I Falsely Accuse Fish

I got some new fish. I had gotten some for my birthday, but two of them died, leaving me with just one. I named him D.C. It's short for Destiny's Child, which isn't my favorite band, but my little fish is a Survivor. Drew calls him C.C.C.

We have some friends who are moving to California for med school, and they gave us their plecostomus (a big scary looking algae eater), who is named Dave. Since we already have a Dave, I call him Carl to alleviate any confusion. So I guess his initials are also D.C.
I wasn't sure how little D.C. would react to being in an aquarium with such a big scary fish, so I got him some buddies to back him up. I got a guppy who has a really flashy pink and black tail. I named him Siegfried. I got a little fluorescent red-orange fish, too(I forget what kind he is). I named him Roy, because one can't have a Siegfried without a Roy. I also purchased an African Dwarf frog, who is about an inch long and an inch wide.

I was so proud of my happy aquarium. Then, two days after I got everything set up, I realized I hadn't seen the frog for a while. I had heard a story about Carl allegedly eating a goldfish, so I was almost certain that he'd eaten my frog, but hoped maybe the frog was just hiding really well. I stuck my hand in the tank and moved some stuff around. No frog. I shook my fist at that big ol' Carl. "How dare you eat my frog?! You'd better not eat any of my other fish, or it'll be an earthy grave for you!" (I felt weird threatening a fish with a watery grave, since they live in the water already. Now that I think about it, it's probably weird that I talk to my fish like that in general...)

Today the boys and I went to get a new screen for our front door. Certain cat and toddlers in our house have ripped the bottom corner, making it possible for said cat and toddlers as well as the dog to escape quietly without being noticed. Our neighbor Bob brought Drew and Owen home the other day--said he found them playing across the street (they had nothing on but diapers). I didn't even know they were gone; I was cleaning the kitchen, and thought they were downstairs breaking the computer, which is their usual favorite activity.

So anyway, we got home from Lowes with our screen-fixing supplies, only to find the front door open, the screen flapping suspiciously in the breeze, and our dog missing. I was floored. This was the third time the dog has snuck through the screen, and I was so mad that he'd had the gall to do it again. So I was Miss Grumpy Pants all evening. I could hardly enjoy my Whopper-with-cheese, and when Owen threw his cheeseburger on the floor and asked for a bite of mine, I told him he'd be going to bed hungry.

I thought maybe watching fish would cheer me up, so I sat down in front of the aquarium and flicked on the light. And who should dart back into hiding, but that little African Dwarf frog! He'd been hiding the whole time and had come out while we were gone! Of course I had to apologize to Carl; he seemed to accept the apology. At that moment, Vito came slinking up and sat on the doorstep wanting to be let in. I let him in with a small scolding, but soon enough Miss Grumpy Pants disappeared, and I felt like everything had resolved itself. I gave Owen a little snack and got him and Drew off to bed, then went downstairs to "check my schedule."*

I saw some cute pictures of my new nephew on our family website, and that totally made my day. So on that good note, I'm going to wrap this up, go watch some TV, give myself a pedicure (it'll probably be the last one for a while; I'm getting to the point of not being able to reach my toes), and go to bed.

I hope my brother doesn't mind that I post these pictures. They're just too cute:

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Baby James, Proud Dad and Big Sisters

*This is my term for "piddle around on the computer." I call it this because David has to check his work schedule on the computer; he goes to the railroad website and looks at the train lineup so he has a general idea of when he'll be working. But he doesn't just check the railroad website. He has to check his email, the news, the sporting news, the stock market news, and a bunch of other stuff, and also play a few games of Free Cell. So now, whenever I check my email and do my blogging and read all my friends' blogs and read the gossip column to see what the celebs are up to, I call it "checking the schedule."