Two weeks ago when I mowed the lawn, I ran over what appeared to be a spider’s nest.  I later went over it with the weed whacker, but it looked like the web just kept getting pulled out.  Then I noticed what was beneath the “web”.

Mice.

Then I thought we’d have to call the exterminator because their nest was close to our garage and along the foundation.  I let it go for a few days until my family was over to watch the Wings trounce the Ducks last Sunday.  My brother Eric said he would go out there and kill the mice, but when he came back after looking at them, said “I can’t, they’re too cute.”  So he decided to get a glove and a box to take them to the nearby woods.

When he returned, he proclaimed “Hey guys, I think they’re bunnies!”  And sure enough, he had 9 little baby bunnies inside the box.

We decided to let nature do its thing and put them back into the their little rabbit hole.  We marked the area with a stake sprinkler so we made sure not to step on it.  We haven’t seen any sign of a mother and every time we have checked on them, they were just hiding out in the hole.

Today I had to mow the lawn again, so we checked them before I started.  The bunnies were all outside the hole!  We could only find 5 of them and one ran off underneath the neighbor’s patio, but we kept them in the box until we were done mowing.  Then we took the opportunity to take some neat photos of them!  Afterwards, 4 of them hopped off, and I think we now only have 1 remaining.  Let’s hope they make it!

This truly brought tears to my eyes.

This weekend I bought a 14 gallon Bio Cube from a local reefer that is moving out of state.  He was selling the tank, stand, live rock, sand, fish, and coral for $160.  I didn’t know he was including the stand, so I gave him an extra $20.  I have always wanted one of these little nano tanks and now I am very happy with it so far!  It is neat how it is put together.  It has chambers in the back to put different filtration devices.  The lighting is integrated into the hood along with some basic cooling fans.

Here is what the tank looked like before I bought it.

And here are the pictures of the setup and its current configuration.

Today I also replaced the refugium tank connected to my 90 gallon.  I had to replace the tank because it developed a slow leak that would have been difficult to repair.  The leak was coming from the crack that I caused when I first set it up by over tightening the bulk head and my patch job seemed to have given out.  So, my friend Chris came over and built a new overflow and drilled a new 20 gallon tank for a replacement.  The new overflow is slightly crooked but it works just fine.

Finally, the Red Wings will be facing the Blue Jackets the first round this year.  I think it is only fitting that the Blue Jackets should have to face their Central Division big brother in their first playoff failure.

Last night I made a do-it-yourself drip doser for my aquarium.  I want to raise the pH in my system and part of my plan for doing this involves dosing.  I had a doser I had made previously out of a juice bottle, but I didn’t do it right and had to adjust it frequently just to keep it going.  Well, this new one works very well with little adjustment!  Here is how I made it.

1. Get a suitable container.  I used an old Kent jar that I had lying around but you cold probably use just about anything for this purpose as long as it has an airtight lid.
   



2. You will need some airline tubing and an airline tubing control valve.  The tubing is self-explanatory and the control valve is needed to control the drip rate.
   



3. Drill two holes in the lid of your container suitable for the airline tubing you are using.  I used a 3/16″ drill bit.  Feed the longer length of airline tubing into one of the holes and attach the airline control valve to the end.



4. This step is optional.  I used a piece of rigid airline tubing inside the container to make sure the doser always pulls from the bottom of the container.  I just attached the airline tubing to the rigid tube, then fed the airline tubing through the hole I made in the container lid.



5. Cut a short length of airline tubing and insert that through the other hole you drilled.  This smaller length of tubing will be blown into to start the siphon.
6. Measure a predetermined amount of water and mark the volume on the side of you container.  This will be handy in the future when you need to measure certain amounts.
   



7. To use the doser, add your liquid of choice to the container and screw on the lid.  Place the doser above your aquarium or sump and open the airline control valve.  Then blow into the shorter airline tube.  This will start the siphon so you can adjust the drip rate using the airline control valve.

That’s it!

Last weekend, Anna and I went to St. Louis.  We went to see the Red Wings play the Blues and also to visit with several friends that live in the area.  We drove to St. Louis on Friday night.  It was an easy drive, a little long (6 hours) but extremely boring!  There is virtually nothing between Indianapolis and St. Louis!

We stayed at the Hampton Inn by the Arch.  I usually don’t give a plug to a hotel, but the staff at this hotel were all very friendly and courteous.  The hotel was nice and clean and for $91/night, it was relatively cheap for a downtown hotel on the weekend.

Saturday morning we had breakfast with Ruthie and newborn Abby.  Ruthie and Michael are friends from college and both of them were in the Chaminade Scholars group with Anna.  Michael was not able to have breakfast with us, but we had a good meal.  I had a Sicilian omelet which was interesting because it was sausage, peppers, onions, provel cheese, and marinara sauce.  I had to try it because I had never seen anything like that for an omelet!  It was good but I would probably order something different the next time though.  Anna got to hold little Abby and I avoided doing so because babies cry when I hold them.

After breakfast, we worked our way through St. Patrick’s day parade traffic towards Scottrade Arena for the Red Wings and Blues game.  We got there early to catch the warm up but had a hiccup with our tickets because they would not scan correctly.  It turned out ok as the arena just put a sticker over the tickets and let us go in anyway, but not after making us wait 15 minutes and making me worry we would miss the warm up, hence the whole reason for us being there early!  But, we did not miss it and got a spot behind the goal along the glass.

The Red Wings won the game 5-2 with an incredible 3 goal burst in 46 seconds in the 2nd period.  Anna missed those three goals and a Blues follow up because the concession line from the 1st intermission was taking too long.  Other than that, it was a good game for the Wings and I thought Ozzie played well.  It was also nice to get a good look at Jonathan Ericsson as I believe he will have earned a roster spot through this year’s playoffs and for next year’s team.

You can view more pictures of the game here

On a related note, I went into the game expecting to be harassed very badly because St Louis HATES the Red Wings, and understandably so.  But it was actually pretty tame and all of the people we talked to were very friendly.  I will say that they were more friendly than Columbus, which is really starting to earn a black spot in my heart with the way they treat Wings fans that also cheer for their team when the Wings are not in town.

After the game, we visited with Kathy.  Kathy and I used to work together when we lived in Florida.  She and her husband Nick just had a baby named Gabriel, but Nick is currently deployed over seas, so we did not get to see him.  Gabriel is a good kid, I only heard him cry once when he was hungry.  He thought my Wings jersey was a toy and decided to hold onto the sleeve for nearly an hour while we ate dinner.  Kathy also showed us her parents home and it was incredible!  Her dad is building his own airplane so he showed me the fuselage, cockpit, engine, and how to build the frame out of fiberglass.  He also recently finished their home theater in the basement and it was equally impressive.  I would say the screen is 5-6 feet and the projector seemed to be high quality.  The sound system was great, too.

On Sunday morning, we walked to the Arch and took the ride to the top.  The Arch symbolizes St. Louis as the gateway to the West.  To ride to the top, you sit 5 people in these little capsules and the capsules are all connected to the train that goes up through the internal structure.  The doors of the capsule have windows so you can see the stairs and internal framework as you go up.  Once you are at the top, you emerge to a very crowded passageway with small windows.  The point of view does not change very much from window to window so I only took a few pictures.  Still, it was neat to go to the top of the Arch and look down at the city.

You can view more pictures of the Arch here

We left St. Louis after that and drove back home.  We stopped along the way to see Greg and Kareema, two friends that recently married last year.  Greg and I were roommates in college so it was nice to see that he and Kareema and doing well.  When we returned home, Anna’s sister, Katie, was waiting for us because she is on vacation for a week.  We also watched the Red Wings and Blue Jackets game in which the Wings trounced the Jackets as retribution for that horrible 8-2 loss last week.