2016 - A year to make things fun

This year has been the year of doing. Doing around the house and the most fun doing outside of the house. We've been a few places and have plans to go to others but the around the house stuff has been the most fun. A few builds of things like a door i owed my wife for I don't know the last five years or so and several little festivals that were cheap to free but loads of fun for the little girl.  This is the way life should be, minor to major concerns ignored in the background but family and doing put first over the other things that really don't mean much. This last couple weeks I've been working on taking the three aquariums we have and merging them into a single Freshwater tank of about 120 gallons. To do this I had one plan but both impatience, excitement and dollars are stopping me form pursuing the initial plan. So I'm changing it up a bit, a more simplified split tank than I originally envisioned but sometimes skill level and dollar amount change the plan, this is life.

The current Idea is taking the 120 gallon aquarium and spiting it into two, one about 30 gallons and the other well 90-ish. This has been done with a small piece of plex with many 1/4" holes drilled through it. Thinking the one side will have feeders and plants mostly I want an occasional fish to find its way through the holes and randomly feed the main tank. That portion is set up and cycling the tank. This tank is huge, I mean for my living space it is giant. I set it about 4 1/2 inches off the wall which is more than normal for any tank I know. I have it up on a mat with holes, the rubber ones used in garages for work areas or restaurant kitchens, I figure this will allow any minor water to evaporate off the wood floors underneath. It has a sump with an overflow box, this isn't my first choice but I can not drill the tank, issue is the overflow is 4 3/4" thick, so I can not put it behind the tank. I also made the mistake of not water testing the overflow before installing it on the side, well Learned that lesson as it dripped, I was obviously watching it to check for leaks but still upsetting since it was a used tank, I just assumed. Another reason to double check others work. I replaced the bulk heads that were causing the leak and now besides some minor tightening the sump is working well. Just used some CPVC and a couple hose connectors to bring it back into the tank.

I have a bunch of round pond stone and coral stone for the layout currently but do not think I'm going to permanently use either. Maybe the coral because it is more holey than than the pond round stones and more of a white color for the look i think I'm going to go for. Right now the 30 side has black substrate and is planted with some of the plants and a piece of drift wood I had in the old tank. Some Corey's and feeders are swimming happily in there with a few ghost shrimp cycling the overall tank. The 90 side will have Africans, not sure 100% on what type but I'm leaning towards Malawi Peacock's.  Well more to come as the ideas and time to write stuff up appears. Cycle cycle cycle..
Thanks,

Crazy times

I keep reading this caused the shooting that caused the shooting. Most everyone is saying it's the guns fault or the religions fault. No one is focusing on the surroundings of the person. This person could not of been loved. We know he wasn't loved like the people in the club. Those people are loved, there to find love and sharing the love they had. Even if it was the love of a song, a dance or that drink and conversation. The shooter had none of that. No one rushed to save "its" life, the first thoughts of the first responders weren't who's shooting it was how do we get those people out. The first thoughts of the good guys with guns were, how do we get those people out. Those people, not the shooter. The second thought was how do we stop that thing. Not that human, not that person not even that animal. They had no word to describe the thing killing the people, the humans, their friend's, their family the ones they loved. People save other people for love. You don't need to know someone to love them. You look and unconsciously say you are like me a human, I love you. It's not the same love as you have for your child or a spouse but it's still love.
People inherently love, we don't even know it's love most times. You look at a sunset and you say it's beautiful or I'd love to be there. You take a deep breath of fresh air and you think I love this. We love everything wonderful around us.
This "thing" had no love. He had a wife sure but apparently there was no love there, he had a family but no love there. He had an idea an idea of hate he confused with love. You can not have hate and love. I have no love for this thing, he lost that the moment he lost his humanity. It is a shame because before he became a thing maybe there could have been love. I wish he would have had enough love to have stopped; before people who now have to grieve for the love they lost.

I love you all.

2016 Starts the year off right

Riley is 5 and we've signed her up for school. Shes 5 and we've signed her up for school. I repeated that because I still can believe it. Shes at that point in life where she wants to be lifted up still but my body is saying my goodness girl you are getting big. She is a little person, well she's always been a little person but now she is truly her own little person. She loves dance, gymnastic and soccer. If asked which one do you like least or which one would you give up if we couldn't do them all she says "I like all of them". So hopefully with that I stay employed for all of time, being in tech you know how it can be, because I need to afford all three. Dare we introduce her into anything else?
She is starting to read little by little and we find her trying it on her own from time to time, which is always encouraging. She loves to watch videos about everything, some great like plant growth and to hear a little girl say the word photosynthesis in a sentence is amazing. Absolutely loves the planets and I hope will pursue a carrier where she helps us leave this planet one day so I can live vicariously through her. It's on the list of about 5 things she wants to become so we shall see how she grows into it. Really just wanted to pop up a little blurb of something and will pop up some more another day. I feel excitement coming. 

Family vacation

Oh the fun, the joys, the vacation you need after you take a family vacation.... Just took our daughter to the Mouse World in Orlando this week. We purchased the four day passes and used three of the days at the parks. Disney is spectacular they really go out of their way to make it special for the kids and family. Don't get me wrong you pay for it but besides food, parking and twelve dollar balloons it's worth it. They truly are the best at making you believe magic is real.

Bottom line is we had a great time and will enjoy using day four at some point this year. The girl was in shock at every character meeting and I have no doubt that was her favorite part. Worth every quarter to see her faces. We will be back one more time this year and then maybe in a couple after that. Sorry for all the friends who say get passes, I don't want Disney to become a regular thing. I want it to remain special and be a memory not a story in school that starts with well I've meet Mickey Mouse 40 times this year. I think that brings the magic down a notch.

Memories are made special because you remember them, not because you experience them again.

Just my thoughts.

The rework

I'm in the process of reworking my web page into this new format. Don't be surprised if you see a few changes and things flip flopping a bit. I'm as always trying to become more active on all of this but the single format people tend to stick to doesn't work with the way I think. I love the multiple things at any single time. Managing twenty blogs isn't practical with life and work. So that's it for this post just know everything is merging into this blogger format and check out AJBrew.com the little hobby a buddy and I started a while back that's very enjoyable. Also I've got a fish tank idea for the cichlid tank, something I think will make them feel a bit more at home.

Josh