snow

Well, I woke up to snow this morning. So much for spring. Last night I drove to springs for dinner with Dad and Doug. I came back afterwards through the snow....

Random from the web

Fractals. Buy one, get one free.
While supplies last.

More tank testing

Today my new test kits showed up. Here are the test results:
alkalinity: 10.2 dKH (good)
Magnesium: 1470 ppm (good)
iodide: < 0.01 ppm (low)
iodate: < 0.03 ppm (low)

Could have been better

Well, that interview could have been better. Why is it when you own the company, you have to convince them that you actually do engineering too? If I wanted to be a fucking manager, I'd have that job by now.

We'll see if anything happens from here.

I talked to one of the non-paying clients the other day. 'we have no revenue' which means they'll sit on my 10 grand for some time. Fuck, I'll probably never get paid. I'll just give my creditors their number instead. Call them...that's where your money is.

Wankers.

The results are in!

Congratulations SEAN you've just won a lifetime subscription to SEVERE SLEEP APNEA! With an average of 42 apnea events per hour, and a average apnea length of 30 seconds, you're not breathing 20 minutes of every hour! WHOOOO! Don't forget those extra long apnea events of 60 seconds!!! The best part? You've got MIXED sleep apnea with moderate central events, basically meaning you've got it all -- both the regular obstructed apnea, and the special new and improved CENTRAL apnea, which is when your tired old brain just doesn't bother to tell you to breathe at all.

For a mere 400 dollars, we'll let you take home your very own CPAP machine so you can sleep in comfort just like this dork here:


The good news is that my resting heart rate is 55. Oh, wait. I already knew that.

Tuesdays

Tuesday's always remind me of the promise of a week ahead -- not far enough in to it yet to wonder if it's going to be fun.

Cardio today -- another hour. I think I'm still fighting some kind of bronchitis off. It would be nice if I would either get better or croak.... one or the other.

Today I go into the hospital to get my sleep study results. I might have some kind of sleep apnea. Probably central, which I doubt the CPAP machine they'd recommend would do much of anything. It's worth a try.

Tomorrow I'm going up to Loveland to interview for a contract position. I could use the steady income for a while. One of the clients coughed up a bit of what they owe, but it's a long way from being paid off.

The house is clean and the fish are happy. I've got about 10 minutes to shower and move it on out for this 10am appointment.

Yesterday not much of anything happened, work wise. I was pretty worn out by volunteering all day Sunday, and we finished up Sunday night with a session on grief. Lot's crying participants. I spent the day cleaning and watching sex and the city.

Fiona dropped her blog, so I had to edit my template links. I'm bummed. I think she's feeling vulnerable by her breakup with Paul and overwhelmed by the impending law school tests. She probably has a good point, though -- my blog is pretty fluffy. It's not the same as what I'd put in my journal.

Ok, 3 minutes left for a shower. Crap.

long weekend

I spent most of the weekend volunteering... it was really long. Today it's grey, rainy, and cold outside. Blah.

sami get's baptised

My niece sami was baptised yesterday.

weekend, sleep

I've been sleeping like crap lately. I mean, I always sleep badly, but lately it's been particularly horrible. About the only time I get any decent sleep recently is when I take trazadone, which is a prescription sleep aid.

Yesterday I took Javon to the natural history museum. It was fun. Today I'm stuck volunteering all day for fisher because we're making up 2 classes today instead of 1. It's going to be a long day.

It looks a little grey and cold out today. I usually sleep with the window open and a fan in there (sans fan in winter) and this morning the bedroom was a bit icy. Perfect sleeping weather....

I've been completely addicted to sex and the city lately. I hardly ever watch TV, but netflix has been bringing me season after season... and it's been fun.

I talked to Dave Craigie the other day, who I've known since high school. It sounds like he's doing pretty well out there in MN. I'll have to visit when I get up there this summer.

Well, I might be procrastinating on the gym thing this morning, so I should go... I have an hour of cardio to finish before this volunteering thing today.

coral banded shrimp vrs. snail

The coral banded shrimp and a snail are arguing over a piece of krill. The snail is stuck to the bottom.

Friday

www.meetin.org

Is an interesting site. Check out your city and see if there is one near you. Denver is pretty big, with probably about 1500 members. Basically it's an activity site.

John, Dan and I went downtown for a meet in Denver event which lasted to about 2am....tired today.

The workout went fine, I'm actually starting to feel like a normal non-sick person again.

I was out this morning for a while for a hospice meeting. They are trying to get me into the training program that starts May 2nd. I'm planning on being a hospice patient volunteer.

The fish and critters seem to be doing fine. I picked up some new frozen food and they seem to like it.

Tonight Lori and I are off to a play.

Tank testing

I test for a moderate amount of things in the saltwater tank weekly:

temperature
salinity
oxygen (not very often)
calcium
ph
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
phosphate

Today I ordered test kits for magnesium and iodine. While I was at it, I included some supplements I've been buying locally -- they were much cheaper online.

I spend time at the local fish store with the owners trying to pick up some hints. They do free tests there for ammonia, ph, nitrate, nitrite only. A lot of customers don't even test the water themselves. They just bring in a water sample when things start dying. By then it's too late. I've seen some pretty fucked up water tests while customers tell sad stories of lots of dead fish.

It's amazing how complicated the hobby can be, if you actually want to spend the time to learn it. It's basically an ongoing chemistry experiment, in which most people it seems from what I've seen locally don't have much of a clue.

Sometimes I wonder why they don't just put that $100 fish in the microwave.

yesterday

The weather was so nice yesterday that I spent the day working on the yard. It's an endless task.

I didn't sleep well last night, so I feel crummy today.

The tank specs yesterday were off a bit. The ph was 7.8, which is too low. I've started adding buffer to bring it to 8.3.

I need an alkalinity test kit. If the alkalinity is off it will make it hard to keep the ph in line.

2005-04-16 wine event pictures

Wine event pictures, April 16, 2005 Barbera.

Click to view.

Next wine event May 14, 2005 Gewürztraminer

Enjoy wine, friends and fun at the next wine event:
Saturday May 14, 2005, 7pm.
Gewürztraminer, $30 or less.

Gewürztraminer
[guh-VURTS-trah-mee-ner, geh-VEHRTZ-trah-mee-ner]
Cultivated for over a thousand years, this white-wine grape (sometimes referred to simply as Traminer) is thought to have originated in the village of Tramin (or Temeno) in Italy's ALTO ADIGE region. Although this variety is not now widely planted in Alto Adige, some of the better Gewürztraminer wines still come from that region. Gewürztraminer grapes are planted in ALSACE, a French region between Germany and France that specializes in excellent DRY Gerwürztraminer wines. They're also cultivated in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, and Ukraine. Because they perform better in cooler climates, Gewürztraminer grapes have not done well in many of California's warmer growing regions. However, they thrive in cooler California areas such as CARNEROS, ANDERSON VALLEY, and MONTEREY COUNTY, as well as in parts of Oregon and Washington. Down under, New Zealand's cooler climate is better than Australia's for this grape. The German word gewürtz means "spiced," and these wines are known for their CRISP, SPICY attributes. They're highly fragrant, with flavor characteristics of litchis, roses (or flowers in general), and spices such as cloves and nutmeg. Gewürztraminer wines are available in varying degrees of sweetness-dry, medium-sweet, and LATE HARVEST. Because of the grape's pinkish (sometimes yellow) pigment, Gewurtztraminer wines are some of the more deeply colored of the whites, many have gold or peach tones. The distinctive color and AROMA of these wines make them easily recognizable by those familiar with this VARIETAL WINE. This is a wine that's best drunk fairly young-even VINTAGE Gewürztraminers rarely age well over 5 years. The Gewurtztraminer grape has myriad names, many beginning or ending with Traminer, such as Traminer Musqué, Traminer Parfumé, Traminer Aromatique (or Aromatico), and Rotor Traminer. Gewürztraminer is also called Edeltraube, Rousselet, Savagnin Rosé, Tramini, and Traminac.


Special instructions: Bring some food to share with the group, and one bottle of wine per person or couple.





Download printable directions and info here.
Get a mapquest map here.
Join the e-mail list.
Send an email RSVP.

workout, taxes, play

I had a nice workout this morning. I also got around to doing my taxes. I e-filed them a few minutes ago. Tonight I'm going to a play with Lori -- 'fire on the mountain'. It should be fun.

Tomorrow night is the wine party. Hopefully Saturday will work out for people a bit better than Fridays.

I need to file some company taxes at the bank, and get some cash as well. The jeep needs the mud hosed off before I get dressed up for the play. There is probably nothing worse than looking fine and winding up muddy from your vehicle on entry/exit.

I cooked one of those big pork tenderloin things from cosco last weekend, so lunch every day has been a bbq pork sandwich. I'm getting kind of sick of it, but there is not much left at this point. I probably should have cut the thing in half.

I traded the blenny yesterday for a green chromis. I also bought a few more live rocks for the tank.

I ordered some books on marine tanks from Amazon yesterday. Both of my female camel back shrimps have eggs on them now, and it would be interesting to try to raise the fry. We'll see.

Petroscirtes temmincki

Petroscirtes temmincki, also known as a "scooter blenny" was a gift from Lori this week. It's an interesting and fun to watch fish, but it's not right for the tank I'm putting together. It's a sand sifting carnivore, so it will eat the copepods in the sand and eventually starve to death. I want copepods in the sand to consume detris, so the fish needs to go back.

I called petco, where she picked him up a couple of days ago, and this is how it went:
petco: "we don't guarantee salt water fish."
sean: "but he isn't dead. I just want to return him."
petco: "well, you can bring him back, but we don't guarantee salt water fish."
sean: "well, what does that mean."
petco: "You can bring him back, but we won't pay you for him.'
sean: "but he's not dead."
petco: "ok then."

Great. I love retail idiots.

Push the button

Wired like a christmas tree

I spent last night wired like a xmas tree for a sleep study. I slept like crap...go figure.

Paguristes cadenati

Paguristes cadenati is known by the common name scarlet reef hermit crab.
Unfortunately, this is also a scarlet reef hermit crab:

What's left of it, anyway.

Maybe I should have bought a cat instead. Two cats, even.

Amphiprion ocellaris

The ocellaris is also known as the 'false percula clownfish'. One theory recently is that she (she's are bigger) killed my 3 damsels. We'll see if and how long she stays.

So how to tell? Do you just toss in another fish or two and see if they come up dead in the morning? The funny thing about the 'bad ro/salt mix water' theory is that everything else is alive. It's hard to kill damsels. That's why I bought them. If there was something going on in the tank, then the invertebrates should have died first if it was some kind of systemic problem.

Maybe I should scotch tape a shark fin on the thing.

The dead fish looked fine to me, other than the dead part. No marks, no funny spots, cloudy eyes, goofy looking gills, etc.

It's still a mystery.

The tank of death -- job hunt

Well, 3 fish croaked yesterday. I have two working theories...one involves contaminated RO/salt water mix and a partial water change...but the other involves a new clown fish I added at the same time. The fish is quite big and aggressive...it might have gone after the other fish.

I started looking for a full time job today. I've got $15K out to clients that aren't paying, and a new project I was starting on this week that went on permanent hold. I still have work going on, but it's basically a cash flow nightmare.

It's not worth it anymore.

Fish goes to the bottom

One of the larger chromis fish (a damsel) went to the bottom during the night. Chromis are hard to kill, so it's puzzling. I retested the tank and the specific gravity, temp, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are all fine.

Crazy April blizzard in progress here. Some of the roads are already starting to close.

I put the bio-balls back in the tank last night after doing a partial water change. The nitrates were stuck at 10ppm and not really going down after a week.

Symphony, tank

Last night Lori and I went to the symphony. It was fun. Yesterday I bought some more critters for the tank. Here are the pictures:

Arrow crab


Coral banded shrimp


Camel shrimp

Today I'm working, cleaning the house, relaxing. I have a couple of parties I could go to tonight, but I'd rather relax at home. It's been a few weeks since I've had some time alone.

find not just not doing it

Well, findnot.com just isn't doing it. I tried hqhost, and it's not much better -- yes, they actually do work, but no service I've tried yet has speed that isn't crippled compared to the normal connection. I can live with a bit of difference, but not 10x slower. I had expected these VPN connection to be much faster.

Live from space -- almost

The red BMW, parked in front of my old office back in April 24, 2002.

Click

Find Not dot com

I set up an account with findnot.com today. Basically they let you set up an encrypted VPN connection to their servers. This lets me randomize my IP address, and encrypt data through my ISP to the internet. Maybe I'm getting paranoid in my old age...

The only problem is that it seems to be working not so well. I have some emails to their tech support -- we'll see how it goes.

Emerald crab

Everyone needs a hobby

Tank and shrimp

Tank stats this morning:
Temp 76F
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm

Ideally the Nitrates would be zero. We'll see if the live sand kicks in and takes over the Nitrate -> Nitrogen conversion. I may give it a week.

If the Nitrates go over 10 pppm I'll do some partial water changes. I've been testing for Nitrates 2x a day, morning and night.

I'm late for the gym...

Drive to springs

I drove to CO springs today to have dinner with the parents. They go back Wednesday and tomorrow the weather is supposed to be crummy here.

I spent some time working on the tank today. Saturday I started pulling out some of the bio-balls in the trickle filter. I have about 420 pounds of live sand and I'm hoping that the bio-balls won't be necessary with a NNR setup (natural nitrite-nitrate reduction). My nitrates are up from zero to about 5ppm, so I did a partial water change this morning. Everything else is in spec. I also cleaned the block filter materials in the drip tray, bubble block, and power head inlets. I need to do that at least weekly. The tank has some cloudiness to it that hopefully can be filtered out.

The brown diatoms are completely gone, after covering the tank for 4 days and keeping it completely dark. All that goop went into the sump and I vacuumed it out today as well.

I really need to get some billing in tomorrow.

You will be missed