projects around the house

C has been scrapbooking a lot lately! We didn't get to go to St. Louis (because of the bad weather), so instead of seeing a
Blues hockey game, C did some Blues scrapbooking.



We worked on a Times Square puzzle, which was a lot of fun! The puzzle now sits on a piece of plywood on our living room floor, because we haven't gotten around to gluing it together. V has several unfinished projects, so this may be on the floor for a while.















V finally overhauled the aquarium tonight. Algae has been slowly taking over, because we haven't done enough water changes to get rid of the nitrates that build up (Algae thrives on nitrates). This is what the tank looked like before....

Time to give the rocks a haircut! About a half a pitcher worth...yuck! C would not let me make a smoothy out of this stuff, but surely it would have been healthy, right?

V rebuilt the lighting fixture for the aquarium as well. We used to have a Coralife fixture, with two bulbs, but V got a third bulb and ballast from a friend at work. So....he gutted the two-bulb fixture and mounted all three bulbs to the aquarium top, with new reflectors behind each bulb. Also, the ballasts are now mounted on the back of the aquarium top...out of the way, and they stay cooler. Wow, 195 watts of light!

Ooooooo....Ahhhhhhh! It's SOO bright and clear now! Just about burns your retinas when you enter the kitchen. We did a water change tonight, and one will follow tomorrow. We need some new snails to eat any algae that decides to grow again.

Time to relax! We found a recipe for orange creamsicle shakes that taste EXACTLY like Orange Julius drinks. If you've never had one, stop by for a treat! They're incredible!

Had to squeeze in some Settlers....this game is addicting! If you haven't played Settlers of Catan, you're missing out!!