Does this Mac make my butt look fat?

So I got a Mac last night. Mister C has been feeling guilty for missing my last two birthdays and has decided to not only get me the camera he has been promising me, but a new laptop as well. All on his own. No help from me. I swear. No, really, I mean that.

I wasn't really sold on getting a Mac mostly because I've never had one and I was afraid it would be too difficult of a transition. Mister C insisted that we go to the Apple store and look at the one he thought would work best for me. My requirements are pretty simple. I need to be able to get to the Internet, work with my photos, and occasionally play Scrabble. That's it. I don't need the fancy graphics required for "Warcraft" or to be able to crunch numbers to the point of exhaustion. Just a simple machine that doesn't make me want to scream because the screen goes black at inopportune moments.

So I walk into the store and Mister C is standing at a machine with Master J next to him. He points to the laptop right next to them and says "See what you think of that." Okay, I'll click on a few icons and be on my way. Then I see the icon that says iPhoto and I think maybe I'll see what they have to offer. And oh. my. goodness. Do you know what you can do with iPhoto? Holy mother of all that is good, you can straighten, adjust, sort and even recognize the faces of the people in the photos. And this is standard. There's no adding of software to deal with. It's just a button on the screen. But even better, they have classes. Free classes. Just to teach you how to use it. Are you kidding me? Say no more because I am officially sold. Which worked out nicely because when I got home and logged into my old laptop, within five minutes I got hacked through Myspace. I shut it down and handed both laptops and all my passwords to Mister C to fix. Hey, he's got too many years of education and real world experience as a computer guru to not make himself useful in this situation. Anyway, the combination of getting the new laptop along with getting hacked is why I didn't blog last night. But I think I'm going to like this new laptop a whole bunch.

In other news, my clown loaches are on my bad list. I love clown loaches. Every time I move and have to give away all my fish, the first fish I get when my new tank is ready are clown loaches. They're cute little guys that are very active and fun to watch. They get pretty decent sized, but never seem to lose their goofy attitude. For a fish, that's saying a lot. But, part of their appeal is that they are curious about their surroundings. So they tend to get into trouble. I've had to back wash them out of an ornament in the tank in the past because they've swam full speed into a dark cave only to realize once they're in that there's not enough room to turn around and they can't swim backwards. Well, not me personally, Mister C really, but that's because my job is to watch the fish and his is to deal with any "hands on" stuff. It's a deal we have, it's in the marriage license. Anyway, so when I went to shut off the lights in the tank last night, I did my normal headcount. And my loaches weren't there. I looked in the tank from all directions. I poked through all the plants. I moved the rocks for goodness sakes (while praying none of my cichlids would decide they needed a snack). Nothing. No loaches. So I start looking for parts from what I am sure is some sort of fish carnage. Not an eyeball to be found. Hmmm. Now comes the fun part because all I'm left with are the pumps. There is a slight possibility that they could swim in to the outflow. The flow is pretty mild right now and they are still pretty small. It's not likely, but it is possible. And if there's any possibility that they got in there and they might be alive, I have to check. I hate to do it but I decide I need to take apart the pumps and check the hoses. There are two pumps and four hoses and I need to check them all.

I start by shutting off one of the pumps and detaching the hoses from it. Which went pretty well. Until I detached the hose from the attachment that connects it to the pump. The wrong hose. Water starts coming out the hose and at first I was thinking that it was just the water that was in the hose. But it kept coming. I filled up one 48 oz container without much thought. But it kept coming. As the second 48 oz container is getting full I'm thinking maybe something is wrong so I look up at the tank and realize that I've unplugged the intake hose. You know, the one that sucks water out of the tank. I start doing quick math in my head and realize that I have only one more 48 oz container within reach. And about 120 more gallons of water coming. So I put my thumb over the end of the hose to stop the flow and wait for Mister C to walk back through the room. So now, I'm sitting on the floor next to the tank, doing my Danish best, waiting. Finally, Mister C comes by and asks what I'm doing. I explain my predicament and he graciously removes the hose from the top of the tank so I can proceed. I emptied out the pump and the hoses into the (plugged) sink and find no loaches. I figured I may as well clean it while it's off so I do that as well. I put it all back together and get it working again. And then do the other one, this time making sure to unplug the correct hose from the pump. Again, I find no loaches. So now I'm resigned to the fact that my five loaches have been consumed by one or many of their tank mates. My carpet and the bottom of the tank stand are soaked with smelly water but my pumps are both clean so I guess that's something. I cleaned up my mess, turned off the lights and went to bed.

This morning, I had to drop Mister C off at the airport fairly early. When I got home, I went over and turned on the lights on the tank. And all five loaches swam up looking for food. Grrr!