I recovered from my birthday...

Barely. It took all day yesterday to feel human again - I guess I really am getting older! But I had a great time and here are a few fun pictures!

It started out innocently enough with dinner at Red Square. I remember the company was excellent, the vodka was good, the food was ok and the service was poor. Here is a cute picture of Suzie and Ivory! Then we headed over to Andrews on Lincoln. Thank you so much to everyone who came - it was a great time! I wish I had spent more time with a few people (Tanya, Kathyrn...) but somehow the vodka made my night go by super fast!

There were lots of good pictures, and some interesting pictures, and some troubling pictures. Here are just a few (for those that didn't see them on Facebook):

This was not my first shot... or my last...

I remember once my sister Rachel got made fun of because whenever she is drunk in a picture, she would make the peace sign... Uh oh... There is more than one open mouthed peace sign from that night...

If you want to see more pictures, you will have to become my facebook friend ;)

I also need to say an extra special thank you to Suzie - who made sure I got home safe and comforted me by reminding me that it was ok to throw up on your birthday - we've all done it, right!

Meet Cutler, My Sucidal Fish

Last week I was thinking about how proud I am that I have kept my fish alive for 2 years... I had wanted a salt water fish take for as far back as I can remember. For Christmas 2006, my mom bought me a BioCube. This little wonder has all the parts you need to have an amazing coral reef experience without all the thousands of dollars of equipment.

Right after I got the tank, I picked up a cheap fish (that I assumed would die) and I named him Rookie. Fitting right?? Well Rookie was doing well and so I got a new fish, the "nemo" fish and I named him Cutler. (Cutler was a Rookie at the time, again pretty creative, right?)

Now Cutler is trying to kill himself. And I have a feeling he will not be with us when I get back from my trip to LA next week.

One time, when I was away, the tank was open and Cutler jumped out of the tank and fell all the way to the hard wood floors below. But he didn't die - Eric picked him up and put him back in the tank. For the past 6+ months, things have been going swimmingly. Hehe.

A few nights ago, I was on the phone with my mom freaking out because Cutler didn't show up for feeding time. I searched for the dead floating fish or the dead fish laying in the sand, but there was no Cutler...
Somehow, he jumped the plastic barrier and was trapped in the filter area. Barely enough room to turn around! If I hadn't found him soon... So I scooped him back into the regular part of the tank where he swam around for a while. Next day, I found him in the same place again!

I'm wondering if there is a fish wisperer that can talk some sense into this guy... The next part is where it gets worse. Notice just to the left of the area with the orange fish is an area that has little holes in it? Well that's where I found Cutler this morning. Barely alive... because the water is not deep there. Stupid fish. Back into the tank... The next time I found him, he was in the next compartment over to the left, which is where the pump is. Here is the shot from the side of the tank. You can see a peek of orange inside the skinny window that helps me monitor the correct water level, write by the "minimum" sign.

So, I am leaving for a few days... Where do you suppose I will find my fish?

I've Been Tagged :(

So, I keep getting tagged on facebook to fill out some 25 questions thing... Maybe that can be my next blog post! But in the mean time, I got for real gangsta' tagged. Hehe - as Suzie said, at least it was my initial! Just when I thought I couldn't stand to paint any more, I got to repaint the side of my garage to cover graffiti. Boo. But it only took like 20 minutes, so if I had a non-painted garage, things would have been much worse!

My dad did some slave labor on Friday while I was mostly working and got some baseboards up in the basement (after I met my deadline for getting everything painted!). I still need to do the touch up work and my hand won't pick up a brush... Maybe next weekend. But it looks so much better so far and I love the dogs on the stairs!!

Why were the dogs on the stairs you ask?? Well, because my dad installed a new light fixture to replace the hideous one, and sometime during the night a boogey man came and knocked the glass part off - maybe the gremlins are back? I'm not sure if I should try to find another identical light fixture to get the glass part or if I should just get a whole new light...

And if there aren't enough dog pictures for you, here are two more. Whenever I paint, I make a mess (did you see my hands last week!) and apparently I get paint everywhere including on the dogs. Really, I think they are just nosey and get the paint on themselves...

Both dogs have paint on their right ears... weird.

Well, that's it for now... Have a great week everyone! (AHH, only 19 more days of my 20's!!)