Jenna

Hey All, My Fiancee's business are auctioning off a sign they've had outside the shop since shortly after the Feb 22 quake. It has become a local icon and brings a (very much needed) smile to everyone who passes it. Trademe had made it a featured auction on their home page but it's time seems to be up, so its time to spread the word as virally as possible - through forums, facebook and any other social networking available. Here's the auction link: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=375425589 Please... post it on your facebook page and ask everyone to hit "like" to post it to their own walls. Post it on any other forums you are members of. Email it to people. Pass it on in any way you can. This is a cool auction and a great cause! Thanks heaps, Jenna

She (i think) is a bit shaken up after the quake and is missing company as all her tankmates died after the lack of healthy water in the wake of the September quake. :tears: Shes a small bristlenose pleco (about an inch long last I saw her) and loves to hide - but her tank is about to be decommissioned until after we have had major repairs done on our house. I'm in the Waltham area but can't deliver far as roads are just too mental, so pickup or delivery to someone close-ish. ASAP would be great as her tank is supposed to be turned off tonight

haha yep, but far better during the day than in the middle of the night as usual!

Not memory fade, it just rarely happens. The faultline causing all this has been inactive for over 16,000 years

Georgeous, calm, warm, spectacularly sunny day here today. No trace of the winds any more and just a few things blown around - nothing broken (at least from that). Going through the EQC claim motions today - they'll send someone out to assess the house and likely tell us it is uninhabitable. I'm pretty sure (and builder friend agrees) that the damage to our main outside wall is irrepairable and the house will have to go On the up side, we removed the main chimney in November last year. If we hadn't done that it would definitely have collapsed - internally as well as the part above the roof - and destroyed everything in our living area. So we've lost a few Treasures and a lot of useless stuff, but the important things are intact - including ourselves. I think I'll spend the day in the garden.

lol I think he was on his way out of the bed to as the stuff was on its way onto it - in the pic he had gone back to bed to try and nap (at about 9am)

crappy, crappy nights sleep. First noticeable shock (at least first one I didn't sleep through) was just before 3, then a few around 5.30, then 7ish (with wee ones in between) - but it doesn't matter if they're small or big, you're always instantly wide awake and paranoid that it will grow. I read an article yesterday explaining that the prediction that there will be a big aftershock is based on statistics of other large quakes in the past - most were followed by an aftershock of around one point on the richter scale lower than the original. This doesn't always happen, but statistically it is apparently more likely than not. Great. Cat is hungry againy lol, fishies haven't sploshed any more yet, I'm behind on my work and can't get far enough into my workroom to get to my sewing machines yet. Here's a pic of my friend in my guest bed/workroom after the shelves had emptied onto him in the quake: - he didn't even notice! Aftershocks are still coming and I'm so over them!

i'm in the middle of Chch, water is out but we're lucky - unlike most of town we still have power. we have a 100yr old villa and will have to get out main outside wall looked at - lots of mortar fallen out from the bricks, a few good sized cracks. masses of stuff fallen off just about every surface in the house. Felt it start - not too unusual to get a small one - then it grew so I nudged my fiancee who was already awake. then it got bigger, we both yelled "go" and dived for the doorway but kept being thrown back to the bed! eventually we made it and were both in the same doorframe, stark naked, before we remembered we had a friend in the guest room! :oops: Aftershocks are still going, we had a break for a good hour or so but now they're every 5 mins or so again, many are up around 4, 4.5. Tanks are ok - water has splashed around a lot but fishies are ok. Phew Cat is just hungry :roll: as usual. Now we're getting reports of looters in town assholes! aftershocks still suck tho

I bought a couple at animates a couple years ago - they were sold as "gold kuhli loaches" and are so cool - thinner than regular kuhlis, no striped markings and they swim like mega fast eels and bury themselves in the gravel, sometimes sitting with only their heads sticking up. I think they're great and will get more when I see them!

Visiting family, eating too much and *still* digging the tyre garden :lol:

I've had acrylics before but only one at a time, when I've broken a natural nail just before an event I really want good nails for (rare lol). It feels different having a handful of them, but not bad and I can tell I'll get used to them really quickly. What I'm *really* looking forward to is being able to paint them and not have the polish fall off in a couple of days! bdspider, Andre was fun wasn't he! My favourite part though, was the look on Kaz's face when I told her about the gardening I was about to do despite the new nails.... it was a little like this --->

Well pufferfish is on her way home and I have a gorgeous set of nails - a great relief after a week of renovations and smashed natural nails! "learner's speed" is true but we had a fun day. Thanks "Sissy"! :lol: oh, and Caryl..... she's got lots of practising to do before her exam.... get those hands ready, she knows where you live!

most LFS will (or should) tell you that you can't keep 2 rainbow or red tailed sharks together as they are aggressively territorial. What many don't or can't tell you (because too many just don't know) is that algae eaters are a similar species and equally aggressive to each other. I was fortunate enough to have a rainbow shark and an algae eater who were reasonably compatible (or at least not aggressive), maybe because they were both young and introduced to the tank simultaneously. Usually though, putting the two together is a boo boo, and if they do have issues you may need to look at re-housing one or the other. Do try moving things around in the tank though, it can be very effective in breaking the territorial dominance.

Without cutting a hole in the security screen in either door, the cat door would become useless when the screen door was closed. I have known several people who have had very successful cat doors put into a window with a windowsill the cat could reach (one even built a ramp for the cat to climb to the windowsill!). Any glazier can cut a hole for a cat door. Many "handymen" claim to be able to do so as well, though make sure you trust their abilities before they start cutting your glass

PM'd

My sister walked up the aisle to Mark Knopfler's Storybook Love from the Princess Bride soundtrack - it was a perfect wedding song. Linky (bad quality sound but good enough for example )

i want a rotary hoe

you can? cool! I just took the "before" photos now, next job - and its a huge one - is to get out the hoe and even out the section a bit. Unfortunately it has been subjected to many years of doing nothing so the old vegetable plots have grown over and need flattened out and re-lawned. Still, there's my first load of soil already supplied! I've been trying to raise my first season's seeds in the greenhouse - mostly the tomatoes, chillies and capsicums - but the night temps have been a little too cold and there's been no sign of green, so yesterday I brought the seed trays inside and sat them on top of the aquarium. Today they're coming up!! Thanks for the suggestions for plants so far - I'll hopefully be up to buying the plants soon (though i think the yard flattening will take longer than I hope) Will definitely post pics when its worth seeing

I've decided to make a tyre garden. I already have a huge pile of old high performance tyres to start with and am about to start constructing it all tomorrow. It will be a border garden, mostly a single layer but increasing to 2 or sometimes 3 layers in corners (and wider to accommodate the tiers). I'm looking for suggestions on what to plant. The section gets full sunlight almost all day in summer, and the tyres will retain heat well. I am already sprouting sunflowers in the greenhouse, along with white elephant gypsophila, lots of different tomato varieties, chillies and capsicums. I've never had a lot of garden space until now, so flowers haven't been a focus before. I want pickables to put in a vase on the table, bright coloured space fillers, different heights and a few things which will cascade well over the terraced edges of the tyres. Also if possible, a few things which may still look reasonably attractive (or at least not dead lol) through winter Any ideas?

Heh, no kidding... I make them for a living (both roman blinds and drapes) and romans are significantly more expensive than drapes - though they are far more difficult and expensive to produce as well. Heir, I'm glad to hear the company gave you a decent discount, even just as recognition for the mistakes made. Hopefully the contractor will think seriously about his own actions in future!

My fiancee is a choc icing purist, but I love cream cheese icing with orange zest - it goes surprisingly well on banana cake mmmmmm cake 8)

Beef & red wine casserole It's not even lunchtime and I'm going mental

Poor Mr. Sharkey is on his way to cold sleep. His eye burst and he started floating upside down, stiff as a board, then having a frantic splash before floating again, so I've sent him to the freezer. I'm pretty confident that the wunder tonic couldn't have caused the eye to burst, so it must have just been inconvenient timing that he took such a turn for the worse a little after the tank was treated. Feargal was a really cool fish

yep, temp is up to 30 and airstone is in there. The salt I've added previously has been pretty minimal being in conjunction with other meds, so I'm upping that significantly, though being careful with that too - if he dies i don't want it being my fault! this sux :-?

yep, I've been adding a weak salt solution all along. It does look like he's intolerant to wunder tonic *sigh* I checked on him an hour after I treated the tank, and yep, on his side at the top again. I can't get anything right! so I did a bigger water change (about 30%), added carbon back in and upped the salt - looks like that's all I can use on him for the ich 2 steps forward, two back. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!