ACA Convention ‘08

~ Thurs 7/17/08 ~

3 am *ZZZzzzzZZ* we’re up and getting ready to go. I have to admit though I’ve only had 3 hours of sleep (couldn’t sleep last night…lol) I’m wide awake and ready to get a move on! We’re driving to first pick up Juan and then on to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and on to Atlanta with many fish. And of course because we’ve left the kiddos behind, we’ve rented a way cool orange mustang with black soft-top convertible. AWESOMENESS!!!!

Now since it really is a few days later as I’m typing this I’ll go into past tense. We drove with the top down the whole way (heat on most of the time down by our legs in the front as it actually was cold with the wind! lol We got to the hotel about 9:30. Dino from my local fish club was so great to baby-sit for my fish (or would that be fish sit?) while Scott and I went on to our next thing. Juan then hung out at the hotel as well.

Scott and I traveled on to Knoxville to see Scott’s Grandfather, cousin, aunt and 2 uncles for lunch. It was awesome to see them all as it’s been a good long time, ’specially since we’ve seen Christina, married woman and all now:) We ate at Olive Garden, which I love, but I was good – soup salad and breadsticks:). Then on to Chattanooga to see and spend time with Scott’s Grandma Eddlemon and Grandparents Smith. I tell you what; Grandma Smith makes the best lemonade that I’ve ever had! We went with Grandma E to a Chinese restaurant and spent time with her. Then we had to get back to the hotel. It was about 1am that we finally got to sleep.

~ Fri 7/18 ~

Alright, there’s no way in the world tired or not that I was going to be able to sleep! The dumb alarm went off at 6am even though I thought I turned it off. So then I was up, brain going, no way I can get back to sleep! (migraine city!) I came down to get my fish…oy yeah I forgot to say, I brought one of my angels to show in the fish show! I’ve never done this before and am highly nervous about this. Not that I think my fish is bad, I think she’s a pretty little thing. She’s from my first viable spawn that I raised from egg to adult (she’ll be a year next month!) So I found Dino and got my baby bagged to bring her down to the show room. Oh goodness, I got totally intimidated when I saw the other angels. There were about 12-15 (I didn’t count) other angels. There were blacks, a really pretty albino veil, a few silvers (one that was pretty big), some gold veils and a few koi. (One really pretty marble koi veil). Got her in her tank and goodness the poor thing was mad at me! Lol I walked through the rest of the show room and took many pictures. Then went into the rental tank room where people are selling. There’s tons of fish! You know it’s amazing too, I mean you can see them all online with all the pics that are out there and things, but when you’re actually seeing all these fish and colors and shapes, it’s awesome! But there’s not much that I’m interested in buying right now only because of tank space, but then I walked into the discus room *sigh* WOW! I’ve got to say that I may have to rethink my tanks now. I’m not going to stop the angels of course as they are my favorite, but these pastel discus that I’ve seen in there are so beautiful! So I’m going to be thinking about this.

At 2:00 pm Scott and I were due at the Georgia Aquarium. We got there right on time and went on the behind the scenes tour (thank you Sooooo much! You know who I’m talking to:)) That was so amazing! We saw the whole filtration system, which is basically a huge room of tubes and then tubes running along the ceiling through out the whole building. Then we walked back to where the belugas are and saw them from above. They are so beautiful and silly too! These things were playing and that spy-hopping thing they do. (Took lots of pictures of course). Then we went to the whale shark tank…OOOOOoooooo. They have a catwalk that goes above the tank that we got to go on and take pics. I didn’t get any good ones as they were too fast for my camera (or I should say for my camera user that doesn’t know how to use my camera). Then we walked the rest of the aquarium and took many pictures and loved every minute of it. Scott’s been great through this trip I must say. I know that this is not his thing what so ever, but he’s been having fun too so I’m glad.

We got back to the hotel around 6:30 and at that point the judging of the show room was going on behind closed door and we won’t find out till tomorrow night!!! OY (yeah I’m going slightly nuts…lol) But hey, she’s doing well, so I’m still happy, win or not this has been really awesome and a great learning time for me. I can’t go to the banquet because of expenses, but I might slip in at the end if I’m allowed just to watch the awards part of it. I have a feeling that albino angel will win, her top fin is slightly bent at the top, but she’s still such a pretty fish. Maybe by next year I’ll have my turqs ready to show:).

Pretty much the rest of the night we mingled until the auction that was going on at 10 for the women group of cichlid lovers that’s here. I’m not going to say their real name as I’m none too pleased or have really much respect for them at all. I mean yeah, they are probably doing a good thing and are knowledgable and all, but goodness. I don’t know much about what their group is for or doing in the hobby, maybe it’s a good thing, but I don’t think that doing “boob shots” for $20 is a good way of raising funds. I’m glad that I didn’t win any bids or anything as I don’t want to support that sort of thing. Call me a prude, whatever, when there’s minors in the area, knock it off, I mean goodness! I was really glad that Juan wasn’t at that auction and was glad that Scott and I left early. Anyway, enough of that. We got to bed about midnight, but even then I couldn’t sleep for thinking about my fish in the show room…I know sad eh? Lol night all!!!

~ Sat 7/19 ~

Wow! Actually had 7 hours of sleep last night:). Now I feel better, migraine is gone *whew* This is the day that I want to go to a lot of the classes. There’s a photo workshop at 10:15, catfish at 11:30 and a disease one at 1:00. I’m interested in the plant one at 2:15 as well, but may be “classed out” by that point. So I’m excited about today. Of course I first had to go and check on my baby girl still in her show tank. I’ll be taking her out this evening and bringing her back up. I’m still undecided about selling her or not. I think she’s a great fish, so I’ll probably keep her. I’ve got a wild male at home and a marble. I’m thinking though that I want the wild *yeah right* to pair with my one silver female and the marble is just a regular marble…although now that I think about it, my baby girl here might make some interesting babies with the black marble…huh, will have to think about that.

Alright! The photo workshop was great! I’ve got 3 pages of notes from that guy and learned a bit there too. I’m still totally unsure about what all the terms are with the cameras. I guess mine is good for beginning as I am with the photography. But I’ll have the notes on here at the bottom. I guess though that I’m going to need a new camera soon with a stand alone flash *glances at Scott* heehee:)

NOW I need a new microscope!!! OY! I didn’t make the catfish one, the guy that was suppose to be here for that didn’t make it and I was told that the guy taking over was going to be talking about other fish. So that’s okay. But the disease one, wow! She had slides of microsopic paracites that attack our fish. I totally didn’t know that ick was a parasite, I thought it was a fungus…goes to show… She showed us slides of a fish autopsy called Necropsy. It was kind of gross, but cool at the same time. I also didn’t know that a koi’s egg sac was so huge…lol Then she pulled out her own microscope that was attached to the computer which was beamed up on the wall and took live samples from fish and we looked for paracites…lol the fish were healthy:) But that was really neat. I think that I would get one of those and spend hours looking at stuff. I’ll bet the boys would get into that too. We’ll have to think about a cheaper one just to get into the idea and see what the boys think of cells:)

Welp, I knew I’d be tired by the plant one, so I took off and just chatted with people. I met the guy and his wife who created all the award plaques by hand. They are amazing! And he had betta necklaces that he created and gave me one:) I totally love it! It’s almost the color of my male plakat, Myrddin. So it’s awesome:) Now it’s just waiting. We can’t afford to go to the banquet which starts in about 1 ½ hours so I may go down in about 2 hours and sit outside the room just to hear the awards part to see the winners…maybe I can sneak in…lol No worries, I won’t, just excited about this:)

More to come later tonight! Oh and, I can’t upload any of my photos yet as I forgot my cord to attach to my computer *blush* so you’ll have to wait till we get home for pics:)

Alright! My little girl won 3rd place in the angel division!!!!! *jumping up and down* not sure I’m going to be able to sleep yet again tonight…lol I’m going to need a vacation from this vacation…lol I’m very excited and happy and overjoyed and planning ahead now for next year:)

Tomorrow’s the auction *whoot* I know for sure I’ll come home with some new baby F2 silver juvies, so excited about that. And I pre-bought 4 albino bristle nosed plecos for my mom and my tanks. (not for breeding, more for cleaning…lol, plus they are so cool looking!) Not sure if I’ll come home with anything else…lol we’ll see:)

More to come tomorrow (unless I don’t connect as this hotel charges by the day AND by the computer instead of room! Scott complained about that and they’ve changed it a bit, but come on, in this day and age, it should be included in the room fee…OY! but enough of that soap box)