I'm looking for some input, ya'll...so, if you have an opinion, please speak up. :)

As some of you may remember, we lost our beloved cat, Diamond, last October [inlink]leetee,15[/inlink]. Since then, i have had the thought of getting another tattoo symbolizing something to do with her.... more specificly, a diamond shape. I thought about just a diamond shape, but that seemed a little bland. Then, someone suggested to me a gemstone shape. But neither seemed quite right to me.

(e:uncutsaniflush) started a google search and found this image



I liked it but it sparked a thought in me. If i have one celtic tattoo (a celtic knot arm band on my upper left arm with a claddagh), why not another? A celtic diamond, what a great idea!


These are the images i found


I like the sharp angles in this one



I like the elongated nature of this one.. and how it seems to have 4 separate sections that connect



I like the slightly irregualr nature of this one



And finally i like the geometric nature of this one (actually, these ones)




I am considering getting this on my upper back, by my neck. I have a thing about balance and i have the arm band on my upper left arm, and i have another tattoo on my right ankle. So, although i like the idea of the tattoo being over my heart somewhere, i don't want it on my chest and on my back on the left side might be too much like i have a celtic section of my body.

Anyone have any opinions on placements or designs? While i am at it, anyone have any recommendations for a tattoo artist. I may have found someone, but i don't know much about her...

Thanks!!

Despite the Morrissey quote, i hardly feel dreary today. Looks like it might rain any second, but i love that feeling. I love the rain too.. in the summertime, i think it's grand to take a walk in the rain. Very refreshing.

We just finished lunch (an odd combo of toasted bagels and vegetarian breakfast sausages) just after finishing watching the Tour de France.

Congrats to Lance Armstrong for winning once again, his 7th win, on this, his last race before retirement. I was torn between wanting to see him break yet another record and win 7 times in a row, and wanting to see the excitment on an upset and see an underdog pass him to the finish. Yet, i am oddly proud of Lance Armstrong for what he has accomplished. He beat cancer, and as someone who has done the same (although i will admit, not in the same places!!), i can say the process is exhausting and painful. Somehow, i think having endured the pain and discomfort of cancer and its treatments has made him a stronger person, better able to endure the pain and discomfort of sitting on a bike and racing all those hundreds of kilometers. I imagine it is as though he said "this ain't nuthin'" in comparison to cancer treatments. I think comentary on the race parallels my thoughts... i heard someone saying that surviving cancer changed him and created an even more enduring personality. I applaud him in his victory and wish him well in his future. Congrats and good luck, Lance!

Today, (e:uncutsaniflush) and i went to see the film March of the Penguins and we both enjoyed it. I highly recommend it. I'm such a big kid, and i ended up practiclly bouncing around in my seat when good things happened to these wonderful creqatures. I happen to be a sucker for anything having to do with animals, and i found myself crying a few times in the theatre... those penguins have a rough go of things.

But thinking of these poor penguins souls not being able to eat and having to huddle in a group to keep from freezing to death makes me not want to complain about things in my life that get me down. Talk about perspective...

I have a great life. I have a beautiful, wonderful, loving, supportive husband who is my best friend, therapist and lover. I couldn't ask for a better spouse. I live in a beautiful house with him, but i would live anywhere with hiim. I owhn beautiful things my husband encourages me to buy, sometimes even buys for me... How could i go wrong with a husband that wants me to go shopping?

I would like to wish (e:Paul), (e:Matthew) and (e:Terry) much luck in obtaining financing to purchasing the mini mansion!! [inlink]matthew,594[/inlink] [inlink]paul,3550[/inlink]

This mini mansion (e:uncusaniflush) and i own is my first time being a homeowner (i know it's supposed to count that i married him when he owned a house and because we married in Tennessee, i was automaticly 1/2 owner of the house we lived in, but it's not the same as picking one out with him!), and i can say that it feels really great to not have to pay rent!!!

And if you guys get the house we can all say that we used to live on Linwood and moved to the West Side... :O)

Today is my parent's 40th wedding anniversary... i am surprised they lasted this long, to be honest. I love them both dearly, but i do not understand why they are still married to each other. Oh, i know why they got married... that's what guys did back then when they got their girlfriends knocked up. My older brother barely heard the end of that from my dad when he was younger -- all the things my dad did not become were due to my mom being preggers with him. Anyhoo, i digress....

I called today to wish them a happy anniversary and spoke with my father. Not something he does usually. He's not a phone person. Mom wasn't home. What was she doing? Exciting stuff. Going to the laudromat to wash their big king sized bedpread that doesn't fit in her washer (i say hers 'cause my dad wouldn't know how to use it). Such a way to celebrate, eh? But i heard that last night they opned up one of the bottles of Biltmore Estates Reserve wine we got them for xmas and my dad reported they are going out to dinner. To the Keg... *shudder*

We, (e:uncutsaniflush) and i that is, decided to go for a walk at the Tifft Nature Preserve When we lived in Knoxville, we used to go to a place call Ijams regularly. (e:uncutsaniflush) would drag this city girl off her lazy behind to go out where the bugs and bees (i am SOO scare of bees and things that sting!!) were ready to pounce and face the elements. We had a nice walk today. My lazy behind is grateful that Tifft is far less hilly than Ijams is. It was a beautiful morning.. and we saw a lot of frogs. We didn't bring our camera, or we might have pictures to share. We heard a lot of frogs, too. Or what we think are frogs. In the ponds, there were some creatures making a strange little noise. Sounded like a flat guitar string being plucked. Anyone know what creature makes this sound?

After that, we decided to head over to Elmwood. We had decided on what we think would be an ideal gift for a friend of ours (she reads this or else i would tell ya'll what we bought!!) and then decided to go for lunch.

At first, we thought we would go to Louie's. Then, we got distracted by the latest incarnation of Vietnamese restaurant that is on the west side of the street between Hodge and Utica... oh, darn my brain... (e:uncutsaniflush) would remember the name of the place but i forget. We ate there and i had a really yummie tofu dish.... marinated and fried with lemongrass and some other spicy salty flavours. We had some veggie summer rools too that were good. (e:uncutsaniflush) had a noodle soup with beef and meatballs (that he said tasted sorta like sausage) that he really enjoyed too. It was my first time eating and a Vietnamese place... i have eaten at Thai/Vietnamese places before, however. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now, i think i am going to continue to work on my desk -- getting everything in it and organized. Thanks to (e:Paul) and (e:Boxerboi) for the complments on my dream desk. I will take and publish pics once it is all full of it's stuff.

Speaking of papers, we got the papers for the house today. The deed and the search... both are interesting reading, particularly the latter. If one can manage to wade through all the legalese, it's interesting to find out who owned what bits of this land and the over a hundred year old house before we did...