Archive | September, 2008

(This is the part where you say: Another post about cake? Really?)

I probably should have written this post first, before the one about “Bobby” and his birthday cake.

I say that because you may have come away from the last post with the impression that:

1. We didn’t make a cake at home for Son’s birthday
2. We are careless consumers for not checking the spelling on the cake

And I simply can’t bear the thought of you getting those impressions, because if I did, it would completely discount the hours that MC spent making the cake for Son’s party on Saturday.

Here at the MBI Estate, we’re fluent in our Noggin shows, so it’s little wonder that Son chose Max & Ruby as the theme for his party.

If you’re familiar with the story Bunny Cakes (and how could you not be after reading it 3,450 times?) you know that Max is a bit of a cake-maker himself. In fact, the whole book documents Max’s struggle to get some Red Hot Marshmallow Squirters to garnish his Earthworm Cake.

Not one to back down from a cake-related challenge, MC summoned her cake-baking mojo and made an Earthworm Cake – complete with worms – for Son’s bash.

The cake was an absolute wonder. Four layers of chocolate-y goodness bound together with chocolate pudding and dusted in chocolate graham cracker crumbs. Shaped to look like a lump of mud and garnished with gummy worms and red Dots.

It was a huge, huge hit. Here it is:

Those of you who are lucky (cough) enough to know us in real life know that we don’t spend a lot of time dreaming up baby names.

For both of our kids, we’ve gone to the well of family names.

In my opinion, it has worked very nicely, because we have a strong pool of names from which to draw.

Besides, if you want there to eventually be a kid in your family with a name like Huntington Cambridge Worthington IV, you’ve got to start somewhere. These things take generations to build.

Anyhow, since Son has a family name, he gets called “Buddy” around the house to avoid confusion.

With all that in mind, yesterday was Son’s birthday. Over the weekend, we threw a little party for him, and last night we had family over for cake and ice cream.

We delegated the cake-making out to our local Baskin-Robbins, where apparently a spelling test isn’t part of the job interview. Check out his cake:


I can’t look at that picture without laughing.

Of course, it may have all been just a big mix-up. Maybe the ice cream cake artists did actually make the right cake, and it just got switched at pickup.

So if you run into a dejected kid named Bobby out there wondering why his cake says “Happy 3rd Birthday Buddy!” tell him we’re sorry we ate his cake.

You can check out more interesting cakes at Cake Wrecks.

I’m not exactly plugged in to the world of modern politics, but I do have a degree in political science. That’s why I feel uniquely qualified for this week’s Friday Fives.

Everything about the presidential campaigns is contrived and scripted, particularly the debates. With that in mind, I bring you this:

Five Debate Formats I’d Like to See

1. Jeopardy – I’d like to see how these guys work their way around Trebek and the big blue board. Is McCain a “Potent Potables” man? Can Obama run his way through “Before and After”?

2. Glove slap – You know those old movies where the guys stand there and take turns slapping each other in the face with gloves? Let’s see that.

3. I Never – If you went to college in the 90s, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve played “I Never”. This would be a much more fun way to get all the same information that you would during the normal debate, but this way we’d get to hear them slur their way through their tax proposals.

4. Arm wrestling – Each of the major networks would air the movie “Over the Top” prior to the debate, and then the two candidates would give us some arm-on-arm action.

5. Cranium – Can John McCain rock the “Gnilleps” cards? Would Barack Obama sweep all the Club Craniums? Who can draw the best picture while blindfolded? Who is most effective at sculpting with play-doh? These are things America should know.

There’s five somewhat more compelling debate formats for this year’s election. What format would you like to see?

An object in motion will tend to stay in motion. An object at rest will tend to stay at rest.

Someone smart and scientific said that.

I think it was Jim Varney, star of the “Ernest” movies. Or it might have been Sir Isaac Newton. I simply can’t remember.

Anyhow, the same idea seems to be true of this blog. When it’s in motion, it’s in motion. And when it’s not, it’s so not.

But now that our crazy summer is behind us, I think it’s time to get this thing rolling again. Check back soon for some new MBI goodness.

A few months ago, we bought Daughter a new Bible.

The Bible we were reading to her previously was the Little Girls Bible for Mothers and Daughters.

It’s a good book (hehe) and all, but I noticed that a lot of the stories focused on sick or dying children. And I didn’t want to spend every bedtime answering questions like, “Why is that little girl sick?” or “Did that boy die because he was bad?”

Now we’re reading The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories. The stories are less intense and the illustrations are awesome. It’s a much better fit for all of us.

Anyhow, Daughter’s favorite story is Samson and Delilah. She insists that we read it every night.

We’ve read it so much that I think she tunes out sometimes, so every now and then I switch some details around to see if she’s listening.

For instance, sometimes I’ll replace Samson’s name with “Ron”. She’ll laugh and correct me and we read on.

Lately, she’s taken to switching some words around to joke with me. One night recently, we were finishing up the story. At the very end of the story, Samson regains his strength and the Israelites overpower the Philistines.

I read the words …”and the Israelites defeated the…” and paused to let her fill in a silly word.

The silly word she chose almost made me fall out of the bed laughing so hard.

So who – according to Daughter – did the Israelites defeat?

The Weinbergs.