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Even tattoos need friends

Shortly after I got the leather daddy worm tattoo from Kayla Conner's flash, I decided I'd also get a capybara in leather. She took it in a Western direction when she drew him up, and that was fine with me because country bars and leather bars go hand in hand and can sometimes even be found in the same building. One change I asked for was what he's holding; she drew him with a gun and I don't like guns, so I asked for a martini instead.

Kayla works at Foundation Body Arts, the shop we go to for piercings and sometimes tattoos. Garrett recently made them an awesome new website!

the most boring person alive

I'm back in the cycle of having to work most days, and we haven't even started the accelerated schedule for Thanksgiving. I think that the last day I didn't do any work was November 1st. Some days I work 9 hours, and then I'm not in the mood to stare at my personal computer. We go to the farmers market Saturday mornings; I go to the office and my shrink on Mondays. That's about it. Excitement for me is going to one of the DC public library branches for our in-person book club listening session and then dinner. I'll get a bit of a break Thanksgiving weekend, which is only 10 days away. /slump

ICE raided an apartment building less than a mile from our house last week. Supposedly they had a warrant to arrest someone, but no one seemed to know how many people were taken away. [There was no information about it in the local news--too busy covering the shutdown, I guess.] The raid happened as the local elementary school (temporarily located a few miles away) was finishing for the day, and the neighborhood mailing list was full of people coordinating what to do with children whose parents were too afraid to go to the bus stops. There's also speculation (based on publicly available requests for bids) that ICE is looking to rent space for a field office in our town.

Green means go (to the doctor)

Sometime during the week before last, maybe starting wednesday 10/29 but definitely no later than Thursday 10/30, I had what felt like an ingrown fingernail on my left index finger. I hadn't recently cut my nails, nor had I recently injured my finger in any other way, so it was a bit strange. I figured that, no matter what happened, I'd at least be able to bring it up to my doctor on Monday 11/3 because my annual exam was that day. But it kept getting worse, with no relief in sight.

( Cut for nasty pictures and gory details... )