Baking: Pumpkin Blondies

I made these amazing pumpkin blondies today, using this recipe http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/3132 I stumbled across. I didn't have any butternut squash, but I had some pumpkins laying around so I used that, which is really the same anyhow considering that canned pumpkin puree is made out of butternut squash. I also used King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour instead of whole wheat because that's what I had, and white chocolate chips. I kept everything else pretty true to recipe except I added an extra half teaspoon of nutmeg, and omitted the salt (which I always do when baking). I think my pumpkin was maybe a little watery so i had to cook it longer, but they sure are yummy, so for anyone who's wondering, yes! you should make some! mmm mmmm

puppies

Drive to our second home, Lancaster, Pa Thursday, Fri Mattee goes to Philly to get Dave to finish the color on his back, Sat cookout, Sun Keith and I take the train to NYC for bff tatt day, Mon drive straight over to my aunt's lake house in Mi for the rest of the week for some family R&R.
Thurs we drive! Get there in the eve just in time to see Kris and the kids, pet Meemzer dog, get some gifts from Ben woohoo!
Fri Chanelle, Mattee, Myself, and the two kids drive to Dave's new studio. Oh yeah we can find our way outta here and into the city no problem. We made it Past the city, twice, before we got it right and get into the city. We ask like ten people how to get to the piazza from South St. No one who's in Philly is FROM Philly of course! Anyway we get to the piazza, it only took us an hour and a half! Hahaha. Yeah, girls we're just finding a place to park, hahaha. So we made it and even had time enough to eat, shop a little, and the girls got to run around and pet a hundred puppies before Mattee was done getting tatted. Lesson of the day: If you have a blackberry whose gps is not that accurate, follow the map not the written directions, duh.
Sat- cookout with our peeps! drinks, food, kids, dogs...thats how we rolll
Sun- 6am-ish Keith and I awake, as much as is possible, to catch the train to NYC. We get to our scheduled destination, only to find out that, due to communication mishap, we will not be getting tattooed today, but are welcome to hang out and barbeque. We hung out for a bit, where I loved on a sweet puppy! I kinda wish we'd done more of that but we instead decided we'd go walk around Brooklyn a little. We first checked out Dan Santorio and wife's new store Black Gold, a sweet spot with records, coffee, taxidermied animals and other antiquey randomness, then quickly came to the conclusion that we came to get tattooed we're gonna just get some matching lil skulls or something. We contacted a few tattooers and decided to go see Keith's friend Crag, who owns Hand of Glory so we go and find him at his new shop, The End is Near. We hung out with Crag and Joey Wilson for awhile, then got matching lil skulls on our legs from Joey, Keith grabbed some ribs they'd been smoking all day, which I am told were delectable, then out to grab some awful falafel (delicious) and catch our train. We soon realize that we had missed our train and it was the last train of the night to Lanc. We'll go to Philly, get a hotel, cab to Olde City, say whassup to Joey Knucks then cab it to Silk City, the best mac and cheese and Yuengling drafts to ever fuck up our guts! Morning train to Lanc to see the fam breakfast at Onions of course, with Kris and her crew. Lesson for the day: READ your train tickets NO MATTER what the lady who sold em to you told ya. haha
Long, Long drive to Michigan. Meet Mary, Mom, Isaac, and Lauren, plus Chocolate the Clough old dog. Next four days we fished in between and while boating, canoeing, jet skiing, crosswords, hammocking, firepit, cooking, eating, board games, reading, fishing, and more fishing.
Couldn't be a more perfect vacation.

A Day Late and A Dollar Short

'the weekend I came home was that same weekend of the Kent State incident. And after going through all that, and coming home one of seven survivors in my platoon, after I'd fought for my country to come home to them killing people just 60 miles from my home...the whole rest of my military career was in a different light after that'
' from here to that wall was every weapon the military had at the time. We had them just stockpiled, and they threw mortars in there and the ground shook for days like an earthquake. And there were seven of us left alive. And they handed us shovels and said "you're on body bag detail" so we had to go around and clean up whatever pieces were left'
'After that and before I came home I was on this Air Force base where, I'm pretty sure those guys didn't even know we had a war going on'
Yesterday on the fortieth anniversary of the Kent State Incident, I heard a whole new viewpoint on that incident. Growing up I was always fascinated by the events of that day. My mother knew some people who were involved in the incident, so I'd heard those stories. It was always a topic of interest of mine, it was one of those things that really got to me. And it happened in Ohio. Now, all these years later, it affected me in a new way listening to the stories from a Vietnam Vet as I tattooed him, and getting a new feeling, how it affected him so deeply, you could hear it in his voice and in the way that he told the stories, jumping around from thing to thing where some points were hard to connect in the stories, but it's all pretty mind blowing.
He didn't only bring me cool war stories, but he also has a collection of all sorts of memoribilia which I got to take a peek into. He brought in a great photo album, with photos from all over when he traveled everywhere on motorcycles after he got home from the war. Unfortunately I didn't make copies of some of that, he has some photos of old bikes that I know some buddies of mine would drool over. Just some great 1970s biker photos, business cards, stickers, and an old newspaper article from a way back easyriders show where he got his rather large harley tattoo on his back for $120! That I did copy and I'll try and get a pic up on here. He also gifted the shop an old Spider Webb book that I remember looking at in my past but god knows when or where.
After 14+ years of tattooing I've heard a lot of amazing stories, and I've forgotten more than I've remembered, but sometimes you get something that sticks out in your mind. Yesterday was one of those moments, so thanks Monty, we'll see you soon.

six years old

Here's a tattoo I did Saturday I was pretty stoked on... Saturday my daughter turned six. Pretty fuckin amazing. Over the past few days I've thought of writing a few times and I've just realized time and time again that it is damn near impossible for me to write about my life without writing about my daughter who is the #1 most important thing in the world to me. But until I get over the fact of putting info about her online for the world to see I will struggle with that. I am slow to embrace technology, as I am resistant to change. I have a hard time with the amount people put themselves out there. Little by little I get a little closer to them with this. Ever since the day my identity was stolen, and all my money with it. I felt so violated, so naked. All my personal info was in possession of some thief who will just continue on in this way. After that day I realized nothing is sacred, fuck it, maybe I should throw all caution to the wind and put myself out there even more than I am. I got on Facebook. But I still feel like I wanna put up walls. I still feel wierd to put my child online. I feel reminiscent of the People magazine with those poor celebrity kids lives laid out for everyone. I miss privacy.

so my original intent was to talk shit about everything in my life... this morning I woke and realized how I am always weary of posting anything on the internet about my daughter. Certain people don't need to see info on my kid and I always feel a little weird about putting her online anyway

Death Comes Ripping

When it's my time to go I hope to be in the middle of a tattoo and just keel over.

Get to Work

After tattooing for 16 years, and owning my shop for 14 now tattooing makes me happy, frustrated, stressed, concentrated, exhausted, painful, jaded, perplexed, elated, in love, in hate, confused, amused, entertained and I feel like the luckiest person in the world to be able to do this for a job. It makes me relaxed and puts food in my babies mouth. Everyday at my job is a totally new day, new adventure. I get to wear what I want, say what I want, listen to the music I want, and keep the shop mottos strong:DRAMA-FREE! THERES THE DOOR BITCH! FUCK A TIME CLOCK! and I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!