Random Act of Hatred

We have all heard the phrase random acts of kindness. We have all been on the receiving end of someone's generosity and care. Last night, I was on the receiving end of a random act of hatred. At least I hope it was random and not targeted. While DD was in rehearsal someone stabbed a three inch nail into my rear passenger tire. I did not see it when we got in as it was the other side but I promptly heard the whamp, whamp, whamp as I tried to leave the parking lot.
A three inch nail in the side, I had not run over it, it was jabbed in there. Mean people suck.
The people at the front desk, wondered if someone had mistaken my vehicle for an ex lovers. My husband wondered if I pissed someone off at the theater or cut someone off on my way into the parking lot. Um, no and no. I wonder if someone was dared to do it as a part of an initiation. Whoever it was for whatever reason, they suck.
Thankfully our second vehicle was being unused at the moment. And thankfully, I have a dad who loves me enough to leave the comforts of home at 10pm to come get us and take us to our extra vehicle.
Unfortunately, the timing is horrible as I have a jam-packed day from taxi service, to kid's club in the garden, back to taxi services, cooking our recipe of the day, and dress rehearsal at the theater tonight. Somewhere in there I will be adding, call the tire shop, pay for a new tire, have it installed and figure out how to get an extra vehicle home. Insert sad face and a sigh.

When Roller Skates Attack

With as much water sopped up as possible I put three fans on the carpet. One fan which I had borrowed, unknowingly had a faulty plug. It sparked and blew the circuit. Thankfully the computer, on that same outlet was fine. With the basement drying out and I decided to join my sister and her family roller skating. I needed to get out of the house and hey, 5oo+ calories burned an hour, I was in.
The kids and I arrived and got into our skates. I purchased roller skates with tax money last year. My thought was to skate for cardio every now and then. Over the course of nearly a year I have probably used them for less than 3 hours. Not as much as I had originally intended. But I used them yesterday.
Let me take you back for a moment. Skating. When I was a teen I lived and breathed skating. I was at the rink nearly every Friday and some Saturdays. It was a cool hang out. So I love skating. I am a good skater. I know the moves.
Fast forward to yesterday. The kids were comfortable early on so I was able to skate independently. Cruising along, having a great time. Every time I passed the kids I got smiles and thumbs up. My sister and I would encourage them as they were doing a great job. Everyone was having a good time. Some are a little sore in parts but nothing terrible.
The first special comes along, the chicken dance. You know the hands, flap your wings, shake your booty and clap, clap clap. Then the little spin around part. Well, I was spinning alright. So fast that I got dizzy and BOOM, flat out on my booty. The tail bone to be exact. Ouch. I got up and continued to participate, just no more spinning for me.
With nothing permanently damaged I continued on with the all skate. Songs came and went and around and around I went. Feeling pretty good about this little trip out. That was until about an hour and a half into it, when my skates attacked. I was going around the corner at a pretty fast clip. The next thing I know I am flying forward and landing on my hands and knees. I had no clue what happened. Nobody pushed me, I didn't run into anybody. A glance back revealed the issue. The front two wheels of my left skate completely fell off. Fell off as in no longer attached to my skate. Meaning I got to test out the laws of motion. Body moving forward, left foot braking, causing me to fall. Flat out.
A worker at the rink retrieved the wheels as I pulled myself up off the floor and hobbled to the side. In seconds I had three workers at my side. One took the skate and looked at it. None of them had ever seen anything like that happen before. The skate, unrepairable. It appears to have snapped. Most likely a manufacturers defect. Since I bought them there and I had worn them so little they took the skates for the owner to look at. Taking my name and number. We will see what comes of that. I am hoping th manufacturer will replace them.
In the meantime they gave me a pair of their skates to continue skating with. They were so tight and uncomfortable that lasted about a minute and then I called it a day.
Flooding, sparking outlet and attacking skates. Not really my day.
I went home drew some bath water, poured in some salts and soaked for a long time. Then I got into my jammies and crawled into bed. I did Sudoku puzzles until I was ready to sleep. I told my mom I was afraid to cook so I opted for a frozen dinner for me and chicken nuggets and french fries for the kids.
Today, I have determined will be much better. It's off to a good start. The basement carpet is dry . I am battered and bruised but moving. And there has been nothing out of the ordinary thus far.
Oh and just in case you were wondering I burned 787 calories while roller skating. When I weighed myself this morning I had lost another 3 pounds. See today IS going to be a good day!

Where Did The Water Go?

In our basement not far from my computer desk, we have a 150 gallon tank. This tank is home to Peewee, the turtle, an unnamed plecostomus and a crayfish that likes to hang out under the filtration system. Since Peewee is still quite small we have the tank set up to be about 15 gallons of water with gravel land should he want to walk about. Last night I was doing some computer stuff and noticed the water was getting low. I usually add about 5-10 gallons a week so I already had a 5 gallon bucket filled and setting out. I got the bucket and added it. The water still looked low. So I added another 5 gallons without my normal 24 hour wait to get the chlorine out.
This morning, I went to say good morning to Peewee. And there was no water. It was like a peninsula of gravel with small amounts of water on the side where Peewee has scraped the gravel back over time. Poor Mr Plecostumus had found one such pocket of water and was hanging out there. Where did all the water go? I knew that I had added 10 gallons the night before. And now there was hardly anything. A quick glance through the tank revealed the culprit, the air tube. My son had been playing with it yesterday afternoon and inadvertently created a siphon. All afternoon and evening the water tricked out of the tank onto the carpeted floor. I figure probably 20+ gallons. Doh. I have added 4 gallons ad will gradually add more as the day goes on until it is back to normal. The guy at the pet store recommended water changes but I don't think this is what he had in mind.
Bad news: I have a mess to clean up and carpet to dry out.
Good news: Son learned the effects of a siphon and won't be playing with the tube anytime soon.


Here is Peewee and the Plecostomus after the I added the 4 gallons.