cooking dinner, thinking of friends, getting tattooed, you know...

so i'm cooking the kids favorite dinner tonight. nope, it's not mac-n-cheese, not grilled cheese either...it's lemon pepper salmon with potatoes and asparagus...or as we call it "the yummy food ann makes". yes, ann has gotten my children to eat healthy food. she does it well too. the salmon is always perfect and potatoes are wonderful, i won't even to into how amazed i was at the fact that my children ate a green vegetable!! so i try to make it once a week-ish. it's never as good but it passes and they eat it. so i'm pleased.

cooking this meal always gets me to thinking about ann and tania. there were many family meals spent together. we mastered the burrito and salmon and the pasta with meatballs. the homes were warm and inviting. the children played while the parents enjoyed some yummy wine. sigh.
those days are over. we had a small taste of it when tania came to visit but it was just a tease.

and now on to something a little less nostalgic:


i ventured out to ballard today to get something that i've been wanting for a while now. a tattoo of lily of the valley.
i was prepared for some pretty crazy pain. some have thrown up over tattooing, others have passed out! i was ready. i reminded myself that i had given birth to 2 babies...pushed them out a small hole and survived to tell the tale...surely i could handle a tattoo.
kat joined me in the lobby of the tattoo shop for moral support. it was nice to have her there. she came with me when i got my tongue pierced too...whatta gal!
so while i was waiting this tall thin model looking gal came in with her husband. she wanted to get his named tattooed on her wrist. easy enough. up she went. kat and i waited downstairs and chatted up her wedding and the list of things she had accomplished that day when we both heard the following:
"the most important thing is to relax. you passed out last time because you were holding your breath...you just can't do that."
kat and i looked at each other in shock and i started to re-think this whole 'i'm tough cause i gave birth' thing. i had an epidural after all...i didn't REALLY feel the hole stretching beyond it's natural limits.
it was my turn and i was gonna have to get this over with.
i am telling you the truth.
it did not hurt. it felt like i was over itching one spot. there were moments when i may have closed my eyes due to some minor discomfort but really. it didn't hurt.
as a matter of fact. about half way through, when he took a smoke break, i had already decided that i would surely be getting another one in the future.
smoke break:

all done:
tomorrow i'm off to get a hair cut. think i'll go a bit shorter this time...the color will remain the same...for a while anyway.