Well we certainly had a busy weekend! We went to La Crosse to celebrate the 3rd birthday of Mishka’s nephew. The house was full of people and food and screaming kids. It was truly an adventure.

Sunday, though, was awesome. We ate some food at a place called Buzzard Billy’s, then Mishka and her Dad both got new tattoos. We went to Mind Altering Tattoos and the artist we had was named Chad, he has his own shops in East Grand Forks, MN and soon in Duluth. His work was absolutely amazing - especially for the price. Mishka’s dad paid just over $200 for his, a huge Dharmacakra¹ on his right shoulder. The detail is amazing and they shading looks gorgeous.

Afterwords it was Mishka’s turn. She chose a Tiger Lily on her right thigh. He drew it on her freehand, then proceeded to color it in - another absolutely beautiful one.

I don’t have a shot of the completed tat, once it heals up a bit I’ll see if I can’t snap a few. It looks great though, and at only $150, it was at the ’stupidly low’ price.

Needless to say, we have a new tattoo guy. We have a thing we need to next month, the soon-to-be sister-in-law’s graduation from college. We’ll be in contact with the tat guy before then and hopefully he’ll be at his shop there, otherwise we will end up going to East Grand Forks. The main reason we’re sticking with this guy is Mishka’s mom will be getting a tattoo as well (Which is a big thing!) and he’s the guy I think that can best design a Fenghuang for me on my right forearm. The Fenghuang is the Chinese Phoenix. It doesn’t stand for rebirth, this one stands for loyalty and honesty. Essentially, the Fenghuang only stays there when the owner is without darkness and corruption.

And, because we always need some drama - Mishka learned the importance of looking while you backup.

1. Her father is a Buddhist [↩]

When I got my first tattoo, I was 20. It cost $125, and was a lot of money.

Yesterday, 10 years later, I got my second tattoo. It was $280, and not a lot of money.

So, catching myself looking through tattoo designs, I think I might have gotten the tat-bug again.
Only this time, I can afford it, easily.

So now, I need to figure out what to get next. The current one, the phoenix, was easy. A phoenix immolates itself, then rises from the ashes. I was almost dead, but now I’m stronger then ever.

So now begins my search….

Check it out, click on the pic to see the full size pic. Mishka got a new tat too, but it’s hard to get excited about that - and I can’t put up but a few pictures, because most of them show her bazongas. See the whole set over on Flickr. Loving this tribal phoenix :). Done at the Ink Lab on Lake by Saul.

Ok, now I’m having some annoying problems with everything aligning right. So you’ll have to put up with it unless I can figure it out. I’m assuming if I write enough here, that it will eventually correct itself. Of course I could mess with the code, but I’m tired and I don’t really feel like it. Let’s see if this works now.

It works, but not like I wanted it to. Screw you justification!

So, Sunday we went to Grand Old Day in St. Paul. It was, to say the least…. ok, I guess. There was a tiny art show with an art car and a few craft booths, but other then that it was mostly bland modern music and booze. It truly was a sea of drunken college kids - though there were a couple of girls in bikinis in a kiddy-pool, so that was cool.

We ate at Grand Thai - it was mostly empty as the entrance was behind a large stand that sold lemonade and fried cheese curds. I order the Red Curry, hot, and was pleasantly surprised with just how good it was! It may be the best curry I’ve had to date - real fiery with an overall sweetness from the coconut milk that really cooled it down - I loved it. Mentally added it to my ‘list of places to go’.

Ever since I was wrenched from my bed early on Sunday to deal with some oncall issues at work, I just haven’t felt right - been sort of tired and a general ‘worn out’ feeling. Hopefully it fades for this weekend.

There’s a ton more to read - this was a real mental dump - click below to see it all.

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