Today I come out of a meeting and happened to check my cell phone .... see about a half dozen missed calls from my husband and my sister in law. Never a good sign.
I excused myself and went into the hall to return the calls - (There were no voicemails which is another BAD sign).
My husband answered sounding very out of breath - - "Can you come home??" is the first thing he says.
Then, before I can even utter "why?" - he tells me what happened. His sister and my nephews were over today because my sister in law's laptop had a virus (my husband is in IT) so while he was checking on it and doing his techy thing...my nephews were playing around the house. The boys were home from school because they had been to the dentist that morning and were being allowed to play hooky for the rest of the day.
To keep them entertained and out of the way, they were playing Wii Sports...
Unfortunately - - one of them got the bright idea that if you tape the wii remote to an actual baseball bat for "realistic swings". So they took my husbands autographed RedSox 2004 World series bat and taped the Wii Remote to it.
Somehow - - (it depends on if you ask the 7 year old or the 9 year old - each one is innocent apparently ) The bat and my tank met...the bat won - Right in the middle of the front panel.
As you can image - - water came cascading out - the nine year old somehow managed to keep the fishes from falling out while the 7 year old ran for my husband and sister in law.
It was almost 2 hours after the incident when I noticed the missed calls. By the time I got home it was almost 130, so over 2.5 hours since the accident and they had the fish and liveplants in a bucket with the filter in and out take in the bucket, the water mopped up, the rock substrate in a container, the decor laid out...and were now waiting terrified for me.
I kept my composure because really, at this point in time what else can I do? I surveyed the damage - at that point it did not look that bad because the mess had been cleaned up and the hardwoods dried.
I looked at my husband and said - - "Well, Christmas is coming early this year apparently - - go get me a new tank!"
A four foot tank is the most we can fit at this time in the spot we have arranged for the tank - the space is about 4 feet and 6 inches so a 4 footer fits nicely.
My husband and sister in law come back 2 hours later (they took her ford explorer because my husband and I have little sedans, and her boys stayed with me - they are unharmed!!)...nearly 4pm (after going to 6 pet/fish stores) with a 72 Aqueon gallon bow front that had been a floor model (had a few scratches on the stand). Kissing up to me, he and his sister also picked up all the black sand they had (eight 5 lb bags, probably not enough but I appreciated the gesture) and bubble wands because I had mentioned to them that I wanted them when I rescaped my tank - - the rescape was originally going to be done in December/January when I got my holiday bonus.
So...by 615 pm, the tank was filled, filter re-set up, bubble wands in place, fish back in the tank. I am going to worry about the sand tomorrow - I am too exhausted to do much more tonight!
Now it is about 9pm. There was one casualty - one of my male mollies. The rest of the fish seem to be doing fine.
Here are a few pictures - my camera died and I got it charged just enough to take a picture of the fish in the tank before it died again.
Picture of the rock substrate, and decor
My larger rocks - my nephews thought they were helping by organizing them into color categories, "stripey, red-ish, black and white-ish"
The bat
and finally, the new tank
I excused myself and went into the hall to return the calls - (There were no voicemails which is another BAD sign).
My husband answered sounding very out of breath - - "Can you come home??" is the first thing he says.
Then, before I can even utter "why?" - he tells me what happened. His sister and my nephews were over today because my sister in law's laptop had a virus (my husband is in IT) so while he was checking on it and doing his techy thing...my nephews were playing around the house. The boys were home from school because they had been to the dentist that morning and were being allowed to play hooky for the rest of the day.
To keep them entertained and out of the way, they were playing Wii Sports...
Unfortunately - - one of them got the bright idea that if you tape the wii remote to an actual baseball bat for "realistic swings". So they took my husbands autographed RedSox 2004 World series bat and taped the Wii Remote to it.
Somehow - - (it depends on if you ask the 7 year old or the 9 year old - each one is innocent apparently ) The bat and my tank met...the bat won - Right in the middle of the front panel.
As you can image - - water came cascading out - the nine year old somehow managed to keep the fishes from falling out while the 7 year old ran for my husband and sister in law.
It was almost 2 hours after the incident when I noticed the missed calls. By the time I got home it was almost 130, so over 2.5 hours since the accident and they had the fish and liveplants in a bucket with the filter in and out take in the bucket, the water mopped up, the rock substrate in a container, the decor laid out...and were now waiting terrified for me.
I kept my composure because really, at this point in time what else can I do? I surveyed the damage - at that point it did not look that bad because the mess had been cleaned up and the hardwoods dried.
I looked at my husband and said - - "Well, Christmas is coming early this year apparently - - go get me a new tank!"
A four foot tank is the most we can fit at this time in the spot we have arranged for the tank - the space is about 4 feet and 6 inches so a 4 footer fits nicely.
My husband and sister in law come back 2 hours later (they took her ford explorer because my husband and I have little sedans, and her boys stayed with me - they are unharmed!!)...nearly 4pm (after going to 6 pet/fish stores) with a 72 Aqueon gallon bow front that had been a floor model (had a few scratches on the stand). Kissing up to me, he and his sister also picked up all the black sand they had (eight 5 lb bags, probably not enough but I appreciated the gesture) and bubble wands because I had mentioned to them that I wanted them when I rescaped my tank - - the rescape was originally going to be done in December/January when I got my holiday bonus.
So...by 615 pm, the tank was filled, filter re-set up, bubble wands in place, fish back in the tank. I am going to worry about the sand tomorrow - I am too exhausted to do much more tonight!
Now it is about 9pm. There was one casualty - one of my male mollies. The rest of the fish seem to be doing fine.
Here are a few pictures - my camera died and I got it charged just enough to take a picture of the fish in the tank before it died again.
Picture of the rock substrate, and decor
My larger rocks - my nephews thought they were helping by organizing them into color categories, "stripey, red-ish, black and white-ish"
The bat
and finally, the new tank
, Love your new tank though. 
blessing in disguise.
I agree that was definitely the best bit. 
