Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I always know that when I hear uncontrollable giggling from the other room, and then Nefarious walks in with a proud-of-herself smirk painting her face that I’m going to be in for something silly that brightens my day. On the weekends Caitlin and I sleep in — no rising for 7AM school breakfast — which means that Nefarious has to play out in the main section of the studio rather than coming into the living room (where her computer is) that also doubles as our bedroom.

“Ok, I will wake you up,” she shouted with glee this morning.

After I looked confused for a moment, she says, “just like you told me to on the sign!”

Very clever innocent fun now, but I suppose that this means that I need to worry about all the hilarious but not entirely legal vandalism she will get up to as a teenager. I probably should not have shared with her stories of some of my own stunts, as they are not just amusing, but inspiring.

I had a real great day today.

First of all, today it was Nefarious’s annual checkup at the doctor’s, which meant that I was able to sleep in an hour later and get up at eight. I’ve been in a ton of pain the last couple days, but upon waking I was relieved to discover that I felt good and walking wasn’t the nightmare that it usually is. Everything at the doctor’s went well, and she’s in perfect health, which isn’t much of a surprise because she never gets sick. I was also relieved to find that her eyesight is perfect as well (although I assume she will need glasses in the future). Most of the appointment was spent giggling and answering lifestyle questions.

I had parked in the Whole Foods parking lot, so before bringing Nefarious to school she grabbed some avocado sushi with brown rice, and I got myself a big treat of a salad with all my favorites. When I got home I spent the afternoon programming, working on a new movie/media management tool while an interesting documentary on gun running played on the TV — I think my favorite thing about my PS3 is the ability to stream HD movies to it. It has however been a little hard on my ISP.

It’s been cold here the last little while, feeling like -19 degrees according to the news, cold enough that I haven’t felt too motivated to go out. But when I picked Nefarious up from school it was almost warm, that winter warmth that comes with fluffy snow falling in still air. To my amazement, Nefarious’s friend Cassie claimed never to have been sledding in her entire life — I’m not sure how that is even possible — so she was happy to join us. We spent two hours sledding at Lithuania Park, not leaving until it had been dark for some time. Most of the time the girls ran up and down the giant hill to have races with the other kids there — holy exercise… I just waited at the bottom of the hill until we moved over to one of the smaller hills that the climbing of was less of an achievement and we managed to put three of us on the little foam slab of a sled that Nefarious and I picked up a few weeks back.

Eventually we made it home, and Caitlin had spent the day getting tattooed (so she had a great day as well) and was totally wiped out so it was just going to be Nefarious and I for supper. This gave me the opportunity of the simple pleasure of cooking a high fiber whole wheat linguine, which I seem to be the only person in the house that really likes it, served with an awesome veggie spaghetti sauce that Caitlin made yesterday. After supper we read a chapter and a half of The Prisoner of Azkaban, and we’re at the exciting part at the end as the real servant of Voldemort is revealed.

Now I’m watching Freaks and Geeks with Caitlin — the first time I’ve seen it again since we watched it together way back in ’99 — and eating a half pound pack of the best sugar snap peas I’ve had in ages as I write this entry. I have to wonder if that show would have been more successful today, because it really feels like the sort of show that could have its following seriously ramped up due to internet fans.

I know that all this might not sound like much, but it’s days like this that make me eager for tomorrow.

By the way, the strange black blur in the background of the second picture is a teenager having a tumble in one of their races. Oh, and seeing this awesome 4×4 video was also an easy but brief highlight.

One of my favorite things to cook is fish. I like what a simple meal it is, and that the main key to making a good meal is just being able to cook it right. Tonight I made trout in a lemon balsamic marinade with garlic, onions, and broccoli and rice that turned out extremely well.

ModBlog earlier today mentioned what they called “Howie’s innovative procedure” for eyeball tattooing in regards to the clip below, and for now my comment on it remains censored (hopefully they change that, because it seems a little lame to change history out of contempt — and even if it does eventually get through moderation, it sits there so long as to effectively scrub it from the conversation… sad that this still goes on).

Howie is the artist that’s done a majority of the procedures out there, including mine, and has surely improved on the technique through doing many, but the procedure itself (that of injecting the ink between the layers) was invented and innovated by me, and it’s something that I’m quite proud of so it was a little annoying to see my name get scrubbed out of its history. I’d wanted an eyeball tattoo for years before we eventually did it, and the idea for the procedure actually came from the procedure that was used to implant the “JewelEye”, in which saline is injected between the layers to form an elevated bubble for the implant. I figured that if you’re not looking for hard edged lines, that a similar injection of ink would be the most effective way to do it.

All things considered these guys did a remarkable job. I wonder if they got the idea from the Internet or one of the magazines that wrote about our procedures, or if they got the idea from watching the episode of CSI that was obviously based on Lane’s photos of my eye being done?