Our German comes to visit for a few weeks every year and it feels like we have TONS of time to get tattoo’d by him … but we always end up running out of time. This year was no exception and his last few days in town he tattoo’d almost everyone from the shop.

All photos below taken by and stolen from Nova.

Colin & Becca being tattoo’d simultaneously.

Cody tattooing Savvy

Poor Becca and her sore foot!

Tat Party to the MAX!

Looking to the past for inspiration.

Even Ryan got into the mix …

We’ve had such a crazy busy summer. We tore the walls down and pulled up the floors, staff changes, paint drying, doing renos at night and working on tattoos all day. All while having the busiest summer on record. It’s been crazy … and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. :)

Fergus not sure how he feels about those Tattoo Zoo People!, originally uploaded by Sarah Kramer Photography.com.

Day 50 … This photo was taken when Ryan Mason was visiting Tattoo Zoo.

Fergus kind of goes “tharn” when we’re in the tattoo shop. I think he hates it there… it is a pretty boring place to hang out.

Fergus love soaking in the last little bit of the summer sun!, originally uploaded by Sarah Kramer Photography.com.

Day 49… Fergus love soaking in the last little bit of the summer sun!

Fergus love air condiitioning!, originally uploaded by Sarah Kramer Photography.com.

Day 48 … On hot days Fergus likes to cool his hot belly in front of the air conditioning vent.

It was our last night with The German and we wanted to send him off in style so we went to The Reef for dinner.

It is not my first choice for a place to eat – but the boys at the shop seem to like it there so we went… It was a comedy of errors from the start.

We made a reservation for 10-people for 6:30 and were told that we had to arrive promptly at 6:30 or lose our reservation. They also told us that it had to be the ENTIRE party at 6:30. Not just one person coming to hold the table. Everyone had to be there or we would lose our table. … Um. Ok.

So we arrived at 6:25 and the greeter at the front said in a bitchy way “You are too early! Go outside and wait.” … um. Ok.

They finally sat us. Service was s-l-o-w. It took forever for us to get water. And for-e-v-e-r for drinks and appetizers. They serve an appetizer/bread called a Johnny Cake which arrived cold and stale. Yuck.

Colin ordered a beer. It was stale/flat. Undrinkable.

I ordered a veggie Jamacian patty as an appy. It was inedible. Stale. Cold. No flavour. I didn’t finish it. I also ordered a salad. It was also inedible. Old. Unispired. Dressing was awful. I didn’t finish it.

Cody ordered a fish-dish with rice. It was inedible. Cold. No flavour. He didn’t finish it.

Becca had a salad… it had a BOLT in it!!

A BOLT!! A F-ING BOLT!!

The manager/front end bitchy lady came over to talk about the bolt. She gave us a WEAK apology. I kept waiting for her make things better but instead she was just super bitchy and offered us a round of w-e-a-k shoots to make up for the bolt.

Then the chef came over to our table – I thought FOR SURE he was coming over to say sorry but instead he cleared our table with such force I thought he was looking for a fight.

I wish at that point I had just organized a “walked out” and not paid the bill but I kept waiting for them to make things better … and it never happened.

I want to say that while I know we were a large table and we look like crazy tattoo people – we are a polite bunch of Canadians (and 1 German) … so the bad behavior from the staff was not a reaction to our behavior. Everyone paid their bills (begrudgingly) and poor Becca even had to pay for her salad with the bolt. It was incredibly disappointing way to celebrate our German.

This was probably one of the WORST experiences I have ever had at a restaurant and I will NEVER EAT AT THE REEF AGAIN!!

Everyone was super bummed out so Gerry and I rounded up the troops and we headed to The Lotteria which is this little internet cafe/karaoke place. You get your own private room where you and your friends can act like fools without strangers watching.

We had a great time …

Cody on the mic

Colin & Bryan singing a duet

Bryan & The German singing

Even Colin … who swore he wouldn’t sing no matter how much we begged … sang all night long.

It was a great way to end the night … Thanks for all the fun Roberto!

We miss you already!!

Our German is leaving tomorrow so Gerry and I wanted to get tattoo’d before he goes. The German is afraid of bears so when Gerry and I saw this angry bear in a Sailor Jerry flash book we knew we wanted to get him to tattoo it.

We decided to modify them a bit … my bear is carrying a picnic basket. Gerry’s is carrying a bottle of wine …

I am going to miss The German … I love it when he visits.  :)

Almost done….  !

Tah Daaaaa! All done and I couldn’t be happier!

It’s so fun to be tattoo’d by your friends … painful … but fun.

UPDATE:
Here’s a picture of Gerry’s.

Fergus love snoozing …, originally uploaded by Sarah Kramer Photography.com.

Day 47 … Gerry makes the best body pillow!

Checked my P.O. Box the other day and found a new cd by The Drab Doo Riffs. WOOT!!  :)

They make me want to start a band …  :)

… well actually more like a fun evening. The day was kind of meh.

Yesterday I woke up at the ass-crack of dawn to get ready for a hairy-workman to come and fix the drywall in my bathroom. They were supposed to arrive in the early am and never showed up. WTF? While I spent the majority of my day waiting for him – I also did laundry, tidied the house and caught up on e-mail so all was not lost.  :)

I also made some Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. I’d never made one of Bob’s mixes before and it was SUPER easy. All you need to add is some vegan margarine and a egg replacer. I used flax (2tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water). The dough was pretty crumbly and tasted kind of bitter so I was pretty convinced that the cookies would taste like crap but once they were baked and cooled they were DELISH! So delish that I ate 6 in a row …

Then I met up with Gerry and The German for an after-work drink (I had a cranberry juice) at Darcy’s Pup and then we walked up the street to Re-Bar for dinner.

As we walked out of Darcy’s a woman yelled “Oh. Excuse me. I love you.” I walked over to her to say hi and she gushed about how she loved the books … it was really sweet.

Had a great meal at Re-Bar and just as I was shoveling a giant forkful of salad into my mouth another woman came by to tell me how much she loves my cookbooks. It was ALSO really sweet but difficult to talk back to her with my mouth full of greens.

I guess the universe knew I needed a little bit of extra love yesterday.  :)

After dinner we headed back up to The Fringe to see Die Roten Puntke again. Yes. The show is THAT funny that we wanted to see it again and I think it was even better the 2nd time around.

They are headed to Vancouver soon so check out their tour dates on their website and buy yourself a ticket. So fun!

Fergus love squish! , originally uploaded by Sarah Kramer Photography.com.

Day 46 … Fergus love squish!