What I'm Doing This Weekend

A few days ago I went to the pet store to get a couple of fish. I had a goldfish bowl, so I was thinking I would get some goldfish, but when I looked at them, they looked too ....... fishy. Then I looked at the guppies (the other major kind of low-maintenance, hard-to-kill fish), but they, also, looked alarmingly fishy. So I started looking around, and found a tank full of something called, ummm....... somethingsomething"platys". And the "platys" looked pretty cool, about half the size of the goldfish, and not at all "fishy".

After the debacle of picking out two (possibly pregnant) platys, the pet store gal asked me if I had a tank, filter, etc. I told her I had a goldfish bowl, but that was about it. She said the platys would probably do ok in it, as long as I kept the water clean, but I might want to consider a tank with a filter. And a heater (after I explained that I turned down the heat in my apartment when I'm not there).

So. OK. Took the fish home, got them set up in their little bowl, and they seem very happy. But they've gotta be chilly. Although, honestly, I've been leaving the heat turned up since I brought them home. Cause I'm nice like that.

So! I went out and bought a little aquarium. And a heater. And tonight I have to go and buy more gravel. And some plants. And possibly an air pump, whatever the hell that is. I'll be lucky if I get out of this for less than eighty bucks, all for three bucks worth of fish. Go figure.

Oh! Last night I un-boxed the aquarium (mini-bow 2.5 gallon, if you're interested. No? I didn't think so.). And I started looking for the instructions. And there weren't any. There was, however, a sheet of paper directing me to the company's web site, where I could view set-up instructions, on-line tutorials, etc. Super! Except I don't have a computer at home. Oooops.

I thought about calling the 1-800 number and making some poor customer service rep walk me through it over the phone for three hours, because, HELLO, TETRA, not everyone in the world has a computer at home**, but then I realized I would probably be talking to somebody in Bangalore, India, and it would be harder on me than it would be on him.

So I came in to work this morning (where, obviously, all things non-work-related actually get done), watched the tutorial, TOOK NOTES because I am stupid, and I am ready to attempt a fish tank set-up this weekend.

How hard could it be, right? (Famous last words.)

** Well, ok, actually, I understand that probably everyone in the world DOES have a computer at home. Except me.