Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

Eek!  I’m almost ashamed that I’ve let so much time slip away since writing.  I’m really good at letting life consume me, huh?  A year or two ago, I spent nearly my entire day plopped in front of a computer screen.  I guess when life is good, I don’t need to entertain myself with a keyboard and monitor.  Maybe that’s not such a bad thing…

If I updated about everything that I’ve done since I last wrote, we’d be here all day, so I think I’ll just keep the details limited.  If there’s something you’d like me to divulge later, let me know.  And of course, I have a few handfuls of pictures to post when I get the chance.

– Chuck and I both quit smoking.  It was my birthday present to myself on February 1st, and Chuck was all for it.  I’ll still light up one or two when we go out on a weekend night, but that’s it.  Our house and cars are now smoke free.

– I love my reef tank.  I had a pretty significant fish loss about a month after setting up the tank, due to the biological system crashing.  I should’ve known better than to put fish in as soon as I did, but I was over-eager.  Now, I’ve got a happy, healthy, and stable tank, with a dozen fish that will eat right out of my hand.  I’ve still got all of my corals and invertebrates, along with a foxface rabbitfish, two green chromis, two caerulean damsels, a firefish, a coral beauty, a pajama cardinal, and a pseudochromis dottyback.  I also now have two ocellaris clowns that are happily hosting in my bubble tip and carpet anemones.

– Chuck felt guilty about housing his several year old Jack Dempsey in a tank much too small, so we spent another grand on a new 75 gallon freshwater setup that fit perfectly in my office.  It’s a lively tank full of various cichlids, and I must admit, I feel a little demented for sitting back and enjoying the massacre when Chuck drops in live rosies for food.

– We’ve also added two smaller aquariums in the back bedroom.  We’ve set up a 10 gallon ‘hospital’ tank in the event a fish gets sick.  When not being used for that, though, we’re stocking it with the feeder fish and treating with copper to avoid passing any parasites to the main tank.  We also set up the old 35 gallon tank, where we’re raising a baby Jack Dempsey and all the fry from our two mated pairs of convicts.  Those damn fish spawn more than rabbits.

– I didn’t want to start out my entry with sadness, nor do I want to finish it that way, so I’m sticking this item right in the middle of the list.  On February 24th, I said goodbye to one of my best friends.  The night before, my sweet baby, Elvis, let me know that he was too tired to keep fighting the Feline Leukemia Virus attacking his now weak and emaciated body.  I freed him from his pain and let him go peacefully.  I’m still not okay to talk about this, so… I’m leaving it at that.

– Went to see Flogging Molly at the end of February.  They’re awesome live, but the show would’ve been better in a different venue.  It was an outdoor performance, bitter cold, and no seating.  In fact, you weren’t even allowed to sit down on the ground.  Not to mention, it was absolute chaos, and we might as well have been in a mosh pit.  There was pushing and shoving and crowd surfing, and getting headbutted in the face once was one too many times for me.

– St. Patty’s day was a blast.  We had thought about hopping on a plane to head to Jacksonville, FL, where our favorite band would be playing for the week, but we instead decided to hit the block party in front of Fado’s in Austin.  All of our friends met us down there, and we drank and danced and sang along to a U2 cover band until we couldn’t see straight.  Oh, and thanks to a gallon of Guinness, I apparently felt it proper to feel up a girl I’d been dancing with all night.  Funny part is, she tried to call me the next day.

– My brother’s birthday was in March, and to celebrate, we and about 20 other people booked trips to Las Vegas the first weekend in April.  The trip was packed with activities.  Dinner at Stack with a little blood for dessert at the show, Bite!, Friday night; Madame Tussauds followed by Red Square for a vodka flight and caviar Saturday afternoon; dinner for two at Sushi Roku capped by a party for 20 at The Bank Saturday night; and finally, dinner with Rob and Becky at Mon Ami Gabi Sunday night.  We had an absolutely awesome time, and no, we didn’t get married, people!  I must admit that we talked about it, but so many friends and family were betting that we would do it, we had to prove them all wrong!  We definitely want to go back (just the two of us), and who knows what might happen next time…

– Chuck’s ex wife is a cunt.  She’s been pulling stunt after stunt to keep us from seeing the girls, and we’ve had enough.  I’m not going to get flustered and go into details right now, but rest assured I will write about it later.  I’m curious to get the opinions from all you mothers on my list about her behavior.

– We used our tax return money to rip out our old flagstone porch and build a new pavestone patio that steps up onto a deck and also to build a huge shed complete with garage door on the front.  I’ve been a happy little homemaker planting shrubs and flowers, putting together outdoor furniture, and mounting solar lights.  I know the work has been completely worth it, though, when I sit out on the new deck in the humid evenings with a glass of wine and good company.

– I’m officially under a contract for III Corps at Ft. Hood now, meaning I no longer get to enjoy working from home.  I don’t really mind working in an office again.  In fact, I’m kind of enjoying being around actual humans for a change (as opposed to just my two kitties), plus the increase in sedentary lifestyle was wreaking havoc on my body.  Now, I’m running up and down stairs and dashing through a huge parking lot all day long.  The only down side is that my new job description of Site Lead is detracting from my time for software development, what I really love to do.  Fortunately, we’re hiring another system engineer to take some of the load off, and guess who it might be!  Chuck!  He had his third interview a couple days ago, and they said to be expecting an offer letter today or early next week.  If he gets this job, not only would it be a pay raise and increase in benefits (one of which is me being his boss  — haha!), he would no longer have to work 12 hour days and every other weekend.  We would finally be on the same schedule!

– What man wouldn’t like cominghome to a locked bedroom door with a note taped to the handle, "Check the fridge."  But what’s in here?  Ah, a perfectly poured vodka drink with a yellow stickie attached, "Do you have a sweet tooth?  Look on top of your fish tank."  A metal key — for that bedroom door, perhaps — with a simple explanation, "Use me."  And what man wouldn’t love coming home from work to find his woman spread eagle on the stripped bed with crumbled dark chocolate scattered on her naked body, chocolate sauce drizzled in tempting areas, and the word ‘enjoy’ written across her stomach in maraschino cherry-colored lipstick?  Not a one!

Cheers,
Felina