The Dog Days of Summer

Well, I just finished and delivered the cake I needed to do for the school's auction winner. The birthday girl decided on a dog theme, so not wanting to leave my bear pan idle, I talked her into a dog-sitting-in-a-bowl-of-dog-food cake. Here's the photos:

The Final Cake




Another View




At Home, Prior to Final Assembly


Cute, huh? Hopefully the two halves of the dog will stay together until the party tomorrow afternoon....

[Note: This cake was baked in the Williams-Sonoma Build-a-Bear cake pan. The bear ears and tail were removed and using gum-paste (homemade fondant with gum-tex added) I built up the snout, added dog ears and a dog tail. The bowl is just an 8" layer cake, tapered, with cocoa puffs added for dog kibble.]

Nikita

I found this old photo of Nikita the other day and decided to scan it in. This is back when she was a young cat (maybe 2 or 3 years old?) and she used to play fetch (incessantly!) with little plastic rings. It is nice not having to worry about the cat any more, but I do miss her.

Bad Dreams

The other night, in the middle of the night, Owen came into our bed. He was really, really upset and crying. He told us he had a bad dream, so we asked him to tell us about it. He said, "We were in an elevator and Sierra said she forgot her hat and ran off the elevator and I didn't make it off,..." and then he started bawling. "So you got left on an elevator by yourself?" we asked. "Yes," he said. So we comforted him and got him back to bed.

I found it very sweet that what was so scary to him was not monsters, or things chasing him, or stuff like that, but it was being alone without his parents. We did assure him that yes, getting left in an elevator would be a little scary, which is why we're always so careful to not let that happen, but that we would be able to find him again very quickly and he would be ok.

The Grand Canyon

It's been a month since my trip and I still haven't posted any photos! I put together movie/slideshow with what I consider the best of the photos. Unfortunately, I think almost all the photos are good, so my first version was more than 20 minutes long and wouldn't upload! So I created a shorter version (<5min). I keep meaning to sort the photos (they're a bit out of order,) but I'll post this and update it if I ever make improvements.



And, in case you don't feel like watching the whole thing right now, here's just a couple of my absolute favorites:

MJ -- Just My Opinion

Wow. Michael Jackson died. Shocker.

Do you hear the sarcasm?

It's not that I don't respect what he did for the music and entertainment industry, or that I don't think he was extraordinarily talented, or that I don't think it's profoundly sad that he died. (It's profoundly sad when anyone dies.) It's just that I really feel that what was sad was his life.

MJ was clearly emotionally disturbed. He exhibited bizarre behaviors, he had severe self-image problems that led to anorexia and severe self-mutilation (yes, all that disgusting plastic surgery was a form of self-mutilation,) and he was addicted to drugs. What did people think was going to happen? Why do we wait until something tragic happens to decide to mourn? Why didn't all the people that profess to love him try to save him?

I know, I know, it's really not that simple. When someone is alive, his life is private and not for us to intrude. Everything only becomes public and sad after their death.

But honestly, MJ's death was not a shock to me. I have been sad about his life for a long time. I certainly hope that he is at peace now.

Take Her Advice!

Steve overheard the kids talking this afternoon. Owen was telling Sierra that his friends were going to be going to Kindergarten next week (we think he meant next year at a different school) and he wouldn't have any friends at school anymore. Sierra said, "If you just say 'hi' to people, then you'll make new friends!"

She's a genius!

Mother's Day

I had a good Mother's Day. We took the kids to the Natick Collection Mall to have pictures taken with their cousins and Grammy. Then we had dinner with all of them. The kids were well behaved the whole time and they both ate their dinner. You can't ask for more than that.

But wait... there is more. Here are photos of the gifts they gave me. Every year at their pre-school, every kids paints a silk scarf. They each pick three colors and the scarf gets pinned down to a long piece of rice paper, which becomes the card/wrapping paper. Here's what I got: (Click on the one with the rice paper scrolls so you can read what Owen answered to "What is a mother?")