Days 6, 7 and 8!

I know things are progressing in my kitchen. Unfortunately, the only things that has visibly progressed for the last few days has been mess. So, this weekend, Otto and I got the hell out of dodge and headed over to our cabin. We blissfully spent two days in mess free heaven. We cooked, we ate, we spent a ridiculous amount of money on ridiculously delicious copper river salmon. We walked on the beach. Well, some of us walked on the beach, some of us with sensitive paws walked from neighbors yard to neighbors yard. We looked at the rain and whined and/or bitched about the weather. Then cooked again.

It was awesome. But now we're back in the real world.

Current state:

This is why I can't cook at home.

This is my life and my foot!

In other, much more exciting news, yesterday was my friend True's birthday!  True is seven. And I understand he got an awesome watch. Happy Birthday True!!  Sorry, I missed your party in favor of dirt avoidance. I will make it up to you.

Here is a picture of True at his baby shower. (He was born a month or so early so as not to miss the event!)

And here's True today with his new watch! Awesome kid!

Update

This is mostly a stress relief blog. 6 days of no kitchen. Lots of dust. Not being able to find anything. And mess mess mess is wearing me a little ragged. I actually read something this week that one of the key stressors is mess and clutter. And believe me. I have it coming out my ears at the moment. I know this will be great when I'm done. But that's not helping with the present. Of particular concern this very minute is lack of tea. My oven/stove is supposed to be useable but there is no gas coming out. Leaving me tealess. Yes there are people with real problems. My not drinking tea right at this very minute is not a real problem. Well not for anyone but me!

Anyhow a few pictures to brighten up your weekend.

Ps. I'm typing this blog on the iPad blogger app (my computer is god knows where). And the app sucks. So I can't really label the pictures. Or maybe I could if I were smarter. The first two are day four. It looked for all the world like nothing happened that day but I was told it was very productive. The next two are the current, sink and dishwasher hole. And finally. Poor daisy who has had much more stress than anyone this week with big scary men intruding on her house daily! And the last one is daisy showing her new white stripes. I guess she found some dust.

Moving forward (slowly)

This blog will probably interest no one but my mom, so the rest of you can just carry on! A few pictures from the kitchen in progress.

We have now had 3 days of in house work and here's a run down.

Day 1. Nothing happened. I rushed home from work all excited to find everything exactly as I left it!  My contractor had gone out of town the previous week and gotten a little behind!

Day 2. Little happened. The crew arrived at 5pm right when I got home from work. Unloaded some things and did a little demo!

Day 2 cabinet covers off.

This will be the home of my new refrigerator and pantry (very excited about my pantry),

Day 3. Finally some sustenance!  Unfortunately, it also involved an insane amount of dirt, but I guess that happens.

Future door, now hole in the wall. It's so nice to be able to move from the kitchen to the back room! Notice the new refrigerator in the background! (It makes weird noises!)

 Cabinets!

 More cabinets!

 Nasty old sink be gone!!

And finally, ahhh. Daisy and Otto have moved up. They are now dining in the dining room rather than eating in the kitchen! I'm sure the table is next.

Its a go!

After months of decisions and non decisions and questionable (and still questioning) decisions. After cleaning and throwing away and refusing to throw away crap. In short, after many ups and downs. Highs and lows. Drama and trauma. It is time. The kitchen demo is tomorrow! The cupboards are bare (or almost). I just have one more cooking frenzy to prepare for the week and we'll be on.

I thought I'd give you some before pictures for a level set.

Fridge is moving to the other side!

That drawer was not always missing.

I plan to not have crap on my counters in the new world!

This will be a door in the future world!

One of the questionable decisions is the new paint (splotch on the wall). Doesn't look good with current orange and beige. May or may not look good with the new decor. I even had a friend who is good at design look. We can't tell if the color is good or bad! 

And the cupboards were bare!

In other weekend news, and because at least one person cares. The garden is planted! This year I decided starts were too fussy. So I bought starts at the farmer's market. It was so much easier and really not very expensive. Whoop!  

The hodgepodge; cabbage, an artichoke, a basil, 4 chard, 2 delicata squash, a kombucha squash and a lemon cucumber. Oh, and some stupid mint that keeps sneaking in from the outside.

Happy broccoli, not so happy cauliflower and carrots.

Lots of kale, a kombucha squash, a delicata squash and some randoms that didn't fit in the other bins!

And on a final note of cuteness. this was waiting for me after the final planting.

Wish us luck this week!

Mother's Day Bouquet

I thought about sending my mom a bouquet for mother's day, but for various reasons that's not such a good idea.  Instead we'll go with a virtual bouquet. It is 2013 after all!

Tulips because they are her favorites (+ some random person's face)!

Lilacs because they are my favorites

Peonies because how could you not love peonies!

And some random bouquets for a little extra love!

Happy Mother's Day Mom, I love you!

Couldn't resist!

The Urban Adventure, A Story in Pictures

My current kitchen remodel obsession is paint!  This has been an obsession for less than 24 hours, which is when I found out that the paint decision needed to be made yesterdayish. Now, in the past, all my major paint jobs were supported by the Color Store. This was always on Capitol Hill, but it turns out it moved 5 or so years ago to the base of Beacon Hill. This is not only extra convenient, but it's in an industrial area of the city and a great starting point for an urban adventure.

The trip started out exciting and stayed that way!  Primal Pacs!!!  Primal Pacs are an extra tasty paleo treat made by someone who works out at my gym. And it turns out they are located in the same development as the Color Store!  Who knew?

Otto was very excited, he loves Primal Pacs.

After picking up way too many paint chips, we headed out on our adventure. 

Heading up the stairs to the over pass. Holgate is an extra long hill/overpass that heads over the freeway and up to Beacon Hill. Again, notice the Otto excitement!

We walked over the freeway!!

We saw brave bicyclists. (I have ridden up this hill, it's hard work!!)

 And a slower brave bicyclist - in very shiny clothes.

We walked right on by this sign (we are as brave as the bicyclists)!

The no trespassing sign led to a a trail that I thought led to the super ghetto Beacon Hill dog park. And it turned out it did. Unfortunately, this particular entrance to the park was locked and bolted. BUT, it was an urban adventure, so what did we do????  Well, we scaled the fence of course. Otto had lots of help from me. It's a shame I was unable to take a picture and deposit Otto over the fence into the park at the same time.

The Beacon Hill dog park has always been super sketchy. It's right next to the freeway and it is frequented by non dog owners that you might not want to meet  alone on a dark street. This keeps out the dog owners. This was rush hour at the dog park!

We saw lots and lots of pretty trees, not bad for the depths of the city!

And finally, despite the temptation, we did not camp, because, you know, it was against the law!

And now I must go pour over paint chips!

The Hero and The Hedge

Well, I am pretty sure my day has involved too much physical exertion. For starters, my gym did a 'hero' workout this morning. Hero workouts are in honor of a military person who has given their life serving their country. In this case, we did a workout called 'Glen' in honor of Glen Doherty. Glen was a friend of someone who workouts at our gym. He was a US Navy Seal and he died in the attack on the US consolate in Libya in 2012. If the intensity of 'his' workout is any sign, he must have been a total bad ass.

For time:
95 pound Clean and jerk, 30 reps
Run 1 mile
15 foot Rope climb, 10 ascents
Run 1 mile
100 Burpees

At first I was thinking that just doing half the workout was a great idea, but a couple other ladies were doing the entire workout, so I had no choice. Of course, each of these items by itself is usually the length of one of our workouts. For instance, just this last tuesday our workout was a mile run! It was tough, but not impossible AND I didn't finish last!! I just used slow and steady as a motto. One extra sucky part is that my gym is on a hill so our mile involves an 800 meter uphill run! The second time I did that I was not happy. And the burpees, well I was a bit dizzy during most of those. It takes a long time to do 100 burpees. And by that time all the fast people had finished (they also started earlier) and were doing their best to make sure those of us still at is kept moving!

Anyhow, it was fun. And after a bunch of food and a nap, life was feeling possible again. Unfortunately, as I was lying on the porch relaxing (100% perfect 75 degree day) - drinking tea and reading a book - I started hearing voices. The lawn wanted mowing, the floor wanted vacuuming, the garden wanted weeding and the very loudest voice of all, the hedge wanted hedging!

Hedge arm.

You may remember my hedge. It was the subject of not one, not two, but THREE blogs back in 2010 (Project Hedge 1, project hedge 2, Hedgehog Massacre). I don't want it to turn into the massive project it was then, so I listened to the screaming, got off my lazy ass and expended yet another round of precious energy. I even managed to do a decent job, though I ignored the hedge mullet (my hedge has a row of long branches at the back that I can't reach without huge amounts of work).

Phew! Now just a dog to walk and I will collapse in a heap for the rest of the night and watch the Walking Dead. Whoooooo, yes, that is all I can handle for S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT! (Song reference for those who didn't recognize it.)