Tattoo Time

Something I've noticed about Ballarat, if you look up, you won't see planes. Ever. There just aren't air traffic patterns over this part of the country. And why would there be? It took me almost five months to realize that.

Also, Australians don't have Twinkies, Kool-Aid, Resse's Cups, Jolly Ranchers, Pop Tarts, or Toaster Strudels. Devastating.

About a week ago, Will finally got accepted for a bunch of government money that he had been trying to get for a looooong time. He was very excited about it. So, to celebrate, he went on a whim, yesterday, and got a new tattoo. I went with him and it was really interesting to watch the artist work. She had been tattooing for four years but the way she tattooed and the quality of her work wasn't quite up to par with my brother's, who has been tattooing less years. Will got a cat in the hat tattoo on his leg, which kind of fits with the theme of things he's got going on. He was really excited about it and really happy with it, so that's good. One of the other artists in the shop started talking to me and said he'd never heard an American accent before. Then he picked out the Native American in me. I have a bit of a hard time believing he actually could tell by my looks that I had 1/32 Indian in me. I feel that it was a bit of a stab in the dark for him. But who knows.

Also, while Will was being tattooed, a few very obvious meth addicts came in and wanted to get their "back-yard" tattoos fixed. They (the people and the tattoos) looked real rough.

Not much time until my brother gets here, less time until my parents get here, and less time until finals. These next few weeks are going to fly by.

I've gotten on a sticky note kick. I'm having all sorts of random thoughts and so my room is covered in sticky notes with non-sequiter on them.

Stop me if you've heard this already...  
I made a new lamb recipe the other day. I bought a rack of lamb for less than $10 which would have cost me $25 in Springfield and made a recipe I hadn't used before. Herb encrusted rack of lamb.  I sealed the lamb in a pan, then put the pan in the oven for eight minutes. After that, I took it out, brushed it in Dijon mustard, coated it in an herb breadcrumb mixture, and returned it to the oven for four minutes. It turned out something like this...

Look at those toasty bread crumbs. 

 Perfectly rare (my plating skills leave much to be desired). 

I made it again the next night with the other half of the rack and it came out undercooked. That's what I get for not using a meat thermometer. 

I've made lamb several ways but I think this has been my favorite. Or maybe it's just because I'm finally getting good at cooking lamb. *sight* And now I'm about to go back home where nobody sells lamb and if they do, it costs an arm and a leg. 

Stay hungry, my friends

~Daniel