Squid on Strings

I promised you mushy mommy and mushy mommy you shall have.

Preparing for the concert.Taking a bow.Final notes.

I suggested that Mike put the video on YouTube but fear not, you are spared. Both children performed as only Squid can. Few mistakes, played at tempo (a concern with Little Squid) and generally making the other parents say "wow." They are not child prodigys but are quite respectable nonetheless.

After, we treated them to lunch at their favorite dinner and came home to do the laundry. Therein lies a tale which proves just how much I am capable of deluding myself.

Back story:

Yesterday I forced myself to clean the turtle tank and goofed a little. To drain the tank I use a siphon system that attaches to a sink and uses the force of the tap water to pull the dirty water through fifty feet of tubing and dump it down the sink drain. This system worked great in my mother-in-law's apartment when she and I cleaned her humongous fish tank. When we took the tank, we also took the system. The tank has since been donated to a school but we kept the siphon system after getting a larger turtle tank.

Using the system involves hooking it up to a sink in a far away bathroom -- totally out of sight of the tank being emptied. In the past, I have successfully used it, all by myself, to clean the turtle habitat. So, knowing that it was possible, and not wanting to disturb Papa Squid, I set it up and sucked all of the very dirty water out of the tank. This I did with only one or two visits to the bathroom. Once the tank was almost empty, and seeing that Papa was heading into the bedroom anyway, I asked him to turn the water from suck to fill. That was when he found it. The bathroom and bedroom awash in dirty turtle water. Oops. Towels were drafted in to action and the floors were soon brought to a state of tolerable dampness. The same towels were then taken to the balcony to drip-dry until they could be washed.

I should have seen it coming when I first realized that icicles were forming from the water dripping from the towels. Being in denial, however, and still having to finish cleaning the tank, I ignored the signs. Until today.

When we returned from the concert it was time to do the laundry. I gathered up the various soiled items from around the apartment, including from under Little Squid's bed, and headed out on to the balcony, dressed in my parka and mittens. The fact that I had bundled up for this activity should have warned me. The fact that the temperature today had never broken freezing should have been another sign. Nope, I was still in denial.I can deny no more. No, Papa Squid is not fluffing the towel. Yes, it is staying in that position all by itself. The same goes for those held by Squidette. Yup. Frozen solid. So solid that this is what remains on the balcony.I could not pry them loose of their moorings. (The red bathmat will actually be discarded. It was rather ratty before it got drenched in turtle poop.) Sigh. Maybe next Sunday will be a bit warmer.