Tag Archives: Disney

Pablo’s Great Escape

16 May

We thought we lost him for good – Pablo, our pet crayfish. I dreaded coming home from office to find a dried up crustacean under the sofa or a spot we missed looking yesterday morning when we discovered the escape. But work at the office beckoned and we couldn’t spend the whole morning at home looking for a runaway crayfish.

He did pull off a great escape and Houdini act, scaling the little aquarium’s glass wall and disappeared for many hours.

That evening we came home and looked again. This time peering closely at the pond in the middle of the house, the most logical place. And lo and behold! Pablo Sanchez Rodriguez was chilling in there.

The great escape artist had a great escape from a dried-up death!

I simply cannot fathom how he did it. The night before he was in the aquarium but didn’t look happy after a water change. What happened thereafter was quite incredible when we charted his likely path.

He fell out from the aquarium that was sitting on a three feet high cupboard, and crawled that floor space towards the eight steps of stairs, most likely tumbling down in the process. Then, crawled along the living room floor towards the middle of the house to dive into the pond. Quite an amazing feat!

Hubby said the fall could have resulted in a concussion (if hard headed crustaceans can get one!) and left him for dead behind the cupboard but no, he survived. And in fact, got smarter to find water to stay alive! This could almost be a script from Disney or a twist to a Finding Nemo plot: Finding Pablo!

We actually measured the distance from aquarium to pond and it was about 33 feet. And for a feisty little bugger, the distance I must say is quite overwhelming in relation to his two and a half inch size! But he persevered.

Thank goodness, he’s okay. All the Bobs (aka fishes) in the pond did not bully him or eat him (horrors of all horrors!) and he’s back safely in his abode now. This time, we have secured all loopholes. One fake plant has been removed and the driftwood repositioned to prevent another great escape.

This morning, he looks hyper and a tad angry that he’s back in the aquarium. What a character! Perhaps we will let him out to the pond every now and then to join the community.

Pablo1

Where it all began…

Pablo2

Where it ended.

Pablo3

Back home and sulking!

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A Colorful Birthday

11 Sep

The girls are teenagers now, 18 and 14 years’ old. At these ages, I deem it insignificant birthday numbers and therefore no big celebrations or parties. Unlike turning 10 or becoming sweet 16, life goes on and it’s just another day but with a small dine-out opportunity and a cake or cupcakes to mark the occasion.

Now the same can’t be applied to little ones under ten years old. My little niece and nephew has a party just about every year to celebrate their birthdays. This stems from them being the youngest and being indulged. With their birth dates very close to each other, my only sibling would hold a party, but just one for both of them.

I have forgotten how party planning goes as far as little ones are concerned. After all, our last big bash was when M2 turned 10 and that was like 4 years ago; and when M1 turned sweet 16 two years ago, not much planning was required, only some conspiracy with her friends to pull it off. Speaking of conspiracy, I remember when I turned sweet 16 donkey years’ ago, I conspired with Dad to have some friends over for a pizza party at home without the knowledge of Mom. She may know of this little secret now though…

Anyway, I was rather amused when the stage was set for the little one’s birthday bash last year. We were invited via online for the occasion and informed, in person, of the color theme. The nephew stated we must wear his favorite colors, orange or green, while the niece opted for pink or purple, colors apparently from the Disney movie, Frozen.

Oh. My. God.

The colors had flashes of Barney (the dinosaur) and Friends going through my mind! Four bright ghastly colors and how do I match? What do I match? Can I match anything? I can’t possible be one-sided favoring only one person’s favorite colors. Gently, I probed and they decided to include yellow and blue for variations. Phew. It was one heckuva colorful gathering as every family member obliged with this request.

This year, the party is not color-coded but activity-enhanced at an activity center. I am not sure I can survive jumping for an hour with a room full of little ones come Sunday. We shall see…

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