Entry No. 3
11/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 16, 2004
Greetings from the University of Tulsa Women's basketball team! I'm glad you decided to tune in for this week's diary entry. I will quickly recap this week's events.
For me the weekdays absolutely flew by. We had practice every day this week except for a scheduled day off on Sunday. Practice this week was pretty interesting and very competitive. We put in a few new offenses, in-bounds plays and worked on the zone defense. At the end of the week, we gave the new offenses and defense a whirl at an intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday. Without any games, unfortunately, very little happened during basketball that I deem "diary worthy."
Instead, I will write about the fish tank that the inhabitants of my apartment purchased. Megan Moody, Jen Ormsby and I share the same apartment, but we count TaTa Wagoner as an inhabitant also, because she is here ALL OF THE TIME. Anyway, if you are asking yourself why I chose to talk about our beloved fish tank, you must understand that we think of our fish more as friends than pets.
The tank, which we purchased in early October, holds 10 gallons of water and came with a heater, filter, light and hood, which are good for tropical fish. Yes, this tank is the real deal. So, we thought you could just buy a tank and some pretty fish and be finished with it. Well, we were in for quite a surprise. After trying to purchase some fish and being rejected, we knew we had some research to do. So, we went home, set up our tank and began reading the information materials the pet store gave us. We learned that you have to let your tank run for a couple of days to create the correct type of "tank ecology" before adding fish.
So, after a couple of days, we figured our tank had the proper ecology and we were ready to add some fish. We read that you should only add a few fish to the tank at a time, so, TaTa, Megan, and I went to the pet store, money in hand, ready to purchase our first perfect tropical fish. I chose a Black Molly, which is a tropical fish that is about 1-1/2 inches long. It is all black and the scales look like velvet, rather than shiny scales of a goldfish. I named my fish Brutus because I thought he was going to be the bully of the tank. TaTa and Megan had no clue what type of fish they wanted. TaTa saw a mini shark that she wanted desperately, but it was labeled as semi-aggressive, which means it does not live well in the type of tropical fish community we had chosen for our tank. As a matter of fact, it eats the type of tropical fish we had chosen for our tank. Because TaTa could not buy the four-inch shark, she chose a one-half inch baby Zebra Danio, who she appropriately named F.S., which stands for Fake Shark. Megan ended up choosing the most colorful fish of the lot, a Tequila Sunrise Guppy. It is about one inch long and she named it Flamingo, because of its colorful orange and yellow tail fin. Excitedly, we returned home, placed them in the tank, and then watched them swim around, literally, for hours. We were mesmerized. We were so excited, and they looked beautiful with the turquoise rocks, hot pink plants, and purple anemone.
As it turns out, Brutus, much to my disappointment, is not the bully of the tank. Yes, it is F.S., the smallest fish, who rules the water, not to mention, Flamingo, who is a fin nipper; it bites at the tail fin of the other fish in the tank. Brutus needs to learn to throw his weight around more, like a post player.
Actually, for a couple of days, we thought Brutus was not going to make it. We would come home to find him lying on his side at the bottom of the tank. But we would tap in the glass and he would begin to swim around. Then his tail fin stopped working. It just drooped as he lugged the rest of his body around the tank. We were really worried for the little fella. Somehow, he made a miraculous recovery and is currently swimming vigorously away from Flamingo, who is constantly trying to nip at his tail.
A couple of weeks ago, we thought it was time to add a couple of more fish to our darling tank. Once again, TaTa, Megan and I headed back to the pet store to purchase two more fish. This time we chose a Teal Tailed Guppy and a Ghost Catfish. The Guppy is the same length of Flamingo, only its tail fin is about three times the size of Flamingo's. And although it is called a Teal Tailed Guppy, its tail looks purple to us. Anyway, we let Jen adopt this fish (even though she did not go with us to pick it out). Because of its large purple tail fin, Jen named it Sir Mix-A-Lot after the writer/rapper of the hit 80's song, "Baby Got Back". The Ghost Catfish is about two-inches long, and is interesting because you can see through it. We named this fish, Ruth, after the ghost that my fiancé, Kyle, thinks dwells in his house (I don't ask).
So far, all of our fish are still alive and have managed to survive numerous encounters with adversity. For instance, a Coke and silverware were put into the tank as "added decoration," and poor Brutus was snatched out of the tank by a tennis player, who threatened to eat him. Of course, none of these horrendous events occurred while one of the inhabitants of our apartment was watching over the tank. Can you believe our super fish survived such trauma? So now you know about our fish tank, and I will keep you updated on any fish tank news.
More importantly, let's talk about basketball quickly. We have our second exhibition game this Wednesday against Everyone's Internet. It has been about a week and a half since our last exhibition game, and we are fervently waiting for Wednesday so we can get back on the court in front of our wonderful fans. I hope to see you there!
PARTING SHOTS:
Because this week's entry was mostly about our new "pet fishes," I asked the girls to tell me about any pets they have loved at one time in their life. Here is what they had to say:
"Cougie Woogie and Zali Bali are my two "fluppy" dogs in Australia." -Megan Moody, Junior.
"I have Tri-Pod, my 3-legged orange cat, Fred the goat, and Tinkerbelle, the Great Dane who could be described as a "little slow." - Dana Idlet, Freshman
"Jax, or "Jaxi Pooper" as we like to call him. He is a Black Lab puppy." -Sarah Newby, Senior
"I have a mechanical dog named Rufus, a real dog named Puff, and a Giga Pet...but he died recently." -Jillian Robbins, Sophomore
"I have two little kitty cats named Milo and Mercedes." -Ryanne Ridge, Freshman
"I don't do pets... except for F.S" - TaTa Wagoner, Senior
"I had Sam the dog, but we called her Sammy- may she rest in peace." - Becky Heidotten, Senior
"R.I.P. Chip and Dip, my two dogs." -Leanne Upshaw, Junior
