Buzz Buzz

It scares me that my mind works better when I have caffeine. I can focus more easily.

When I don't have coffee for a couple days, I turn into a vegetable and I look tired.

Caffeine is definitely like a drug for me. I don't think I'm dependant on it b/c I can just make myself perk up when I don't have it in my system. But it's so much easier to kick ass when I have a mocha in the morning.

I miss Torrefazione mochas. I used to have them all the time when I worked downtown. Those are the best; pure caffeine with a heaping spoon full of brown sugar... yum.

Now I settle for coffee cart coffee and untrained baristas. Sometimes they forget to add the shot of caffeine. Sometimes they add egg-nog. Sometimes they forget to make my coffee at all and I stand there for 15 minutes waiting.

Here i am on a random coffee buzz. bzz.

I am working! I am accomplishing great tasks! I am not blogging!

Japanese Garden

I have a decent sized side yard that isn't particularly usable, so I'm turning it into a Japanese garden.

Our house faces a noisy street and while the backyard is quiet, the sideyard is somewhat loud. The main purpose of the Japanese garden is to block as much street noise from the front as possible.

Because we have a big backyard, I don't mind losing the space to a Japanese garden with statuaries, a "flowerpot pond" as I call it, grass, soft moss, a walkway, a bamboo trellis and Asian-style trees.

These are the before pictures.

Here is the space from the east

Here is the space from the west

The Japanese garden will be only as long as the house. Because our property slopes at a 15% grade, I'm having a retaining wall constructed so that the Japanese garden is even with the foundation of our house. It's around 15x45 feet.

First, I will have a retaining wall built. Then the space will have to be leveled out and clean soil will be brought in. I will have a flagstone walkway through the garden and a small sitting area that will mirror the circular fire-pit in the backyard.

I will add grass, 1 or 2 Japanese Maples, potted bamboo, Asian grasses and a "dry creekbed" which is an Asian garden design element. I may have a palm tree planted, but I don't know yet.

Here are some pots that will be used. I have also already purchased some Asian statuary; a Buddha and lantern. I'll hang white lights to promote the feeling of a garden sanctuary.

This isn't going to happen overnight, but I'm blogging it to demonstrate the progress. I don't expect to break ground until March.

Christmas Photos

On Christmas morning I made Hawaiian pancakes from a mix we bought in Maui. We also had diced ham in scrambled eggs and hooray for pigs! I like ham. I fed B and his mom before they had to pick B's grandmother up from the ferry. Grandma Dorothy lives on an island in Puget Sound.

When they left I set the table with our new china, which was given to us by my dad's wife Elaine. Thanks Elaine! The china was perfect over our Italian tablecloth. We got the tablecloth in Florence from a store that sold only tablecloths and holy cow, it's heavy and gorgeous. We got it before we were married for when we had holiday dinner at our house- once we were married, once we had a house. It's the little things that make me happy; like a set table.


I cheated a bit when I made dinner. I bought a prepared Turkey that I merely shoved into the oven. We also had a bagged salad, stove top stuffing b/c that's what B likes and store-bought rolls. So much for having dinner from scratch, except for the gravy my mom made. I spent my time on the green bean casserole and mashed potatoes...

...well, someone spent time on the mashed potatoes.

My best buddy Lauren came for dinner too.

Then we opened presents and had some pie.

It is possible for me to write a whole post without a picture of my dog!

Here is Fuzzy Slippers sniffin' a stocking.

Behold! The Mother-in-Law

Now that it's time to head back to work, I'm going to take this opportunity to blog and spill my guts about Christmas.

B's mom came to town from Vegas. She hasn't been up to Seattle since our wedding 3 years ago and has never seen our house or (gasp!) the Muppet.

Since my whole fam is here in Seattle, I though it would be nice for her to come up and see how great her only child is and what he's been up to. She and B aren't particularly close. They have the cursory phone conversations and catch up. Sometimes she forwards emails to him that preach about God. She sends him bible verses.

Anyway, the first day was rocky. My house was (virtually) spotless (see one of my next posts "Daughters of Martha") but she found cobwebs and felt that the bathroom needed to be wiped down even though she told me, "Alyssa, I'm not here to see how well you keep house."

Then she tried to do the dishes. If you know me, you know I do my own dishes.

The next morning I vented to my mom and she pointed out the mother-in-law is probably trying as hard as I am to make a good impression. That was a good point and one that I hadn't considered. I decided to back off and from then on everything was smooth sailing.

We all talked and watched movies. I cooked up a storm and B took her Christmas shopping. It was nice to get the know the woman who raised my husband. Of course I asked where they took him when he was little and what he was like. B's family lived less than 10 minutes from mine when we were all growing up. We went to the same parks and stores for years.

When I was little I always wondered what my future husband was doing at that moment. He could have been on the park swing next to me.

The Mother-in-law liked our house and loved Muppet.

It was nice to have her around for Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas people!

It's a nice, mild 50 degrees here in Seattle. Santa could wear flip-flops here if he wanted.

I've been busy so I haven'te been writing. I'm hearing from some of you that you're tired of Muppet photos! Unbelievable!

My upcoming blogs include:

"Daughters of Martha" An exploration of the children whose mothers emulated Martha Stewart.
"Behold, the Mother-in-Law" For the first time, we have invited my husband's mother to our house for Christmas. This post will include hilarious quotes such as, "Alyssa, did you know you can polish shoes?"

xox

Slow on the ol' Blog

So, obviously I haven't written much since returning from NY.

I'm in a pre-Christmas funk that causes me to become easily distraught with others.

Ugh!

Muppet's Sweater

Glamour Shot

Guard Dog

NY Photos are Posted!!

Empire State Building Pix

Lobby

Way up High

Back at Home Cont.- Broadway Show

Please see "Back at Home" posted on 11/27 for the beginning to this post.

Continued...
We readied ourselves for Meet the Producers and headed for Broadway.

To our surprise, we had to walk directly through Times Square to Broadway, from our hotel. It was packed with people!!! Have you ever gone to a concert with general admission and 30,000 of your closest friends? Your nose is 2 inches from someone’s neck and at least 2 people are touching your ass because they're walking so close behind you. Welcome to Times Square. Lauren told us it is the most photographed place in the world.

Once we found the correct theater, we then luckily spotted some open space at a nearby bar. I drank 2 dirty martinis (yay!) and we had some oysters (yay! yay!) to kill time before the show.

We met up with our NY hosts and absolutely enjoyed the show.

"No Photography in the Theater!"

Turns out my favorite boy on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was in our show! He's a doll in real life too!

"Jai"

After the theater we returned to our hotel, the W Tuscany for a nightcap. We closed down the bar (they closed at 10 ;) and moved to the W hotel bar next door. There I drank 2 chocolate martinis, which actually left me feeling quite yucky the following day on our flight home.

I think I remembered all the important details.

Oh, one time I was taking a photo and we were standing on the street corner and then everyone around me walked as if the light were green for pedestrians and so I walked. And then the guys were yelling at me to get out of the street and I looked up to find a cab barreling at me. Hello death!

I stepped back and lived. Please note previous post where I state that if a car hits you, they are not held accountable. If you die, they don't even get a ticket.

We are home now and everyone in the neighborhood is putting their Christmas lights up. I've got some decorations out, so things are looking pretty peppy here at chez moi.

Obviously, New York was great and we're already planning our next trip.

Brody and Lauren, thanks for being such great hosts!

Snow in Seattle

It's December first and it snowed all day in Seattle.

The Front Yard

This is an early surprise because it hardly ever snows here and it never snows this early. The snow didn't stick well, so everything is sort of covered, but lacks that pillowy winter wonderland appeal. We may get another 2 inches tonight.

I want to go out and take some photos with my "real" camera tonight... I saw some Christmas trees for sale that were covered in snow.

I'm trying to resist the urge to dress my dog in a sweater.