Rodney, Photographs and Possible New Tattoos - It Was a Wonderful and Productive Friday

It was excellent seeing Rodney (my tattoo artist) again yesterday. The first thing we did was hug - a nice long friend hug. He introduced me to several of the other artists working at his new studio, and they're a great bunch of people - some very talented artists there. The studio itself is a block from the U of MN campus, so well placed for walk-in traffic, and there is a lot of on-street paid meter parking  (electronic/digital) too. I found a space two blocks away, which wasn't bad at all. In deep winter with icy winds and a blizzard, I probably won't be as happy - LOL. 

I noticed a "Nauti-Cal" location just 1/2 block west of 
Rodney's tattoo parlor. If it hadn't been a biting cold day, 
I would have dropped in there for a treat. I do love their 
food. Maybe next time. 

We chatted for more than a half hour, catching up on each other's lives. He just got engaged to his long-time girlfriend, so congratulations were given to both of them. I also had to find out how his two Huskie dogs were doing. Then he started taking photos and movies of my scarab. When he edits it all and puts it up on his Instagram, I'll let you know. We also spent quite a bit of time talking about the next two jobs I want him to do for me. 

False doors have many different appearances. I gave 
him two images, this one and the next photo to give 
him two looks. Of course, I want to stay in greyscale 
only, but it's the concept I wanted to bring across. 
This particular false door was on a later tomb and 
was only painted on, not carved in. Still, it served the 
same purpose - the location of prayers and offerings 
for the deceased. 

I want a false door with my hieroglyphic name, "Fierce Woman" in the center of it. I want it to look weathered and imperfect, but recognizable as an Egyptian false door. For those who may not know what a false door is, it is the place where offerings for the dead are placed and prayers are made for the deceased who is entombed behind the wall and the true door. There were a lot of iterations of false doors over the centuries, but the concept remained true. Although we talked about the back of my head, I messaged him this morning telling him I want it on the upper back of my neck instead. I want my scarab to remain the star of the show. Everything else bows to the scarab. 

I also gave him this photo which in many 
ways is closer to what I'm looking for in 
my mind. I want it looking more 
weathered and crumbling. I am only
putting in seven hieroglyphic symbols 
for my name, so it doesn't need a
great deal of space. 

We also began a discussion for a large back piece I'd like down the line. I don't know if I'll ever get to this one, and DH will totally throw a fit, but I want the "weighing of the heart" on my back, with the triple goddess symbol I got as my second tattoo decades ago as the fulcrum of the scales. He also photographed two lines from "The Book of the Dead" that I want running down the back wall of the back piece which is my tie-in to the scarab because the lines celebrate "Khepera", the name for the scarab - the creator of all. 

I want Anubis, the scales and the beast in the back 
piece. The scale must feature the heart on one side 
and the feather of Ma'at on the other. Putting 
Ma'at herself into it is optional, Thoth isn't necessary
either. The hieroglyphics behind Anubis should be
the two lines from "The Egyptian Book of the
Dead". He photographed them from one of my
three copies of the book (overkill, I know). 

So, it was a busy morning and early afternoon. When I finally returned home after a couple of other errands, I settled down at my laptop and finished the grid sheets for the 4mm bicone crystals. I only have the 3mm bicone crystals still remaining for their grid sheets, then I can dive into photographs - lots and lots of photographs. 

This particular image of the "weighing of the heart" is 
more familiar to most people. It's one of my least 
favorite plates, though. There's a lot that I like, but 
a lot that I don't in this image. 

I hope you have a truly fantastic Saturday and a wonderful weekend ahead of you. I'll attend the American Craft Council show on Sunday, and plan on being back with you on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

Finally A Meet-Up With My Tattoo Artist and Other Endeavors

It's Friday, which is always a lovely day, but I'm running a bit late today. Of course I've already had my two-mile fast-walk, and made my two cups of tea, figured out the day's schedule and done my daily solitaire games on my phone, so I guess I've been a bit busy. But better a bit late than never, so here we go. 

I haven't seen Rodney for over a year. I've totally settled 
into my tattoo - can't imagine myself without it, to be 
truthful. I do need some minor hieroglyphics added 
below the scarab, I'm thinking a minimal "false door" 
with the hieroglyphics going vertically. I'll see what 
he's got to say about that. The star has to be the scarab. 

I have a noon appointment with my tattoo artist. He's been wanting a photo session forever, and since he posted a video of my getting my tattoo on his Instagram, (https://www.instagram.com/rodneytaylorart/?hl=en) I was giving him a hard time about finishing the job - LOL. He needs some "after" photos to go along with the progress video, so today is finally the day after months of trying to get our schedules aligned. I'll be going to his newest place - Dinkytown Tattoo, which is located near the University of Minnesota in the Dinkytown neighborhood. I'm rather hopeless with that area of town, so I'm hoping Google won't do my wrong and that I'll have an easy time finding a parking spot. No guarantees. I'll try to build in plenty of time so that I can walk a few blocks if necessary. 

I've got my square Swarovski crystals on Etsy, but I want 
to add the rounds and the bicones because those are the 
categories that I have the most product available. Then 
I can start in on the specialty shapes, which I also have 
a lot of. I can't fall too far behind schedule here, but 
they take serious prep time before they can be uploaded. 

Of course I also have to go grocery shopping, and I'm hoping to spent the afternoon continuing to finalize the photo sheets for the next Swarovski crystal photos. I've been working on that on my Friday afternoons, and I really need to keep up with the pace for that. 

I love working with embossing powders. I have huge 
containers of the colors I use most frequently, and 
there's not a card in decades that I haven't used this 
technique for in some fashion or other. I decided that 
this year I would paint my cards, so embossing 
powder and paint are my focus right now. So much 
fun! 

I've been working on my Holiday Cards at the shop in the early mornings (when I should be washing the floors). I'll have my first "call out for cards" next week, then again two weeks later and maybe a third in early November. Ideally, I'd like my cards in the mail close to Thanksgiving, although Solstice is always my hard deadline. 

Keep your eyes open. I'll be announcing my first 
"Call Out for Cards" next week sometime. I only make 
a total of 50 cards which leaves me 49 to send out 
to friends and family members (and I have a large 
family). 

So, on that note, with things to do, places to go and people to see, I'm out of here. Have an excellent Friday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow. 

A Dreary But Relaxing Sunday and Plans For the Week Ahead

It was a bit of a dreary day yesterday, so when we went out to look at the garden and see what plants might be starting to come up, it was drizzling and rather cold. I didn't stay outdoors long, deciding that staying dry and warmer would be my better choice. DH stayed out longer - the garden is really his thing, not mine, and he wanted to check on all of the plant beds. Right now we're probably up to two weeks behind schedule because we've had such a cold Spring. I might not have Lily of the Valley blooming for my birthday next week, which would be disappointing. A few really nice, hot days would help a lot. 

I love my Lily of the Valley plants, and DH has planted a lot 
of them along the side of the house for me. He started planting 
them for me when we first moved up here, as a Spring gift. I've 
always loved the tiny flowers, a promise of Spring. 

It was a relaxing day, though, and those days are always a plus. I did my standard Sunday load of laundry, but that little bit of work barely counts. I sat at the computer for the day, playing LOTRO's Anniversary Festival and listening to golf in the background since DH knows I really don't want to have news of the war on all day. We ended the night by watching two hours of "Naked and Afraid XL" which was highly entertaining. The teams (4 teams in groups of three) were left off in the Amazon - NOT a healthy environment. Two people abandoned within two days because of serious reactions to plants or insects, two more abandoned by Day 4 because of insect issues. 

The insects were outrageous, causing a lot of problems with 
swollen feet and legs from excessive bites. Several teams 
didn't get above-ground sleeping platforms built until their 
second or third day, meaning the contestants got no sleep 
during the nights at all. That's non-functional for anyone. 
The two teams who burned termite mounds to help against 
the bugs were more successful than the others. But when 
one-third of the people abandon a 60-day challenge within 
the first four days, you know it's a tough environment. 

I was chatting with my tattoo artist on Instagram and he suggested I watch a program called "Moon Knight" on Disney+. It does sound like something I'd enjoy - a reimagined Egyptian god, which is what drew his attention to me. I don't subscribe to any streaming services, although I've gotten used to using Peacock on my laptop for Project Runway and the Olympics. I might look into this, though. Time to research the program a bit. I also plan to email the scheduler at Rodney's new tattoo shop to get a consultation scheduled. I don't want the work done until the Fall, but I would like to get onto the calendar and make sure we're on the same page with the next batch of ink. 

Apparently Moon Knight is yet another character in the MCU 
and the series is six episodes in total. The character becomes 
a modern representation of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu,  
and suffers from DID - dissociative identity disorder.
It is bringing this particular mental illness into more focus -
all told, not a bad thing at all. It might be worth looking at
sometime, but not right now. I'll have to find out more
about the character before I become invested in it,
and I do have a Dr Strange movie coming out very soon, so
that's taking front stage for me right now. 

So I'm keeping this short and sweet today. I got my fast-walk in today, and think I might start to push into an additional quarter mile no later than next week. If I can do that and manage to keep it up, I'll be doing two miles on my treadmill days and I'm already doing more than 1 mile in the swimming pool on my water days. I'm pretty pleased with how I've progressed over the past two years. Yippee. Have an excellent Monday, be kind and patient with others, and send prayers of peace to the world. I'll be back tomorrow - Slava Ukraini. 

Things Are Moving Along - Live Journal, Dreamwidth, and My Tattoo Artist

It's the beginning of another week. After a relaxing Sunday, it's time to jump back onto the wheel, enter the flow, and resume the rhythm. Bleh! I really can't complain too much. The weather is tolerable - not snowing, not sub-zero and not rainy. I actually had a really good run this morning on the treadmill and my weight is right where I want it, and I've got food in my refrigerator and money in the bank. So I have no idea why I'm feeling "Bleh!" this morning ... but I am. 

Rodney is moving from Timeless Tattoo to 
Dinkytown Tattoo, approximately a mile 
away. This will be the third location for Rodney 
since I first contacted him before Covid. I liked 
the Timeless location, but I'll find him in Dinkytown. 

My tattoo artist, Rodney, is moving to a different shop over the next two weeks. It's only about a mile away, but he'll be closer to the University of Minnesota, and parking will be metered - not my favorite thing, but manageable. We're still trying to get together for that photo shoot, and I really want to find out his ideas for adding more color to my tattoo. If I do that, however, I'm looking at October. I want to be able to swim outdoors for the summer. If I have to take two weeks away from the pool for new ink to heal, I want it to be when I'm using the indoor pool only. 

This is Rodney, my tattoo artist. It's from a few years 
ago, but it was the first major search I made for an 
artist comfortable with skull tattoos. He's done very 
well for himself - even featured in INK magazine 
for his skull work. He deserves the accolades, my 
winged scarab is awesome and gets compliments 
every time people see it. 

But I'll never know about whether or not I want to add anything else to my Winged Scarab unless Rodney and I can actually manage to meet. He's extremely popular and well known in tattoo circles, so he's hard to pin down. The one time we had managed to mutually schedule a time late last year, his car broke down and he had to cancel. Still, getting together is something both of us want, so it will happen sometime or other, and my tattoo isn't going anywhere. 

I haven't bothered importing my LiveJournal to 
Dreamwidth since I cross post anyway, but there 
are early posts on Live Journal that I probably should 
move over. I have my Live Journal completely 
backed up, and all photos are on my computer, not 
permanently stored on either blogging platform, 
but it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to do 
a general import. 

A lot of my writing friends are now getting used to the Dreamwidth platform. I admit, I've used both Dreamwidth and Live Journal for years, and there are some differences, to be sure, but there are ways to work around the software and make it happen. Dreamwidth doesn't work as smoothly as Live Journal, but it's also not Russian owned, which seems to be the determining basis for the move. I understand it on ethical grounds, especially after the war crimes we're seeing occur in Ukraine. It's a reasonable decision. I'll continue to use LJ, and my paid membership continues into 2023, but after my paid membership ends, I'll just stick with a free membership. I won't cut Live Journal out of my life completely. There are people there I deeply care for and wouldn't like to lose track of. 

Bleh! The movement from Live Journal to 
Dreamwidth is a tempest in a teacup. It really 
doesn't affect me, although my writing group 
has shifted over. I'll still post on the three 
locations I post every time - my blog, 
Dreamwidth and Live Journal. Small 
ripples in my water. 

So, I'm wrapping this up. Time to get my pool reservation made for Thursday and get myself motivated to go to work. Have I said "Bleh!" recently? Yeah - work ... "Bleh!" LOL Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Toasters, Housecleaning and Conversations - It Was a Good Friday

Yesterday turned into a very busy day, but I did get quite a lot accomplished. I started out at Whole Foods - not my favorite grocery store, but the only one that supposedly carried the no-grain bagels I wanted to get. Why did I want bagels? DH broke down when he was at Target on Thursday and purchased a new toaster with wide slots so that he could toast bagels. That sounded lovely to me, so I decided to get some for myself. 

The new toaster that DH purchased is 
pretty snazzy. You need to hold the 
lever down for several seconds before 
it locks into place. For a bagel, you then 
push the left-hand button and it automatically 
senses and toasts the wider, denser bread. 

Of course, while I was looking for bagels, I also needed non-dairy cream cheese, non-dairy "butter", and a nice no-sugar jam. I already had some lovely raw honey that Chickie had given to me - friends of hers have hives and had given her some super tasty honey, but Chickie doesn't like honey so she passed them on to me. I've been enjoying them ever since. 

I ended up with this brand of non-dairy 
cream cheese. It's actually not too bad. Not 
as good as regular cream cheese, but I'll 
eat it, and since I don't do dairy any more, 
I'll manage just fine. 

I got the spreads and the bagels and some uncured lunch meat that I had run out of. I got stopped by three people who complimented my tattoo, and one very sweet guy on the autistic spectrum who said he'd never seen anything like it before, and asked what it was. I gave him the short version of what a Winged Scarab portrayed and he thought it beautiful. Made my morning, for sure. 

I also picked up a jar of this - 
no-sugar Apricot spread. It's 
absolutely lovely - very tasty! 

My main task for the day (aside from doing the laundry I couldn't do on Wednesday) was to put the micro-ban coverings on all of the pillows, the couch, and the queen-sized mattress. That was easier said than done, and the mattress would have been a LOT easier with a second person, but I prevailed. I got everything covered except the couch. I had been off on my measurements, and had to return the couch cover and order the next size up. So, I printed out the return slip to Amazon, repackaged the item, and headed to Kohl's which accepts Amazon returns at no charge. 

I have a guillotine-style cutter in the basement 
of the shop, but it's not accurate enough. I have 
a very inexpensive rotary cutter at home, but it's 
not up to the amount of pages and the weight of 
the cardstock. So, I decided to add one of these 
onto an Amazon order. It arrived earlier this 
week, so now I can proceed with the next stage 
in my holiday cards. I can already tell 
I'll be running very close to deadline for 
them this year. 

Today I'll start cutting down the fancy papers for my holiday cards. I have a lot of cutting to do. I received a new, more accurate cutter earlier in the week, and I took the time yesterday to go onto the manufacturer's website and order one of each of the custom blades they make for the machine. I should be getting those next week, and one of them is a scoring blade, which will get a lot of use for this year's cards. 

My friend, Shruti, is one of 19 artists chosen 
to be featured in this new book, just released 
on October 19th. I'll have to take a closer look 
at it, but I'm so proud of the recognition she's 
receiving from others on her journey. 

I also spent the day messaging back and forth with my dear friend Shruti, from India. For many years she has made a card for more than 500 friends, each one hand-made and highly decorated. A true work of love. I limit mine to 50 and can't imagine doing 500! Earlier this year she had said she was going to take this year off. She was feeling a little guilty about taking the year off and was bouncing things off me, so I told her she needed to take whatever time she needed to recharge her batteries and allow herself to get grounded once again. I told her to take the year off for herself - that she was entitled to it. We had a lovely conversation. It's always a joy to touch base with her. 

So have a wonderful Saturday, enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back on Monday morning. Please stay safe, be kind and do something unexpected over the weekend. It's always good to stretch your boundaries. 

Trying To Schedule A Photo Shoot - Two Busy People and One Single Day

Yesterday, I finally touched base with my tattoo artist again and we're trying to work out a date for a photo shoot before the temps get too cold. That's a definite concern because we're quickly running out of October and if we're doing a shoot outdoors, we're also running out of tolerable weather and temperatures. Of course, we could always move to the Como Conservatory or work within the Como Zoo - both of us live close enough to the zoo and Como Park to make that a possibility. But I'm trying for a meet on the last Friday of October. 

I'm not sure if this will link out correctly, but I finally got a chance to see the video Rodney made of my tattoo before I left after the second session. We still want to get together for a photo shoot, but this is his Instagram page where he posted. He had me move outside of the Tattoo studio to get this video done without glare and spotlights. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQyy4i7HpfE/

I'm fortunate to live near St Paul. In fact, when I first moved up to here from New Mexico, I lived within easy walking distance from Como Park - the crown jewel in the park system of the Twin Cities. Those who live on the "other side" of the river (that would be the Mississippi River), would probably give their votes to parks on their side, but for me, the premiere park will always be Como Park. 

Como Park is a wonderful place. The grounds of the Zoo 
are where the small white square is on the center left. The 
zoo comes quite near to the rectangular building a 
bit down and to the right which is the Conservatory. 
There is an 18-hole golf course taking the top 1/3rd, 
and a large pavilion fronting the lake a bit more to 
the east. The lake itself is quite large. Many people take 
the walking/biking paths around the lake to get their 
daily exercise. At the bottom of the park, below 
that final blue roadway is another small white 
rectangle. That's the public swimming pool with a 
zip line and wading pool area.  

The main attractions of Como Park are the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory and the Como Park Zoo. Both of these amazing venues are free to the public except on special occasions or reserved dates (wedding photo shoots in the Conservatory are fairly common). The Zoo is always free, and the Conservatory sets aside one day a month as a fee-based day for photographers to come into the grounds and take photos. Chickie has gone to several of these events, but I've only attended with the usual public on free days. If I remember correctly, there are only nine free zoos in the nation, and Como Zoo is one of them. 

The Como Park Conservatory is stunning. It's an amazing and 
large venue with a tropical room, a more temperate room, 
and outdoors there is also a wonderful Japanese garden. 
It's a great place to go in the middle of Winter to defrost 
a bit and remind yourself that Spring will come. 

I'm rather hoping that Rodney will approve of my thoughts for our photo shoot. He wants some more "artistic" photos of my tattoo, and I would love to be outside during one of the last autumn days before the snows fly (if we're lucky enough to be outdoors with the unpredictable weather we get at this time of the year). Blue skies and sunshine would also be a plus - not asking for a lot, am I - LOL? Of course, I wouldn't mind being in the Conservatory either. 

During the Covid shutdown, Como Zoo, like many other 
zoos across the nation, took their penguins to other places 
to allow them to explore and expand their surroundings. Here, 
the Como Zoo penguins took a visit to the nearby 
Conservatory to enjoy the Spring tulip exhibition. Aren't 
they adorable? 

So the ball is back in his court. The 29th of October is the only day I can see that we might both have off at the same time. Things may not come together but we can try. 

Unpacking and Tagging - My Life Today

DH finally gets a day off today, and since we received a large shipment at the shop yesterday, my day will be spent getting price tags entered and starting to get loose product packaged up for sale. I suspect my computer time today will be extremely limited, but this should be the last, or at least next-to-last shipment before the holidays. 

To tell the truth, I was a bit relieved that the shipment 
arrived on a day I wasn't in the shop. I didn't have to 
deal with it, and can just handle the final stages of 
check-in now. Part 2 (my part) is slower, but
we can't sell it if it isn't priced and packed for sale. 

I went to a different craft store in my neighborhood yesterday for the one missing paper I couldn't get at my local store. Fortunately their alternative location did have it, so I grabbed it and was wandering the shelves (one never knows what wondrous things can be found at a craft store - LOL) when a conversation behind me abruptly stopped and a woman moved from the aisle towards me, stating that she just had to see "that tattoo". LOL Her friends were also exclaiming over it, and I thanked them, allowed them to look, then they went back to what they were doing, as did I. Khepri made another conquest. 

With the exception of the actual folded cards and envelopes 
(which have been ordered), everything else I need for this 
year's holiday cards I was able to get from my local Michaels 
crafts store. Now I have to start cutting things down to 
the correct size and make sure I have templates for 
the cutwork. I have no room for error on this project. I have 
exactly enough paper for the run of 50 cards and don't 
want to have to purchase additional stock. 

It's both amusing, and gratifying every time my Khepri gets noticed and acknowledged. I suspect my dear scarab beetle preens a bit overnight from all of the attention, while it escorts the barge of Amon Ra back to the event horizon of sunrise. I have had a few pinched faces and the occasional sniff, but generally people seem to enjoy the tattoo. Of course, I love it - no regrets here. It's exactly what I wanted, and I couldn't be much happier. I'll be sad to have to cover it up in the winter, but that's reality when living in sub-zero temperatures for a season. 

My days of looking like this will come. I live in the 
Frozen Northlands - it's a fact of my reality. On the 
cold days, my head will be covered for warmth. 
I usually wear a knit hat at the shop too, because 
it gets cold there also. My lovely Khepri will be 
covered for most of three months. 

I had a great swim yesterday with my older earbuds and my iPod. I think I clocked in at 2/3 to 3/4 of a mile, but what was more important to me was I wasn't taking breaks at each end of the pool to catch my breath. I'm getting back into the rhythm again and soon I'll start doing a standard workout again. I had a routine that would give me a true mile with variances in the strokes, and I suspect I'll be back to that routine no later than the end of next week. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's pool time, and will continue listening to my current book because that worked quite well. 

In the past, having lap swims this crowded has been very 
rare. Now, with reservations required and COVID restrictions 
in place, it simply can't happen. Our indoor pool has a total of 
five lanes, and each lane is restricted to no more than 2 
people. That means a total of 10 reservations per time 
slot (some people get two continuous reservations, like 
Jeannie who usually swims for two hours at a time). 
Me? I just enjoy my 5 am - 6 am time slot when possible, 
but will swim the 6 am - 7 am slot when I must. 

So ... I'm off to plug in some pictures and catch up on my email - it's a rare day when I'm not getting several hundred emails to deal with throughout the day and overnight. I have to keep up with it - it's hard to play catch-up. Have a truly excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Be kind, stay safe, and please try to do a random act of kindness today. I think a little kindness can go a long way. 

We Spent Sunday Watching the Olympics, and Khepri Released at Last!

We spent most of Sunday with the TV turned into the Olympics. DH is an Olympics addict. It's not uncommon for him to stay up until the wee hours of the morning watching the games (unless he has to work the next day). He's channel flipping from one station to the next, catching bits of this event and bits of that. He's happy and I'm at least catching some of the games, so all is good. It's driving him a bit crazy that he can't get everything, but I'm not sure I'm willing to dive into streaming - it would be the logical next step, but it's more money outlay. Even though we can afford it, he's addicted to TV and I suspect that having increased choices would hook him even harder into that addiction, and not in a good way. 

One of the events we watched was the Street Skateboarding 
event for men. Yuto Horigome of Japan pulled out the 
win with this final run down the 12-step challenge. There 
were some really excellent runs, and some fantastic face 
plants as well. I'm looking forward to park-style 
skateboarding too - that one will be the curved walls 
and obstacles I'm used to seeing in skateboard parks. 

So I'm holding off on streaming services for the time being. I'll use Peacock on my phone, but I'm unwilling to look into Roku, Fire, or other services/methods to download shows from the web. I'll probably break down at some point, but I am not a TV addict, although I readily admit to being tied to my computers. 

It's not the best shot, but it's the best I can do from a 
mirror. You can get a good idea at the little bit of 
color I approved for the body of the Khepri. Rodney 
suggested pulling that deep green over into the 
wings as well, but I tabled that for the time being. 
I'll be going back within a year or so to get some 
hieroglyphics added, and I'll reconsider color in 
the wings at that time. He also wants me to come 
back for a photo shoot after everything has healed. 
I'll set that up within a month. 

Today I removed the burn tape from my Khepri, exposing the tattoo to the air for the first time since it was applied last Wednesday. Now it's a matter of keeping it conditioned, and germ-free while it's healing completely. The initial healing is finished so now it's fine tuning. After at least a month, I might feel comfortable putting something other than a soft scarf over the inkwork when needed. I took a mirror photo of the final tattoo to share with all of you. I'm very happy. DH hasn't seen it yet, so today will be a bit of an eye-opener for him - LOL. 

I was unsure about surfing at the Olympics. I adore the 
sport and follow it, but I'm more into the big waves, not the 
2-4 foot waves they have here at Tokyo. Still, I was impressed 
by the little bit I did see. There's some good board handling 
here - more similar to skateboarding than fighting to get free 
of a curl that will pound you to bits. Here's a stunning photo 
of USA's John John Florence on the waves of Tokyo Bay. 

I'm trying to get caught up on a few things this morning, so I'm signing off here. Have a wonderful Monday. Be safe, stay kind, and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Khepri Takes Flight - Tattoo Session #2

Yesterday was the day I've been waiting for - the day when Rodney and I would take the bones from the previous tattoo session (beautiful in their own right) and make everything come alive. The day started with him sitting down with the original drawing on his tablet and starting to suggest different shading, coloring and contouring. As we came to agreement and talked through things, I began to feel as if we were very much on the same wavelength - that he would do it right. A little color for the body of the scarab, black/grey tones with minimal white for definition for the rest of it. We dealt with the solar disk separately at the end of the day. 

Winged Scarab tattoo, right side, final 
version. I asked Rodney to use my phone 
to take a few quick shots. The glare 
is from the overhead lights. When he 
took his own photos, we went outside to 
avoid the extra glare. 

By a little after 11:00 am we got started. I turned on my audio book, warned my staff that I was unavailable, and turned inward. Meditating breathing techniques really helped me because I needed to avoid twitching or other movements. We ended up taking two very short breaks, but with that exception, we were totally immersed in the task on hand. We ended the actual session a little after 4:30 pm, so a total of 5 to 5-1/2 hours under the needle. 

Here's the left side. One of the first 
things people say is "Didn't it hurt?", 
or "OMG, that would be too painful 
for me." I have a high pain threshold, 
but yes, I totally admit that this 
session was uncomfortable. Still, 
I sat utterly still and let him work 
his magic. 

Am I happy? Hell yeah! I'm totally ecstatic! It's amazing. He brought the Khepri to life, and the shading in the solar disc with the Eye of Horus in the center is absolutely perfect. Now I get to wear scarves for a few days while the tattoo is protected with burn tape. Finally, on Monday morning I can finally shower away the crap that seeps out from tattoos while the skin adjusts to the ink.  

The solar disk with the Eye of Horus was 
the final thing we did. I admit I was about
at the end of my tether when we inked this. I
warned Rodney that I'd had about enough. 
He didn't hurry it though, and the shading
 of the rising sun in the background of
the Eye of Horus is absolutely perfect. 

One funny thing. Mackenzie, the tattoo artist who works across the room from Rodney's station had a young lady scheduled to add to her sleeve. It turned out to be the same young woman who had been getting a "candy" skull (think Day of the Dead) on her arm's upper sleeve when I was last in. We were becoming "tattoo buddies" - LOL. Although her image wasn't as intense as mine, it also took most of the day for it to be inked. This time her image was an empty bottle with an entrapped scorpion inside it. She had it added to her interior lower arm. I'm not sure what it signified, but it was a great image and Mackenzie did a wonderful job. 

I was fine with a small amount of color, and Rodney 
had also researched beetles and had several reference 
photos to look at. I just wanted a bit of color for 
highlight and definition. I'm really a fan of B/W and 
grey scale tattoos, not all that fond of color. 
I got what I wanted. Minimal color and an 
image that just comes alive! 

I've put five photos in to share. Of course, my skin is really red and irritated under the ink, so everything will be a little lighter once the irritation has faded and the wound has healed. But you'll still get a really good idea of what it looks like. The next stage won't happen for a year or more. I want to add hieroglyphics below the Khepri, and maybe a smaller image below the characters. That's still in the research and development part. I've got the main element complete now, and I'm super happy. 

Just to remind you what it looked like before 
he added life to the Khepri. Here's the 
picture I took when I removed the
burn take after Tattoo Session #1. It was 
beautiful then, but now it's stunning! 

Rodney asked me to make an appointment to come over for photographs. He wants to bring his digital camera for that, not just his phone camera. He does art photography and wants to do a full run-through of the tattoo after it's healed. No problem with that, I'll be happy to do it later in the Fall. 

So, it's Thursday and I have to work, and tomorrow will be spent doing all of the things I couldn't do on Wednesday. I have a busy couple of days ahead. I hope your day is fantastic and all things go well for you. Positive thoughts go out to Aearwen's son who had hip replacement surgery yesterday. That's a hard surgery to recover from, and it's very painful, but it was absolutely necessary and he's still a young man who should bounce back fairly quickly. A few extra positive thoughts from my readers would certainly be appreciated. Have a wonderful day and please, be kind and stay safe. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Tattoo Stage Two, Zoom for WilderBody and Positive Thoughts

In 4-1/2 hours I'll be in the chair at Rodney's station at Timeless Tattoos, getting ready for the second round of my scalp tattoo. I'm totally psyched. I found that I work better listening to an audio book, and I started a new one (a re-listen of a series I love) on Monday. I have plenty of hours left in the book, and lots of action still pending for the characters. It's one I've listened to several times before - I tend to re-listen to books as much as I tend to re-read them. A good book revisited is an old friend welcomed. 

Rodney has two Husky dogs, a male and a female. He 
dotes on them, as any dog lover would. I picked up two 
buffalo bones similar to the photo, as well as one 
pack of Himalayan Chews for them. Just a small gift 
for my tattoo artist. 

I picked up some dog treats to give to Rodney, and they're in my backpack along with my bottles of water. I'm going to do a quick in-out at the grocery shop when they open this morning and while getting our chicken for dinner tonight along with veggies, etc., I'll pick up a gift bag for the dog treats. The only gift bag I have on hand is either obviously a Christmas bag, or one that's too large with a very cute dinosaur. The image might be OK, but the size is really much too large. 

My computer screen will usually show a total of 
20 participants in a Zoom meeting. But there were 22 
pages of screen shots, so I did the math - 440 people 
were attending our meeting. The initial class was supposed 
to be limited to 500 participants, so we had a very high 
percentage of people attend. We're quite literally from 
all over the world - Nepal, Australia, Scandanavia, the 
USA and into the Orient. It's a great and varied group 
of people. 

We had our first live Zoom call for WilderBody yesterday and it was great. More than 440 of us logged in to the call. My friend Pauline from England has a conflict with the time, so won't be able to join us, but other friends of mine, Angel and Ellen Sue were there. It's always fun to link up with fellow members of self-improvement programs, and this program is brand new - we're the first people taking it. We'll test out all of the bumps and holes and find out what works and what doesn't. 

When we were younger we used to have a lot of fun running 
around at top speed and playing in the yard. Then exercise 
became a chore - something you forced yourself to do. The 
key to health is to embrace the fun once again. I'm totally up 
for retraining my psychology into thinking exercise can 
be fun again. 

The idea behind WilderBody is that bodies love to move - that physical movement is fun, necessary, and welcomed. But, in a contrary way, similar to how WildFit starts, we're supposed to relax as much as possible over this first week. That'll be easy for me. I'm off the treadmill until August 2nd to allow my new tattoo ink to heal before I add sweat from my daily treadmill into the mix. I know I'll be chomping at the bit to get back to physical exercise again once August rolls around, so the timing of this couldn't be much better. 

Aearwen, I just know this surgery will have a
great outcome. I'll be thinking of both of you today. 

The dryer just sang to me - it's time to take out the single load of clothing I'll get washed today. If I'm really ahead of schedule, I might get the bedding changed late today, but otherwise it will have to wait until Friday. I promise pictures of the tattoo when it's complete, but I already know - it'll be absolutely awesome. Have an excellent Wednesday. Sending lots of positive thoughts out to Aearwen's son who is having surgery today. I hope everything goes smoothly and that he's back on his feet and happy with the results soon. I'll talk with you next week and we'll catch up. Meanwhile, all of you have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Wrapping Up Le Tour de France and Looking Ahead to the Olympics

In today's post I'm wrapping up and also looking ahead. It's going to be an excellent week with a lot going on, so I'm diving right in. 

First, I hope you had the chance to see the end of Le Tour de France yesterday. Although Mark Cavendish didn't manage to pull out the stage win, he was in the Green on the podium, and admits his lack of the final stage win was his own fault. So he ended this year's TdF tied for number of stage wins with Eddie Merckx. Will Cav be back next year for another try at breaking the record? Maybe. That's next year and that's too far away to make any real prediction. 

Tadej Pogacar hoist the Winner's Trophy at the final 
ceremonial podium of Le Tour de France. To his left 
is Jonas Vingegaard (pay attention to him - he'll be on 
that top step one of these years), and to Tadej's right 
is Richard Carapaz. 

Final results for the podium on the Champ-Elysees was as follows. In first place with the Yellow Jersey and a firm win was Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emeriates). It was his second year on the top step of the podium. In second place was Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and in third place, Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers). Mark Cavendish prevailed and won the Green Jersey, although he only placed third in the final sprint, thus leaving him tied with Eddie Merckx. In the White Jersey and in the Polka Dot Jersey, a very familiar face - Tadej Pogacar who managed to wrap up three different jerseys in this year's race. Very well done! Bahrain Victorius won the Team Competition, and for most aggressive rider, Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels P/B KTM/FRA) took the award. One hundred forty-one riders finished the race. 

The Tokyo Olympics logo and signage all 
say 2020. Yes, it's currently 2021, but because 
of Covid, the games were seriously delayed. 
Of course, Japan is in the height of their 
pandemic right now, so spectators allowed 
to actually watch the events will be minimal. 
So, we go from the poisoned waters of Rio 
in 2016 to the Covid poisoned air of 
Tokyo in 2020 (2021). What a mess! 

Now my thoughts are turning to the Olympics, which already has some competitions starting on Wednesday the 21st (Baseball/Softball and Football - probably what we call Soccer in the USA) start games on Wednesday. The whole things gets firmly underway with the Opening Ceremonies on Friday the 23rd. The full schedule of what events are on what day is at  https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/all-sports/olympic-schedule.htm  although that won't give you the times for each competition. I'll be relying on standard television as well as Peacock to watch events I'm interested in. I enjoy Artistic Gymmastics and Artistic Swimming, Diving, Archery, Shooting, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Skateboarding and Surfing (both new this year) and Trampoline Gymnastics. I also get a kick out of some parts of the Equestrian events (although dressage has never been exciting to me). I know I won't be able to see everything I want, but hopefully I can catch something other than the standard events - gymnastics, competitive swimming and Track and Field events. 

In the USA, the Olympic Games will be 
broadcast by NBC on network, streaming, and 
on Peacock. For a full schedule of broadcast 
events and times check out 
https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2021/07/14/tokyo-olympics-day-by-day-schedule-highlights/ 

Wednesday I go back in to see Rodney and get the next part of my tattoo finished. I have a six hour appointment scheduled and I hope that'll be enough time to get the shading, and contouring (greyscale with only a small touch of color) completed. I'm so excited to get this done. It looks amazing so far, but it will be beyond belief amazing when he's finished. On that note, I'm out of here. I hope you have an absolutely fantastic Monday and that you stay safe. Remember to smile today, a smile goes a long way towards smoothing things out in life. I'll be back tomorrow.