Last Lecture

 On November 7, I attended the last lecture of my mentor at BYU. Dr. Mandleco was my faculty advisor for my honors thesis, so I was able to get to know her quite well during my last year there. She mostly talked about her research and how it was enriched by her work with students. (I even got a mention.) Afterwards, there was a luncheon in her honor. However, the fire alarm went off, so it was cut short. I found it slightly hilarious that I was at BYU for five years, and this was the first time that I experienced a fire drill.

Every time I go back to BYU, I get very nostalgic. Despite all of the drama those five years entailed, they really were some of the most fun years of my life, plus all of that drama shaped me into a much better person and also better equipped me to handle drama. Most of all, I miss all of my friends, especially my many roommates. Keeping in touch on Facebook and stalking their blogs just isn’t the same as being able to just chat with them whenever I want. However, I don’t miss the stress of school. Yes, I know that I am in grad school right now, but BYU was so much harder. There was constant pressure to keep my scholarship, as well as be accepted to the nursing program, plus trying to keep all of the information from four or more classes straight got kind of dicey at times. I also shake my head at my younger self when I think of all the drama because most of it was self-inflicted. I really had it pretty good. Plus, the whole being an old maid thing worked out in the end, and I am grateful that it worked out the way it did, even if it means I pretty much have an aquarium in my basement. I think Kevin was worth the wait.

P.S. I thought I had a picture of Dr. Mandleco and I from graduation, but apparently I failed at getting one. Oops.

Triceraboxer

Since we don’t have kids, we have to dress Luna up for Halloween. We tied her to our coffee table, so people could see her, but she couldn’t attack them with her tongue or take herself on any adventures. She was quite a hit with the teenage girl demographic. One group of girls even snapped her picture with their phone.

29 Years

Back at the beginning of October, I celebrated my 29^th birthday, although I use the word celebrate very loosely, as I was beyond sick. I was scheduled to work three days in a row due to my mother’s surgery and my plans to take some PTO, which I was not excited about (working three in a row, not the PTO, I always like time off work), nor was I excited about working on my birthday. The morning of my first shift I woke up around 4 am feeling crummy; however, it was too late to call in sick (we have to do that at least four hours prior to our shift), so I sucked it up and went to work, hoping I would somehow feel a little bit better. I did a little bit, but mostly because I was working with my coworker who is a recent breast cancer survivor, and it is hard to feel sorry for myself, when I think of everything she has gone through this year. All day I went back and forth between trying to decide if I wanted to call in sick the next day or not. I figured it would look fishy if I called in sick on my birthday and right before I left on “vacation.” However, once I got home and felt even worse, I decided that I didn’t care what my coworkers thought, plus I was pretty sure they would be okay not sharing my germs, so I called in sick and the majority of the next two days were spent on my couch or in bed sleeping. I think it was my “favorite” birthday ever. 

I was still feeling really crummy on Friday, the day I was supposed to go to my moms, but I figured I had already committed to helping my parents out, and in theory their couch was as comfortable as mine. I did mostly chillax when I got there on Friday, but Saturday was filled with errands, plus I was trying to help Kevin find his elk license (which he found once he drove back to Salt Lake). After all of that I was exhausted and it felt like my oxygen saturations were in the toilet. I felt like my brain was beyond oxygen deprived. My parents (especially my father) were starting to freak out a bit, so they talked me into going to the instacare in Park City. Of course I was fine, but the doctor had me freaked out about a pulmonary embolism caused by birth control pills. Plus, on top of that, the MA was someone I went to high school with, so that made me feel even more like a hypochondriac. After a chest x-ray, labs, and a breathing treatment, they decided I wasn’t going to immediately die, so they sent me home. I think I finally felt better a couple of days later. This visit was more low-key than previous visit, as I didn’t have to deal with the woolies or garden. My dad and Luna didn’t even clash much. I even almost convinced my dad’s friend Lynn that Luna wasn’t a bloodthirsty killer. Plus, it was refreshing that I only had to work one shift before I had my next day off.

Truck Canopy

Back in September, Kevin’s dad found a canopy/camper shell for Kevin’s Tacoma for a really good price. (Interesting side note, I grew up calling it a camper shell, while Kevin called it a canopy. I had gotten used to Kevin’s use of canopy, so I had called my mom to tell her we had a truck canopy, and she had no idea what I was talking about.) Unfortunately it was in Logan. However, that didn’t deter Kevin, and we were off to Logan, where we managed to get lost trying to find the guy’s apartment. Apparently Google Earth hasn’t figured out Logan yet. Anyways we got there, and Kevin did his usual thorough examination for every tiny scratch, then we bought it. After we bought it and we were putting it on our truck, I found out that the seller grew up in Oakley and was friends with one of my cousins, plus his wife had ties to a Kamas Valley family. Super small world.

 After we put on the canopy, we decided to head further north and buy a Reverse Osmosis Water Filter for our salt water tank. It actually makes water taste really good, just ask Luna… 

 

That bucket of water did not go in the fish tank.

Dinner and a Movie

Back at the end of August, our schedules finally aligned and we were able to spend a few hours on a Saturday with Kate and Alex. We met up downtown to eat at Benihanas. I was in the middle of a detox diet when we went, so I figured this would be a good alternative, plus I’ve always wanted to go there. The food was pretty good, but it was kind of awkward having the chef there the whole time. After we ate, we watched Despicable Me 2. As expected, it was hilarious. It was fun to hang out with Kate and Alex. Hopefully we can do it again when Alex has another break from law school.

Fish Updates

At the beginning of August, Kevin was perusing KSL, while I was trying to unwind after a long day of work. He came bounding into the living room, and asked me if I wanted to go get a free clown fish with him. I gave him a strange look and asked him how we were going to care for a salt water fish, as we did not have a salt water tank. He reminded me that he had bought one earlier in the summer. He had some salt left over from when he bought his fish tank four years ago, so we spent the next ten to fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to jump start a salt water tank. We figured out the salinity, then we were off with our bucket to get the fish. Clown fish are quite small. So small in fact that they really don’t fit into a bucket. It was a harrowing drive back home, as the fish was stressed in being moved so many times in one night, had been in extremely warm water, and didn’t really have enough water to properly cover him unless the bucket was quite tipped. This of course did not work well for my mental state (I actually used to have a strong fear of fish prior to my house being turned into an aquarium, and there are still remnants of that.), so Kevin had to both drive and keep the fish alive. For the first couple days we didn’t expect the fish to still be alive when we woke up or came home, but he made it, and we were soon on our way to salt-water aquarium-keeping.

Our next additions to the tank were a hammer coral and a zoanthid. I didn’t go with Kevin when he bought it, so no stories related to these two.

 

Hammer Coral

Zoanthid

Our next trip was to Daybreak. We went with the intention of buying some more live rock, but left with some rock, a mandarin goby, a snail, and some hermit crabs, including a ginormous one. Apparently I haven't taken a photo of the snail with my phone. Maybe I will find it on the camera at some point?

Mandarin Goby and a blurry Elvis

 

A few weeks later we got lost on our way to the next house. The guy was horrible at direction, and his tank was kind of atrocious since he was never around to clean it (why he was selling stuff). We bought a brown tang (a Dory-fish) named Elvis and a leather thumb. Elvis’s growth was horribly stunted from the bad conditions, and he sadly ended up dying about a month later or more. The leather was kind of dejected-looking, but it was now plumped up.

   

The next addition to our tank was a shrimp. Kevin bought it from a guy by the U of U. I was at work, so Luna accompanied him on that journey. He gave us a scare a few weeks later when we thought he had died. We felt bad about it, but while I was attended area conference with my mom (Kevin was home sick), the following text conversation occurred (I tried to figure out how to do a screen shot, but it was a lost cause): 

Kevin:  My shrimp is still fine it just molted and I didn’t know that the molt had so many features to look like the full shrimp.

Megan: I guess we need to study shrimp behavior. That is kind of funny.

Kevin: Ya. I thought it as well when it magically came out while I was looking at the tank. Lol.

The shrimp molted again a few days ago, but it was only slightly unsettling this time.

 

We also bought a couple of maroon clowns from the same guy that we bought the hammer coral and zoanthid. They are smaller than the tomato clown, so he bullies them. It was amazing to see this guy’s tank. He lived with his parents in a double-wide, yet he had this awesome tank full of corals in his bedroom. I guess it is all about where you place your priorities. I would rather have my nice house and such than an amazing reef tank (Yes, I know that we have our huge stingray tank, but that is beside the point.) Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the maroon clowns, so I guess that will be a later update.

Next we bought a toadstool from another Daybreak resident (He lived in one of the Energy Star solar powered houses which was kind of interesting.) It is ginormous and pretty much takes up the center of the tank. It is actually quite beautiful when it is fully “bloomed.” However, it is quite finicky and shrivels up at the slightest irritation. The picture below is not its full “blooming,” but you kind of get an idea of what it looks like.

We also got an anemone a few weeks ago, but I have not uploaded the pictures of it yet, so I guess that will be the next update. As you can guess our tank is getting a bit busy (especially since the anemone split recently). From pretty much the beginning of getting into the salt water aquarium, Kevin has wanted to upgrade to a larger tank. We went and looked at quite a few tanks along the Wasatch Front, but eventually found one in West Jordan (go figure). Most of the others included fish, coral, and rock, but this one didn’t. That might seem like a bad thing, but it actually isn’t. A lot of the tanks had not had the greatest maintenance, so the corals didn’t look fantastic and most of the fish weren’t really stellar. Plus, it takes a bit to set up a salt water tank, so we would have had to buy everything at once to get up and running. This tank was just a metal stand, the tank, and a really nice sump tank set up. It isn’t the prettiest, but the stand is built out of metal and really sturdy, plus we don’t have to worry about water damage to the wood like on many of the stands. Currently it is sitting empty next to our little biocube. At some point we will set it up, but we still need lights and a pump, so it is taking a while to get there. Plus, the small tank looks really nice as it is, so Kevin isn’t overly worried about it.

And now for the freshwater tank update. We sold all of our African cichlids (so most of the fish in the update from April), and we have consolidated all of our fresh water fish to two tanks (plus the guppies, but they don’t really count). It is mostly just bass and stingrays now, but we still have Jack, the albino Oscar, the Flower Horns, and our arowana.  Here are some pictures of the big tank:

Kevin's pride and joy, the female mantilla

The male Bahia, another one of Kevin's favorites

The jaguar who looks like she is getting ready to attack something. (It looks like I was working on scout stuff at the desk.)

Fatty just being big.