Fish: Day 1

Well we did it. Our family now owns a pet. It is a siamese fighting fish, a boy named Hoi-kun. It is already running my life. Every half an hour or so I am implored to go in and see how well he is doing. Not that the daughter is worried, she just thinks he is doing so darn well and wants to share it with the world. Of course we do have some issues. The darn pilot light will not go out on the heater no matter how low I turn it down or how hot the water gets. I have unplugged it for the night. Could it have been the complete submersion that the son decided would be for the best while no one else was looking. It specifically says on the package to not submerge. Right on the side is written large "Maximum water level" this writing is not at the top. Even with explicit instructions I figure he would have done it anyways. So yeah, will our fish die of pneumonia or heat stroke. If it dies does it need to be replaced? Obvious yes. Do I have to go back to the shop the next day and claim that our heater is faulty and ask for a replacement? Only if I can find the receipt. Speaking of which where did I put that receipt.

In the bigger picture I have a knot of dread that is taking over my abdomen about trying to find a fish sitter for while we are out of town. Do you pay a fish sitter? Will one of our retiree neighbours be thrilled at the possibility of coming to our house once a day to feed Hoi? I am telling you there better be great joy had by all because of this fish for me to be putting this level of thought and worry into it. Damn heater. Darn son.

In any case it was a happy "real" birthday for the daughter today. Asides from the heart wrenching decision to buy her a pet I also put in some time with the wife in the kitchen making her a Birthday feast. It consisted of gyoza, rice, greek salad, and a special order of bean soup. I was on soup and salad detail the Mrs. was on gyoza and rice. She really can whip up some gyoza. I will start with the soup which is not pictured here.

Half and onion, three cloves of garlic and six small mushrooms chopped fine and sauteed. Add a cup of water and simmer. Can of broad beans drained and rinsed. Food processed with a cup of water to a porridge like consistency. Porridge aside the sauteed and simmer onions et al are also food processed. Everything added back to the sauteeing pot with another cup of water. Half a head of broccolli and the heart along with a celery stalk chopped up. This is added to the now simmering soup along with salt, pepper, coriander (not really noticeable) dried dill and three bay leaves (we just bought a new package and wow is that a step up from the old bay leaves we had. Who knew fresh bay leaves were that much better). After taking it off the heat I added maybe half a cup of half and half. Mix and serve.

The Greek salad was just my best guess, half a red onion diced and put in the salad bowl, salted and mixed, added equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil (nice little pond in the bottom). Mixed and left to sit. Diced two large tomatoes, a whole long english cucumber and one and a half red peppers. This was all poured into the bowl and then mixed. Finally about 3 tablespoons of finely crumbled feta cheese on top and I was done.

This is what the kids looked like once dinner was ready. Now this is hard on the heels of a, "I'm starving when is dinner." Not five minutes later both totally sleepified.

The baby at least had the excuse he was talking to someone and couldn't come to the table.The wife and I had a very pleasant dinner and some adult conversation. Nothing risque, we talked mostly about jogging.