Legs are Obviously Overrated

Before the great Flood of Horror, there was another little incident with the Fishtank of Horrors that I didn't quite get around to mentioning. It's a gruesome tale, so consider yourself warned.

Waaaay back in April, I was having trouble with fish randomly disappearing in the tank. It had been going on for a few months and was getting on my last nerve. I couldn't figure out what I was doing to kill all those fish and spent HOURS testing the water, cleaning the tank, and fretting over what the problem could be. Then, one day, I saw my answer. I saw the brittle starfish hunting down and killing a pink fish.

The brittle starfish, with a body about the size of a quarter and long, almost worm-like skinny tentacles, was a murderer.

A day or two later, that same starfish was obviously poised outside a cave, just waiting for the fish inside to emerge so the starfish could have a nice little Scooby Snack. Mr. Husband reached into the tank and with his bare hands, yanked the starfish out and shoved it into the tiny little 5-gallon tank that was sitting on the dresser right next to the bigger tank.

*shudders*

It's punishment was solitary confinement.

I had intended to bag up the starfish and haul him down to the local fish store. It was to be a case of "leaving the baby on the doorstep" except that in this instance, the baby was a nasty killer starfish. But days went by and then turned into months, and the starfish remained in the isolation tank.

I stopped caring.

Occasionally I would drop some food in, but mostly I just left the starfish to do whatever it is that starfish do. Then one day I caught a Mother Truckin' Worm in the good tank and didn't really feel like walking four feet to properly dispose of it in the throne, so I decided to give the starfish company. I plopped the worm into the isolation tank. Over time, I plopped in about five more worms.

At least the starfish had company, right?

Well, maybe not. Early last week I lifted the lid to the tiny isolation tank and noticed that the starfish looked . . . off. It's color wasn't quite right. It was sort of twitchy looking, what with it's rolled up legs and paler than usual coloring. If starfish molted, that's what I would have thought it was doing. It looked very weird and was moving in odd circular yet tangly motions.

However, it was not weird enough to keep my attention for long. After staring at it for about ten minutes, I headed out so we could continue to enjoy our staycation. I didn't give the starfish another thought until that night when we returned. I opened the tank lid to drop in some food and realized that the starfish, who previously had five very long and gangly legs, suddenly only had one leg.

The starfish ripped all of its own legs off. Except one. Because once you're down to one leg, you don't have another leg to rip it off with.

Gross.

I grabbed the net and started sloshing around to scoop out the one-legged starfish. Except, it wasn't dead. No siree, the thing survived ripping off its own legs. So, I let it be.

A few days passed and the one-legged starfish somehow persevered. I have to think it was holding onto life for one reason and one reason only.

It wanted to rip off that last leg.

It succeeded in that mission a few days ago and has since passed on to the giant ocean in the sky. In it's wake, it has left one severely twitchy woman who doesn't even want to think about how you rip off an appendage when it's the only one you've got.

*shudders*

Because I like you, here's a photo that may help wipe tha image of a one-legged starfish working on being a no-legged starfish from your brain.

Stand Up to Cancer

Of women who develop breast cancer, most do not have a family history of the disease. In fact, only 5 to 10 percent of cases of breast cancer are considered to be hereditary.

Sometimes there is a genetic link. Specifically, some people carry a "faulty" BRCA1, BRCA2, and/or TP53 gene. People who carry one or more of the "faulty" genes are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

Your father is just as likely to pass the "faulty" gene on to you as your mother. Breast cancer is not a "female" problem.

Having a "faulty" gene is not a death sentence. It simply means you are at an increased risk.

Not having a "faulty" gene does not mean you will never develop breast cancer. Genes can mutate and become cancerous.

My mother died of breast cancer nearly thirteen years ago. She was 45.

Because of that fact, my risk factor for developing breast cancer sometime in my lifetime is slightly higher than the national average. In fact, my physician says it's 5% higher. If you think about that, it means that even if no one in your family has ever had breast cancer, you are still only slightly less likely to develop the disease than I am. So, are you slightly less vigilant? Or much less vigilant?

We're standing up to cancer by educating ourselves, doing things to lower our risk, and by going to the doctor for regular screenings.

Are you standing up to cancer?

Burgh Perfect Staycation Step #6: Venture Out

Pittsburgh rocks. No doubt about it. There is more than enough to do here and we could have stayed busy without ever leaving the city during the staycation. However, we did venture beyond for exactly one day. One of our stops was Ohiopyle. While we didn't have nearly enough time to play there, we did manage to let Alexis hit yet another "beach." She loved it.