Tamarind Tree

My attempt at artistic photography...yeah.

Every few months I get together with a group of women with whom I went through high school. (Notice how I didn't end my sentence with a preposition there? I had to retype it after putting "who I went to high school with." I am SO edumacated.) We usually refer to ourselves as the high school girls, which is kind of stupid since the youngest of us is 39 and 1/3. Anyway, we went to a great upscale Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown last night. It was so fabulous! So I thought I'd give you the whole run down.

First I went to Jill's house and hung out with her for a little while since we weren't meeting until 6:30 and I didn't want to sit at school that long. This is her vicious, man-eating, Wild Dog of Borneo, Lucy.

Okay, she's not like this in real life. I caught her mid-yawn. She's actually very nice. Part whippet and part who knows. She tends to get a little excited and barks and jumps when I come over to visit (not just me, everybody gets the happy dog treatment.) My only complaint is that my elbows and knees must taste really good, because she licks them whenever given the opportunity. I can't verify how my elbows taste, as I am not double jointed. However, my knees weren't very tasty the last time I checked.

Calm down, I'm kidding.

So this is Lucy in real life:

I couldn't get the reflection out of her eyes. Apparently the red eye correction only works for eyes that are actually red, not green. Make a note of that. Now, imagine she has soft, brown eyes. Ooohhh, Ahhhhh, Ohhhhhh.

After a while we went to go pick up Nancy from work (we are carpooling queens!) and then went over to the Tamarind Tree restaurant in the International District of Seattle. If I had to get there on my own, I NEVER would have found it. It's tucked up in a back corner of the downtown version of a strip mall. Apparently, everyone else knew where it was because it was packed. We met our friends Erin and Kathy there and about passed out when we saw Kathy's hair. 

This is what her hair typically does. It is short and has tight little curls all over. It's actually longer than this now. This picture is from our senior year in high school. I photographed it out of my old yearbook. I am pretty sure I will be dead when she sees this. So if you should come upon my decapitated and possibly mutilated body, you'll know who to arrest. Anyway, she had her hair cut and asked her hairdresser to blow it out.

So last night it looked like this:

We were all in amazement, never having seen it all long and flowing and soft before. So of course we all had to pet it and play with it repeatedly. It was kind of warm in the restaurant so as the night went on it started to get curlier and she even had a few ringlets back by the end. Which explains why she doesn't do this more often: all that time and effort to look good for five seconds before it all curls up again? Not worth it. But so cute! And she was wearing her chic retro dress and boots. She put the rest of us to shame! Although, we all looked hot. We always do!

Everyone was starving, so we ordered some spring rolls to share. These had shrimp and pork, the other kind was tofu. They were both good, but it's really the sauce that makes them. They are kind of boring otherwise.

This is our waiter, Conrad. He was very kind and had a gentle spirit. Plus, he was very good looking, as you can see. He put up with our craziness and let me take his picture for internet land.

I had to use the restroom, so I went in and it seemed that someone else was in there. I looked under the stalls for feet, but didn't see any. It still felt like someone was in there with me. I peed and got out of there quickyer. (This is a new word used by the group. Our first one was "whoremouth." Don't ask.) So, of course, I decided that the bathroom must be haunted. It seemed awfully pretty to be haunted, but it sure felt that way. Can you see any ghosts?

All I can see is a paper towel that didn't make it in the trash.

Of course the next time I went in a "ghost" from my table had to stick their head in and whisper my name. My friends are so thoughtful.

When it came time to order, I was feeling very clueless. Everything sounded good but nothing was really speaking to me. So I just ordered something off of the page I was on, which was the "Specialty" page, which meant wraps, I guess. I still couldn't decide, so I ended up getting two entrees. Not two appetizers, mind you, but two full sized entrees. My reasoning was that I couldn't decide between two, so I'd get both. I thought I could take leftovers home for the next day.

I chose the Tamarind Crepe, which was much bigger than I imagined. It was fried and full of bean sprouts and pork, shrimp, mushrooms and other yummy stuff. It came with a giant plate of lettuce and basil to wrap it up in and then I dipped it in the sauce. Once again, the sauce made the meal. So yummy. This kind of reminded me of an egg foo yung recipe my mom used to make when we were kids. Only about a million times better.

My second entree I actually ordered because it included sweet potato fries, which I love. It was called crunchy shrimp or something like that. Again you are supposed to wrap and dip. On this one you can see the lettuce and stuff. I felt like I was supporting a small farm with the amount of greens I'd received.

The best part was definitely the fries. They were tempura battered and quickly cooked. SO GOOD! I just ate the fries (after dipping them in the sauce, of course) and let other people have the shrimp, though, yes, I ate some of them, too. I am a pig. But did I mention it was SO GOOD! I didn't realize until they came that neither of these items would do well as leftovers. So I HAD to eat both.

As for the normal people who only ordered one dinner, Nancy and Jill both ordered Chili Lemongrass Beef Noodles, which they inhaled.

And Kathy and Erin ordered the same thing as well. But when I asked them what it was they both said, "I don't know." Okay... So here's a picture of something yummy.

Do you see the small round thing on the left side? It is a piece of sugar cane with some fried dough wrapped around it. I guess you're just supposed to eat the dough part. It was so cool! I've never seen anything like it before. They both said their meal was great. (Again, please excuse the blurry pics. I'm thinking I need a camera upgrade.)

Being a true glutton, I decided that since I'd already eaten two dinners, I might as well get dessert. All semblance of moderation was gone anyhow. So Jill and I both ordered roasted coconut ice cream.

The texture was really funky as it had little bits of ice all through it. Very good though. People were getting tired of me taking pictures before they could eat, so I didn't get a pic of the banana cake or flan that was ordered. Though it all looked very good.

Jill finished up with a Vietnamese coffee. 

The little metal container was like a mini French Press for the coffee, and there was sweetened condensed milk in the cup to be stirred all together. I'm not a coffee person, but it sounded and smelled delicious.

Overall we had a terrific time. I would definitely go here again, now that I can find it. The next time, though, I want to sit up on the little stage area so I can be famous-er than I already am.

See, here are the famous stage people, and a shot of Conrad's butt. Enjoy!

Pipe Wrench Fight!

I spend WAY too much time on YouTube watching funny videos. I love going to the comedy section and seeing how creative people can be. Sometimes I'm left scratching my head and wondering how something got "favorited" so many times. But usually I find something neat.

I stumbled upon this "literal video" one day. Apparently, someone thought it would be a good idea to take an 80's music video and replace the real song lyrics with a running commentary of what was happening in the video. As 80's videos were altogether lame (and how I miss their innocent lameness!) these usually turn out pretty funny. My favorite one is this literal version of A-ha's song "Take On Me."

Tomorrow I will have a big long blog since I went out tonight and was silly with my wonderful friends. Unfortunately, I am not used to taking my camera everywhere and I left it at the restaurant. I have to drive to Seattle to get it. Then I will thrill you with pictures of a dog, food and hair. Don't miss it!

Band montaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage!

Oh, Nuts!

Well, I must be in the holiday spirit already. When I was growing up, I can't remember a Christmas without a big (metal, embossed, 70's style) bowl full of nuts. My dad loves them and would sit forever just cracking them open and chowing down. I saw these in the store and had to get them, though I don't know how I'm going to get through the whole two pounds. But they just looked so neat all mixed up together. Even President-Elect Barack Obama approves...can you see his tiny feet standing near by? He's keeping an eye on things for me. Maybe he'll help me figure out how to crack them without making a giant mess. I used to be good at it as a kid (lots of practice maybe?) but now I keep ending up with walnut dust all over the place.

Speaking of Barack, here is a video I think is so cute. They held a contest last summer for people to create 30 second spots for the campaign. This one didn't win, but it's my favorite. It's called "Student Council Elections." The little Dick Cheney cracks me up, I'm not sure why. Enjoy!

p.s. If you don't know why I'm talking about Obama's tiny feet, check out my post from Friday, Oct. 24th.

Craftsman

I love old houses. I have distinct memories from childhood of walking around my grandmother's neighborhood in Magnolia (near downtown Seattle) and looking at all the architecture. It wasn't a very well-to-do area, but I was so enamored with the look of the houses which were so different from where I grew up...in 60's and 70's suburbia land.

I know that's one of the things that draws me to North Tacoma. I love the architecture and the style of the houses. I had never seen a Craftsman Bungalow before coming here. This picture is of my dream house:

I love the color, the white picket fence and the full porch with the half railing. I love that it's a one and a half story not a two story. I love the color, I love the manicured yard. I love that the tree by the rail is a lilac, my favorite scent. I love the symmetry of the roof line and the windows. And it has a red door. A GORGEOUS red door with a beautiful arc window.

And if you can see from my fuzzy picture, the main window has leaded windows. I love leaded windows. Shocker, huh? "Is there anything she doesn't love?" you say snarkily. (Yes, I know snarkily isn't a word. It should be.) 

What I don't love is the inside. This house was on the market a year or so ago and I did a walk through. I wish the owners had spent a little more time updating the inside, although I do appreciate the exterior as I go by. Not that I could afford it, updated or otherwise. But I can always dream!

Pretty

Check out my new tea cup! Since today was Veteran's Day, we had no school. Hallelujah! Thanks, Veterans. You gave me my first day off in 50 days. "But wait," you say, "what about all those days my kids were home from school? You had those days off." But wait, I say, we may not have had kids but we still had to work. And usually the days without kids are a lot of tedious, boring meetings that have very little to do with my teaching area. Whine, whine, whine. So yes, this was my first day off in 50 days, not including weekends, of course. So I slept in (kind of) and then took myself to tea. I went to The Hawthorn because they are close by and they had egg salad as their special sandwich, one of my faves! I had two pots of vanilla tea (they are 2-cup pots) and also had their spinach strawberry salad with almonds and poppy seed dressing. (And a scone and a cookie for dessert...don't tell anyone.) So yum! "What, no pictures?" you ask. It's a pretty tiny place and I think they would have noticed/thought it was rather bizarre if I started taking pictures of my plate. It would have involved a long explanation about how I now constantly carry my camera around to get photos for my blog. Sigh. I am officially a Nerd Extraordinaire. ANYWAY...gosh I do go on. Before I left the restaurant I took a look at the new tea cups that had come in and fell in love with this one. They are Royal Patrician (if you care about that kind of stuff) and so colorful. I like that it has such vibrant colors. The cup on the outside is rather tame, but inside are four more flower decorations.

And check out the detail on the plate. It's not just painted on the outside rim, but across the whole plate. And the spring flowers are beautifully done. I can even name most of them. But the iris is my favorite flower, so that pretty much sold it for me right there. So now I officially have two pretty tea cups instead of just one. So let me know when you want to come over and have tea. I'll arm wrestle you for first pick of the cups!

So What?

I love this stupid Pink song. I sing it at the top of my lungs when I drive to work.

My two favorite parts are when she says, "I'm alright, I'm just fine, and you're a tool." That totally cracks me up. It took listening to it a couple times before I caught the lyric. My other favorite part is to say one of the lines with her. Picture the whitest white girl on the planet saying "uh, check my flow, uhn" while driving down the freeway. I know I should just not say that part, but I can't help it. So fun!

I also admire that she wrote a song about such a tough time in her life, and I'm impressed that her ex is in the video with her. I think that says a lot. Not that I'm a big fan of hers, it just struck me as I watched the video. And there's a moment between them at about 3 min. 8 sec. that seems like they are still dealing with some difficult stuff. Okay, yes, I love to analyze. Anyway.

So enjoy, rock out a little bit, and don't worry, I can't hear you on the "check my flow" part.

Sad Face, Smiley Face

This is my whining post for the day. But don't worry, it'll be followed by joyness. (And don't tell me joyness isn't a word. If you watched my Charlie the Unicorn video, you would know better.) Today I had to buy a new towel. Normally no big deal. When one of my towels starts to give up the ghost, I pick up a new one at Target. Now, granted, I haven't shopped for a new towel at Target for about six years or so. My towels have held up pretty well. But imagine my shock and dismay when I went to Target this morning and realized they no longer carry the towels I use! Not even the brand name is still there! Say it isn't so, Joe! Those of you who know me personally will not be surprised at my reaction to this. I hate change. When I find something that I like or that works well for me, I stick with it. I've been known to buy the exact same shirt in 4 different colors. What can I say, I like security. Anyway, after wandering around, hoping my towels would magically appear somewhere, I gave in and decided to get a different one. I could have tried to match the cream colored towels I already have,  but I know it would bug me to always see the one that was close, but not quite right. Can you see how anal I am? So I went for this towel. Again, those of you who know me will be really surprised that the towel I bought is green. I hate green in clothes or fabric. I just do. So why did I pick this? I'm not sure, really. The other colors didn't seem like they'd make sense in the aqua/cream/pink/40's style bathroom in my apartment. Plus, I was already destined to hate this towel because it's not the one I wanted. So I might as well really hate it and go for green.

And now for the good news. Eggnog is in the grocery stores! I'm sure you all know this, and it was probably there well before Halloween, but I don't care! I love eggnog! I love that eggnog signifies the official beginning of the winter holidays. I love the smell and the color and everything about it. Can you tell I took a sip before I took the picture? Wow, two days in a row of no self-control around food (that I've admitted to.) My only little teency bit of sadness is that I bought the Light version (which never tastes quite right) because I'm trying to be a healthy girl. I even went to the gym twice last week. I'm ignoring the fact that I was supposed to go four times, but 50% is better than 0%, right? Oh, well. I guess I'll go console myself with some more eggnog!

Gateway to India

There is a great Indian Food Restaurant nearby called Gateway to India. My friend Jill came down today and I dragged her here as I've been craving their great food lately. (Okay, in real life I mentioned it and she started to drool. But the dragging thing sounded better.)

This is one of cool lamps they use. My friend Erin wanted to steal one the last time we were here.

I had to order Chai Tea as soon as we sat down. It's my very favorite and they have free refills. It's not too spicy and not too milky and just sweet enough. I love it!

Being the bad friend I am, I talked Jill into sharing some Paneer Pakora with me (that's fried homemade cheese to the non-Indian food people out there.) This is the very last piece because I was so excited to eat that I forgot to take a picture when it arrived. I also don't have any pictures of their wonderful lentil soup, which comes with the entree. I just dug in and forgot about my camera until it was all gone. Jill and I prefer the brown sauce for the cheese...it's kind of a sweet and sour dealie. The other sauce is a cold cilantro cream with a little kick to it.

Sorry some of these pictures are blurry...I was trying to be fancy and use the "close up photography" setting, which apparently makes it really hard for the auto-focus to do its job. You'll notice there are only 2 pieces of garlic naan in the basket. It came with four. Oops.

Then came my very favorite thing! Chicken Korma. It's pieces of chicken simmered in a creamy, curry type sauce. Of course, I ordered mine at negative hot. That means when they say "How spicy on a scale of one to five?" I always say "negative one." I can't stand spicy-hot food. All it does is kill my tastebuds so I can no longer enjoy the food I'm eating. What's the point of that? Their lentil soup is a little hot, but not too bad. As I keep eating it, though, my nose ends up running down my face. TMI, I know.

I love the little container it comes in with a candle underneath to keep it warm.

Okay, this is my plate with the naan, korma and basmati rice. Notice the big bite mark out of the naan? What can I say? It's GOOD!

Although I felt like I ate a ton, I still had leftovers to take home. I love these little chinese food boxes. They're so much better (and cuter!) than the styrofoam stuff. Besides being bad for the environment, I hate it when the steam rises and water condenses on the styrofoam and then drips back onto my food. So all restaurants, take note! Styrofoam is evil!!

How come these are Chinese food containers and not Indian food containers? Do they make Indian food containers? They should make these little boxes for all the nations and just change the picture. Then we'd have Italian food containers and Mexican food containers and greasy American food containers...or maybe not.

Deep Thoughts...by Jack Handey

When I actually used to stay up to watch Saturday Night Live (this would be back in the early 90's when I was still a spring chicken) I would get so excited when the "Deep Thoughts" segment would come on. This elevator muzak would play over a picture of leaves, or a flowing river or puppies playing. Then this sappy voiceover would say something you thought was going to be inspirational, but actually turned out to be some bizarre, hilarious thought. I found Jack Handey's website recently. So I thought I 'd share a few of my favorite deep thoughts with you.

1. It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

2. Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.

3. If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.

4. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

And my all time favorite:

5. If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did."

Get your own favorites with the Deep Thought of the Day! 

One Lump or Two?

I have only recently discovered the joys of tea. A few years back, I finally put milk in my tea, added lots of sugar and went, "Hey, that's not bad!" So while I will never be considered a tea connoisseur, (Tea Snobs: "The milk covers up the true taste!!"  Me: "And that's bad because...?") I really enjoy making a cup of tea on a rainy, windy night like tonight and sipping away. My very favorite flavor is vanilla, but I also like English Breakfast and the "Paris" blend from Harney and Sons that my friend Erin gave me as a gift. I am trying to expand my horizons a bit, but those are really my faves.

When I'm too lazy to make my own tea, I like to visit a few of our local tea houses. I am lucky enough to have one less than two miles from my house. The Hawthorn Tea Room is very laid back and the owners are super friendly. They even remembered my name on my second visit. It's not a fancy, Victorian type place, but the food is really good and they have the very best vanilla tea. One time I was admiring their old teacup collection, the ones they have retired because of chips, cracks, etc. and they let me have one! I tried really hard to pay for it, but they wouldn't let me. The tea cup at the top shows the pattern I chose. Now, don't go in there expecting a free tea cup. You have to be super cute, like me. I'm just saying, they're really sweet.

When I'm looking to go a little more frilly and fancy, I haul my cookies down to The Secret Garden Tea Room in Sumner which is a converted Victorian house. It's much more flowery and I feel like a giant around the teeny tiny spoons and teeny tiny cups. But it's where I like to go for the full on, two-hour, how-many-scones-can-I-eat tea party. It's also a fun place to take little girls so they can be all ladylike. I took my nieces Madison and Kenzie during the summer and I've also gone with my fake niece, Claire. They all drank real live tea (without milk) and behaved better than I did.

So, if it's a dark and stormy night at your house, like it is at mine, have a cup of tea for me. Just remember to put in lots of milk and three sugar cubes. Four if no one is looking.

First Aid/CPR

Tonight I finished up my two day CPR/First Aid course. I renew it every two years because when I take kids on field trips, someone has to be certified. I figure it may as well be me since I can always count on me to go on my own field trips. Anyway, the class is from 4:30 to 8:30 on two different days. So after a full day of work I run over to the class which has no breaks. It's basically a 12 hour day. Which brings me to the following photos. I knew I wanted to blog about the class. However I started to get rather punchy as the night went on, and these are the result. Oh, and the title picture above was created from bits of Kettle Corn that fell out of the bag as we ate it.

This is the Annie mannequin we rescued repeatedly. When I took my first CPR course in high school, our Annie was a girl, had hair, eyes, clothes and limbs. Oh, Annie how far you've fallen.

We also learned to use an AED (defibrillator thingy...and yes, that's how you spell it. I looked it up.) Annie has a breathing mask over her face, and we used a strip of foil so the machine would detect a closed circuit. After I took this picture, the instructor said, "Okay...I've never had that happen before." I guess not very many people blog about their CPR class.

The best part of the entire course was that we all brought snacks to share. I was able to take the class with my friend Cara, who is another music teacher in district. This is her hand taking some of the Kettle Corn I brought. Which of course led to the CPR popcorn picture above.

Another music person, Dan, brought red licorice and trail mix. I, of course, proceeded to throw pieces of candy at Cara when she was trying to do compressions. She threw it back at me during my turn, which then caused me to laugh and lose count. So I guess my victim died. But that's okay, because I really like red licorice.

Cara brought these pretzel things. They were really good because of all the fake butter flavor.

When we started the infant portion, Cara gave the pretzels to our baby and kept saying, "Where's the beer? Where's the beer?" See, I wasn't the only one going loopy.

When our baby was supposed to be choking, I decided she was choking on the pretzels. This is where I put the pretzels in so they would go flying out when we gave her 5 whacks on the back, followed by 5 infant (2 finger) compressions. Hey, I did learn stuff while goofing off!

So is there any moral to all of these useless ramblings? I have decided it is twofold.

1. CPR classes should not go for four hours with no breaks after a full day of work.

2. Never take a CPR class with me.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please press play.

And that's all I have to say about that!

Meow

I would really like to have a cat. Actually, I'm more of a dog person, but I just don't have the time or space a dog deserves. So for a while now, I've been wanting a female, medium haired, black and white, adult cat I could call my own. This is a picture of Opal, the cat I was coveting a while back who was up for adoption at a local animal shelter. Opal has already been adopted. Pretty sad that I've kept the picture of this cute cat I can't have. Because despite some begging, my building has a no pets lease. I've thought about suggesting a ridiculously large pet deposit or just outright bribing my landlord. I may still try these two tactics, as I really like where I live and I hate the moving process. Especially since I've been here for eight years now. (Can you believe it? That seems like such a long time!) I keep saying that at some point I want to buy a house in this area, but I am really overwhelmed by how much of a commitment that is for just me, and the added expenses involved in home ownership. Plus, I love that when something breaks in my apartment I just call the landlord to whine and it gets fixed quickly and for free.

But I think it would be really nice, especially on the lonely days, to have something to love me. Of course, this is a cat we're talking about, so that may be too much to ask!

The Pioneer Woman

I don't know if you noticed, but I added the names of a few blogs I like to follow off to the right side, a couple of spots down below my pretty Tacoma pictures. Or, I should say other people's pretty Tacoma pictures. One of the blogs I've recently fallen in love with is The Pioneer Woman. It is written by this hysterical woman named Ree Drummond who used to be a city girl and then met the man of her dreams (who she refers to as Marlboro Man...love it!) She moved out to the country and now has four kids. She writes about her everyday life, photography, how she met her hunka-hunka-burnin' love, and the best part, about what she cooks. This woman makes amazing looking food that is simple to prepare. Stuff like this:

and this...

and this...

and even this...

The best part is that as she shows you the whole process step by step with great photos like these, she writes the funniest stuff to go along with it. For example, before the cinnamon roll recipe she wrote:

A warning. If you follow these instructions and wind up delivering these cinnamon rolls to your friends, be prepared for any of the following to occur:

1. They'll call you after they've taken the first bite and profess their eternal love for every ounce of your body, even your toe jam and love handles.

2. They'll pass out after the first bite, hit their head on the kitchen counter, sustain a concussion, and sue you for damages, despite the fact that the one bite they tasted of your cinnamon roll was the single most profound culinary experience in their miserable little life.

3. They'll call you and ask you for the recipe, saying, "HOW did you make those?"

4. They'll call you and propose marriage.

5. They'll start humping the cinnamon roll pan, get maple frosting all over their pants, and send you the bill for the dry cleaning.

6. Did I just say that?

See, I told you she's funny! Here is a real warning though: Beware the butter! I have never seen anyone use so much butter in their cooking. I'm sure this is a throw back to how women used to cook when their man spent all day roping cows and branding horses and git along little doggie, etc., so they just burned off all these calories. But I think she is single-handedly supporting the butter industry. Go cows...moo!

So now that you're probably really bored with my blog, go on over to The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Just don't do it right before you go to bed, because if you're like me you'll be up until 2:30 a.m. crying over their love story. Or the fact that you can't eat the cinnamon rolls. Either way.

NaBloPoMo

So I found this on someone else's blog and decided to check it out. It's a challenge to post something on your blog once each day for the whole month. Since I'm pretty much doing that anyway, I thought I'd sign up. Cool, huh?

Anyway, this isn't my official post for the day. I just wanted to let everyone know about "NaBloPoMo," or National Blog Posting Month.

Have a great Sunday!

Bling

Someday I will force...uh, I mean FIND...someone to marry me. Then I will get one of these:

I first discovered tension set rings in the early 90's. I actually have a newspaper clipping of one in my wedding file. Yes, I have a wedding file. And yes, I know I am completely lame. But if I ever land a man, I want to be prepared. Plus, it's fun to drool.

Anyway, I like them because you can see so much of the stone and they can look traditional but still be very unique. I also need not to have prongs on my ring because I am so hard on my jewelry. I'm always bashing it (and myself) into something or other. During the short time that I did have an engagement ring I basically destroyed an afghan my aunt made for me because every time I made the bed I would snag it and almost rip the ring off my finger.

I'm thinking I may end up buying one for myself at some point. But I'll give it a few more years first.