naval museum's tattoo exhibit!

leff and i dropped by the puget sound naval museum today. we've been there before. it's a great little place. but they hadn't had a tattoo exhibit...until now.

i am absolutely telling you that if you're in the puget sound region, you should see this. there's artwork of wwii and spanish american war tattoos.

and a portable tattoo parlor.

and, this is the bit that you're going to want to take the ferry for, A VIRTUAL TATTOO PARLOR

WHERE YOU CAN PROJECT NAVY TATTOOS ONTO YOUR ARM

i got a dragon,

a naval star,

a panther (which i actually almost got in real life a billion years ago. haha hahaaaaaa),

and a swallow!

leff got an anchor,

a chicken and pig XD XD,

a ship,

a name and place scrawl

and a heart.

and i got a pinup girl. (which haaaaaaaaaa is ALSO another tattoo i almost got a billion years ago.)

oh! and a temp tattoo for later!

honestly, you cannot go wrong with this exhibit! it is SUPER FUN and it's free! i cannot wait to drag everyone i know to it!

two goofy things

for the upcoming japan trip, i ordered a stripey shirt. then i ordered some stripey socks to go with it.

on the last census i reported that i was a quarter nosferatu.

all i do is write about food... :(

soon that will change but until then, i give you nashville style hot chicken spices.

you see, i need very spicy food this time of year. i get super homesick for searing heat. and flavor. and...just...not...fucking teriyaki or goddamned salmon on a board.

so today i roasted some jalapenos and used them in this mac and cheese. delicious!

and i made the aforementioned nashville style hot chicken to accompany it.

both are perfect with hamburger pickle chips on the side. (i only wish i could have made the chicken spicier but i ran out of cayenne pepper!)

gardening and snacking

still hacking away at the yard.  however, it is now powered by maryland junk food, courtesy of a care package from home.

today leff made kitsune udon!

lunch today was spectacular! leff followed this recipe and POW we had kitsune udon!

he even made dashi stock using a cup of bonito flakes steeped in six cups of boiling water with a pinch of msg. (i forgot to buy kombu. oops. it was still delicious stock. smokey and deep and so, so good!)

we added fried tofu, kamaboko and green onions

to our udon.

so it was beautiful as well as delicious.

i promise you that if you make kitsune udon yourself, you'll be dancing like this by the time you're finished eating. 

sat/sun

yesterday, leff and i headed to lake city to visit kim. we had lunch at rainin ribs. somehow, none of the bbq pics came out so you're just going to get a stupid yo dude wastate tag.

food consumed while not in lake city:  fried eggplant from that amazing let's cook japanese food cookbook.

honestly, you really should get your hands on a copy of that book.

i've been scrabbling around in the yard trying to get this place ready to sell. here's not a picture of that but instead one of the big log with nice moss that we use as a table.

and also the mint that's come back.

spring, i guess

i still struggle to call this spring. i refuse to acclimate to the pnw. why should i bother when this has always been a temporary situation? 

at least i can get jarritos on occasion.

and it smells pretty nice while i'm hacking through the jungle of the back yard because the lilac is blooming. ours is hardcore granny style.

when i'm not searching for the lost city of z in our yard, i'm watching cubs games. and when i'm not watching cubs games, i'm watching animal movies. or at least movies with animals on the discs.

things should be more exciting in about a month when i ditch this place for a while. pinky swear.

fri night/sat morning

kim took the ferry over on friday night for cider and baseball. 

thankfully, it was on mlb.tv and not outside because, damn, it was windy and gross.

this morning, we stuck some corn under the broiler

to have with yellowtail teriyaki for breakfast.

fuji was down with the fish, lemme tell you.

OH MY FUCKING GOD WE'RE GOING TO TOKYO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'M DYING I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO GO TO TOKYO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT STOP SCREAMING I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

here are some pictures of the last cherry blossoms in our back yard that we lit with one of our multicolored led lamps.

JAAAAAAAAAAAAAPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN!!!!!!!!

some new things to banish the grey fug

cute and bright, that's what leff was going for. i think he was successful!

i also think that if you need some tea we've got you covered.

cats and rabbits

the city poured the sidewalk today. hooray hooray!! they are still smoothing it but, damn, it looks nice and, best of all, is now ada compliant!

these two guys (not ours. they just like to leave us presents (birds, squirrels) on occasion and have cat summits with clouseau and peel.) kept giving the construction guys the side eye though. 

naturally, in the middle of the concrete pouring, we had a package delivery. hahah aaaaah. :/  (when you don't drive, you tend to use a lot of delivery.) ANYWAY we got our pepper grinder replacement and it is BUNNY SHAPED

i don't know what the best part of it is, the fact that you have to take off its tail and put peppercorns in its butt to refill or that you squeeze its ears together to grind. either way, i can operate this even during an arthritis flare and it's adorable. hooray! hooray!!

april fool's safe space (because i hate what april fool's has become)

we are in the middle of a construction zone. again. always. fucking forever. hopefully, the city pours the concrete today so the sidewalk is finished and i never have to fucking think about it again. i am tired of construction and dealing with city employees. ugh. *spit* *crosses self* *throws salt over left shoulder*

anyway, here's clouseau being a cat

and the first lilac of the year.