Update on My Tattoo

I woke up this morning to some crazy itching on my arm and the first signs of peeling skin. I gve it a quick wash and covered it with the recommended lotion and it still itches. Little bits of dry skin continue to flake off. It’s kinda cool as the flakes are tiny and solid black in color–I don’t think I would have seen them if they didn’t have some color on them. It is interesting to watch the lettering change shape as I rotate my arm at the elbow (pivoting my forearm along it’s axis between the wrist and elbow). In my whole life I don’t think I have ever spent this much time looking at my skin.

Oh, and the hair is starting to grow back on my arm. Although, with the tattoo placement I chose there should be no hair growing from within the lettering.

The back-story on this tattoo can be found here.

Manufacturers of Gourmet Chocolates

So, I am on a Mac-related forum and in the forum’s Lounge (the general discussion area of the forum) we were discussing good chocolate. I came up with the below list of good-to-great gourmet chocolate manufacturers.

Ghirardelli – http://www.ghirardelli.com/
Godiva – http://www.godiva.com/
Lindt – http://www.lindtusa.com/
Poulain – http://www.poulainchocolate.com/ (difficult to find in the US)
Scharffen Berger – http://www.scharffenberger.com/
Valrhona – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valrhona

Other members of the forum suggested the manufacturers below.
Dagoba – http://www.dagobachocolate.com/
Dolfin – http://www.dolfin.be/
Vosges Haut-Chocolat – http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/

Try out them and let me know what you think. Happy Eating!

Surgery Update – Recovery Day 3

Sorry for the late update. My Mom had her first “normal” day since the surgery. This means she got to take a full shower and put on regular clothes instead of bulky fleece and sweat-pants. I had to wrap her shoulder in plastic wrap so the openings in her shoulder would not get wet. So, I broke out the Saran Wrap and medical tape and crafted a crude but effective covering for her shoulder. I felt like my fix was one part MacGyver to two parts Dr. Frankenstein. But it worked and Mom got her shower and put on regular clothes and spent time at her desk getting caught up on e-mail before returning to the recliner. (To help the healing, she has to spend all of her time in a sitting position, even while sleeping, so any time she can get away from the recliner is a good thing.)

I’ve got only one photo from today and it is of a showered and dress Mom trying to smile for the camera. When I took the pic she said a four-letter word instead of “cheese”. Getting the sling back on after getting dressed required just the slightest movement of the shoulder and that left her in quite a bit of pain. Lucky for her she was due for another Vicodin.

All Cleaned Up

Interesting Coincidence

Check out this story on the New York Times website. One day after I got my first tattoo and they have an article about how tattoos are becoming more mainstream, especially those tattoos that are visibly prominent.

I called my buddy Eric first thing after getting my tattoo and in the course of the conversation we talked about this very subject–how visibly prominent tattoos, especially on the neck or hands usually prevented someone from getting a mainstream “suit” kinda job. This article addresses that point and suggests that corporate/commercial attitudes towards visibly prominent tattoos is changing, partly driven by pop culture and partly driven by general changes in attitude about what makes someone a suitable employee. (That looks are becoming less important than other skills when deciding to hire an employee.)

Check out the article. They have several photos along with it and one features a woman who works at the LES Girls Club and she has this lovely and delicate vine tattoo running down her neck, adding a nature-based design to the existing nature-based design of her skin. (I am pretty meh on her other more prominent tattoo in the photo.)

Surgery Update – Recovery Day 2

Well, my Mom is doing a lot better today. She is taking just one Vicodin every 4-5 hours now and actually slept for 5.5 hours straight early this morning (which means I got to sleep for that long as well). This afternoon we took off the wound dressing and put some band-aids on the the small bandages covering the four openings where the arthroscopic tools where inserted. Tomorrow she can shower and get fully dressed for the first time since the surgery. I will have to wrap her shoulder in plastic wrap and then put tape on it so the openings don’t get wet. It’s gonna be like playing MacGyver with my Mom’s shoulder.

I’ve got a couple pics below of today’s progress. The first pic is a close-up of the wound dressing before it was removed. My Mom said it felt like she was wearing a shoulder pad and when I saw the dressing I understood why: It was huge and underneath all that tape were individual pieces of gauze caked with dried blood. That was g r o s s, GROSS. The second one is a close-up of the bandaged openings for the arthroscopic tools. The black fabric in the background of both pictures in the sling she has to wear. She has to keep her arm in that sling for the first two weeks.

Wound Dressing Close Up

Arthroscopic Tool Openings