Tag: tattoo sleeve

Tattoo Plans

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This week, my pool will be closed. It’s been too cold to swim in for like a month. Sad times. However, that means — TATTOO SEASON. I don’t work on my tattoo in the summer because I’m not gonna not swim for weeks. And last year, I was still building my savings back up after building the deck. But this year — it’s ON!

Side note — yes, we are having severe job issues at the moment. HOWEVER, I have saved over double my savings goal and Devon books month in advance and I’m finishing my tattoo, dammit. In fact, If I save another 2k, I’m getting a new phone. But uh yeah — if you know anyone hiring configuration managers — please hit me up. I need health insurance. Now with that depressing bit out of the way…

So I knew what I wanted. Kinda. So with the leaves and stuff, it’s already kinda busy. I feel like my pumpkins are already totally lost in the detail. So we either need to switch color palettes or style or something. But it still needs to look cohesive. So I’ve been racking my brain for months over what to do. Well, I love geometric tattoos but that won’t mesh. I love statues tattoos and she’s already highlighted Jack with some teals — we could get some marble statue look in there. Marble statue… WEEPING ANGELS!

OK, I’m 100% serious that I loved creepy-ass distraught angels in graveyards way before Doctor Who. Back in the day, when I wanted to be buried in a cemetery, I wanted some angel just dramatically thrown over my gravestone a ‘la this Italian one:

Angel of Grief

I mean look at that drama! That’s full on Disney Princess angst. I want someone to be that sad I died. But then I grew up and realized that after a single generation, no one will remember me. So like don’t stick me in a depressing grave no one will visit. Fuck that. Bury me and Jack in the woods with pretty Fall foliage and if we can spring for it — creepy angel statue in the woods on top of me.

But we all know about the Weeping Angels. When Doctor Who was AWESOME AS FUCK. And listen, Eccleston was my first Doctor, but he sucks. Don’t agree? Fight me. Has he even come back for a single cameo or special like EVERY OTHER DOCTOR? Nope. Asshole. Then we got DAVID FUCKING TENNANT! The best Doctor of the modern era! I fucking love David Tennant. I would only love him more if he had done it in his real Scottish accent — *swoon*

Anyway, David Tennant was busy so they had to do a very Doctor-lite episode one-off and the Weeping Angels were created in the episode “Blink.” And they were amazing and terrifying. They should have probably died there because the more they bring them back the more it fucks them up — cause like, you can’t really think about them too hard — but they’re fucking awesome. So combine that with the love I already had for them and YES.

So what if we did a Weeping Angel!? Well, that has to go on the back cause I cant be scaring myself in the mirror. Front? Rose window. Play up the stone work between the glass panels. I fucking love stained glass, so that’s a no brainer. Here’s a quick and dirty “like this:”

No notes. So onto the angel. Like should it just be half the face? Cause you can’t fit a whole statue back there. I had husband take these pictures of me posing so beautifully so I could play with stuff in Photoshop. I talked to lots of people. One of my old coworkers (who I occasionally see at my current job) lent me an ear. He didn’t like just the face idea. He thought it needed more of a transition from my current work so maybe a bare tree limb in front of a full angel statue. But that’s like too small? So I emailed Devon. Devon Grieg, the amazing tattoo artist know as theswiftstorm who has done everything I have. Cause this tattoo session is coming up fast.

She didn’t have any clue what I was talking about in my email. So she scheduled a video call consultation. Cause she rocks. And I’m an overachiever, so I made a whole google album of reference pictures and pictures of my tattoo from all angles (thank you, husband) and some mock-ups of the positioning I was talking about.

So during our video call, she mocked up this:

Obviously, her hands will be covering her eyes cause she’s a Weeping Angel, but this was just a great reference image she found while we were chatting. She was 100% in agreement with old coworker that a bare branch would be the perfect transition to her. And we could fill out around the bottom with leaves like the rest of my arm — but not as sharp and detailed.

She’s an artist who does this shit so I’m so glad I called her in before I went down the panic rabbit hole and just asked her what she thought. She didn’t like coworkers full statue — but she didn’t like mine really either. I gotta say — the composition she’s come up with in like 10 minutes of a video call is AMAZING. I didn’t think of the angled face and I fucking love it. It’s going to be fucking AMAZING. I already said that. But it is.

I’m also super pleased that she is excited about this direction. Originally, there was some miscommunication about me wanting it to be a full sleeve wrap look (it wont actually wrap around, but it will look like it does — there will just be some skin under my arm not tatted). So she never designed it to be full wrap. But that’s what I always wanted. Plus, Jack is centered on my arm — but the back of my arm is so much fatter than the front of my arm so I just need more back there. Like I always wanted a full on covered arm. That’s why I did the shoulder joint — because if you had like a prosthetic arm, it would encompass the shoulder joint. And I wanted my arm to look fully different from the rest of my body. So I was hesitant of what she would think.

But she loves it. Since it’s a memorial tattoo with my precious Jack, she loves the graveyard imagery. Which, it does work. I just like stained glass and Weeping Angels — but having it be a cohesive art piece is also important. Even more important is that my artist is psyched about it so she’ll do amazing work.

The lower part of the arm won’t wrap and will taper down. We’ll free hand some ideas with sharpie in person. I’m thinking kinda mirror the top — the flowers at the elbow and the vines like my back tapering down towards my wrist.

I’M SO EXCITED!

Well, it’s a weekend.

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This weekend was supposed to be my blissful relaxation time. Four day weekend. Nothing needs to be done. Garage is clean, Both offices cleaned (I even spoofed up Husband’s). Garage and storage room — perfect. It’s too wet to rake leaves. I could put up the new ring camera, but I’ve got months to do that before the pool pump is on. So yeah. Fours days to RELAX.

Has it been that. FUCK NO. Meet my fans:

Yeah, those are industrial drying fans and a dehumidifier that have been running constantly since Friday morning and will continue to do so until AT LEAST 3:00pm on Monday when they come out and check on things. We had a washing machine incident. Downstairs is a stressful disaster. It sounds like Google’s server room and yeah, pieces of my floor and ceiling are missing. I will talk about it later.

Like, yall. Even the fucking cat is stressed the hell out. These fans are LOUD. We’ve all had to retreat to the upstairs. I live downstairs. I don’t like this.

But then, last night, we went out to a swanky dinner to celebrate K and husband looked so cute in his suit! And we got a great posed shot of my tattoo — plus I was looking hot!

I’ve also been working on my rock collection. I’ve added a few more specimens. And yes, I relabeled them all. Now the labels are all at the same level and straight. THANK YOU. I will also post more about this later. I’ve got a big Yooperlite coming in so yeah, there’s gonna be more rock pictures.

I did order more shelves. They didn’t have the distressed white anymore, so I had to order brown. So I had to spray paint them all to match each other. Which mean Walmart. Thankfully, I put out a call and K2 was willing to go to Walmart with me. We got three cans of Rustoleum white semi gloss primer and paint in one. Like one can extra.

No. No. I put the first coats on while they cut up my floor and ceiling. Then I had to run out to ACE before the septic people came to get TWO MORE CANS. Surely I don’t need two more? Yeah. Yeah I did. But they look awesome!

It looks like I don’t have room to expand, but I totally do. I liked it better with an extra vial on each shelf. Plus I mixed in some empty bottles to spread it out. I’m also going to acquire medium (2ish inch) specimens of my favorites. I have a two inch sphere of Yooperlite on the way. Then I’ve got my eye on some Petoskey stones. Then I want to get a natural uncut, UNDYED, Ruby that fluoresces. I’ve found two options I’m eyeing — click 1 and click 2. Obviously, the click 1 there is preferred, but it might sell out before I get to buying that one. I also want some peacock ore…

Tattoo Sleeve Sessions 5 & 6

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My shoulder is complete! I just scrolled back and I didn’t post session 5. That’s because I didn’t get any pictures of session 5 after it was complete the day of and then it was under second skin and then peeling and so I never got any good photos. As you’ll recall (click here) after session 4, we had added the blue flowers and outlined the entire top. Session 5 was doing the front flowers and some of the vine on the back. First, pictures:

This session was really exciting! Look at those colors! I originally wanted to do oranges and reds. But I’m so glad we added the blues. And look at that purple dahlia! She did such an amazing job! The flowers just look amazing! Red poppies too. It’s stunning. I can’t believe the colors. I never thought I’d want flowers as a tattoo, really. They’re just part of the sleeve. But, damn. I see why flowers are such a common tattoo theme. They’re just so gorgeous. And look at my curly green vine! So cute!

So yesterday, we had session 6. We finished up everything we had outlined and added the bats. I had worried about the pumpkin lid being too bright, but it look great! And having the full shoulder done just looks AWESOME. It’s exactly what I wanted. The exact coverage I wanted swinging down o my should blade. She referred to it as a “shawl” kinda coverage. But I think of it more as part of the arm. Like I keep saying, if you had an arm replaced cybernetically or even just a prosthetic, the shoulder is involved. So I wanted that. I want the entire arm/should. And I GOT IT!

I’m in love! Look at the vine on the back! I got my swirlies! Love the pumpkins vine on my back. I made sure to get her to send me the photos this time. And yes, Jacks face looks washed out. But keep in mind these are tattoos. Jacks face is over a year old so 100% healed with 30 layers of dead skin cells over it, as your skin should be — it’s natural protection. The front is only a month old so new skin, and the new work is FRESH ink. It will all be similar brightness when it heals.

Oh and the bats look whacky here. My neck was NOT happy about them. So they are actually very swollen and red. The ink is purple and grey and they fade out at the bottom. So they look super dark, but they are not. The top outline is solid but then they fade out in purple and grey — so very ethereal. Today, the swelling is down and the color is lighter, but my skin is still inflamed and there’s blood around them under the second skin so not gonna show you. She said we’d probably have to touch the bats up because my skin was so angry, she doesn’t think it will hold the ink well.

Nothing like the pain of a neck tattoo that might need to be redone! I’d say as far as pain goes, the front shoulder was probably the worst session so far. Tattooing the collar bone and that close to the neck was not pleasant. There’s also the INSANE sensation of hearing your skeleton resonating with the tattoo machine. It’s the same speed of the machine — which is right in your ear — but you’re hearing it from INSIDE your body and it’s an insanely deep, low sound. I asked her if that’s what I was hearing and she was like “yeah, isn’t it wild!” It was so weird. Like it hurt like hell, but I kinda wanted to hear it again just to experience it and be like “wow, that’s insane.” I got to hear it a lot that day. Sometimes I had to remind myself to breathe on that one.

Also, the leaves closest to my armpits were pretty painful. I can see why they say the armpits are the most painful to get tattooed. Which I find really weird because why do we need that many nerves in your arm pit? Seriously, I’m asking. It’s just as bad as the neck. Also the healing after session 5 (the front) was the most painful. It was like my ankle when it healed — NO TOUCH. The skin was very much sore and unhappy.

Today doesn’t feel bad so I think it will be a better healing experience. So yeah, I’m super thrilled with it. So thrilled than when I get done, I think I want a photoshoot. Seriously. A photo shoot to show off my tattoo. Here’s an action shot I took yesterday. I’m covering Devon’s face because I didn’t ask her permission to post this. My bro said I looked like I was having a lot of fun. Fun is not what I would call it. I was just excited and happy. These are long ass days of driving two hours there, hours of pain and sitting still, then a two hour drive home. But, I love the results!

So another hiatus on the tattoo for now. Per my agreement with husband, I need to replace the money in my savings that I spent in the deck and pool pump. Then we can finish. We did an outline / trace / mold for her to work from next time. We’re gonna add more to the arm to beef it up and give it more of a wrap around look. I thought we were just going to add the the back, but Devon wants to add to the front and back. Just some more leaves to widen it out. Then at that appointment we will plan the lover arm. It won’t be much — but it will bring it to about a 3/4 sleeve — maybe a bit longer with a trickle of vine. It’ll be pumpkin vine swirls and some of the colorful stuff from the top.

I’m so in love with it!

The artist is Devon Greig of Alchemy Nashville Tattoo. Also known as theswiftstorm on Instagram.

On my Arm Lift. And tattoo.

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Usually, I write off my brachioplasty (arm lift) results. There’s multiple reasons. I didn’t get liposuction (would have if I knew to ask!) so I still have really big arms. I also still have that obnoxious fat overhang on my elbow. So I’m usually frustrated with it. Like I went through ALL THAT and still have huge arms. Really? This shit was so expensive too!

Also, when you compare my other surgeries, those are just far more impressive. I had a stomach pouch for years even after I lost weight so tummy tuck — huge. And boobs — they make every single outfit look better. Combine those two, and there’s so much oomph! This is the only time in my whole life where my breasts have stuck out further than my stomach. Seriously. I’m pretty sure I was fat before I grew breasts, so yeah. I mean the abdomen is just a complete overhaul. The difference is amazing. So yeah, I’m usually not too jazzed about the arms in comparison. Also huge scars. I’m not terribly bothered by the scars but I am disappointed that they looked like they would be so perfect and neat right after surgery but have since expanded.

HOWEVER (yes, in all caps), if you look at old photos, the arms do look hella better. They’re not all floppy either. There was a good bit of skin removed there. Before this, I’d never have worn a tank top to work. I’d CERTAINLY never have considered a tattoo sleeve. Fat flabby arms can’t have tattoo sleeves. Now that I have tighter arms and working on a fucking fabulous tattoo sleeve, I’m all about some tank tops.

Whenever an ad for a sale at Lane Bryant or Torrid pops up, I’m like “do they have any work-appropriate tanks tops?” I have a smallish collection of work tank tops hanging in my closet now. They’re my favorite to wear. I gotta show of my sweet tat.

I know it’s a work in progress. I can’t wait till we do the shoulder! But it’s nice and substantial and damn cool already. Hopefully, it greatly detracts from my balding head and acne/hairy/PCOS chin. No seriously, I’m having big issues about feeling ugly so let’s all look at the boobs and tattoo. Oooooooo.

I’m so so so glad it has my Jack in it. I miss him so much. I rub between his eyes and tell him I miss him. (He liked having me scratch right between his eyes sometimes). So I do frequently look at it and touch his little face. And people love it.

Almost everywhere I go, someone comments on it. Seriously. Just about everywhere. “Love your tattoo!” “Gorgeous tattoo!” “Who did your tattoo?” “Is that a cat!?” “Where’d you get it done?” “That work is amazing.” “Holy shit! I love it!” It’s a hype piece. A conversation starter for sure. I love it! Nearly everywhere I go, it’s mentioned.

(And yeah, hopefully it’s drawing attention away from my face. Look at my cleavage or something.)

Peek-A-Boo

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My tattoo got to make its first appearance as a peek-a-boo today. The weather was a gorgeous 73 degrees so short sleeves were called for. I was so excited, I even took a picture before work:

Then, on my way into work I hopped in the elevator. Don’t judge me! I have a sprained ankle still. Anyway, a coworker hopped on with me. She said “I love your tattoo! Is that a cat!?” I showed her. She LOVED IT. So we talked for like 30 minutes about tattoos and cats. I texted her the artists info because she’s looking for a good artist as she unhappy with her current tattoo (I thought it looked great).

But yeah — I was internally squealing with glee!

First hour out and someone loves it. Maybe even made a new work friend!

Sleeve Tattoo Session #2

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Friday, I had my second tattoo session on my sleeve. Poor Jack has only been a head since November. Now he has his body and his precious bowtie!

As you can see by the outline (yeah, that’s tattooed), we bit off more than we could chew. But to her credit, my artist pursued a lot longer than she wanted to to get the pumpkins done. Apparently, after 3 or 4 hours, your skin starts to turn too red and my artist doesn’t like to go longer than that. That sucks because I have to drive to Nashville and I’d happily sit for as long as she’d tattoo for. So I’m a bit disappointed that we won’t be able to work behind his head until Fall. In April, we’re going to finish up what we outlined — a few more leaves and his tail and then break for summer. She doesn’t want to do more than that so he looks like a completed piece over the summer.

It was a bit of an awkward session. There was miscommunication on what I wanted, apparently. I’m not sure how it happened as on my tattoo page that I originally sent (click here to see our communications page), I stated that I wanted a half to 3/4 length sleeve. Maybe that means different things to different people? But she wasn’t aware I wanted it to wrap around my arm and she didn’t know I wanted it past my elbow and up onto my shoulder. I think she thought I was “adding on” to my original request and she wasn’t happy about it because she wants to make one big cohesive piece and not something that just keeps getting added onto.

So I felt bad ’cause she seemed irritated. But I assumed “sleeve” meant it wrapped around? And I said between half and 3/4 so isn’t 3/4 below your elbow? I get the shoulder thing — I guess I never spelled that out, or if I did, it didn’t hit. But I love a raglan sleeve. I also don’t like how shoulder/sleeve tattoos just round off at the shoulder. I’d like it to be more like a raglan sleeve. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE when tattoos have a little peekaboo on the neck line. Like just a few swirls showing under your shirt making people wonder what’s there. I’ve seen this a few times and it’s always been part of the visual in my mind. I’m not getting tattoo greedy, but I don’t think she knew that, I guess?

We figured it out. We’re going to add pumpkin vines with some squash blossoms below the elbow. As far as the wrap around, she says just leaves will look bad. So I need to do something else inside the arm. She suggested his favorite toy, but 1 — this isn’t ALL about Jack. And 2, his favorite toy was a banana. So not on theme there. So, I don’t know what the fuck’s going to happen there. I’m almost playing with maybe it shouldn’t wrap and close inside? I don’t know. I always figured it would but I don’t like the idea of more stuff being inside the tattoo. But we played with the idea of more fall stuff — maybe more pumpkins? But how would that work? Anyway, we can do a shit ton more on the tattoo before we figure that out. We got the lower part and the shoulder part. We can do those first.

I also wasn’t aware of the 4 hour “limit” thing. I get that my skin was discoloring but like I kinda wanted to ask if we could do the tail. But she had already cursed at my tattoo three times in frustration. Combine that with the awkward misunderstanding and I was just like OK, whatever. Plus she said she had to do some drawings for the next day. So it was a frustrating appointment. I’m worried that she’s not enthused about what I want vs what she originally envisioned. Yall know how anxious I get!

All that said, we got some great shit done. Look at those pumpkins! And I love the leaf towards my back with all the different colors. Her work is stunning. There’s a lot of oranges – I really wanna get some more reds in there. There will be plenty of green as this is her current sketch of where we’re going:

NOTE: Art belongs to Devon Greig

So. I’m very anxious because the appointment didn’t go great. However, I’m in love with the tattoo. It over doubled in size and I love it! Its big and impactful and gorgeous. It’s going to show in all my short sleeve tops this summer and I’m just going to have to buy more professional tank tops. It has to happen. I never thought I could have an arm tattoo — much less such gorgeous work! I love him.

I’ve also already jumped the shark and ordered some rash guards for summer. Can’t have it fading before it’s even finished!

I started my sleeve! (Sleeve Session 1)

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Yesterday, I finally got to start my tattoo sleeve! It’s going to take a good while to finish because I didn’t book any more appointments in advance and we’ll have to break for summer (cause I’m not missing pool time to heal). It’s going to be the adorable bow-tie photo of Jack on a background of Fall leaves with pumpkins in front of him around the bottom. It’ll be a 3/4 sleeve. That way I can roll up my sleeves a bit and still not show if it’s for a job interview. Also, I just love raglan sleeves and the 3/4 length of them so yeah.

Reminder of the photo:

So I chose the absolutely fabulous Devon Greig in Nashville for the job (she did my goomba when we consulted for the sleeve). This is her first photo realism portrait but you’d never know it. She’s amazing. Look at this:

It looks like a painting! I’m blown away. I couldn’t have asked for better! I am in love with it. It’s my Jack!

She chose to just focus on the face in this session since it was so detailed. It took just around 4 hours of tattooing. I scheduled appointments in February and in April to do more work on it. The plan is to get his body and pumpkins in before summer. Then finish it out Next Fall/Winter. I’m so excited! Here’s the progress shots I took while she worked on it. He kinda looks like a terminator Jack with half a face here:

Man, her skill just blows me away. I could paint this, sure — but I can go over spots again and again to get them right. I can’t imagine doing it with a tattoo gun and not being able to revise any mistakes! And her FIRST realism tattoo. Damn, girl! Amazing.

She’s a pleasure to work with too! I told her I wanted to cover up my elbow fat lump because I hate it so much. I feel like if we did the half sleeve above the elbow, it would stand out even more. She was like yeah, we’ll just put a pumpkin there! Excellent. I am psyched.

Also, this didn’t hurt half as much as my ankle tattoo. The ankle felt like having a freshly skinned knee for a few days and a lot of burning as it went in. This felt like scratching sure, but tolerable. I mean, yeah it’s gonna hurt, but I expected worse. The only part that hurt the most was the closer she got to my collar bone — so that ear. The mid face was totally fine. I suspect the REAL pain will be when we get to the elbow and especially my scar. But for now, it doesn’t even feel like anythings there. So awesome.

In between chatting with Devon, I watched Enola Holmes on my phone. It’s got Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter. It took a good bit to get going, but once it did it was awesome.

FUCK

I just looked it up to get the spelling of the actors names and I watched the SEQUEL yesterday. No wonder if took a while to get going. Fuck me, I watched them out of order. I guess I’ll be watching the first one today then…

Some Things 4/9

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1) Why is it never just standard size? I’m trying to replace a cover on our sprinkler system. Almost all of these covers all over the internet are 6 inch and 10 inch. So I ordered those. Nope. Mines somewhere between the two. The only 7 inch ones only come with the whole box, not just a lid option. Bastards! It’s never an easy fix is it?

2) Spring is in the air. We finally had our jungle of a lawn mowed. It looks ok now 🙂 The weeds don’t look like weeds if you mow them. Honestly, I wish we could just have a clover lawn. They make micro clover now that only grows 3 inches tall. Why spend all this effort on grass? I’d rather the clover. It’s not like we have an HOA. I’ll get Mr C on board one day.

3) I literally, JUST NOW, booked my tattoo appointment for November. Devon Greig Saturday November 5th. It’s a birthday present to myself! I’m so excited! I talked her into doing it piecemeal. She wanted to outline the whole sleeve at once. However, I’d like to do it in pieces. One, I want Jack first and as soon as possible. I also want completed pieces and not a partial tattoo for a few months between color sessions. And I think I’ll be able to tie more memories to it doing it in bits. Also, we can’t get to the scar cover ups for a whole 2 – 3 years. So the sleeve can’t be completed right now anyway.

4) Speaking of tattoos. I think the scars on my back are going to show in some bathing suits. So after my sleeve, I think I’ll want to cover my side scars in something. Thing is, I have no idea what. I don’t want a tattoo that goes all the way across my back. It’s just gonna “peek-a-boo” on each side where the scars in my bra line are. Good thing I have 2 years to contemplate this.

5) Ok, obviously I still have my tummy tuck revision drains. I’m sure I’ll have them the rest of the month. But man, the line has healed up great. I’m so so happy with the tummy tuck results. I love seeing my side view in the mirror without a huge stomach pudge. Not a belly — that pudge of skin I had that always stuck out further than my breasts. Now it’s gone! So happy with it.

6) Breasts are still healing. The massaging makes them sore. And I’ve got that popped stitch on my back which is a pain. Reaching for things tugs on your back skin — so where those incisions are is just a bitch. And the mismatch of the skin where the stitch popped — ugh it makes me shiver in disgust if I touch it. I hope it smooths out as it heals. But I’m not too worried. Even if it needs a revision, that’s something he can do in office with a little local anesthetic in the back and snip snip.

Still in the recliner. Might extend the rental another week. I can lay in the bed, but maneuvering around with my arms hurts because it engages my chest muscles. If I was only laying down and getting up once, that’s fine. But I’ve got to get up to pee a few times.

Plus my Jack likes me in the recliner. Will he start sleeping with me in the bed? I don’t know. But I love that he sleeps with me in the recliner.

7) Return to normal work schedules is Monday. I get to define what the will look like for me. I’m not sure what I want. I definitely don’t want to go in early. I like how my office mate works — he only goes in in the afternoons. But I’d also like to stay home some days. I think I’ll start with Monday thru Thursday in office afternoons and mornings and Fridays from home. See how that works out.