Fudge & Smudge - The Terrible Twosome!
We've now had the hamsters for 4 days and they've certainly changed in that time! When we first got them, it was hard to distinguish between the pair because they're the same colour, but they do have a couple of differences. Fudge is the smaller of the 2 and Smudge has a darker patch behind his ears. Smudge seems to be the housekeeper of the 2, whereas Fudge is quite happy to run around, up and down like a looney on drugs! For the first few days, we had the food in the main part of the cage and the water in the top compartment, but I've now swapped them over, meaning that they HAVE to climb the tunnel to get to it. Hehehehe! There's also food in the middle compartment, but I'm thinking about taking that out because I've only ever seen one of them in there once after he got a little too inquisitive and fell down the pipe! That's what it's there for mind, I wasn't being cruel, but they haven't got the hang of those yet! I've also placed the wheel at the top of the cage to keep them on their toes looking for it! There's one thing for sure, they won't get bored easily while I've got anything to do with it! Speaking of which, I can see movement so I'm off to watch them for 5 minutes before the final of Big Brother! 
It's Official... Housework Is Bad For You!!
Feeling bored after hubby had gone to bed early last night, and with their being no-one online to talk to or debate with, I decided to get the ironing board out and do some well overdue ironing. My foot wasn't feeling too bad so I thought I'd get a good bit done, afterall, I still had clothes waiting to be ironed from before we went to Blackpool at the beginning of the month! All was feeling fine so I stood there while Liverpool whooped Toulouse's ass 4-0, still feeling fine at 10pm so I carried on and watched Big Brother on Channel 4+1, then Gavin and Stacey was on on BBC2, and finally Skins which was about an anorexic girl. Before I knew it, it was knocking on midnight and when I looked down, my poor foot was shouting to escape the confines of my flip flop and had turned a rather fetching shade of pink! Not a good look admittedly, still, I wasn't expecting Brad Pitt at the door so I wasn't particularly bothered.
Anyway, I got stuff put away and eventually got to bed about 10 past, but I needn't have bothered! Not only did it take me forever to get to sleep because I couldn't get comfortable, my foot felt like it had been hit with a hammer, cartoon-stylee, I had copious amounts of acid all night and woke up this morning feeling hungover due to both of the above! Being the little trooper that I am though, I got to work and proceeded to carry on, albeit like a bear with a sore head. The boss cheered me up later on though by supplying a box of chockies for some competition we'd won! 
I WAS meant to get a bottle of wine, but those of you who know me on a personal level will know that me and wine (any colour) don't get on. I don't like it and it hates me! Still, the box of chockies is almost empty and it made me forget about my poor balloon foot for a while as I was shovelling em into my gob! Speaking of which, I think it's time for a few more... Bugger the ironing, it's bad for my health!! 
17 Weeks To Go!
Yep, it's the end of August and I'm already thinking about Christmas, but with only 17 weeks to go, it'll soon be upon us! You may think it rather sad, but whilst in Keswick on Sunday, I spotted some rather cool "little" things that would be perfect stocking fillers so we bought them, as well as a thesaurus for daughter on Saturday, which have all been listed, saved, wrapped and sent to Santa! I'm determined not to leave everything until last minute this year like so very often happens and then I panic that I won't get that certain thing or whatever. If I start now, then I may JUST get everything sorted before Christmas Eve 16 weeks and 6 days from now! Yikes! It's coming faster than ever! 
New Arrivals.
Oops! Well I haven't got off to the best of starts in trying to keep the blog up, have I?!
Oh well, there's lots of new additions to the Sharp household, though I can't remember the technical names of most of them! We've now got 2 coreuleus (something like that!) fish that are yellow, an opaline gourami and a gold gourami to go with the 2 kribs and parrot fish, plus a farting turtle! It doesn't actually fart, but it does blow bubbles from under it's shell, so it's rather amusing to watch, especially if a fish gets caught out and ends up getting hit! 
The parrot fish is getting really big now because all it does is eat! We were warned mind, but it literally eats everything it sees, so it's just as well there aren't any little fishes swimming around!
The 2 newest additions though are the Roborovski dwarf hamsters that we bought the kids today! We wanted Russian ones really so that they'd be able to hold them and pet them but we were advised not to get them because you can't place 2 together that haven't been in the same cage because they'd more than likely fight! These ones are tiny and so cute but they're as fast as lightning so the kids won't really be able to hold them. In fact, I'll probably find it hard to catch them, so god help me when it comes to cleaning them out! I've got that joy to come at the weekend so we'd better invest in a play box before then!
The lady at Pets At Home was 97.9% sure that they're both males so here's hoping we don't end up with babies coming out of our ears! As for the names, son saw a rabbit beforehand that looked a fudge brown colour, so he decided that that was going to be his name, and as for daughter, I think it was basically because it rhymes!
They've got some kind of glow in the dark rotostak home going on and only Fudge has managed to reach the top tier so far, so the kids have been glued to the side of the cage watching them and willing them to do something! Wonder how long it'll last..?
Tales From The Tank...
We had to bid a sad farewell to Mikey2 a couple of weeks ago as he was over 9 inches long and was killing all the fish with his tail, not to mention making a complete mess in the tank! Big fish equals BIG poo! That was an experience in itself! We only had a little net so you can imagine the struggle we had to get him into a bucket! Hubby had him by the head in the net and he went into defence mode, getting his fins stuck in the net, which I then had to try and free using some kitchen tongs. There was no way I was using my fingers, I've seen how he used his tail!! The fins were really rough on the edges which was why he was stuck, but if he'd only calmed down, they'd have come free and he'd have been fine! We eventually got him in the bucket and off we trotted to the fish place to give him a new home. That wasn't the end of the experience though, he very kindly flicked his tail while he was in the bucket in the footwell of the car between my feet and ended up soaking me. making it look like I'd peed myself! I wasn't a happy bunny I can tell ya, especially as we had to go shopping straight after that. 
Anyway, there were only about half a dozen fish left so hubby decided to give them to his dad (to kill off 
) and the tank was emptied, cleaned and set up again.
We WERE planning on waiting till we'd been away for a few days (don't tell the kids, they don't know!) to buy some new fish, but hubby whined and whined so much that I finally gave in and last week we became proud owners of an orange parrot fish and a pair of kribensis. Within hours of putting them in the tank, we feared that the parrot fish was dead because it was under the filter, wasn't moving it's mouth and didn't seem to be moving at all! Hubby placed the net in the tank to simply create a bit of movement and it shot to the other side of the tank! Nope, wasn't dead, simply hiding.
After watching them for a couple of days and not seeing much movement from the parrot fish, it suddenly came to life and started swimming around the tank quite happily. That is until anyone makes a sudden move anywhere in the living room! If it senses any movement, it shoots behind one of the plants and peeps out, keeping an eye on you. Very strange, but also extremely funny to watch! I was sat watching the telly the other night when I noticed this orange blob out of the corner of my eye so I slowly sat up and it was at the front of the tank, looking at me! It has to be seen to be believed, which my parents did the other day and found it hilarious! It's literally like an extremely shy puppy or something!
I decided to look them up earlier to try and gain some knowledge about them but didn't really get that far, apart from learning that they're a hybrid fish and no-one really knows which fish were crossed to get the resulting fish. I guess we should call it Dolly, like Dolly the sheep!
I also looking up the kribensis which I found are bottom dwellers and don't mix well with corys. Glad we don't have any of them anymore then! They're keeping the tank clean mind, even though they wait until the food hits the bottom of the tank before deciding to eat it! Urgh, imagine the crap that's lying around there with it too?!
I think we'll end up buying another parrot fish to keep Dolly company, but they're really expensive compared to other tropical fish we've had so I hope they bond well or I won't be happy.
