I am so over this whole red tattoo thing. I'm putting silver sulfadiazine cream, a prescription ointment for burns, on them. It's working quite well. I can get them fixed someday. I'll wear an anklet this summer if they look bad. Whatever.

Home exchange is the way to go when you are traveling with children. Or if you need to save money. Or if you hate hotels. It's simply fantastic. It's a lot of work to get your house clean and organized beforehand, but it's totally worth it. And home exchange people seem to be very cool, by nature not possessive or materialistic. I feel like our exchange family will be lifetime friends and we have already discussed swapping with them again. Highlights of our trip were the tons of toys that kept our boys occupied, the amazing book collection, the incredible gourmet kitchen and eclectic decor, the sweet cat, our boys' first snow experience, the natural beauty of Maryland in winter, and of course seeing our wonderful friends and their darling children.

Tonight I'm going to kirtan (Hindu chanting of sacred texts) at my old yoga studio, followed by a vegetarian Indian dinner. If I have the motivation after that I'll overdose on Starbucks coffee and work on my painting. I've set myself a deadline because I entered it in the Art in the Park show in two weeks. The completed painting is in my mind now and all I have to do is execute it.

Warning: I'm in the midst of PMS and post vacation let down. There is something wrong with the letter "O" key on my laptop. I wish it could have been "Q" or "X". I'm starting to question how clingy Justin can be: is this normal? I guess it would be something to worry about if he did it everywhere, but it's just at home. He would rather climb all over me than play with toys. He hates for me to leave his sight. Yet if we are at the park or someone else's house, he could care less. My red tattoo reaction is not as bad but still annoying. How long will it take for my body to push out the pigment? It's been too long already. I am now the evangelist for NO RED TATTOOS, ever, just don't take the chance. Or for Christ's sake, tattoo artists: just warn people that there is a possibility they may get a reaction to red ink. I am sick of my short, jagged, unpolished nails. I feel fat.

Venting is now over. In a few days I can write about how FREAKING WONDERFUL our home exchange vacation was.

Tonight was the biggest test of my sugar fast so far. I took the boys to a Valentines party and the treats were wonderful and abundant. All my favorites: chocolate covered strawberries, cupcakes with various toppings, chocolate covered pretzels, ginger ale, etc. I managed to abstain, shocking myself.

Justin is also on a restricted diet so I had to keep an eye on what he ate as well. We took him to an allergist for the nagging congestion/cough he has had since he was a baby, just to find out once and for all if we needed to do something about the cats or if it was dustmites and we would have to put him on allergy meds or whatever. But the doctor said he thought is was a food allergy and advised us to keep him on a dairy-free, egg-free, peanut-free diet for two weeks to see if the symptoms abated. The idea being that if he gets better then we slowly reintroduce those things and see what sets him off. Restricting his diet is easier said than done, everything has milk or eggs in it! Being a vegan must be so challenging. I'm learning a lot though. I wanted to make butternut squash bread (I make this so often because it's one of the only ways the boys will eat a healthy vegetable) and I looked up substitutes for eggs--turns out you can use one half large banana to equal one egg. Yum.

My tattoo experience has taken a turn for the worst. Turns out I'm the one in 100,000 people who has a reaction to red ink. My heart and diamond are taking exceptionally long to heal and they look like crap. The color most likely will fade completely because my body is pushing the pigment out. I am allergic to metals, can't get pierced with anything but titanium, and I suspect this might be related since red supposedly has metal in it. I kind of wish I had known that beforehand.

I'm glad Amy Winehouse won so many Grammy awards. I love her album.



Sometimes it's dangerous to love someone too much.

I finally got some new tattoos. Both are cover-ups of old tattoos, the flower on my wrist and the ankh on my ankle. Both are symbolic cover-ups as well: the violet is now a nautical star and the ankh is now the club in an anklet with heart, diamond, and spade. I went to an amazing tattoo studio called Ms. Deborah's Fountain of Youth and got tattooed by an interesting artist who in his past had been a pro surfer and porn star among other things. Getting tattooed by someone is a very intimate experience, no matter where they do it. The endorphins that get released must be similar to sex.

I also joined Facebook. Appears to be a diversion composed of bigger diversions composed of yet bigger diversions. I need to focus on some other stuff first.

Next week is going to be insane, getting the house in proper shape for our exchange. My two goals for our trip up north are to seek out snow for Merritt and to take the boys to the Smithsonian.

Sugar fast is going great so far. As long as I keep the house stocked with good fruit, I'm fine. I've been able to turn down quite a few sweet treats but it's going to be especially hard next week with Valentines Day. Why do so many American holidays have a sugary component?