Stuck in the Middle

So I learned something new today.

It all started with wanting to make Turkey Tetrazzini.  Stacey Ballis (wonderful author...love her books...wonderful chef...though most of her recipes are a little above my abilities) had posted a recipe here on her blog.  It looked easy enough to pull off and her suggestions a couple of posts earlier about dry brining a turkey had resulted in the best turkey I have ever presented for Thanksgiving.  Even Jeff liked it, and he is not a poultry fan.  Anyway, the recipe called for sherry.  I didn't have anything but cooking sherry and asked Ms. Ballis on her blog if that would do.  She replied (did I mention that she's really nice too?) that the real thing really was worth the effort of my getting out of my PJs, putting on a bra and combing my hair to go get.

My black Friday plans usually do not include doing any of those things...unless I get leftover gravy on me and have to change my pajama top.  As soon as I got into the shower, the kiddo was alert to the fact.

Somehow, someway, over the last few days when I was off work and she was out of school, she had convinced me to let her get her bellybutton pierced "sometime."  She's about a month away from 18...at which point she could do it without my consent.  I'm not exactly sure how it happened, during our 10 hour long "Modern Family" watching marathon and mother/daughter bonding session, she convinced me that it would mean a lot to her if I went ahead and let her do it with my consent and my presence.  Now that I was washed, dressed and combed, she wanted to do it now.

I had gotten the health ratings of a few local establishments and we decided on a place called "Artistic Additions."  After stopping into Winn Dixie for the sherry (not the finest of sherries...but I only needed 1/4 cup) we headed over to the tattoo/piercing place.

For the day after Thanksgiving, I thought the parking lot was surprisingly full.  We went in...apparently some (odd) folks like to hang out in tattoo shops.  There was an area with couches and chairs and a TV and several highly-inked late-teen/early 20-somethings with many metal protuberances lounging about.  They didn't pay us much attention.  We found the guy running the counter and inquired about piercing the daughter's belly button.  Nice enough fellow, he gave us the waiver to sign and took the kiddo back for her piercing:

 

 

 

While he was sterilizing everything in the autoclave, I noticed a whole wall of the shop dedicated to someone named Percy Waters...a native of our town. 

There were several of his pictures, a tombstone rubbing, some magazine articles and a copy of his 1929 patent of the electrical tattoo machine.  Apparently, Mr. Waters's design is the basis for modern-day tattooing equipment  and until recently, his Anniston, AL based company was the largest tattooing supply company in the US.

 

So that's the something new I learned today.  Also?  The Turkey Tetrazzini was delish.