Tattoosday 7

I'm starting with Mark's tattoos this week. He actually let me take pictures of them! This one is probably my favorite, although I noticed in taking a close-up photo that it could use a little brightening up with a bit of recoloring. It's on his upper right shoulder blade. It's of a dragon with stonehenge in the background. He got it in Green Bay (the outline and the dragon colored), but got the rest of the color done in MI, later.

Saturday did not bring Mark's third chili victory in a row. I think there were 11 or 12 chilis in the competition this year. Rick Bogle (the head of Primate Freedom Project) won second place, and his wife, Lynn won first. I did not get to sample Rick's chili, but I did have some of Lynn's and it was delicious. She used a lot of fresh cilantro, which gave it a great, rich flavor. Mark's was very good too, of course. I think his only flaw was that his carrots didn't quite get done, but the flavor was fantastic--lots of garlic. I had to save room for the plethora of yummy vegan desserts. I only got to try about half of them too. My stomach just can't contain all the good food at these dinners. We had lots of time to chat with friends, and had a great conversation with Helene--so very glad she could make it! Sylvan, Sorrel, and Stephanie also came, so L & Sylvan played and giggled all night. We had a hard time getting the kids to leave and ended up staying and helping clean up and shut everything down, so the girls had more time to play.

Mark took off Sunday with L. for an adventure. They went to New Glarus state park and hiked, ending up on a trail that was much longer than they anticipated. They didn't return until after lunch! I really missed my girl, but she had a lot of fun, as she always does on adventures with daddy.

We just finished getting packed and ready to leave tomorrow for our last camping trip of the year. Dej will stay here, as she has to work and attend school. My mom will help her run the zoo while we are gone. This will be a pretty short trip--three days/two nights. That's actually about the longest I like to be gone from my critter babies. I start to get withdrawal pretty quickly and worry so much about them until I get back.

I had a stomach bug and was unable to go to work today, which strangely enough, bummed me out. I was working on a problem when I left yesterday (Mon.) and thought of a possible solution for it that I was pretty excited to try. Since I don't have a full-scale Oracle database and my Java RAD at home, now I have to wait until next Monday to try it. Plus, I have a big, important project due at the end of this month, and missing two of my three weekly workdays is not helping me make the deadline!