Delusions of... Everything

Downtown

I wanted to make this post last night, but the computer and my family wouldn't cooperate.  I had a different post planned for today, but it can wait.  There was something going on with our internet connection for a couple hours last night.  When it was up and running again, Star Wars Son hogged was using the computer until I went to bed.  It's a challenge having only one computer and five people who want to use it.  We should get one of those take a number things they use at the Department of Licensing.

Our trip to the big city (I say that like we live out in the boonies and we don't) was good.  Here is Star Wars Son and his sweetheart in the Pike Place Market garage elevator.

We saw some pigs on parade at the Pike Place Market.

I just love the Market.

The views are amazing.

That piece of land across the water is where I grew up, West Seattle.  That big black mass over the land on the right side of the picture is a UFO... I need to get my camera into the shop to have that black mass diagnosed and hopefully removed.

I would have preferred to go downtown in the dark to get some interesting shots of the lights.  Throughout my life I have taken dozens of shots of this star, in the dark and in the light.  I prefer the ones taken in the dark, but it's still beautiful dark or light.

There's that annoying UFO again!

I loved the colorful balls on the Westlake Mall Christmas tree.

Inside the Westlake Center is my favorite store.  I was so excited to get inside that I neglected to take a picture of the outside of the store.  I really need to practice being a more thoughtful photographer.  Next time I won't forget.  What store is it you ask?!  Well Lush of course!

This is my second year shopping the after Christmas sale at Lush.  This year it's the Give it Away, Give it Away, Give it Away, Now! Sale.  It's buy one get one free on pre-packaged holiday goodies.  They are all different and beautiful.

I found this pre-packaged box that was mostly fizzies and bath bars, my favorite things from Lush.  Under the lid is a list of all the goodies with descriptions.

It's like opening a treasure chest.

The first layer...

The second layer...

Double the fun!

To top it off you get this lovely piece of paper...

A few days ago Noble Pig, one of the blogs I love, had this post.  It's not related to Lush in any way, but it does talk about her "crackberry" (she got a new phone).  At the end of the post she posed the question... Anyone else on crack?  I don't have a crackberry, but I have Lush.

PS... On another crack related note, I got this game for my DS:

Coffee

I'm starting today's post before I've had a sip of coffee, don't worry it's brewing.  I was a late bloomer to the whole coffee craze.  Yes Seattle is home to Starbucks, yes I grew up in Seattle, yes when I was growing up everyone around me drank coffee, yes I loved the smell of coffee and coffee ice cream was one of my favorite things when I was a kid, but I never liked the taste of it.  I didn't understand about the caffeine.  I was young! 

One day co-workers invited me to Starbucks with them, this was back in the late 80's BC (before children).  "But I don't drink coffee" I said.  One of them said, "You want to get away from work for a while, don't you?"  Yes, actually I did.  We stepped into the store and it smelled lovely and I decided to give it a try, I wanted to be one of the cool, hip people too.  I was confused and didn't know what or how to order.  One co-worker walked me through it ordered for me.  I heard something about "single", "tall" and "mocha".  I was expecting to see a tall, beautiful skinned, hot guy walking out from the back... oh wait, Starbucks isn't that type of store.  What I got was a very strong cup of coffee, steamed milk and chocolate sauce all mixed together.  I have to admit I didn't like it at all.

On August 24, 1992 my whole life changed.  Star Wars Son was born, just 4 months shy of my 30th birthday.  Put simply he didn't sleep more 1.5 hours at a time, ever.  Well eventually he did, but those first few months were horrid.  I'd never experienced sleep deprivation like that.  Someone suggested it was OK to drink 1-2 cups of coffee a day, even though I was nursing.  "But I don't drink coffee" I said.  Famous. Last. Words.

Coffee entered my life on a cold day in January 1993.  I don't remember what kind was, I don't remember what I made it in, I don't remember what I put in it, or what I drank it from.  What I do remember is that it helped me feel not so cloudy on those days when I had to function on 3 hours sleep.
Coffee is still in my life.  I prefer a plain old brewed cup over the expensive lattes and mocha's.  My mm gave me some different kinds of coffees for Christmas.  Here is a sampling of what's in my freezer or cupboard:

The  middle one is Trader Joe's holiday blend and it is delicious.  All the rest I got for Christmas.  I was a real coffee snob for a long time and would only drink Seattle's Best Coffee.  For years I got a special blend from the Pike Place Market until they stopped making it.  Aren't the minis cute?!  The Southern Comfort one kind of scares me... Maybe I'll try it tomorrow.

Here is what I put in my coffee.  Now, don't freak out.  Normally I have just one kind in the fridge, but it's the holidays and we were entertaining, and... and... and I can't think of any more excuses.

I can't drink coffee black.  I have to have sugar in it and cream, lot's of cream, or in my case fake cream, since I can't drink milk.  Usually I'm a vanilla girl, plain and predictable.  But the holidays bring out the spontaneous wild child in me.  My favorite is the Peppermint Mocha, unfortunately everyone else loves it too and it flies off the shelves never to be see again after Thanksgiving.  The Eggnog was for my mom.  I tried the Caramel Apple on a whim and while I enjoy it, it's no Peppermint Mocha.  The fancy White Chocolate Mocha I bought cause it looked pretty and it was on sale.  I'm having that in my coffee this morning, it's ok, but it's no Peppermint Mocha.

Here is what I drink my coffee in everyday and have since Dancing Daughter, Star Wars Son and Geeky Guy gave it to me for Mothers Day over 2 years ago.

Nothing gets my heart going in the morning like looking at the hot, sweaty, singing Eddie Vedder on my coffee cup.  Who is Eddie Vedder you say?!  The lead singer of Pearl Jam of course!

How do you like your coffee?!

P.S. Today we are taking our annual after Christmas trek to downtown Seattle.  This year I'm taking the camera and will hopefully get pictures posted later this evening, so check back.

Favorite Gifts

I finally got off my lazy butt gathered my favorite Christmas gifts together and photographed them.

One of the major ones didn't get in the photo because I couldn't find it.  Don't worry, it was a gift card and I redeemed it already.  I'm guessing it was thrown away, either by Handy Man while he was gathering up garbage to take to the curb last night, or SWS so he wouldn't get it confused with the one he got.  It was a $50 i-tunes gift card.  I had a lot of fun sampling all different music, here's what I ended up buying:

Pearl Jam - Yield  I know you're probably wondering why I didn't already have this album, I mean it came out in 1998!  Of course most of you probably have no clue about Pearl Jam or when their albums came out.  Anyway, I did have this album and it wore out.  CD do wear out if you play them too much.  Now it's on my i-pod so I won't have that issue anymore!

My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves and Evil Urges

Damien Rice - O

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (single)  One of the most beautiful songs ever recorded!

My ipod song count is now 2258, 361 of them are Pearl Jam!

The picture really doesn't do justice to this gorgeous necklace made by Isis Ray.  She is a bead artist at the Pike Place Market.  Handy Man requested a necklace with amber and turquoise beads and this is what she whipped up.  If I ever go back to work at the Market I would love to work for Isis!

Handy Man knows that no matter what the occasion I always want Lush.  I was lucky enough to get a $50 gift card and actual products!  Five of those items are bubble bars that get crumbled into running water to make a butt load lot of smooth, lovely scented bubbles.  I usually get 3 baths out of one bar.  The round one is a fizzy.  That baby goes into the bath water after it's done running and makes the water really soft and smelly.  I already used my favorite one, it's called Waving Not Drowning.  I mixed it with a little of the French Kiss bubble bar for a really wonderful bath.  Those two little rectangle packages are samples of soap.  They like to throw samples in when you order online!  I love Lush!  I should look into getting a part time job there!

Who couldn't use Burt's Bees?!  Handy Man Geeky Guy found Burt's Bees can be purchased online for a fraction of the in store prices.  Hallelujah!

A Nintendo DS and a $20 gift card to Best Buy?!  This was really for me?!  This one took me totally by surprise.  I didn't even know I wanted one of these.  I guess Handy Man took the hint from DD when she would be frustrated when I was playing with her DS and wouldn't give it back when she wanted it.  The gift card is so I can go pick out a game, my very own game.  Do you think DD will keep letting me play her games?!

I had a wonderful Christmas and am very thankful for the blessings and thoughtfulness of my wonderful family!

What were some of your favorite gifts?!

My Handy Man or Geeky Guy?

I've been married to my husband Handy Man (or is it Geeky Guy?) for over 26 years.  Here we are on our 25th anniversary in New York.

Here is an example of Handy Man at his finest!  When we first saw the house we bought in Sept 07 the first thing he said, before we even bought it, was "This wall has to come out."  This is a typical Handy Man response, I'm used to it, so I didn't panic.

Here is the wall(s) he was speaking of:

First he did this:

Then this:

On to this:

Here he is eying his handy work:

The almost finished project:

Finished, painted and pretty!

Oh yeah!  He also made this table!

Besides being a Handy Man, my husband is also a Geeky Guy.  He is equal parts handy and geeky.

Here is my geeky guy lightsaber fighting with SWS:

Here he is perusing through a book about the economy he got this year for Christmas.

Here is another one of his Christmas gifts.  Please notice that it's already installed and operational, this is both handy and geeky!

So the battle wages on within me.  Should I refer to him as my Handy Man? Or my Geeky Guy?  I guess it will just depend on the day!

Two Days of Celebrating

Hosting two Christmas dinners in a row has it's advantages and disadvantages.  I love that we didn't have to pack up presents and food to go to someone else's house.  I love entertaining in our new home.  I secretly love being in control of dinner, but don't tell anyone.  Things that aren't so great?...

It doesn't help that we haven't had garbage service since the snow first fell on December 13th.

Day 1 of Celebrating...

Christmas Eve morning dawned with me being really crabby.  I did feel considerably better once the cider was hot and spiked! 

Star Wars Son and g/f BB opened the last day of the advent calendar.  Don't you love candid shots?!

The dinner was cooked...

and eaten...

Then it was present time!

What do you think of this lamp?!

Side bar - It took me 45 minutes to figure out how to get the lamp picture to post right side up.  In i-photo it's right side up, but when I tried to post it here it was sideways.  I ended up saving it to my desktop, opening it with photoshop, it appeared right side up there too, so I didn't edit it at all, then tried to post it again from my desktop and it posted correctly.  I'm baffled why it won't post correctly from i-photo, but will from photoshop.  One of those Mac mysteries?!  Or operator error?!  Things that make you go "hmmmmmmmmm".

This gift I opened was a $50 gift card to Lush!  I LOVE Lush!

Day 2 of Celebrating...
I went to bed early on Christmas Eve, without putting out any presents or filling stockings.  My kids stay up too late for me to do it before I go to bed.  The way I've been sleeping lately, I didn't doubt that I would wake up at some odd hour and not be able to go back to sleep.  In fact that is exactly what happened, so at 3:30 am I was up making Christmas magic.  I'd only been busy about 5 minutes when DD came out of her room claiming she had to pee, so much for Christmas magic.

Christmas morning dawned with the sun?!!

By the afternoon this was what the same view looked like.

Side-bar... Last year the same thing happened, beautiful sunrise and snow in the afternoon!

It's hard to miss the theme of DD's Christmas!

Star Wars Son had a good Christmas too.

Unlike DD, SWS was not quite so narrow minded in his Christmas requests.

I don't mention it enought, but I think SWS is adorable!

My side of the family is very small, in fact, it's only the four of us and my parents, so we had a very nice, relaxing, low key dinner after all the gift giving.

Today is dreary, rainy and cold.   The good news is I slept until 7:45!  Woo-hoo!  So I'm feeling really good today.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas, spent with ones you love.

Christmas Eve

I'm trying to stay positive today, but it's difficult.  I'm tired, crabby and it's raining.   I'm crabby because I'm tired.  I haven't slept well the past two nights for reasons unknown.  This morning I was awake at 4:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep.  Yesterday I was awake at 3:30, went back to sleep after being awake for over an hour, only to wake up again at 5:45.  At that point I gave up and got ready for work.  Today I'm not going to work because I have guests coming around noon.  We are celebrating Christmas today with my husband's family.  I really don't want to be crabby.  I'm considering having a spiced cider with rum, but it's only 8:50 am.

Things that are irritating me this morning...

DD is up way too early and being way too annoying. 

Non Dancing Husband was just standing next to me while crunching very loudly on potato chips.  Potato chips?!  At 8:45 am?!  If he can do that I can have a spiced cider with rum!

It's raining.

Non Dancing Husband opened the bag of potato chips that I was saving for today.  Now he wants us to go to the grocery store to get more.  He also wants to go to the corner gift shop because they are having 50% off all Christmas items.  Didn't anyone tell him we have guests coming at noon?!

I'm worried I don't have enough food, but I always worry about that and it always turns out that I do.

It's raining.

Now the wolf is standing by me crunching on cereal.  (One day I'm going to post about how much I HATE mouth noises, but not today, I'm too crabby already.)

DD is standing next to me whining to me about how hungry she is.  When I suggested she go make herself something she said, "I can't".  This is the same DD that has wanted to do everything herself since she was 18 months old.

It's raining.

Things I'm not irritated about...

I got all my cleaning done last night.

I made the salmon ball last night.

I finally have the recipe for the best snowball cookie ever made, mwhahahaha!  I just might have to excuse myself in the middle of today's Christmas celebration to whip up these babies.

Noon can't come soon enough, that's when I'm having some spiced cider with rum!

Happy Christmas Eve.

Slide Show

The Show Must (and did) Go On!

DD is passionate about dancing.  I envy her, not in an obnoxious way, but in a "I've never been so passionate about anything in my life" kind of way.  When she was three years old she started telling me she wanted to be a dancer and wanted to know when she could take dance class.  I held her off for a year, cause I thought she was just too little.  She begged and pleaded consistently.  I finally gave in and signed her up for a ballet/tap class.  That was 9 years ago.  She's gone from one dance class to six.  She takes showbiz, two ballet, one pointe, tap, jazz and acro classes.  She's at the dance studio three nights a week and on Saturday morning where she helps teach the little girls.  This pays for one of her classes.  She's only 13 years old and already has a job doing what she loves.  Did I mention I envy her?!

Amid the threat of blizzard like conditions due to hit the Seattle area around 3:00 pm, the show was a go!  The matinee show started at 2:00 and while it wasn't snowing yet, it was obvious it would be soon. By the end of the show it was snowing steadily, but not blowing too much yet.  The evening show started at 7:00 and by then we were in the heart of the storm.  Luckily and thankfully DD good friend offered to bring her home after the night show.  We attended the matinee, so this meant we didn't have to go out into the weather.  I appreciated that more that I can say!

The show theme was My Favorite Christmas, which loosely following the Sound of Music.  Here is a sampling of the 160 pictures I took.

Pointe danced to Dancing Dolls.  She's the one in the middle.

Acro, danced to Sleighride.

She's on the left.

Jazz danced to Disturbia.  It was hard to get shots of this dance, it was very fast moving.  She's on the right.

This was my favorite dance of the night (although I really loved the pointe dance too).  It was modern ballet danced to Silent Movie.

Tap, danced to You Got Me Going Crazy.

Ballet danced to Come September.

Showbiz danced to Rama Lama and The Garden.

I'm very proud of DD.  I love watching her perform.   She works hard and is very committed to her dance and it shows!  Now I have to listen to her complain for the next two weeks about how bored she is because the dance studio is closed for Christmas break!

I'm off to take pictures of the snow and ice!

Enjoy your Sunday however you are spending it.

We Interupt the Cold

We interrupt the cold with the following warm interlude.

Asthmagirl has this great post about the impending storm expected to hit this evening.  While I like the snow I'm not a fan of wind or ice pellets falling from the sky so I'm not as excited for this storm as I usually am for inclement weather.

I made good time of yesterdays snow day.

DD will have a dance show tonight.  Here is a quick preview of tomorrow's post.

 

Snow Day

They finally closed school at noon yesterday.  I had made an executive decision and did not send my kids to school.  I was glad because it snowed and snowed and snowed yesterday.  My boss called me off work and ended up closing the shop at noon and sending everyone home.  I'm still not sure if I'm going to work today or not.  There is compact snow and ice on most secondary roads and those are the roads I take to work.  We ended up getting 6 inches of snow.  Today it's supposed to be sunny and cold, it's the calm before the next storm.   "Heavy destructive" winds and more snow are predicted for Saturday afternoon/evening into Sunday.  I'm very worried they are going to cancel DD Christmas dance show on Saturday.  DD will be devastated if this happens.  She does like the snow though.

So does her brother.

The satellite dish needs to be cleared off, we wouldn't want to lose tv reception!

DD and her non-dancing dad.

You will have to bear with me while I fixate on the snow and the weather for the next few days.  We rarely get this much white stuff.  While it was snowing DD commented how she couldn't remember seeing so much snow before.  I've seen a lot more come down, but it's been a few years!