World of Cake

JCC Hooping it Up

2009-03-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Last night was the culmination of the basketball league that JC played in this year. The red team a.k.a. the "Jedi Dragons" fared pretty well.

More clips to come later but this clip shows JC playing some great D, dribbling and pivoting legally...and one shining moment at the end!

The Sun!

2009-01-13T12:58:00.000-08:00

It's out! Here's visual proof:

Way to go Miles!

2009-01-10T16:51:00.000-08:00

Miles brings home an impressive performance at this weekend's Chess tournament. He took 4 out of 5 games and finished in 5th place for the Kindergarten division! We are so proud with his effort and his good sportsmanship!

Miles Rules!!!

2009-01-09T08:37:00.000-08:00

Whooooo!

Post Christmas Golfing in the Snow

2009-01-03T08:57:00.000-08:00

The boys upgraded their golfing situation for Christmas, with a set of new clubs and a bag to tote them around. After the first set that we bought didn't work out (too long for JC and Miles had a left-handed set included by accident), a quick trip to the golf store sorted that out.

The next morning we headed out in the still snowy conditions to find a range that was covered, open and preferrably heated. Our friends at Puetz hooked us up, though the putting green was closed. We were able to take a few cuts under the heat lamps!

Only in Seattle: No Salt Policy Reversed!

2009-01-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

Didn't see this coming!!!

Seattle Times: Snow Policy Reversed

Elections forthcoming this year? Of course.

Only in Seattle: No Salt for the Roads

2008-12-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

I heard they have 27 snowplows in Seattle. So not knowing if that's good or bad, it at least seems to be a reasonable amount for a city that admittedly doesn't get but a handful of inches of snow most years.

I got out yesterday, as there was some melting, the temps got up to around 40. The sidestreets in the neighborhood are packed solid and not bad for driving. I had a small skid coming down a hill when I tried to stop to turn right. Nothing major. However, the main roads are this wild combination of compact snow and ruts that seem like nothing's been done to improve them...I found out why:

Seattle Times: No Salt for Roads

If I ever was a fish, I sure would hope to live in the Sound out here!

More Snow...I think it's done now

2008-12-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

Well it snowed again off and on for the most of yesterday, finally stopping in the late evening. Walter down the street says he measured 10 inches total on his deck. JC had 7 mid-day yesterday. I'm thinking we were close to 12 inches.

I shoveled the walkway 3 times thinking, "Surely there won't be anymore snow".

We're now planning out our revised holiday plans, not that we had much to begin with, but the shopping that was going to be done over the next couple of days is looking to be seriously abbreviated. Also, many shipments that we're expecting early this week look like they may not make it. Fortunately, Santa was on the ball early this year and the presents that count the most are on the way from the North Pole.

As I type, the sun is peeking through, though still in the low 30s so hopefully some of the main roads will get a little clearer than they are now.

More Snow!!!

2008-12-20T23:11:00.000-08:00

Holy cow. It's snowing again. Looks like we have 4 or 5 inches on the back deck.

It's supposed to keep snowing through the morning. In fact we just had a snowmobile head down the street.

JC is insanely wired. It's 11:15 and we can't get him near the upstairs. He's never seen anything quite like this so it's fun.

Ice Everywhere!

2008-12-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

The snow came and went yesterday and deposited about 3-4 inches around the house altogether. Mom and the boys headed down to the park with some early Christmas presents for some sledding down the hill!

We went back in the evening and everything had iced over pretty well and we were going even faster!

Work is done for me this afternoon so we'll be full swing into trying to get prepared for the holidays! We're way way way behind!

Snow Day Part II

2008-12-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

We got a little dusting of snow the other day and coupled with some cold temps it hung around. They canceled school yesterday and it was 37 and no snow at all. It hit this morning and here in the city things are pretty snarled up. Kids are home again today and are looking to have a pretty big snowball fight sometime soon.

Chess Tournament

2008-12-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

Today Miles participated in his first chess tournament. It was an amazing experience and he was a superstar!

He played in a kindergarten division and played five matches in a "Swiss Style" which basically matches you against other players that are faring as well or better than you are in the same tournament. So if you were to win two games in a row, you would play other people that have won two games and so on...A win is a point, draw is a half and loss is zero points.

Miles was able to finish up with 3 points: 2 wins 2 draws and 1 loss. This was a great effort for his first tournament and finishing that high enabled him to qualify for the State Chess tournament later next year. Trying to read his face coming out of the chess room wasn't that difficult...wide smile or lower-lip quiver. He held it together on his loss and came back and won the next game against a better opponent.

Miles was quite pleased to be receiving a trophy and entered the contest happy because even "If I finished last, I will still get a trophy". Turns out he finished 8th. We are really proud of him.

Here he is receiving his trophy.

These tournaments are an unbelievable sight. Hundreds of people milling around and I think I was the only one not playing chess. Portable boards, laptop computers, iPhones all playing chess. Pretty crazy. Who knew? It's like this crazy chess underworld I never knew existed.

Looks like I better get used to it.

Site Update

2008-12-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

Hi Folks,

A quick update to announce the relaunch of World of Cake in time for the holiday site traffic.

A few things:

I streamlined the interface. You may notice there were not too many posts in 2007. Well that's because it was a pain to post. I've cleaned up the site to make it more easy. It will lose some of the customization that we had before, but all in, it will make it easier for us to hit the site with updates and such. You'll see that the blog is being hosted at Blogger, but you'll be able to access the blog from www.worldofcake.com or at the www.worldofcake.blogspot.com address. If you see anything that isn't working right or isn't very pleasing to the eye, let me know.

I wil also try to repopulate 2008 with some summaries of what happened. I'll add these after the fact but the content will be there to update.

The archives are there in text, but due to some issues with a previous webhost, the pictures didn't port over. We'll try and find the pictures and put them back, but we'll focus our energy on trying to keep the site up to date going forward.

I'll gradually add new functionality to the site that will hopefully keep you coming back. There are ways (through feeds) that you can get automatic updates from the site. Let me know if you are interested in this and I can help you with it (if you aren't familiar with feeds).

On the old site, there were some other pages with pictures and videos and such. I'll be adding them back over time and will be accessable through the links on the right side of the page.

I hope all is well.

All Hail the Beagle!

2008-02-13T09:53:00.001-08:00

This post is from Penny...

How about that Beagle Uno that won the Westminster Dog Show!!! Aoowwooooooooooooooo!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080213/ap_on_sp_ot/dog_show_24

More Snow!

2008-01-14T22:54:00.000-08:00

The kids and the big kid were loving the snow Monday night. Gramma got home just in time to miss the white stuff! No school delays for Tuesday, but we had a lot of ice. We found out that right at the end of our block is one of the top three highest points in the city of Seattle, which means we get a little more snow! That's fun.

Kitty Turns Five

2008-01-09T22:36:00.000-08:00

Well, actually Miles turned five today, but as you may know his friends at school call him Kitty. He's doing his birthday circle at school here. He's been around the sun five times!
He loves Flo's V-8 cafe! Thanks Grammie and PopPops. Thank you to everyone that remembered Miles this week. Your cards, calls, emails, presents are well received. We're so proud of him. Gramma was here to celebrate too. Thanks for braving the terrible weather. Gramma loves our new kittens! Here she is getting some hugs with Bo.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Wishing all of our friends and family a Happy New Year. As you can see, John Christopher was pretty excited!

Christmas 2007

2007-12-26T12:31:00.001-08:00

Okay, how cute are these pictures? What four year old do you know would be so delighted at getting a chess set? And John Christopher is just as delighted to give the gift. This was his present to Miles.

The bowling set brought Christmas jumping from Miles!

The boys got a new art table and chairs for their playroom. The presents are the art kits from Nana and Pap. This was a big hit!

Not my best look- I won't tell you how late it was when this picture was taken, but let's just say next year we will start wrapping earlier than 11pm on Christmas Eve!

Johnny is cute. He's so happy because he bought this present for himself. Golden tee- have you heard of this?
The snow starts to fall as we finish opening presents. Cool!

Christmas Day Snow!

2007-12-26T12:23:00.001-08:00

Seattle had a white Christmas, the first since 1996! Here are a couple of pictures taken from our front step. The first one shows our maple tree in our yard covered in snow. It wasn't much, but it made our Christmas extra special. The boys kept saying, "It really is a white Christmas!"

Merry Christmas!!!!

2007-12-23T10:14:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures from our Christmas card this year. We had hoped to take a family picture this season, but the day we were going to do it, John Christopher accidentally gave Johnny a black eye and Miles busted his upper lip on his headboard! So we went with the first day of school pictures instead. We'll post more from our our actual Christmas later in the week. We are looking forward to a week off together. Hope this finds you well!
Love,
Julie, Johnny, John Christopher and Miles

Happy Birthday John Christopher! Happy Turkey Day Everyone!

2007-11-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

John Christopher celebrated his number six birthday at an ice skating rink a few days early. He loved it so much that he decided he wants to ice skate every year for his birthday!

On his real birthday, Abi came over and we opened presents and walked down to a local Italian restaurant for some yummy noodles. What a fun night.

The next day it was time to get ready for our Turkey Dinner! Too bad Miles was under the weather. You can see in the last picture what he was doing while we were eating.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T11:00:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The boys went as black cats with a touch of "Bo", notice the black splotches on their white painted faces. It was such a treat to have Nana and Pap in town with us this Halloween.

Notice the ornate pumpkin carvings we did this year thanks to Nana's creative energy and expertise. Pap hauled the pumpkins from the pumpkin farm and with the help of Dad cleaned them all. It made for some wonderful memories and beautiful jack-o-lanterns!

Below are a few pictures from the pumpkin farm field trip with JC's kindergarten. Nana is smiling in the covered wagon with the boys. The best part for them both was the duck race. Miles is still convinced he saw the real "Aflac" (the white duck in the back, who came in last place)!

Welcome, Bo and Slider!

2007-09-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

After a short mourning period (one week), the boys noticed a "Kitten Adoption Saturday" sign at Whole Foods, and so began the begging and pleading for new kitties. Johnny and I didn't have the heart to say no given Miles' outright obsession with cats over the last year. Plus, John Christopher has shown his own interest and desire for a cat. The timing of it all seemed right, so we headed over to Whole Foods on Saturday and ended up with "Cow Cat", who later became "Bo"vine, and "Orange Kitty" who soon became "Slider" (thanks to the recent interest in baseball pitches). They have both lived up to their names with Bo being slow and lazy, much like a cow, and Slider being fast and crazy. The boys can toss them over their shoulders, snuggle them under the covers and chase them around the house at will. We had no idea how much pleasure good cats could be. I'm slowly becoming a cat convert.

Tulip the Cat (2000 -2007)

2007-09-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

A sad update to announce the passing of our cat Tulip last weekend.

As many of you know, Tulip was friendly to most adults and would come out at night to visit the family. She never really got along with the boys, yet they were very sad to see her go.

Tulip was a world-class moth killer (and eater) and we had some really fun times with her. When she was younger, she used to sleep on my head. That wasn't particularly fun, but we formed a bond many of those nights.

We will also never forget Tulip's renaissance during our cross country trip to Washington. Tulip had never come out of the upstairs at our house in North Carolina. Literally, never set foot downstairs. We scooped her up and put her in the cat carrier and put her in the truck. Our truck began to overheat near Asheville and we eventually stopped just over the Tennessee border to let the truck cool off. This was when Tulip decided to jump out of the truck. We are not sure what possessed her to do this but she did. Many minutes later we caught her and from that point on, she crossed the country riding on the dashboard of the truck. Looking out the window as if she was ready to take on the world. That of course, didn't really happen, but to her credit, she was never the same.

So, we bid a fond farewell to Ms. Baggypants.

Lots Going On

2007-09-09T19:53:00.001-07:00

So it's been over a year since we posted things. I was reminded by this with the picture of Miles on his first day of school and also the Seahawks game from last year.

School just started for the boys last week and the weekend before we went to the Seahawks game this year.

Looks like I have some catching up to do.

Check back later and we'll see if we can't get some stuff up here.

Peace...JC

Day at the Dentist

2007-01-03T14:45:00.000-08:00

Coming now almost in real time…

Sweet.

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone. We had an excellent party at the house.

Looking forward to seeing you soon.

More to come here shortly. We're way behind on posts but have lots to share.

First Day of School (ever!)

2006-09-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

Today was Miles' first day of pre-school. Here he is with his new outfit (check the hi-top Chuck Taylors) and he gets to break in the two-year old Dale Earnhardt Jr. lunch box. School was great and Miles did very well!

First Seahawks Game

2006-08-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

We made it tonight for the first preseason game for the Seahawks, on the boys' weekend! Mom is out of town so we were able to get out to the game on our own.

The game was lots of fun. The boys were very excited and did a great job all around.

The highlight of the game was the unveiling of the 2005 NFC Championship banner...

and the player introductions.

The game itself was like any first preseason game of the year...pretty dull.

I think we'll have to do our best to try and make it to another game this season. I would expect that the Seahawks will be pretty good again!

Wow!

2006-08-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

Almost four months since the last post. Bad blogger. Bad. Bad!

Sorry!

In the meantime, check out some of the summer pictures from the shutterfly posting site...http://cake.shutterfly.com

Happy Easter Pics

2006-04-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter time with our friends and the boys. We started out on an Easter egg hunt at the Woodland Park Zoo, which was less than ideal given the steady downpour and cold weather.

Fortunately, Easter day was a big rebound and we were met with nice sunshine and warm temperatures, perfect for our morning breakfast and Hunt #2 at our friends house.

And of course, we got back just in time for Hunt#3 in the backyard.

The highlight of Easter (at least for the boys) was the addition of two large bunnies, yellow and white (names changing daily, but most having the word "bunny" in them).

Click the link here and it will take you to the shutterfly site for the new pictures.

Quotable Miles

2006-04-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

Let's get it on...

Trip to Zoo

2006-03-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

Senior Night Spoiled-GO HEELS!

2006-03-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, the beauty of a bunch of eager Tarheel freshmen taking the fun out of the dookies' senior night. When it was all said and done, John Christopher wanted to know, "Can we rewind it and watch it over again?" Miles' question, "Dad, what's a nerd?" Beautiful.

Super Blahhhhhh

2006-02-05T19:38:00.000-08:00

Oh well. That sucked. Sucks to lose when you know your team didn't play the best and when there were so many game changing plays.

Go Sonics! Go Heels!

SUPER BOWL TIME!

2006-02-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it's time for the Super Bowl. The smoker's been active, filled with 18 lbs. of pulled pork. That's the smoker there on the left. A bit like R2-D2.

The weather here's a bit frightful - 50 mile per hour winds all last night, pouring rain and it is the pits! Lot's of electricity blackouts, but fortunately we've been spared.

Just a few folks from work coming over tomorrow, it should be lots of fun. The boys are very excited about the game.

I promised JC that I'd cook him some ribs tomorrow so I'll fire up the smoker again and get him some of the Best Ribs in the Universe. He'll eat a rack of them by himself.

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooo Seahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawks!!!!

Quotable John Christopher

2006-02-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

Miles, if you run with the ball without dribbling...that's illegal. It's called traveling.

Quotable Miles

2006-01-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

Heard after a flush...

"Goodbye Poop!"

Miles-Stones

2006-01-22T10:06:00.000-08:00

Let it be know that the Miles woke up, got out of bed and peed. Then went back to bed.

Kablammo!

Good job Mi!

Big Game Day and Overdue Update

2006-01-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

Well, John Christopher has just asked me for the third time today how long until the football games come on. Two hours until the first, four until the second.

Needless to say, we are all excited about the prospects of the Seahawks winning. It's fun that they are playing the Panthers, as many of the fam are Panthers fans, not in an us-versus-them way but it gives us a reason to share one of our experiences.

I have also learned that I am the play-by-play man for a group of 75 Americans that are touring the Middle East (one of my friends Randal is there with his wife). Good timing for him. First he doesn't renew his season tickets then he proceeds to travel during the entire playoffs. I've agreed to text message them the results of the games on a series by series basis. Modern technology is fun.

The house is coming along, we're in the midst of many "projects". I've busted my can taking down the lovely "Pet Condo" in the basement. I now have enough lumber to fuel any of my future projects in the house, like framing the whole basement. That is a joke but only a small one. Nonetheless, the removal of the pet condo (and all the dog hair) has given our little basement some additional room and it is screaming out for a dartboard and kegerator.

Julie cleaned out the playroom again and re-organized things really well. We've just got the office left for the most part. It is a complete wreck. The kitchen doesn't work either. Nice appliances, laid out not so well and our system, well sucks. We will overcome however, and not by blowing out the wall 10 ft. into the back yard.

So next on the list is paint, for the boys playroom where the previous tenants did a crappy job of covering up some hideous dark green paint. Then the yard. Again, wondering what these people were thinking by putting sod down on top of grass. Not going to grow people!

In the weather update, it's still raining. Only off and on though. I think the sun came out last week. I kidded Peter and put the sunroof open on my car. It was funny.

Keep an eye out for videos of the boys -- the recent birthday boys and our geography scholar in training.

Go Seahawks!

Craigslist Ad

2006-01-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

RAIN WANTED - WILL TRADE SUNNY TO PARTLY CLOUDY
Following up on yesterday's post, it seems like someone in Texas is willing to trade for a while.

It poured through the night, I'm pretty sure the streak continues, despite a slim ray of sunshine that I see right this minute!

Miles Party Photos

2006-01-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

They are up on http://cake.shutterfly.com and they are unedited (and mostly overexposed)

More coming...

Seattle Nearing Record for Rainy Days

2006-01-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

BREITBART.COM - Seattle Nearing Record for Rainy Days

Believe it or not, even the rain is starting to make the news here.

It is bumming people out and even the life long Seattlites are telling me that it's a drag. Just last night Julie and I discussed that this winter was really sucking. At least it's good to know it's not just us being pansies.

The Mi-Guy In the House!!!

2006-01-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

We celebrated the big day this weekend by trekking down to Southcenter Mall to visit the Rainforest Cafe with the family and a busload of the boys' friends.

It was a great time. Miles is in the jungle theme these days and the restaurant was enjoyed by almost everyone...the "thunderstorms" frightened the one of the native Pacific Northwestern little guys. (Side note: there isn't thunder or lightning here. I've only heard thunder once or twice, though the time I heard it, I was downtown and thought there was an explosion it was so loud.)

We had fun ordering and eating lunch, then the wait staff brought out our cake and sung to Miles. He thought it was great.

More presents come today and I'll work on video and pictures to give you the visual.

Merry Christmas Everyone

2005-12-24T18:28:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays to everyone!

Quick Update

2005-12-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

Turkey, Packing, unpacking, cleaning, arranging, moving more stuff, packing, coughing, puking, work, coughing, snot, moving, unpacking, sorting, finding, sleeping.

Thanks to our friends for their help with the move. We are/continue to be touched by the turnout and for your gift of time, energy and encouragement.

More later.

Snow!

2005-12-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

It's snowing in Seattle today. Everyone is freaking out! The boys are quite excited. More mud at the house!

Big update coming soon. Give me a few days.

Sonics vs. Timberwolves

2005-11-05T14:35:00.000-08:00

Last night we got to take in the Sonics game last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

It was Mom's first live Sonics game and Miles' first game that he will remember.

The game was great, back and forth the whole time and the Sonics prevailed in overtime.

The boys loved the game and wouldn't let us leave until the game was over, even though we tried. A full NBA game plus overtime!

Miles was really into the game and several times remarked that he was having a good time.

About ten minutes into the game, he booed the referee on his own, without any prompting. We fell out.

He also was a good cheerer - yelling "Go Sonics" and "De-fense" practically the whole game. It certainly was fun to see him having a good time.

John Christopher brought his camera and snapped a few pictures. He was having a great time, always wanting to know who was in the lead.

Squatch, the Sonics mascot was a great entertainer, the kids thought he was infinitely funny. The halftime show was quite entertaining for all of us as well. Called "Quick Change"... there were these two magicians that essentially changed into about 10 different outfits magically before your eyes. It was pretty wild.

All good fun! Go Sonics!!!!

Happy Halloween!!

2005-11-01T19:02:00.000-08:00

We set out across the neighborhood last night as has become our custom. We had two firemen, a last minute (expensive) deviation from the giraffe and race car driver.

Note that these are "red" firemen, not yellow or black. Very important.

Here is JC with his axe, borrowed from another outfit. Little does he know that it came from a "yellow" fireman. One point for Dad!!!

We worked real hard on the pumpkins this year. I asked each boy to design their own pumpkin. In an interesting psychological experiment, John Christopher chose the traditional conservative smiley. Miles chose to illustrate the face he wanted in by making it in real life (similar to this picture here).

Overall, the night was a success. Gramma's nice trick-or-treat bags suffered a bit in the wet weather (Sorry Gram).

And a fun night was ended a little early...

Milestone

2005-10-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

Today at school JC was able to write out his name when he signed in and as you see below, it features his "long name".

Big Weekend -- New Stuff

2005-10-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

The Mi guy has been quite the drummer over the past few weeks and during the week mentioned that he was bummed that he didn't have musical instruments of his own.

He has taken to drumming over strumming and we decided that it was time for him to have a drum of his own.

Dad and Mi went out by themselves, first to Target where they had a drum set, but it was not the one that Mi wanted so we trucked it over to Toys-R-Us and found the one that he had his eye on. It just happens to be identical to the one that JC picked out as his "marble reward" a few months back.

Mi likes to beat the mess out of the drum and he really likes to make the noise.

We also passed a milestone in the construction zone where we now have a complete sidewalk and street in front of the house. No grass yet, it seems that someone has duped our landlady into waiting until November to put the grass down. Not so sure about that one.

Anyway, with the new sidewalk in place, we decided that waiting until the next birthday was a little too long for JC to wait for a bike.

We found this hot silver number at a local store and had some trainers put on and got a really cool helmet. He was very exicted and jets up and down the sidewalk like he's done it all his life. This bike has breaks and he's shown good control. He was very quick to show off his new bike to the neighbors and he's especially excited to show Kurt down the street.

Zoo Trip

2005-10-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

We went to the zoo today and shot a few cool pictures. No one was there since it was cold and rainy, which was fine with us.

Here is Mr. Jaguar. He was especially happy to come out and pace around his area. It was fun to see him as it was the first time that I got a good glimpse of him.

And the lions were out too. Check them out below.

Quotable Boys

2005-09-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

"Dad, put Fruit Loops on the food list!!"

Maybe Some Day We'll Look Back at This and Laugh

2005-09-15T18:35:00.000-07:00

It's not today though.

Here's Day Two of the destruction. More pictures at the Shutterfly link

Construction Zone and JC's Camera

2005-09-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

Hi all. We're experiencing some construction in the home front this week to replace some bad pipes. Unfortunately it is causing our entire yard to be dug up. Fortunately, this is good fun to watch for the boys, who otherwise are a little disappointed at the prospect of not having a big grassy yard to play in.

Also, JC has become quite the picture taker with his little camera. It is quite fun to blow through the literally hundreds of pictures he takes to see what life looks like to a little guy and what he finds intriguing enough to take pictures of. He's getting quite good at composing shots, now actually getting subjects in the frame and not always catching his finger in the corner. For a small idea of what I mean, I've uploaded his pictures from this evening to our shutterfly page so you can easily browse a slideshow. Click http://cake.shutterfly.com/ for the link.

More updates later without a doubt.

Housing Options in Seattle (i.e. why we can't buy a house here)

2005-09-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

$250,000 ½ A COMMUNAL HOUSE FOR SALE TO A 3rd FAMILY WHO CAN BUY INTO OUR GREENWOOD HOME

This is a great house on a quiet street in a wonderful neighborhood. We are looking for a 3rd family with child[ren] from 3 - 11 yrs old who want to share in a communal living situation. WE ARE: -2 families a Male [owner of home] -53 yr old with a 9 yr old daughter ,and a Female[renter]- 42 yr old with a 3yr old girl.
-Very healthy [Eat mostly organic food], politically [no Republicans], and environmentally conscious
-Do yoga and meditation and no TV except for movies.
-We treat and discipline children with great respect and love,
and want our children to be around other adults with this view.
-We are in a great neighborhood and have a lovely 1920 bungalow that has been totally upgraded with all new plumbing and electric, and yet has retained the classic charm. There is a sanctuary for a backyard. The home will have 6 bedrooms as they are needed. We are ready to add onto the structure.
-If you believe you and your child[ren] would fit here, please contact us

First Day of School

2005-09-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

Okay it was yesterday. But here is the man ready to rock.

Class was good. He has some new classmates in addition to a few holdovers from his class last year. So far so good!

Show and tell day on Friday.

Golfing Video on Video Page

2005-08-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

The boys have really enjoyed hitting their golf balls in the side yard. They were getting too good with their real irons (each boy has one) so we had to go out and get some more plastic ones.

As you'll see, their swings are pretty good, so I reinforced the plastic clubs with PVC cement and some serious masking tape.

I made a short video of their swings - this video happened to be done just before bed. They had to get a few more swings in before they could turn it in. It has been a lot of fun seeing them both get excited about doing something that us Cakes love so much.

Click over to the videos page (using the link at the top of the page).

I've got more videos to come, just not that much time to get things done. The video has been ripped so I should get some more out there soon.

Sunflower Update

2005-08-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the boys yesterday with the sunflower. As you can see they are happy and the sunflower has started to bloom. So fun. Today the sunflower was completely open. We will take some more pictures to share later. Whoo!

New Sign at Work

2005-08-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

Well, we weren't even on the sign last week. Is this better than nothing?

Sunflower

2005-08-13T20:50:00.000-07:00

This sunflower was planted by John Christopher a few months ago when he was in school. He planted it from a seed in a small paper cup. Two months and two new pots later, his sunflower is about 4 1/2 feet tall and is about to bloom into a big flower.

Here he is watering it and taking good care of his sunflower. He is very excited about it blooming.

Blue Angels

2005-08-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today we went out to see the Blue Angels perform over Lake Washington during lunch. It was a great time. We headed over to Mercer Island about 10:00 am and got a parking space, took a picnic lunch and sat in a small park near the I-90 "Floating Bridge". At about 20 minutes before the Blue Angels arrived, we were allowed to walk out on the bridge to get a better view.

It was a great view as you can tell. The boys were generally cranky and were not sure what to expect. Though when the Blue Angels showed up, they were very excited.

Miles had a bit of a time with the noise level. The first real flyover caused him to be a little skittish and he covered his ears most of the time. Though when asked, he still said the Blue Angels were "great".

More St. Andrews Pictures

2005-07-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

They are finally up. Instead of posting them here on the photos page, I've linked them to Shutterfly. It was possibly more trouble than it was worth but maybe you'll find the interface a bit easier.

I would recommend trying to view the slideshow of the "Good Pictures".

Here is the link: Shutterfly World of Cake (http://cake.shutterfly.com)

Miles - First Dry Day!!

2005-07-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

Way to go Miles!

Miles is working through the potty training process and yesterday completed a full day staying dry.

Miles has also been doing a great job going poopy in the potty for several days now.

Whooo hooo!

Miles ABCs

2005-07-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Miles has been making some great progress in learning his letters lately. In fact, he is getting them all down and recently he has been letting know that he knows his letters by singing the alphabet.

Miles has never been the loudest guy in the world (at least when he's happy) so you may have to turn up the volume a bit to hear him loud and clear.

Miles Sings the ABCs (Right click to save as or click to listen...~620K)

Back in the States

2005-07-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

I got back on Monday after a long long trip. It was a lot of fun and the experience is one that I won't soon forget.

Jet lag is not too fun. While I've gotten the timing down pretty well, it was clear that I was pretty exhausted when it came down to it. I fell asleep in about 5 seconds each night about 9:00.

I'll work to get some of the other pictures up soon.

Final Day

2005-07-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well that about sums it up. What a great day.

Started out this morning by following some groups around. Mostly Phil Mickelson, but hes was all over the place early so we hung out and watched all of the groups come in.

The crowds were immense again and after Tiger came through number 4 we headed down to the giant TV to watch the BBC coverage until the leaders started coming in.

We strategically positioned ourselves for the stretch run under the Rusack Hotel and we were able to see the final hole play out.

We just got back from the course again and there were lots of drunken revelers. It was pretty fun.

Getting prepared for the trip home, my car comes at 2:45 am for the drive to Edinburgh and a 5:50 flight to Amsterdam. I'll be back home by 11:30 am Pacific time. I think I'll be tired but it was more than worth it.

Day 3 The Open

2005-07-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

Got to see lots more of the town of St. Andrews today as we did not have tickets for today. We spent the day going to St. Andrew's cathedral and the rest of the town. Lots of fun.

This evening we tracked down to the course to view the final few groups come down 18. We are able to stand on the road still just a few feet behind the 18th green. I was able to take the big lens out and get some big pictures.

Later on we got to walk the course, take a ton of pictures and perhaps in the greates twist of fate ever, we wiggled our way into the "Jigger Inn" (the attached pub to the Old Course Hotel) and you better believe that Justin Leonard was there drinking a beer. Brilliant.

Off tomorrow to the Open for the last day and then an early early morning ride to Edinburgh and then home Monday before noon.

The Open Day 2 Continued

2005-07-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a day.

We were out on the links by 7:15 watching Ernie Els and Darren Clarke throughout the morning. Nice round by Ernie. During the round I was spotted on TV as proverbial fan behind the tee. Pretty funny.

Later in the afternoon, we followed Tiger some but the crowds after lunch were for the most so deep it was nearly impossible to see anything. At this time we decided to get positioned for history - Jack Nicklaus' final time at St. Andrews.

We were able to get behind two short ladies just to the right of the 18th green. And of course Jack nailed the putt. Pandemonium ensues and I've just witnessed a pretty large part of golf history. What a day.

Oh yes, capped off with a celebrity sighting of Justin Leonard slamming a beer outside the course.

The Open Day 2

2005-07-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

Off this morning to follow some of the early pairings around the course. Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh are all off this morning starting around 7:15 local time.

This afternoon, we are hoping to follow Jack Nicklaus some and of course catch a few glimpses of Tiger.

More updates later as they become available.

Hello St. Andrews

2005-07-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the home of golf. After a long, long plane trip (in the middle seat) I was able to make it to Edinburgh and then to St. Andrews.

We made it down to the town center and to the Old Course to see a few holes from outside the fences. The view was surprisingly good from the road.

Needless to say, seeing this place for the first time was amazing. I can't wait to get out on the course for the full day tomorrow. Andy and I are heading down in the morning to see some pairings and to head out to see the whole course. The afternoon will be spent tracking down the Tiger and seeing Jack Nicklaus play a few holes.

I was only able to take the small camera and disabled the flash in order not to get in trouble (as cameras are not allowed). Unfortunately, the pictures are not very clear. In the link below you can see many of the pictures of the town, haggis, and the 18th hole at St. Andrews. The pictures of golfers include Sergio Garcia (in yellow) and perhaps Fred Couples (can't remember if I got it or not). Here's the link. I hope for better pictures tomorrow.

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAM3Ldm5atGb_Q

Happy Fourth of July

2005-07-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

We started off the day with a parade with the neighborhood kids. Miles and John Christopher decorated their cars yesterday afternoon with balloons, Solo cup noisemakers, streamers and American flags.

The parade route started in the alley on 20th and then proceeded straight up 19th Avenue.

Of course there was one parade goer who thought the stream of wheeled vehicles too closely resembled a race and within about five seconds he assumed "the lead" and led the crew down the street.

Off to the beach for a few hours and then down to brave the great unwashed mass down on Lake Union for the fireworks. Fun!

Hope everyone has a great day.

Quotable John Christopher

2005-06-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

To Miles:

"Let's sort this out without fighting"

Weekend Update

2005-06-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Time for a post-vacation weekend update in the World of Cake.

On Friday, we celebrated John Christopher's graduation from his first year of school. This week is his last week. The class sang a song about the days of the week and different food. It was great and John Christopher surprised us by the great job he did sitting in his chair and waiting his turn. Friday is "Fresh Shrimp" day and he added for all to hear, "I had shrimp in my Chinese food for lunch today!!!" Which of course he did.

Saturday we went to the Farmers Market in the University District. It was a lot of fun. The boys got some fresh bread and we bought some heirloom tomatoes to plant. We also got some other plants--basil, oregano, mint and parsley. Miles and I went to Home Depot and picked out a pepper plant and a watermelon plant for our garden. We planted all this weekend except for the watermelon, which will likely be done today. We'll keep you posted on how things go throughout the growing season.

Our first harvest of strawberries was this weekend too and we obtained about 20 small to medium sized stawberries. They were unbelievably good, nothing like the ones that are in the store. Much sweeter and jucier and redder. We ate them all very quickly. It looks like we'll have another 30 more to harvest and then our strawberry season will be done for the year.

Still working on getting pictures from the beach up, will do so soon.

Happy Birthday!

2005-06-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a candle for your cake!

Site Problems Resolved

2005-06-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

Looks like the World of Cake was hacked. Not quite sure why anyone would hack the World of Cake, but I guess the famousness and witiness of the entries here have made some significant ripples in the computing world.

I think things are working okay to this point, there are still a few bumps to smooth out.

Food Count

2005-05-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

Add another Chick-fil-a.

Whooooooo!

Some Signs You're Not In Seattle

2005-05-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

Bumper Sticker on I-85 South

The road to hell is paved with Democrats

Southern food Tally...

Chick-fil-a Sandwiches 2

Ham Biscuits 2

Cheerwines 20 oz.

Happy Mother's Day

2005-05-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day from the Brothers Cake.

We love you Mom, Gramma, Grammy and Nana!

Quotable John Christopher

2005-05-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

Here, I will attempt to recreate this conversation.

The context is that the boys were given a Bob the Builder sleeping bag from the kids down the street. John Christopher has taken it as "his own" and has left Miles without a sleeping bag. Julie says to the boys that we should look online to order a sleeping bag for Miles, perhaps a Thomas the Tank Engine one or even a NASCAR one.

Julie: Here's a NASCAR one Miles, come see what you think.

Miles: I like it.

John Christopher (to Dad who's in the kitchen): Dad, Mom's found a NASCAR sleeping bag online.

Dad: Really, where did she find it?

John Christopher: Sleeping Bags. com

This may have been the funniest thing he's ever said. Unfortunately, it may not read that funny. By the way, I think she was on eBay.

Welcome Back

2005-05-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

Well, the month of celebration has ended. The unintentional non-posting for the month of April can now end.

Not much is new here in Seattle...we had visits from Nana and Pap as well as Uncle Ben and his new financee Jenny. We were able to share their engagement with them which was a lot of fun for all of us.

Miles has just recently recovered from a 72-hour virus that is terrorizing the kids of Seattle. Fortunately, John Christopher has to this point held his own. Not sure how much longer he'll last though.

Now the preparations for our trip to North Carolina begin and in typical fashion everything at work and home is a complete mess. It will be nice to get away for a while.

Hope all is well with everyone else. Keep in touch.

Congratulations National Champions Tarheels!!!

2005-04-04T23:43:00.000-07:00

What a fabulous night. We miss being in Chapel Hill tonight but send our national championship vibe across the Tarheel Nation to say WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Go Heels!

More later, limited sleeping tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Tarheels!

2005-04-02T20:43:00.000-08:00

Great win.

We saw a clip of the party on Franklin Street and had to have our own bonfire, Seattle style.

(Click the link for a small video of the action)

Whooooooooooooooo!!!!

2005-03-27T23:07:00.000-08:00

Great job Carolina! Final Four in St. Louis!

Quotable John Christopher

2005-03-26T18:36:00.000-08:00

Watching the Illinois comeback in the regional final:

Dad: That's unbelievable.

John Christopher: Believe it.

Go Heels!

March Madness

2005-03-20T10:22:00.000-08:00

John Christopher skies for the dunk. The boy's got pretty good form for a little guy. We're watching hoops all day today. The CBS execs have blessed the West Coast with four ACC basketbal l games in a row.

Go State, Go Heels, Go Tech!

Quotable John Christopher

2005-03-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

Hey Dad, let's surprise Mom with Jello!

Weekend Update

2005-03-14T11:24:00.000-08:00

We've been enjoying the great weather here in Seattle. It's been sunny and warm for almost two weeks now. Very North Carolina like in that it actually feels like spring has sprung. The coming/changing of the seasons that you experience there does not happen here. Rather there is just a gradual change from rain to warm to hot in the period of about two weeks...sometime in July or August.

On the flip side, the warmer and drier than usual winter has created no snow in the mountains. This hosed ski season for the most part at nearly all of the local slopes. Further, in normal years, the melting snowpack creates a significant amount of water for the Seattle area. So now we're in an official state of emergency here already and they are asking us to conserve water as much as possible.

We watched the race this weekend and Dad has done a good job with the Fantasy NASCAR tournament...I've picked the winner two of three times this year. I've now got 790 points total. The boys had a rough week as they picked Dale Earnhardt Jr. who wrecked in the first 10 minutes of the race. Too bad. They've got 577 points. Good thing they can't read or they will be pretty upset.

We'll try and get some new pictures and video up shortly. Work is beginning to pick up again for both Julie and me.

Looks like there will be some interesting basketball coming up in the next month or so. I'm hoping that the Tarheels will get to play Washington. This would be in the National Championship game if it happens, which I would be okay with, however painful it may be.

Good luck to all of the teams (except for one...you know who you are).

I'll have the boys fill out a bracket and see how they do.

Singing with the American Idols 2020

2005-03-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

Playing around with the microphone tonight and the computer.

miles twinkle twinkle 3-1-05.mp3

johnchristopher twinkle twinkle 3-1-05.mp3

Right click and choose "save as" to download the file to your computer. They are pretty small. Should play on your computer with a double click of the file.

Race Picks

2005-02-27T12:34:00.000-08:00

Here are the boys' picks for the race in California this weekend...

Matt Kenseth, Dave Blaney, Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs

Quotable Miles

2005-02-25T17:50:00.000-08:00

Mom: "What are we going to do tonight?"

Miles: "I am going to punch Brother!"

Hysteria ensues.

Daytona Update

2005-02-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

So after the first race, quite unbelievable, John Christopher and Miles' team (the Brothers Cake) scored 254 points. Dad's team (Cakeboys) scored 254 points. How about that.

Quotable Miles

2005-02-20T16:36:00.000-08:00

"That is really cool!"

Photo Update

2005-02-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

Per special request from Aunt Kim, we've posted a few new pictures from January and February that include some shots from Miles' birthday party and of the boys' new beds and rearranged bedroom.

We're off to enjoy sunny Seattle today and getting ready for the Daytona 500 which is tomorrow. Word has it our new neighbors across the street will be flying a Dale Earnhardt Jr. flag during the race. Obviously, they aren't Seattle natives. It will be funny to see here but will be fun to know that at least the middle of our block will be watching the race.

We've entered a fantasy NASCAR game on Yahoo. I thought I'd let the boys pick who they think will win and see how they do. You get to pick four drivers from different groups of drivers (roughly tiered by past success). The boys are going with Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Mike Skinner. Dad has gone with Jeff Gordon, Michael Waltrip, Greg Biffle and Scott Riggs.

Hope everyone is well. Go Heels.

Quotable John Christopher

2005-02-17T10:24:00.000-08:00

"Don't say 'sucks'!"

This is hard.

Site Upgrades

2005-01-30T18:53:00.000-08:00

Hi friends.

A few site upgrades tonight that you may not notice. However today's version of the World of Cake is Mozilla Firefox friendly.

And now a short word about Firefox. We've been using it exclusively for about a month now and let's say I'm a big fan. I spent too many hours with pop-ups, home page hacks and all of the spyware that IE allows into the system.

Firefox is great. And now the World of Cake loads perfectly in Firefox and IE.

See you soon.

Quotable Boys

2005-01-25T16:13:00.000-08:00

Miles (upon seeing a Coors Light truck outside of McDonald's): "Look, Sterling Marlin!"

(Note: Sterling Marlin is a NASCAR driver that drives the Coors Light sponsored car)

John Christopher: "Mom, we need to get Dad some cold beer!"

That's a good idea John Christopher. --Dad

TV Alert: New Season of AMERICAN IDOL

2005-01-17T17:08:00.000-08:00

It's upon us. Starting tomorrow night at 8 for 2 hours, the greatest show of all time!

We'll be there!

Go Simon!

World of Cake Site Update - New Video

2005-01-10T23:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends and Family. We've just ended the official Cake holiday season which started in November before Thanksgiving with John Christopher's birthday and ended yesterday with Miles' birthday.

Obviously we've got a ton of pictures and video, as well as an annual letter and picture (have the picture, not the letter) that we are hoping to make available in the near future.

So for the first installment, check out some new video on the videos page. Please make sure to save the video to the hard drive if you know how, it helps on the bandwidth usage!

Also, if you are using Firefox to view the site, you'll notice that it's not quite lining up properly. We've been using it some (you may want to try it if you've not yet...) and lo and behold, my site's not up to par. I'll be trying to fix that too.

That's all for now. Drop us a line, we'd love to hear from you.

Happy Birthday Miles!

2005-01-09T08:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Miles!

We were planning a trip to the aquarium for a fun family day. Julie and I still in bed told John Christopher to look out the window to see what the weather was. Snow! It had snowed about 3 inches overnight. Looks like we're going out to play in the snow.

How fun. Presents later.