Mermaids, DVD's, Tattoos, and Vomit

Everybody has their preferences. Stones or Beatles? (Beatles.) Coke or Pepsi? (Coke.)

I'm like that with DVD's too. Single disc or 2-disc Special Edition? 2-disc Special Edition for me, thanks. I watch all the special features and usually listen to the director's commentary too. Ubergeek.

So today, when I fired up the Narnia 2-disc Special Edition, the first thing I saw was a preview of a re-release of a movie in a nice new 2-disc Special Edition format....

The Little Mermaid.

And you know what? I have to get it. My oldest daughter watched it on videocassette from the time she was two. Over. And over. And over. And over. The entire movie is burned into my brain. The thing is, it really is an awesome movie. The music alone is worth the price.

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Speaking of the Little Mermaid, here's a picture from four years ago, at our ill-fated family trip to Disney World:



See the unusual look in the child's face? That's because, unbeknownst to us at the time, she was about half an hour away from puking furiously. In fact, we were inside one of the nice Disney clothing shops when it happened. (For the whole ugly story of the vacation from hell, you can read it here.)

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Here's my final story. (You'll see the theme emerge at the end). Last week I popped back to where I had my tattoo done to get a couple of little touch-ups. While I was there, I was looking at some of the designs on the wall, and postulated that some of those designs were definitely not for your average person. A few of them could even make *me* blush. And I don't blush easily.

Anyway, I'm sitting in the chair getting worked on, and the receptionist was outside the room sweeping the main waiting area. The tattoo artist mentioned that the receptionist had just gotten her first two tattoos. I noticed one on her foot, and another peeking out from under her skirt, on the top of her thigh. (Let me point out that the receptionist is a very pleasant looking, university-age young woman. Not extreme in any way at all.) So we engage her in conversation, and she shows me the tattoo on her foot, and then lifts her skirt to show me her other one. From what I had seen originally, which looked like a swirl of some kind, I assumed it would just be a nice abstract design.

It wasn't.

What I had seen at first, was, in fact, a tail. The tail, as it turns out, was connected to a very beautifully rendered, and highly detailed mermaid.

However, you know how the Little Mermaid has a few strategically placed seashells? Well, on *this* mermaid, there were no seashells in sight. In fact, I don't think seashells would have done the job in this case, for that matter. Maybe turtle shells. BIG turtle shells.

Thankfully, I resisted my first urge, which was to say, "HOLY SH*T!!" In fact, I smoothly said, "Hey, that's a nice job."

But it did throw me a bit for a second.



All right, so that's all I've got for now. This post ran on too long as it is. But remember, "The seaweed is alway greener in somebody else's lake."