Yippie Koi Yay

I'm so happy! (I know, a nice change from crabby, right?) This weekend we finally installed the "water feature"! I have been wanting this for a long time. I put a trial one on the deck (in a plastic tote) 2 years ago to see if I liked it. I did like it quite a bit, until my Betta fish (Vermillion) leaped out to his death. Last year I found this nice rigid pond shell at (what else?) a garage sale for $5. The price was right and I had big plans. This spring I bought pond plants at the plant sales and kept them in the tote. When we finally agreed on a location, we started digging!


Liner in ground, water in pond (yay, no leaks!) plants in water, cute little fountain tinkling away, but something is still missing.....FISH! We were off to the pet store to get some feeder goldfish. The 17 cent kind were too small, so we went nuts and bought 3 of the 27 cent kind.








Then we turned around and saw the KOI! Little, yeah, but REAL KOI! Only $4.99, so we bought one. I don't usually name fish ( OK, other than Bettas), but a koi can live 60 years and get 2-3 feet long. A koi in Japan was proven to be over 250 years old! Obviously, a fish that may outlive me (Paul gives it a year, tops) needs a name.
I thought long and hard, and decided it's name is... Yippie Koi Yay. Yippie for short. The white goldfish is very fast and zips all over the pond, so s/he's Zippy. Skippy goes well with Yippie, so we have Yippie, Skippy, Zippy and....? Still trying to decide. Paul suggests Mississippi. The un-named fish is timid and hides alot. It is all orange. I'm taking suggestions.
The finished water feature! I love it! The only drawback is, now I worry about the fish. I check them every morning. I need to do more research to find out what to do in the fall. Does it all have to come inside? Where the *#&% am I going to keep that?








I also bought a George Foreman grill at a garage sale this weekend. Paul is still fuming because we got there 10 minutes too late for him to buy the welder. We need to go garage saling early and often. Unfortunately, the instructions were missing, so I'm trolling the internet for them. I found this recipe and it was delicious! We had it with steak and green beans out on the deck, so we could listen to the fountain and peek down at the finny four.

George Foreman Taters

Potatoes
olive oil
fresh rosemary

Slice potatoes into slabs 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. They should all be the same. Coat them in olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary. Put them on the grill and plug it in. Cook them until they are tender and have nice grill marks. (5-8 minutes?) If you didn't get the huge grill (I did!) you may need to do this in batches.

I'm going to the library to get pond books AND George Foreman books, but I'm thinking PANINI!