Monday, December 22, 2008

Having Babies, Eddie Izzard and Happy Frogs

Great day in the morning! It went from around 60° to like.. EIGHT DEGREES in a 24 hour period.

That ain't right ya'll. Somebody get me Al Gore on the horn. I'm starting to buy his wonky global weather warnings.

We've got alot to cover this morning, so ya'll get your strap on strap yourselves in, grab a cuppa something hot and get comfy.

*taps foot*

Ready? Okay good.

There was some drama in the old trailer this weekend, of the fishy variety. Remember those two mollies I bought last week? My heart grew heavy as I watched them flailing about and repeatedly swimming face first in to the glass. It didn't take a rocket scientist (or marine biologist.. whatever) to figure out that their occasional displays of swimming backwards and upside down weren't evidence of a super talented acrobatic fishy anomaly and that they would, before the weekend was over, end up with a burial in the great Porcelain Sea.

I haven't had any luck with any fish from the Pet Not-So-Smart, other than betas. Granted, it's a long drive from Big City and maybe it's just too much of a shock. I dunno. I don't have the same problems with aquatic critters I get from the shady little pet store, hidden in a back alley in Scary Hillbilly Town. Just sayin'.

Anywho, I kept checking on the mollies, hoping for a miraculous recovery. The frogs seemed fine, swimming around, setting up house in the hallowed out canoe, poking it's fluorescent pink flowers with their little pointy snouts. The five neon tetras I've had forever (bought from the Scary Hillbilly Town store) were fine, swimming around on their little neurotic patrol of the tank.

On one of my many trips to the bedroom to sit on the foot of the bed, staring at the tank, trying to will them back to normal fishy behavior, I saw something new swimming in the tank.

I yelled for the Amazon to being me a bowl, a cup..... SOMETHING because good googedy moogedy there were BABIES swimming around in there! (Okay, one baby.. BUT STILL!)

We caught the tiny fry before he became a froggy buffet and deposited him in the plastic cup. It was so little, it looked like no more than two eyes and a tail. I'm surprised that my feeble old eyeballs even noticed it. I knew it couldn't stay in the cup, the water temperature wouldn't be stable and it would croak for sure. Years ago we had a fry net, the kind you suspend in the tank, but I have no idea where in the sam hill the dang thing went to, so I improvised by using an extra scoopy net, balanced dangerously atop the tank, the net portion hanging down in the water. Of course now, the cover doesn't close all the way so theoretically one of the froggies could plan an escape, but I'm telling myself that they're just so effin' happy with their new home that they wouldn't dare leave.

As we watched the tiny fish swim around, I told the Amazon that it sure seemed bigger when it was swimming around in the tank. We soon realized why.

THERE WAS ANOTHER BABY! A bigger one. With spots, like the mollies. The Amazon, now an expert with the baby scooping, grabbed the new find, depositing it in the net with the first one. It then became very obvious that they could not both be from the same mama. The second fry was twice as big as the first one. Either the molly had one ginormous baby and one very tiny baby or one of the tetras had a secret.

Time will tell.

~*~


I finished up the Christmas shopping Saturday. When I got up, I did NOT want to go to Walmart. I'll spare you the whining and moaning over the variety of ailments that contributed to my lack of enthusiasm, just know that all I really wanted to do was go back to bed. When I got back home, I flipped the boob tube over to a show on Christmas at Disneyland, sat in the bedroom floor with my shiny, penguin wrapping paper and went to wrangling tape, bows and packaging.

I didn't realize how much I'd bought.

When she got home from work, the Amazon was 5 years old again as she carried the wrapped presents in to the living room to set under the tiny tree, shaking, poking and groping each one, trying to figure out what they were.

It made me happy.

~*~


Last night, I settled in on the couch and watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks while I waited for the chicken to finish shaking and baking. A few minutes in to the movie, I realized I had never seen it before. I mean.. I remember it coming out, I would have been around 5 or 6 but apparently I never witnessed the magic of Angela Landsbury, touring London with small children in tow, while poised on a big brass bed.

I demand an entire childhood do-over. I was deprived!

~*~


Speaking of movies, Valkyrie hits the theaters Christmas day. Normally, I wouldn't give a big possum hiney about a war/conspiracy/Hitler movie. I mean... I dunno what you've heard but I am a girl. While my movie interests, like the music I listen to, tend to vary wildly with mood, historical drama doesn't really do anything for me.

And then there's Tom Cruise. Nuff said.

What you may not know about Valkyrie is that the cast includes the fabulous Mr. Izzard, playing the very unfabulous General Erich Fellgiebel.

I doubt I'll be rushing out to see it, because it's still a war movie.. about Hitler.. with Tom Cruise... and the last movie I went to see was Shrek 2. Before that? A hunky guy I met on the internet took me to see Gladiator. So yeah, I pretty much only go to the movies once every five or six years.

But I'm sorta tempted.

Anywho... there's not much to do at the Asylum this week. Bubbles is on vacation today and tomorrow and I'm taking off Friday for FIVE fun-filled days of family togetherness. I'll keep ya'll informed of any casualties.

If you need me, I'll be hanging out on Plurk and Facebook. We'll talk again soon.

Later Taters!

6 comments:

Dianne said...

those baby fish are a Christmas miracle ...

made me smile to picture Amazon reverting back to little girlness - I get it

Merry Everything Lady

kenju said...

You must have a slutty mama fish somewhere in the tank, since she's obviously having fishy sex all too often!!

tiff said...

fishbabies - great name for a punk band....

MJ said...

Yay for fishbabies!

My mollies had babies once, but they ate them all before I could get to them...

Merry Christmas!

A Spot of T said...

I'm amazed you even saw those babies in there! No way would I have spotted them. Knowing me I would have thought it was fishy poop. And it's probably pretty obvious by now I know absolutely nothing about fish...or frogs.

But enough of that. I'm over here to wish you a very Merry Christmas!!

Marissa said...

EDDIE! Yes! CRUISE? ewwww with a boo. He bugs me. Always has after Risky Business. Even then I wanted to reach through the screen and punch him in the face. (Jerry Maguire is on my "movies I'd like to punch in the face" list.)