Aquarium: Before and After

As of now, there is only 1 guppy left from the original five. Moose the cannibal and his gold fish hoodlums are all in the pond next to our house and we're still mourning the loss of Mr. Algae Eater after Moose mauled him to death. Still, it's a pretty fish tank!

This is what it looked before. Now keep in mind, my family had much more pressing issues to worry about:


Here's the after, a proper homage to my dad who loved fish:


You'd never know these fishies are murderers!


Isn't it pretty? I'm proud.

Ashes to Ashes

We picked up my dad's remains today. Hmmm...somehow that sounded wrong. Let me start again: we picked up my dad's glorious cherry wood urn containing his ashes today. There. Much better.

This thing is pretty darn magnificent. It's carved on all sides with an art nouveau theme of birds, trees, leaves and a cross. Mom was thinking of using it as a flower vase stand except that unbeknownst to her (until we saw the thing in person) the urn bore my dad's names (Chinese and English), his date of birth and death date on one side in huge garish gold lettering. It like it screams: Look at me! Remains of dead person inside!

Apparently this was the most non-urn looking urn that was also "understated." Seeing how elaborate this one is makes me wonder what the other ones looked like.

"Did they put dad's skull in there?" I mused out loud while we walked back to the car. I was only half joking as I knew it was pretty typical for large bone fragments to remain after cremation (If you really want to know, the higher end crematoriums grind the bone fragments into dust, but not all of them do this...) My mom cracked up and then reprimanded herself while looking around making sure no one heard us. My husband thought this was a legitimate question. He then followed with "Does it open up?"

"What is wrong with my children?" My mom answered speaking in Taiwanese(while still chuckling).

Anyhow, if anyone is wondering, it doesn't open. We already got an earful from the funeral director, the hospice and those who recently lost family members that Texas law is a bit hairy when it comes to wanting to spread the ashes of a loved one out into nature. It's okay to dump it onto your own private property, but if some of that human dust somehow blows into a neighbors yard, they can sue your ass. Dumping ashes out at sea is frowned upon as well since cremation doesn't only consist of just the body; the entire coffin and its contents go in the crematorium, hence even if there's one tiny ounce of artificial fiber, rubber or plastic, the ashes can be pollutive. Therefore, all the urns sold at this funeral home are always sealed solidly shut.

We stuck Dad next the family pictures on a shelf. "I need to put this up high so that the grandkids don't think it's stool," my mom mumbled to herself. I have no idea if other families are so matter of fact about death by mine is. I definitely was amused by Mom's statement since I had the same exact thought. It mean, it looks like a really fancy stool and perfect for a toddler to sit on. I don't think Dad would mind either.

***
I captured Moose and released him into the lake by our house. The spotted mollies decided this afternoon to retaliate against his aggression and started attacking back. I swear these are all supposed to be communal fish. It was sad to see such an old and large fish go, but he'll be fine.

Tomorrow I head back to Austin. It feels like I've been gone forever and I miss the cats and seeing my friends. There's still a lot to be done here, but a good bulk of it can be handled by phone. Monday I'm adding Mom to my insurance plan. She seems okay--sad at times, understandably, but definitely stable.

I have a small album filled with pictures of my dad and I'll probably upload them on here in the near future. Heh...he's got so many pictures of him fishing or holding a prized catch.

Moose the Cannibal

This aquarium tribute to my dad is turning into a mild horror fest or a hilarious observation in natural selection depending on how you look at this.

I'm blaming it all on Moose. If you recall this is the 7 inch long gold fish who I affectionately named after a huge cat and as of two days ago, presumably ate guppy #5. I searched high and low inside the fish tank and could not even find guppy #5's remains. I don't think guppy #5 evolved enough to simply walk away although I did check around the fish tank for good measure. No guppy.

Prior to murdering guppy #5, Moose decided it would be a fine idea to chew up one of the beautiful live aquarium plants to shreds. After he had done that (at least I think it's a he), the slightly smaller (but not-too-small) fellow goldfish cohorts decided to join in. Those plants are expensive damnit! It's not like they eat the plants either. No, Moose just decided to shred it to pieces just to piss me off. I'm sure of it.

But today...let me tell you, TODAY MOOSE WENT TOO FAR!!!!
Mr. Algae eater has been quite shy lately and finally he came out of his shell yesterday. To my horror I discovered this morning that not only was he was nolonger sticking to the side of the tank feeding, but that he was floating sideways, unmoving and rock hard. I thought he simply passed away but when I took him out of the tank, I noticed his fins had bite marks and there was a huge chunk of fishie taken out of his side! Arrrgh... Fishie guts all over the place! Moose looked very satisfied. "I hope you're happy," grumbled moi as I counted to make sure the other fish were alive and well. I don't think I even managed to get a portrait of Mr. Algae Eater yet.

I think tomorrow we're dumping Moose into the lake by our house. I don't care that he's nearly 15 years old. This behavior will not be tolerated!

guppy...where art thou?

As I mentioned previously, I spent $200 this week completely redoing my parent's aquarium. It's sort of a tribute to my dad since he liked to fish so much and cleaning the tank was on my dad's to-do list before he left. Needless to say he had worse things to worry about but my God, that thing was a mess. There was a thick layer of algae growing over the surface of the filter, all the aquatic plants had been taken out, the 1970's era orange gravel was still there and the goldfish were ENORMOUS (Moose is like 7 inches long. He could feed a small family and that's just wrong) due to feeding them fish pond food.

Anyway, when I get back to Austin, I'll post lovely before and after pictures. Till then, I'm trying to figure out where the hell guppy #5 went. I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the goldfish ate him since the Petco dude said he couldn't definitively say whether or not Moose was a possible threat to the new comers. Mr. Algae eater also keeps hiding.

My brother and I made a hello video for my Aunt Sue-Chyn who currently resides in China to tell her that we're doing okay. While going through my parent's items we found her guitar in our coat closet and decided to get new strings. You can see the new aquarium in the background as well as some of the beautiful flowers people have sent to us in honor of my dad (just for reference pai-kee means "broken" in Taiwanese):

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