Yesterday, Megan and I attended a birthday party for one of the girls on her gymnastics team.
The birthday girl is the younger sister of a TV star. Her mom had been planning the carnival-themed party for quite some time. I decided that I would stick around -- for one thing, I wanted to get a glimpse of their house. But I also expected that this would be another of those typical, over-the-top L.A. kids' parties, and those who have read this blog for a while know that's just the kind of material I like to write about.
Well, I was wrong. The party was downright simple by SoCal standards -- and all the better for it! Yes, there was a guy on stilts who juggled and made incredible balloon animals... and one of those inflatable jumper/slide things. But that's the kind of entertainment you'll find at kids' parties all over town, not just in celebrity neighborhoods. And the kids all had a wonderful time, which just goes to show you that you don't need to do too much to make them happy.
Now the house -- that definitely was fabulous, and all I really got to see was the backyard and kitchen. Beautiful and tasteful. Yes, I'm jealous (although to be honest, I don't think I'd be happy with something so big -- the other moms and I were estimating 6,000 square feet).
And the famous sister was there, taking video of her youngest sibling. It was really sweet.
The one drawback to the day was the decision of the hosts to do one of those carnival games where you try to get the ping pong ball into the glass bowl. Everyone won one of the glass bowls -- and a goldfish. At the end of the party, an entire bag of the little critters was traumatized when it toppled off a table, spilling onto the ground, and the mothers dashed to save them. Megan was given one of the rescued fish, and when it looked like there were going to be a lot of extras, the hostess made sure everyone left with more.
"Great," I said. "Two sushi dinners for our cat."
Megan was thrilled with her prize. She's always wanted a goldfish, and I've always resisted because I know our family and we are best off with low maintenance pets. And maybe because I remember how sad I was as a child when my pet goldfish died.
"I'm naming the orange one Pumpkin," she said. Great. Now that it had a name, I really did need to figure out how to keep it from becoming our cat's dinner.
So we stopped at the neighborhood Petco on our way home from the party, where we were greeted by the same salesman who sold our hosts the fish we were carrying in our little bowl. We saw that goldfish at Petco cost 10 cents each. The small aquarium with filter, gravel, plants, fish food, and net I purchased came to over $50. I figured that the lid on the aquarium would help keep the cat away from the fish.
However, the aquarium instructions carried a warning not to put the fish in until 24 hours after assembly!
I signed up for a web service that offered tutorials and emails on the care and feeding of fish. There I learned that they recommended at least a gallon of water for each 1" goldfish. I wasn't sure about keeping them both in the tiny bowl. I transferred them into a bigger one.
"Do you know what I'm naming the spotted one?" Megan asked.
"No."
"Guess."
"Um... Spot?"
"No, Guess."
"I don't know, Megan. Tell me."
"Guess!"
"I can't guess."
"No, that's his name! Guess," she laughed. I don't think my daughter has ever heard Abbott and Costello do "Who's on First?" so I was kind of impressed with her little joke.
The aquarium kit included something to treat the chemicals in tap water to render it safe for fish. I stuck a little of that in the water before transferring the fish.
But where to keep them where the cat won't go? (Mind you, this is a cat who likes to sit on top of the refrigerator.)
We placed the large bowl on a kitchen counter and them placed a larger bowl on top to act as a lid, but that seemed kind of flimsy. Over the next several hours, Gareth and I made it a point to check on the fish every half hour or so. And around 9:00, after Megan had gone to bed, we saw that Pumpkin wasn't looking too good.
"That fish has had a bad day," I told him. We decided to forget about a 24-hour waiting period and transferred both fish into the aquarium.
With the change of environment, Pumpkin perked up a little, but he still didn't look too good. "I won't be upset if he dies," Megan said. "I know they don't live too long." Suddenly, I was not so unhappy with the idea of bringing home two goldfish instead of one.
Sure enough, around midnight, Megan woke up. Pumpkin was dead. And she was OK about it. After all, Guess seemed fine, swimming happily around the tank. We ceremoniously removed Pumpkin from the tank and disposed of him the way my mother handled the dead goldfish of my childhood.
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