With our condo perched at the intersection of First Avenue and Union Street, catercorner to the Seattle Art Museum, we’ve been lucky enough to have a bird’s-eye view of the new permanent outdoor art installation during construction and the intense testing process.

Entitled, MIRROR, by Doug Aitken, the huge LED display wraps around SAM’s northwest corner. Digital sensors that monitor the weather, pedestrian activity, and surrounding traffic transmit data that is used to animate LED images taken from digital footage Aitken captured throughout Seattle and other parts of the Pacific Northwest.

The exhibition will be unveiled on March 24. In the meantime, here are some images Spencer and I captured while shooting off our bird’s-eye balcony.

On April Fool’s Day, 2009, we introduced a new feature on the Northwest Wining and Dining website called the Puget Sound Cam, or PSCam.

The PSCam is located in my husband’s office/studio five floors below the condo in which we have lived the past 20 years in downtown Seattle.

The PSCam boasts a westerly view of the Waterfront, with views across Elliott Bay to West Seattle and the Olympic Mountains. In the foreground of the Cam’s bird’s-eye view, you can see the new Seattle Great Wheel spinning away, as well as ferry boats and container ships plying their routes.

During this final gasp of summer in Seattle, I’ve captured some of the best shots from the PSCam and wanted to share them with you here.

A sunny day with both a ferry boat and tanker in the distance!

Brooding skies!

Sunset’s majesty.

More glorious sunshine!

Ch

Since its inception on April 1, 2009, we’ve been very proud of the reliable performance and sheer usefulness of the Puget Sound Cam.

The PSCam documents the activity in Seattle’s Elliott Bay, which is part of Puget Sound. Through an intricate set of waterways, this “inland sea” runs about 50 miles to the Washington coast and the Pacific Ocean.

The PSCam is located in Spencer’s studio/office just five floors from the condo in which we have lived for the past 20 years. We’ve watched the landscape along the Waterfront change over the years, but never as dramatically as recently thanks to building of the Seattle Great Wheel.

We’ve been watching with bated breath as the Wheel takes shape, and welcomed it once it was spinning.

The Wheel is so pretty at twilight. . .

And dramatic at night.

I love this shot with the ferry boat heading toward its berth in the background. . .

Getting closer. . .

The Wheel almost looks like a band of sapphires in the nighttime sky. . .

Fiery and dramatic here!

All dressed up for a special light show to celebrate July 4 in this one! (Photo courtesy of Seattle’s KIRO, Channel 7, website.)

One final spin before the Wheel says “goodnight!”

Braiden and Spencer’s fun, if unconventional, Christmas tree!

With 2011 on the horizon, I’d like to thank all of you for being fans of this Web site, reading my Northwest Notes blog, as well as my articles in The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine, Wine Press Northwest, and Amazon.com’s Al Dente blog.

Cheers to more intriguing food- and wine-related research, reporting, and writing in the months to come.

Happy and prosperous New Year to us all!

Things are slowly, but surely (don’t call me Shirley!) getting back to normal as we get reunited and reacquainted with our condo.

I now punch the microwave buttons correctly (the interfaces between the condo’s 1997 model and the studio’s 2007 model were distinctly different), my office is returning to normal (only a few files and books that I haven’t yet unearthed), and it’s more wonderful than ever sleeping in our own bedroom and lounging on the new sofa.

So, just for old time’s sake, here’s one final photo of the remodel. Cheers to it being over and done with!

The painter’s plastic is down; the floors are sanded and refinished; the beams in the ceiling are boxed in, drywalled, and painted; the new low-voltage lighting is in; and the walls are freshly painted.

Here’s the view from my office (still sans new desk, so still not quite technically my office) but we’re makin’ great progress.

New desk will be delivered tomorrow or Monday; new sofa on Monday or Tuesday. We are slowly but surely unpacking boxes, finding “new” treasures and glad to see old familiar items again.

And, as of Tuesday, we started sleeping and cooking here again, and it feels so good to be back.

Cheers to our wonderful contractors, MODELREMODEL (especially Rick and Ronnie) for all their hard and expert work, and putting up with us throughout these past six weeks.

With the expected finish date of our remodel just about 1 1/2 weeks out, I wanted to snap a few photos to show you how much progress has been made, but how our belongings are still in boxes and behind painter’s plastic.

Here is an actual view from my office. Note the beautiful expanse of maple floors, which have been undergoing sanding and three coats of finish over the past week or so.

And here’s’ a shot looking back towards my office and all my bookcases (behind plastic).

Here’s the kitchen. . .more plastic and an indeterminate amount of construction dust lurking everywhere. We have scheduled two deep cleanings before we move back in!

Finally, here’s a shot looking out from the “kitchen,” over the big granite counter, and towards the Four Seasons Hotel (our neighbor just across the courtyard). We will both be so very happy when the remodel is complete, the workers have moved on, and we can get back to “normal” life!

I’ve been remiss in posting photos of the remodel currently engulfing our condominium and my home office, but suffice to say, there’s been A LOT of progress in the last week or so.

Here is the actual view from the place where my computer used to sit and should (we hope) return by month’s end.

And here’s the view looking inward. Note the floor sander in the foreground, which was used to sand down our wood floors prior to refinishing them.

You may remember that the floors were severely damaged on July 4, 2007, when our elderly neighbor left the plug in his kitchen sink while doing his dishes, forgot about the water, and went to bed.

Several hours later, water had intruded into five units here in the building, with our unit one of the most severely hit.

So we are so happy to finally have the floor situation resolved.

In addition to the floors; new ceiling beams; a new, low-voltage lighting system; and overall painting, here is our new pride and joy: a floor-to-ceiling Sub-Zero wine cooler.

The remodel is supposed to end in another two weeks, god willin’ and the creeks don’t rise. Keeping fingers crossed. . .

This is no April’s Fool prank!

One nice thing about undergoing a remodel of our condo has been that it has forced me to clean out my office. Here’s the actual top of my desk, something I literally hadn’t seen totally naked in years and years.

Of course, all that stuff had to go somewhere. So here is the pile of boxes (full of files and papers) right behind my desk. Note the painter’s plastic and pogo-stick-like poles that formed the “bubble” (for lack of a better word) that has surrounded my office for the past several weeks.

And here is yours truly, a.k.a., Bubble Girl, looking a bit doubtful that this will ever be over and life will return to normal in my office and the rest of our condo.

Breaking with the tradition of my new blog category, A View From My Office, for today’s post I’m offering up A View of My Office. Note the metal bracing that will be covered with sheetrock beginning next week, god willin’ and the creeks don’t rise.