekend. It was kind of a nightmare out there, just everyone bustling around and really stressed and you could just feel the energy. They made the rows about 2 feet too narrow, so although we were told we could have a 7′ square space, that meant we were encroaching on our neighbors by about… well 2 feet I guess. So they got 5 and we got 7. We got there first though, and our structure is the size that it is, it was designed for a 7′ space. We didn’t have power yet and I still have to print some signs out before I go to bed. I don’t have price stickers on everything yet. This is how these things always go though. It’s not like our usual weekly moss st market where it’s all laid back, this is a more serious show. It should be good though! I am looking forward to it, just felt a bit of the stress tonight. It didn’t help that I had to leave before I wanted to. I kept looking at the clock and saying “I’m going to take off” then fiddling with stuff more.

I finally had to tear myself away with stuff undone, and I was about 10 min late for work due to crappy traffic coming back into town (not that it really matters with my job, but I’m a very punctual person and being late bugs me). And there were a load of messages on the phone I had to deal with, and I hadn’t eaten, although I did have food with me I didn’t get a chance to eat it until later on. So it was just kind of a hectic feeling afternoon/evening.

And, I have to get up pretty early tomorrow. So I am going to go get my printouts done and get to bed.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Today I woke up, put my hair in pigtails to disguise (however feebly) the fact that it was unwashed, I put on my finest old sweats and went in to school to write the stupid essay exam. I was sort of worried about it because it was another one where we had to write three short essays in 50 mins. I hate writing by hand. There were 5 questions to choose from, they weren’t too bad though. I wrote about:

1. Communication difficulties between doctors and patients and how this can be improved
2. What Canada needs to prioritize with regards to mental health in adults and children
3. The effects of a positive attitude following diagnosis with a chronic and/or life threatening illness such as cancer

This was for health psych. I felt like I answered each question fairly thoroughly. I brought up lots of examples from things we had talked about in class. I don’t think my essay writing was as good as it would be if I could proof read it and edit it, but I think it was coherent. Just maybe not QUITE as organized writing as I would like. There just isn’t time in 50 mins. I wrote about 2-3 pages on each subject so my pencil was just flying the whole time, and afterwards my hand hurt. I do so much better with a keyboard. I can write neatly enough but I just have trouble organizing my thoughts on paper.

So that class is done with, and I just have a final left in my other class, it’s not until the 11th. Also I am less worried about it, as it is the exact same format as our midterms for that class, and I’ve been getting really high grades on all of those so I think I have figured out how to study for them. (That’s why I was worried about the exam I wrote today, I didn’t feel like I knew how to study for it, but I guess I did ok. I probably studied more than I needed to in fact, as the questions were much more general than I had expected). I have a 91% average on the midterms for that class, but my grade is going to go down due to a 10% portion for class participation, and I’ve skipped that class a fair amount, so have missed probably half the days when we had class participation going on. That’s basically a whole letter grade I will have lost for trying to maintain my sanity. Which really pisses me off but I knew that every time I skipped that class, there was a chance I’d be missing “class participation” (which involves sitting in groups for 10 mins and brainstorming, then somebody from the group answers a question on the board).

Some days though, I just haven’t been able to make myself go to school. Probably a lot of days this term. But I feel like I’ve come through the term quite well overall, in spite of all that, I am probably going to get decent grades (I am guessing an A- in each course), and I actually feel like I’ve learned something from the health psych class at least. So it wasn’t all a total waste. I am doing next term, taking two classes including the fucking stats course. Ugh.

After the exam I went over to the library and spent ages trying to figure out where the music collections were. They have changed everything since they renovated. I finally had to ask. I took out Tyler and I’s old fall back duet, by Stamitz (who was a string player from the classical period who had a fondness for the viola and actually wrote some stuff for viola and cello). The library only had one of the duo’s though, there are a few others that we have played in the past but I can’t find anywhere in our house. I went to the music store on my way home and they didn’t have them either, so I guess we will have to order them online or something.

Then I went to the pharmacy, paid a stupid amount for drugs (my health plan is the type that you submit receipts to get reimbursed rather than them paying up front… a pissoff). And then came home and crawled back into bed. I only napped for about 2 hrs though so that wasn’t too bad. Then we got up and played the Stamitz. My hand is sore today from yesterday and I have a blister raising on my little finger, but I feel a bit more like… confident or something with the instrument again. It actually seems to come back pretty fast, the basics at least.

Ciaran has been scratching a lot, but I’m not sure if it’s still fleas, as the cats seem to have no fleas now and I still have yet to find one on Ciaran. I’m worried she might be getting dry winter skin or something. She’s really irritating her skin in some places from scratching and her hair is thinning on her tummy from it. I think maybe next week if it doesn’t clear up we’ll have to get her in to see the vet. I just don’t know if she’ll calm down enough there for them to actually look at her skin.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

There are Christmas decorations all over the place at work. It’s kind of disturbing.

Last night I was hit with a longing for my “old life” (ie, when I used to be a cello player), in a big way. I don’t know what triggered it exactly. It does happen to me from time to time though. It gave me major insomnia. I pulled my cello out of the case and it felt both foreign to me and so familiar at the same time. I even cried this time which usually doesn’t happen. I then went to the websites for all the adult amateur orchestras around that I know, looking at rehearsal schedules, and I even emailed an inquiry out to one of them that I might be able to join. I don’t know that I have time for it, but I just miss playing so much sometimes. Today I played studies and my fingers are so weak. My brain still remembers what to do, but the muscles are not there. I have no callouses, my fingers are soft and useless. But suddenly I feel like maybe I should start finding the time to play every day and build my ability back up. Maybe we can get a small string quartet together for a weekly reading session, or maybe I can join one of the orchestras for a little while.

I guess it all comes down to… with my life… I don’t have it all figured out just yet. There’s still a lot of stuff going on under the surface that is unresolved. I still have a lot of emotion attached to my cello. I never really chose to stop playing, but it’s been almost 8 years since I have played it seriously. That’s almost exactly as long as I ever DID play it seriously.

Anyway, I have no answers about this. Just lots of wondering about what my future holds, and what it could hold if my problems with anxiety weren’t a factor.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Today was a day off. Tyler was teaching this afternoon. I went over to my dad’s to help him with some graphics stuff. Then I came home and went for a little bike ride before I had to pick Tyler up. I didn’t go far, just around the neighborhood for maybe 20 mins, but it felt so good. I really like bike riding and I think it is good for my knee to get it moving like that (because cycling isn’t really impact at all, but it gets the joint moving through its range of motion quite smoothely). I just have to take it easy at first since my muscles are weak, especially in that leg, and I have to try to focus on keeping my knee in line with where it should be. It has a tendency to want to turn inwards which puts more stress on the joint, this is due to muscle weakness. The muscles have gotten really weak because I favor the leg, since it hurts to put weight on it. Now that I’m basically healed from the surgery though, there is less pain than there was BEFORE the surgery and I guess once I get the hyaluronic acid injection there will be even less pain. So it is getting easier again to work on strengthening the muscles up, which will in turn help protect the joint better.

This next week or two is going to be really crazy, so I am trying to mentally gear myself up for it. I have exams, I have big Christmas craft shows, and work as usual on top of it all. We should make a decent amount of Christmas money from the craft shows though!

Tonight we have new House to watch.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

A fairly uneventful day. Took Tyler to work. Napped. Picked him up again. Went to work myself. Quiet tonight at work. I was knitting a scarf. Still haven’t been out on my bike, the weather has been shitty. I have tomorrow off so maybe if it isn’t too wet I will have a go at it.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Today I didn’t do much except go to work. I did come home for dinner and make a really yummy dinner, rice pilaf and stuffed fake chicken breast (the Oh Natural brand makes a really good broccoli and cheddar one that is delicious), and steamed green beans on the side. I used to make that meal with broccoli in cheese sauce, but I think the broccoli was a little hard on my stomach and so was the heavy cheese sauce. It turns out that frozen mixed beans and carrots are delicious steamed with just the tiniest little blob of margarine on them. Way less calories than the broccoli in cheese sauce too, and much easier on my tummy. I can handle the bit of broccoli and cheese in the stuffed chicken but it’s not very much so that’s probably why.

At work during the quiet evening hours I was working my way through the chapter for psych on schizophrenia. It was actually really hard for me, it brought up a lot of stuff. It kind of made what I went through with Tyler more real… even though he didn’t end up having schizophrenia… it made me realize more what I was really up against at that time. Even though it turned out I wasn’t really up against it after all. Does that make any sense?

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Who wrote that song? Was it Queen? I only remember it from American Dad.

I went to the used bike store near my house and bought… (wait for it)…. a used bike today. I have been debating buying a bike for months now, I guess today was the day. It was under $150 with the tax and everything which is a whole lot better than some of the cheaper new bikes I was looking at, that were starting around $500-600 (and the first store we went to, was more like $1200 and up, we started in the wrong place I guess). I was going to try to revive my old bike one more time, but it is just too far gone. The brakes are jammed and rusted, and the chain and the whole gear part probably is just rusted so bad it’s basically brittle. I thought maybe a bit of oil would do the trick, but after looking at it again I realized it was just no good.

The new bike is actually a proper size for me (mine was a bit small, I got it when I was about 12 years old, not that I have grown much since then but I had the seat jacked all the way up too which isn’t the best position for somebody with knee troubles to ride at). This new bike is way more comfortable to ride, and easier to ride I think too, in terms of nice low gears and road tires. It is a hybrid, and I am not COMPLETELY sure what that means but it sounds good.

Also today my dad took some photos of me working at the torch to make a big banner for our booth. We have the Moss st Christmas fair next weekend, and the Saltspring one the weekend after.

I haven’t been doing much of anything torch-wise, but I have been cleaning LOTS of bottles.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Look at me. Towel diva, ready to face the awesomeness of my day.

Today I…

- took Ciaran with us while driving Tyler to work, to her delight and his chagrin (she wouldn’t get out of his face and he insisted it was too early in the morning for a dog face in his face in the car)
- came home and had a bath
- napped
- went to school
- napped a bit more
- went to work
- … home again

I guess the dog being a douche in the car was the most exciting part of today. That and the fact that I’m about to eat some veggie chicken nuggets with mustard sauce.

Oh, and this morning I was woken up to a silverfish crawling on my arm in the bed. I haven’t seen any up until now but I don’t know where it came from. It’s still weird to me that we have them in the bedroom as there is nothing delicious there. For all of our bad habits with food, eating on the couch/in the car/never at the table, we never eat in bed. I guess they eat other stuff too, maybe dead skin? Or maybe the cat brought it in from the kitchen? I don’t know. It was gross to wake up to a bug on me though. This is the second time in a few months I have seen a silverfish in the bedroom so I guess I shouldn’t be too worried about a major infestation. Still. Gross.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

The fishies seem to be doing pretty well now. The nitrites are still not at zero but they are not climbing too high. If they do I guess we will do another partial water change. I think the tank must be close to being done its cycle.

The cats are going absolutely nutty on each other right now, not sure why.

I handed in my big term paper for health psych today, I think I did alright. I have done all my other papers and stuff too, all that’s left is two non-cumulative finals. One will be easy, the other might be harder because it’s more essays and I really have not been enjoying the “three essays in an hour” midterms. The last one, I only got I think 78%? Because 2 of my essays were really solid and one was weak. I am just not that good at writing with a pencil and paper in such a limited time. I’ve been doing really well on all my assignments for that class though so even if I do the same again on the final, I should get a decent grade overall. I am guessing I will end up with A-’s in both classes, because they are both Psych and you need over a 90% to get an A. I’m going to be sooo close to the A in both but I just have a feeling I won’t crack it. I really hate school.

There is only about a week left though. Then I guess I will deal with next term.

Here is a pic of Sammy the Bala Shark.

And one more of the barbs

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

I napped too much today, again. I am trying to get a handle on this napping thing but I just get so tired sometimes.

I got everything done today that I needed to, and probably then some, so I guess it’s OK. I just feel like I’m wasting time when I nap too much. And since I napped in the evening tonight (from about 7 until 9:30!) I am never going to get to sleep at a decent hour tonight.

I had physio today, it looks like it is probably OK for me to start cycling, so long as I start off really gently and easily. My knee has great range of motion back but it is still stiff – when I got on the exercise bicycle for the first time, it felt really stiff to bend it as far as I needed to, but then once I was going for about a minute or so it felt much looser.

Speaking of looser. This person is a TEACHER.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Today was basically all about running errands, driving around, and housework. Got lots done though! I went and helped give a presentation tonight on the website for my dad’s gallery, to teach all the gallery co-op members how to use it. I thought it would be scarier giving the talk but it wasn’t too bad! My mom did a lot of the talking so that helped. I’m really proud of the website and I got some nice recognition from everyone there for it, so that felt good.

Actually the last few days have just felt somehow easier. I can’t really put my finger on what has shifted, but something has. My mood has been really good yesterday and today, and everything just seems… easier somehow. I don’t know how else to describe it. But I’m not going to complain about it, whether it lasts or not.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

The work week is over, and it’s back to school tomorrow.

Last night, we noticed our fish sort of gulping at the surface of the tank. I read about this online, and found out it means they’re not getting enough oxygen, possibly due to toxins in the water. So I tested the water chemistry, and sure enough the nitrites were up (our tank is still cycling I guess). We did a change of about 20% of the water and magically, the fish stopped gulping at the surface and went back to chasing each other around. It was cool! Nobody else has died, at least yet.

Today I went over to my mom’s to work on stock for the Christmas shows, then work. Not a very exciting day really.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

I didn’t get a nap today and I didn’t get enough sleep last night. So I think I’m in a grumpy mood because of that. Little things are just bugging me disproportionately today. Little things people said at work, like seriously tiny little things that were probably completely meaningless or I just misinterpreted somebody’s tone of voice or something… and I know that’s all it is… but for some reason it’s just getting to me tonight.

My job is hard sometimes, because I do have to talk to people who are in lots of pain, or people who are dealing with huge life issues like impending deaths of family members. Usually I feel pretty competent but today I guess I just felt sort of… incompetent. Like I was having social anxiety or something and I just felt like I was constantly doubting myself… worried I said the wrong thing, or didn’t say something I should have, or just came across as sounding nervous and incompetent. I really doubt that I actually came across that way, or if I did, I’m sure it was only slightly. I know I overanalyze too much sometimes.

It’s just a passing thing, I’m sure, I don’t usually feel this way. Rationally I know that mood can really affect how I feel in that way. But the rational thinking doesn’t always help.

Today one of the danios was floating (the original one). Don’t know why, unless it’s the low temperature of the tank. The tank has been at 75 F with the new heater cranked. I have several theories.

a) The new heater is also a lemon (seems unlikely to get two in a row)

b) We are fucking something up somewhere (we have troubleshooted EVERYTHING we can think of, we’ve tried different plugs for the heater, we’ve bought a second thermometer that goes IN the water in case it was measuring low because it was on the glass or maybe our thermometer was bunk, we’ve put the second thermometer really close to the heater in case the water isn’t circulating well enough for the heat to spread – the temp right near the heater is low too). The only thing I can think of is, maybe because the tank is near the window, the room temp there is too low for the heater to do its job. But its not THAT cold by the window and the heater is overkill for the size tank.

c) The heater just plain sucks, that model in general I mean (possible)

d) The douchebags at Petcetera somehow swapped us back our already broken heater and told us it was a diff one (paranoid and unlikely, but I wouldn’t put it past them, and they did have enough time and opportunity to do it)

I even asked in an aquarium forum, and the heater should be able to heat our tank with no difficulty. They recommended buying a different brand. Now if only Petcetera would let us swap it. I have a feeling this is going to get ugly, because I just can’t suck it up and spend another $60 on a heater. I just can’t. They are treating us unfairly and it pisses me off.

What else… I watched a download of New Moon today. I actually really enjoyed it. However, I enjoyed the first Twilight movie a lot too. Some fans of the books were disappointed with the first movie. I think that New Moon was actually even better than Twilight and I am excited to see the rest of the series in film.

Phaibun is getting very interested in the tank. We really need to buy a lid soon too.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Don’t shop at Petcetera.

We bought a heater for our aquarium there 10 days ago. Then it somehow just stopped working about two days ago. It still seemed to be coming on intermittently, but our tank’s temperature wasn’t getting above about 71 (our fish like it between about 77-85, we had been keeping it at about 79-80). The heater was a 200W, which is supposed to be good for a 55 gallon tank – ours is only 35 gallons, so I don’t think we could have been stressing the heater out too much or anything. The first few days, we had it at about 2/3 of its max and it was heating our tank properly. Today, even cranked to its max it wasn’t heating the tank past about 73.

We figured, shit it must be a lemon, that happens sometimes, no big deal we’ll go take it back. The staff at Petcetera said no, we couldn’t bring it back, because it was past 7 days and they have a 7 day return policy. “Yeah” said Tyler, “but it’s broken.” And the girl was like “Yes but look, right on the receipt, no returns or exchanges after 7 days.” I told her “It’s been 10 days… that’s barely past the time limit, plus the thing is broken, it’s meant to last beyond 10 days.” So she goes to get the manager.

The girl and the manager come back saying they just tested our heater, and it is still turning on. They seriously treated us like we were lieing. We said yes… we know it’s coming on… but it’s not heating our tank properly… so whether or not it comes on at all isn’t exactly relevent to our complaint.  They got more staff involved. We argued with them for a long time. Finally, they said they would exchange it, but not without pulling this huge guilt trip about how they would get fired if their boss found out they had done it. They said we should take it up with the manufacturer as it was beyond their 7 day return policy. But we needed a heater now! And aren’t chains like that supposed to deal with that shit themselves? Like, give you a replacement, and send the lemon back to the manufacturer, so your fish don’t freeze to death in the mean time?

Then they told us as we were leaving, that they wouldn’t take THIS one back if we had problems with it. Basically they said fuck off, you’re on your own, we’ve already done way more than we should’ve for you.

I am seriously thinking about going to the better business bureau about this. I was just so incredulous at being treated that way. It wasn’t just one staff member either, it was several, and they just treated us like complete liars. Although I don’t know why we would lie about our heater being broken, and try to replace it with an identical new one. What a scam we have going on. At any rate we are never, ever going back there.

We did buy some new fishes today (not from Petcetera!) – we bought some more tiger barbs so we now have a school of 7, and some more danios (now we have a school of 4), plus a bala shark who we have named Sammy.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.