April 7, 2007 - New Additions?!?

Paul and I have been toying with the idea of getting the kids some fish. It would give them some responsibility of learning to care of them, but at the same time not require the care and committment of a cat or dog. We decided it would be fun to make it part of their Easter gift. Little did I know, what a debaucle it would turn out to be.

First of all, I went to the store and asked for a recommendation - a fish that wouldn't take a lot of care, a lot of money, or a lot of room. So with the help of a sales associate we bought a small one gallon aquarium and 4 Fancy Goldfish. The helped me set up the aquarium, fed them their first meal and named each of their fish. We have: Nicka, AnnaLeesia Princess, Mine, and Sunrise.

The the dreaded happened, we woke up the next morning and Gabrielle's fish did not make it through the night. She actually handled it quite well, I was surprised. I took the fish back to the store to get a replacement. What I didn't expect was to be told that the previous sales associate should never had sold me that small of a tank for 4 fish. She told me I was not going to get the fish to survive. So...$40 later I came home with a new fish for Gabrielle and an 10 gallon aquarium..they would take the smaller aquarium back however.

So today,(Monday) I took the kids back to the store to return the aquarium. With our credit we picked out a new bridge and some aquarium plants and headed home. Unbelievably, a couple of hours after we returned home Gabrielle asked me why the carpet was wet. I looked and to my shagrin I noticed that the water level had dropped almost an inch. I got down on the floor and found the carpet quite wet surrounding the aquarium. So, now I had to move the fish again, and empty this entire aquarium out so we could return it again.

After dinner, we returned the aquarium, thankfully the girl who sold it to me was actually working and knew what I had gone through on Saturday. After reviewing the entire situation with her manager, we were given a replacement aquarium and a 15% discount toward an aquarium stand (to get it off the floor where we had been forced to put it originally.) So, the fish are now in their new home AGAIN...let's hope this is the last time they will have to be moved.