July 06, 2002

Today I was just in a really good mood for some reason, and felt amused by everything.

The aquarium was more crowded than I've ever seen. I had to park on the fifth floor, which is the very top of the parking structure. I've never had to do that before. The line to buy tickets went through all the rows and then stretched all the way out to the street. I've never ever seen that many people waiting to buy tickets. Must be the holiday weekend. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with the crowds as I'm in the back areas the whole time.

Tony wasn't in today, so Emily was covering for him. I left her a note to tell her I was there, then headed upstairs to begin work on the clownfish tank. The large clownfish was up to his usual antics, attacking the scrub brush and such. It always amuses me for some reason.

Leo eats a lettuce leaf.

Emily found me and I went over stuff with her. No feeding Gollum today. Ah well. She did, however, tell me I could feed the sharks. XD

I did my usual food prep stuff for the divers, and took that food upstairs. That done, I hung around a bit as Leo was getting fed. At first, he wouldn't come over. He had spotted a stray lettuce leaf and was very determined to have it. So he was swimming as hard has he could towards it, but there happened to be this bit of shallow coral. Leo was a bit too large to swim over it, so he just sat against it and paddled furiously. It was quite amusing. Eventually he shifted off of the coral and grabbed his lettuce leaf and then came over to get the rest of his food.

After that, I then fed the other tanks I normally do before grabbing the squid for the sharks. There was a tour right outside the kitchen, just as I walked outside with my bucket o' squid. This girl, probably around 8 or 9 years old, starting screaming "Ewwww! How gross! Ewwww!" and quickly scrambled away from me like I was going to dump it on her head or something. Others were trying to get a peek at what I was carrying and I dangled a squid for them just because I enjoy doing that and getting a reaction. ;)

The southern stingray against the rocks, hoping for a treat. (She's so cute!)

I headed upstairs and began feeding the black tips. The tour that had seen me previously came up just about then, and they watched me feed the sharks. I had this air of importance happening. "Hi, I'm Kim, and I'm feeding sharks." Well, maybe it isn't impressive, but I sure felt impressive. =)

The sting ray came up, pressing against the rocks and making her "mumph, mumph" sound as she opens and closes her mouth, squirting water about. It always makes me grin. I felt sorry for her so I gave her a squid. She went nuts trying to grab it, coming high out of the water and sliding up my arm. I also gave each of the zebra sharks a squid just because they're cool.

I went on to clean the clownfish exhibit. That same tour group showed up right about then, just as I was cleaning the protein skimmer. The tour guide asked what I was doing, and I told the group I was cleaning the protein skimmer. I swiped my finger inside of it, getting a big glop of greenish-brown stuff on my finger. I held up my finger and said "This is the protein."

There was a collective "Ewwww!" from the group. =D Much fun.