Is it Still a CUPcake?

Location: Mall of America, Minneapolis
March 30, 2008
The Food Network's Duff Goldman lives up to his Ace of Cakes title by baking the largest cupcake in history — now entered in the Guinness Book of World Records. The 61.4-pound creation is more than a foot tall and entirely edible. Reportedly 150 times the size of a regular cupcake, this record-breaker called for 16 pounds of butter, 10 pounds of sugar, and three ounces of food coloring. The mammoth confection supported the Great American Bake Sale, which raised $10,000 and awareness for Share Our Strength, a charity working to fight hunger across America.

When a cupcake grows larger than a single serving size isn't is now considered just a plain ol' cake? I thought the definition of a cupcake is that it is cup sized and meant to serve one. Or maybe I'm just crazy.

Funny Videos of Brian

I took these videos of Brian on my cell phone way back in March. I totally forgot about them, I stumbled upon them this evening. When CJ and Brian watched them they could not control their laughter! They loved watching the videos so much I thought I would share them with you. They are all of Brian attempting to blow up a big balloon.

Zoo

Today while CJ was in school Brian and I went to the Zoo. I'm getting really anxious to see the new African addition. It's still not open. They started work on it about 9 months ago, it's supposed to open next month. I can't wait! I think I love the Zoo just as much as Brian and CJ. This is the first time Brian has been to the Zoo without CJ. He had total control over where we went and how long we stayed. He loved it. I think we were in the Penguin Pavilion for about 15 minutes. So anyway here's some pictures.

The Only Brian in Zoo Captivity

Brian has tamed the Komodo Dragon The Waxy Monkey Tree Frog. This is a real frog. It's called the Waxy Monkey Tree frog because of a waxy goo it produces and it's called a monkey because it climbs like a monkey instead of jumping like a frog. They are small, about the size of a small kiwi fruit. They were really cute, they almost looked like childrens bath toys. I watched them forever waiting for one to move. I really wanted to see it climb like a monkey, but all three just sat on their little branches, breathing.

I can't wait to go to the Zoo again. I think the next time we go will be for the Boo at the Zoo event. Brian will be dressed as a dog and CJ will be dressed as a monkey.

Season Switch

Who flipped the season switch? I was just telling Kyle yesterday that it was the last official day of summer. Last night someone went and flipped the season switch. At about 10pm I went instantly cold, this morning the house was freeeeeezing, and when we walked to school this morning we could see our breath! How did all this happen over night? Right now as I'm sitting here typing this I am wearing a sweatshirt and I'm still getting chilled. I am always sad to see summer go. I suppose it's about time to get the garden ready for winter and next spring. I am trying to have a good outlook on fall and winter, I'm going to work really hard to keep myself and the kids busy. My fall/winter plans go something like this: October we need to get garden put to bed and Halloween costumes finished. November we need to make it through Thanksgiving and shopping. December I am hoping to experiment with some fun baking recipes. January I'm going to start planning the garden. February I going to start garden seeds inside. This winter will hopefully go by super fast, I'm looking forward to spring planting. I can't wait to try new veggies in the garden.

Unique Animal Escaped Captivity!

Wild animal has escaped captivity. She is part monkey, part lion, part girl. Officials say that this very unique animal hybrid is not to be feared, but caution should still be exercised when you encounter her. Make no sudden movements and use a sing song voice. She loves to sing the money song or the alphabet. Authorities say they believe she maybe hiding in the several places such as a bounce house, one of the many fast food playlands or at the mall. She will be attracted to shiny objects and will flee at the sight pj's, pillow and bed time book.

New Dresser

Last night I was cruising Craigslist furniture section. I've been looking for some cool/funky chairs for the front room. Instead I found a dresser!! Kyle and I have been looking for a dresser to match our bed for over a year. We finally found one. We picked it up this morning all the way out in Emmett. We paid all of $85 for it and I totally love it. The color is perfect, the drawers have dovetail joints, and it has a mirror.

New Hair

I was tired of always putting my hair in a pony and decided I needed something new and different. So here it is.

Dinosaur House

CJ built her dinosaur a new house yesterday. She opened and then stood up several books. She then put the lucky dino inside, she played with it for awhile like that. Then decided it needed a roof to protect the precious dino from Brian. Here is the proud architech and her dinosaur house.

Brian's New 'Do

Before

After

He looks like such a little man now! I hope I no longer get compliments on my two beautiful daughters! It's amazing how much different he looks with just a haircut! He looks like a whole new kid. Suzi did an excellent job. THANK YOU SUZI

Tattooed Pigs

Is this art, animal cruelity or just a really hip BLT?



The artist is a Belgiam man named Wim Delvoye. The pigs were taken out of Shanghai's largest art fair, Shcontemporary. Chinese authorities banned the pig exhibition, Delvoye says, "not because of sanitation issues, not because of animal rights, not because of ideological considerations, not because there's something anti-communist, not because there's nudity in it — but this time it was not allowed because it was not art."

Instead, Delvoye is putting on display a Swiss man named Tim Steiner, whose back Delvoye has tattooed with a scene featuring the Virgin Mary. Steiner spent 35 hours being tattooed and had no choice in the scenes inked onto his body.

Death By Blackhole

From http://www.slate.com/

The world's largest scientific instrument, the Large Hadron Collider, was switched on in Switzerland on Wednesday. A few people worried that the LHC would cause the world to be swallowed up by a black hole, especially when it starts to operate at full force in the spring. What would happen if you fell into a black hole?
Your body would be shredded apart into the smallest possible pieces. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, who wrote the definitive account Death By Black Hole, imagined the experience as "the most spectacular way to die in space."
A black hole is a place where the force of gravity is so powerful that you would need to be traveling at a speed faster than the speed of light to escape its pull. Since nothing in the universe is faster than the speed of light, nothing that falls into a black hole can ever escape. The border at which gravity becomes strong enough to create that phenomenon is known as the "event horizon"; it marks the outer boundary of the black hole. (Until the 1940s, some scientists believed that matter crusted up on the event horizon and didn't fall in.)

Closer to the center, gravity is even stronger. If you were caught by the pull of a black hole, you would be sent into free fall toward its center. The pulling force would increase as you moved toward the center, creating what's called a "tidal force" on your body. That is to say, the gravity acting on your head would be much stronger than the gravity acting on your toes (assuming you were falling head-first). That would make your head accelerate faster than your toes; the difference would stretch your body until it snapped apart, first at its weakest point and then disintegrating rapidly from there as the tidal force became stronger than the chemical bonds holding your body together. You'd be reduced to a bunch of disconnected atoms. Those atoms would be stretched into a line and continue in a processional march. As Tyson described it, you would be "extruded through space like toothpaste being squeezed through a tube." No one knows for certain what happens to those atoms once they reach the center, or "singularity," of a black hole.
In a small black hole—like the one predicted by the LHC doomsayers—this dissolution would occur almost immediately. In fact, for all but the largest black holes, dissolution would happen before a person even crossed the event horizon, and it would take place in a matter of billionths of a second.
The more matter—and people—a black hole gobbled up, the bigger it would get. That could have the effect of making it less spectacularly deadly. As a black hole increases in size, the differences in gravitational force inside become less dramatic. If you fell into a truly gigantic black hole, the rate of change—and resulting tidal force—might not be enough to rip your body apart until after you'd crossed the event horizon.
If you fell into a large enough black hole, your last moments would be a little bit like being on the inside of a distorted, one-way mirror. No one outside would be able to see you, but you'd have a view of them. Meanwhile, the gravitational pull would bend the light weirdly and distort your last moments of vision.

One Word Survey

I was tagged by Suzi.
You Can Only Type One Word, Not as easy as you might think.
I tag Anyone that feels like leaving their response in the "comments"

1. Where is your cell phone? Table
2. Your significant other? Awesome
3. Your hair? Brown
4. Your skin? Attached
5. Your mother? Fan-freakin-tastick
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Lost
8. Your favorite drink? Milk
9. Your dream/goal? Happiness
10. The room you're in? Dining
11. Your ex? Ass
12. Your fear? Spiders
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy
14. Where were you last night? Bed
15. What you're not? Boy
16. Muffins? Cupcakes
17. One of your wish list items? Vacation
18. Where you grew up? Coeur d' Alene
19. The last thing you did? Potty
20. What are you wearing? Shorts
21. Your TV? Off
22. Your pets? None
23. Your computer? Purple
24. Your life? Busy
25. Your mood? OK
26. Missing someone? Sister
27 Your car? Love
28. Something you're not wearing? Socks
29. Favorite Store? BBB
30. Your summer? Fast
31. Like someone? Kyle
32. Your favorite color? Yellow
33. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday
34. Last time you cried? Morning
35. Who will you tag? Whoever
36. Whose Answers are you anxious to see? Everyone
37. Favorite Day of the week? Saturday
38. Last person you kissed? Brian
39. How do you view money? Anxious
40. Last vacation you took? Oregon

Fun With Hot Rollers

For my birthday my SIL (Sister in law), Suzi, bought me a book. I exchanged the book a couple shirts. I neglected to try the shirts on before I left the store, when I got home they of course didn't fit. So I exchanged the shirts for hot curlers!! It took a few attempts before I got it right. I googled "how to hot rollers". Yes, I'm that nerdy. However, I did manage to not burn myself!! Hip hip hooray! The Super Readers saved the day! These pictures are the finished product of attempt number 1.

Brian

Brian has finally realized that leaving CJ at school is ok. When we dropped CJ off at school he used to scream and cry for about 4 blocks on the walk home. Now he's ok with it. If we drive, he knows he gets to sit in CJ's car seat, he knows that he can play with all the toys without fighting with CJ, he can have my undivided attention. He's finally catching on. He's loving it. Today when we needed to go pick up CJ, I was putting on my shoes, I told Brian to go get his shoes. He said "No pick up sissy", I laughed. I love my little boy, he's growing up so fast. I really enjoy the one on one time we get together. Today we played on the tire swing. I pushed him, he pushed me, it was great. I think tomorrow we will go to the park.

My Birthday

The day before and the day after my birthday were great. Sunday, not so great. The kids woke up before daylight and refused to go back to sleep. All day long they did anything and everything they knew they are not supposed to do. After lunch I just locked myself in my room and refused to leave. Saturday night Cory and Kaylynn had ice cream cake with us and gave me my gift. Super Mario Bros. 3 for my old school Nintendo!! That was super nice. Kyle and CJ even picked out 2 cakes for me! Monday was a much better day. Maybe next weekend they will let me sleep in. ha ha ha ha ha

Yay! Visitors!

Cory, Kaylynn holding Owen, and Emily

Theresa, CJ, Kyle and Brian

Emily on Kyle's shoulders

Brian, Emily, and CJ playing with bubbles

More bubble fun

Owen

CJ trying to be Mommy for Owen.



This last week we've had a full house! Cory, Kaylynn, Emily and Owen came to visit on their way up to Washington from Utah. It was so nice to see them all again. Emily is just as big as Brian! I know that sounds silly because they are only a week apart, but Emily has always seemed way smaller, or dainty compared to the monster Brian. Owen has the same legs and cheeks his sister had. Owen is just a growing fool. I saw him last in June and now he's soooo big. It's crazy how fast he grew, it's a cliche I know, but totally true!


We babysat on Friday night so that K&C could go out on a date. I think Emily may like Mac & Cheese more than I do!! Who knew there was someone who could match ME bite for bite! After dinner CJ and Kyle went to run an errand. Brian and Emily were watching a movie and Owen was ready to eat. Kaylynn had left me some expressed milk in the freezer. I warmed it up, put it in the bottle, sat down with a VERY hungry Owen, tipped the bottle down and milk came down all over Owen, Me, couch and the floor. I get that mess cleaned up and sit down again to feed a VERY VERY hungry Owen and my sweet Mr. Jealousy (Brian) stood right in front of me turned his glass of strawberry milk upside down and tapped the bottom to make sure he dumped every last bit of milk. So I cleaned up that mess. Now again back to Owen who by this point is deliriously hungry. I finally get to feed poor Owen.

Emily, Brian, and CJ played with bubbles one day. It was too cute. They had the big bubble wands and were swinging those things around so much that they had more bubbles on them than in the dipping dish. After bubbles is was a "car wash" type shower, everyone wet, everyone soapy, everyone rinse and done!

Saturday we went to Art in the Park. It was awesome. We took the bus down to the park, cruised the booths. Had a semi-hectic lunch. After lunch Cory, Kaylynn, Emily, and Owen went around the park more, Kyle, Kids and I went into the Boise Art Museum. They have the American Cockroach exhibit right now. There were a few things that made my skin crawl. The kids of course totally loved it.

We had a super good, busy, crazy week. We enjoyed our Family and can't wait to see them again. Thank you Cory, Kaylynn, Emily and Owen. You are welcome anytime.

BTW... I took music off our blog so that it no longer is battling for sound control with the videos we post.

First Day of School

Tuesday was CJ's first day of school. She woke up about 10 minutes before my alarm, and so was so so so excited. We got dressed, had breakfast. Then we said good bye to Brian, he stayed home with Aunt Kaylynn, and we walked to school. She out all the school signs, and then she was excited to see the crossing guard, then we finally made it!!! When it was time to say good bye she was ok. I was so proud. I held back the tears until I was walking home. I did ok, I only cried a few tears. When It was time to pick her up Brian and I walked down to get her. Her class was just coming out of music class. It was so cute to see her lined up, when she saw Brian and I she perked up and waved, then she tried to invite Brian into her class. He was devastated that he couldn't go. I felt bad for Brian. This morning I promised Brian after we took CJ to school he and I could go to the park to play. He was ok with that deal.