Scenes From a Country Weekend

I worked from the country for the Thursday and Friday, which went off without a hitch. At some point Yma decided that this remote contral was the perfect pillow. I questioned her on this, but she was really committed.

This was a breakfast I had one of the days - two fried eggs and turkey bacon on a toasted English Muffin with a smear of cream cheese. Because if it's one thing I know how to do, it's clog my arteries.

I think I've watched these dogs/spent time in this house going on three or four years, and each time I sueually end up making some kind of 'welcome back' dish for the family. In years past it was some variation of a chicken noodle soup - though I think perhaps one year it was a lentil/artichoke soup of some kind. This time around I had my own hankering and figured I could combine my own gourmet want with the need to also leave them something to enjoy. The result was two batches of curry, one with chicken and shrimp and decidedly not vegetarian, and the other very much the opposite. Pictured is the meat version, which I think turned out quite well. Had a little spice to it through quite a number of chopped peppers and a little extra help from a curry paste. Other ingredients included fish sauce, okra, snap peas, portobello mushrooms, basic, lemongrass, ginger, garlic. Quite satisfying on what turned out to be some relatively cold and snowy days.

I had grand plans of taking a really good photo of my tattoo with my tripod in a pretty lighting set up. And I sure did take a lot of photos, but pretty much failed on the 'good photo' part of my quest. I'll need eventually to just have someone else do it for me. Help stop the guesswork.

It did eventually snow (this was the day that Gronkowski and Reggie Bush messed up my FF plans). Not only were my FF plans torn asunder, so too were the traveling plans of Mr. Ass and his parents. Their flight was eventually canceled and so I ended up spending an extra day and evening with the dogs, which was quite a bit more relaxing, I would imagine, than being stuck in Florida when all you want to do is get home. In any case I was on the look out for interesting birds by the bird feeder, but didn't see anything so totally interesting.

These six deer were only one small part of a much larger herd that ran by at one point. I think I counted close to, if not more than, 20.

Just A Few Extra Wedding Photos

I was able to track down a few of the photobooth photos from Cuz K. and A.'s wedding.

So, also, in early November I finally got the tattoo I had been thinking about for quite a few years. It took almost four hours and by the end it was painful (the first hour lulls you into a false sense of low pain security), but the tattoo artist I chose after much due diligence, did an excellent job. It's got two main meanings to me. First, I am trying to push myself to be more optimistic in life, and so now I have a blue bird on my shoulder, which I associate with such optimism (zippadeedooda etc). Also, along the branch I asked the artist to include a sort of 'etched' set of my mother's initials. When my parents moved to Tennessee she got really into having a few blue bird houses around the house, and while I can't say that they were her favorite bird, hearing her talk about the progress of the birds is something I remember about many of our phone calls during the Tennessee years. The craziest part was that the artist, who travels between a number of different studios in very different parts of the company, could only schedule the actual work during a very small window. While I asked for a weekend, he only had a Monday...and that was actually the same day that my mother actually died. Coincidence probably, but still and interesting turn. I would never assume that Mom would actually be on board for this, and I imagine she probably wouldn't have wanted me to do it, but I do think she would probably have understood the sentiment and I really did think about it for years before committing. Now I just wish it was easier to see one's own back.

I'm still in need of getting a better photo of the tattoo in order, there really is some nice detail and coloring worth seeing, but I did take the photobooth opportunity to at least get a basic shot. Also, look at that braid (and ignore the jowls)!