2012 Coming to an End

Believe it or not, another year is coming to an end.

2012 has been a good year for us, and we look forward to a GREAT 2013.  We are spending a quiet evening at home -- just the three of us and a bottle a champagne!  :)

Happy New Year (a little bit early)! 

Birdhouses

It was a dry day today in Western Washington.  That being said, it was still very gray and very chilly.  However, Jared decided that it was time to put up the birdhouses he received for Christmas.  The large birdhouse that is meant for the pileated woodpeckers is supposed to be 20-30 feet off of the ground.  That wasn't really possible for us because our ladder doesn't go that high.  In addition, it is a little daunting getting that far off the ground with a birdhouse that large.  Jared ended up getting it up about 16 feet -- which we hope is high enough.  Here is a shot of it all installed, and facing east.

In addition, Jared put the smaller songbird house up as well.  The most difficult thing about getting this one up was cutting down all of the dead vines on the tree FIRST!  However, we were successful.  Here's a shot of it put up in a tree. 

 Now, if we can get the birds to nest in their new houses. 

Serious Pie

Today Jared was craving pizza.  In addition, we have been trying out new Seattle Restaurants when possible.  Since we had an extra long weekend with the New Year Holiday, we decided to drive into the South Lake Union area of Seattle and try Tom Douglas' Restaurant, Serious Pie.  It was lunch time, so we headed that way.  The most daunting thing about going to Seattle is finding a parking spot.  However, we have frequented the South Lake Union a few times and are getting more and more familiar.  Today was perfect.  We easily parked and walked over to Serious Pie.  Serious Pie shares the same building as Serious Biscuit and the Dahlia Workshop.  We were seated at a table with an excellent view of the workshop area (i.e., kitchen).  We both started with to die for salads and we shared a pizza.  Let's just say we both were super impressed with the pizza crust -- and this is a big deal for Jared because he normally leaves his crust on his plate.  However that was not the case; he polished all of the crust off!  And for dessert, we had a super yummy pear tart with a pear sorbet and a lemon thyme whipped cream.  It was an exquisite lunch and a lot of fun to try out a new restaurant.  As a bonus, we even got to see a bit of the sun as we crossed the 520 bridge.  :)

Covert Yard Activities

Anyone that has visited us knows that we live in an area with quite a bit of wildlife.  We have written several posts about things we see in the yard; however, there are a lot of things we don't see in the yard, but Indy tells us that something is there.  That being said, Kristina bought Jared a camera that takes pictures.  It is tied around a tree and has a motion and heat detector sensors and it snaps a picture when something is "sensed".  The camera has been up about a week and below is a picture of a coyote in the yard.  The date on the photo is incorrect (based on what we know, this was actually Friday, 12/28), but the time is correct.  We were both pretty impressed with the camera...now if we can capture the bear that visited us a few weeks ago!

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!

Santa did indeed visit us, and we must have been on the nice list!  :)  Here's a shot of the mantle and stockings!  Indy's stocking is the one in the middle, you can tell her stocking is FULL and there's more stuff on the mantle that wouldn't fit.  What a spoiled dog!

And the Christmas tree...

Here's Indy with the majority of her toys for Santa...needless to say, she is a happy dog! 

Indy is opening a gift from Rodger, Barbara, Puparoo, and Rhubarb... 

And as you can see, in no time at all Indy had the "guts" out of one of her new toys (see the plastic tube hanging out).  She has precision cutting skills...that's for sure!  We weren't even done opening OUR gifts yet.

Jared received a Pileated Woodpecker Bird House, and it is a sizable one! They are BIG birds, so it make sense that they need a big house.  The interesting part will be getting that birdhouse on a tree without Jared killing himself.

This is a table runner that Jared's Mom made for us.  As you can see, it is perfect on our table.

And here's a fun shot...Jared's new Pileated Woodpecker house is on the left; on the right is a songbird birdhouse that Jared's Mom made for him.  There is just a little bit of a size difference, don't you think?   

Merry Christmas!  

Christmas Eve 2012

It doesn't seem like it should be Christmas Eve already.  Where has the year gone?  Needless to say, we are ready and waiting for Santa Claus to make his appearance.  Even Indy is depressed that she has to go to bed so early.

Our Christmas Eve is very mellow, and exactly what we need.  We are doing nothing but catching up on our movie watching and eating a smorgasbord of snacks.  Kristina made some rock star rolls for the evening!  They taste even better than they look.  Hopefully Santa will enjoy them!

Volunteer Park Conservatory

Now that the REALLY rainy season is upon us, we have been trying to find "inside" things to do on the weekends.  We ran across the Volunteer Park Conservatory.  The actual building was built in 1912, so 2012 is its 100 year anniversary.  It is a very interesting structure and the history that goes along with it and the surrounding area is quite historical as well.  Here's the snapshot of the building...

It has a couple of different "wings" and the plants inside are quite impressive.  Thankfully considering that we spent so much time in Arizona -- a lot of the plants were very familiar.