Thursday, June 11, 2009

A little fish tale



A while back I was helping my sister-in-law decorating for her son's confirmation. The budget was pretty tight and since he was 14 I didn't want to buy girly flowers. I was thinking hard and long to come up with something fun and unexpected. And I did! I went out and bought a couple of big round glass vases, filled them with green glass and managed to order something called Floralytes. (Lights that you can put in water - I'll tell you about those later...) A couple of days before the big day I bought gold fish and put into the vases. It turned out the be a unique, interesting and very fun decorative piece.

But the story doesn't end there. As with many things in life you make some choices that are rash and seem like an excellent decision at the time. But looking at the gold fish swimming happily around in their vase I suddenly realized one thing. I had bought a living creature just to make a decoration that would make everyone go: "Wow!". I had not even thought about what I was going to do with them after the party was over! I felt ashamed. I'm not really an animal person, but I'm not cruel either. So without hesitation I proclaimed to my son: "And these are yours after the party!" My son, being 10 at the time, rejoiced. Out we went to buy all the things we needed to make these two gold fish part of our little family. I had NO idea what I was in for!

First we had to get the aquarium. They had lots of different models, but since MY fish (which I had chosen only thinking about their decorative value) were going to grow really big, I had to get a big one. Then came the filtration system, the lighting, the decorative plants, the gravel, the little castle (very posh gold fish), the scull (for playing hide-and-seek, very important!), algae remover, glass cleaner, glass scraper, fish food (different kinds for different fish mind you), pellets (for when we were gone) and a whole list of other little things that I didn't even know existed. Of course, with such a BIG aquarium two little baby gold fish were almost lost, so we had to buy some more fish as well. And all the things I had to learn! Keeping gold fish is a science! (My uncle used to have two guppies in a bowl, I have no clue how they survived all those years. They probably didn't. I bet he just bought new ones every month.)

Well, to make a long story short. My little "budget" plan ended costing me about $400. And it turned out to be a whole lot of work. (I'm just glad I didn't get doves!)
My conclusion is: next time I'll just buy some flowers!

16 comments:

Camilla Tomren said...

Life lesson learned right there. But it makes for a good story ;)

Som mine dager er said...

Fniiiiiis. Ja nå lo jeg godt. Kreativ uten å tenke konsekvenser for de små fiskene. Men det ble en løsning til slutt, og en kostbar lekse lært.

Du skriver godt. Koser meg som alltid her inne.

Klem fra ei som snart går ut i ferie.

Marit

Julia @ Hooked on Houses said...

Oh, this story made me laugh so hard. My son has a fish tank, so I know what you mean--they're a lot more work than you'd think! He's had them for about five years and now he's tired of them, but there are so many of them in there (and they keep having more babies!) that I think we're stuck with them for life.

So glad to "meet" you today and discover your blog! You're off to a great start. I'll go check out your Sweeter Homes site now. :-)

Unknown said...

Jeg vil være yndig!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unknown said...

Jeg SER den, at yndige Nanni forsåvidt blir en litt festlig greie.... RufseNanni? ;o)

yndig *smask*..... ;o)

Unknown said...

du...nå må jeg legge meg, skal jo på det rare stedet de kaller jobb i morgen også... deretter på skoleavslutninger ute i skauen (fryd&lykke ikke sant..., mygg og bål og traske langt avgårde, det er ikke mye yndig!! Jeg vil egentlig på konsert med vår felles Johanne Vie på Pikene på hjørnet ~ og jeg VIL jo være med Nanniungen på skoleavslutning, men hvorfor ut i skauen?????)
Dååårlig samvittighet fikk jeg nå. Offentliggjort.
Herved.
Nå skal jeg prøve å blogge av...
Kos&klem!!

Dreamgirl said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dreamgirl said...

Ikke ha dårlig samvittiget yndige Nanni.
Min kjære tok ansvar og var med sønnen på hyggelig sosial kveld med klassen etter jobb. Stedet var hemmelig. Refererer nå til SMS mottatt fra drømmemannen klokken 18.17, 28.mai:

"Da har jeg gått 143,87 km over et jorde og gjennom en skog for å komme fram til en lavvo et eller annet sted! Godt jeg hadde skikkelige italienske skinnsko og ikke sånne klumpete joggesko!"

Jeg lo!

NATTA!

Dreamgirl said...

Camilla! I loved hearing from you! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you and your family are all doing well. Miss you and miss Tulsa!

Hugs

Ocean showroom said...

Härliga bloggar du har! Tack för kommentaren hos oss och välkommen tillbaka. En riktigt god helg till dig! Kram Alexandra

Anonymous said...

Heisann!
Og tusen takk for hyggelig kommentar på bloggen min- ble veldig glad:-)
Du har en herlig blogg- og skriver fantastisk levende( jeg ler godt av historien din om mannen din i it. skinnsko akkurat nå..!)!
Kommer tilbake hit-ha en kjempefin dag:-)
Klem Hege.

Dreamgirl said...

Tusen takk for koselige tilbakemeldinger! Nå blir jeg så glad!!!!
Thanks for all the comments.... they make my so happy!

Domestic Diva said...

Yep...just when you think you are being frugal...think again!

I have fond memories of Per putting Christians dead gold fish in the disposal....:) To all you animal lovers...no animals were actually hurt, but we all thought he did!

Ciao!

Nooria said...

Haha, jeg ler høyt :-). Lavbudsjett du liksom! Men jeg må berømme ideen, for den var jo knallgod! Falt den i smak hos konfirmanten?

Nooria said...

Ja og så gjorde kommentaren din på bloggen min utrolig godt!

Dreamgirl said...

Takk Nooria... og ja, konfirmanten syntes at det var "dødskult" og "fett"....

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