Brony Birthday

Another year older!!! Where does the time go??? Last weekend was the observation of the younger's birth!!!

For his cake, he wanted his OC pony, CounterDash. A take off of Rainbow Dash. With the hat, his brother called it Scumbag Rainbow Dash. I did an image search, and all of them came up with Scumbag Steve hats.

On a mildly tangential topic, my wife was solicited for a donation to D.A.R.E., who used to be anti drug and gang, but they told her that their new hot topics are anti bullying and cyber bullying. She was a little puzzled by the cyber bullying thing, thought you could just ignore or disconnect from any potential bullies. My older overhears, and says he's gotta show us his favorite site, Ask Cyberbully Fluttershy. I was amused.

So, in addition to the traditions of cake, presents, and pinata, the boy wanted to get several cans and have an epic silly string war!!!

And that pinata??? We went shopping, and the one he selected had nut crackers on it!!! "So we can crack 'em in the nuts!!!"

It didn't last long. Two hits. Him hitting the pinata.

The pinata hitting the ground.

The older boy, going all Gordon Freeman on it...

Happy birthday, boy!!!

Passing the Torch Random

Once again, I've got a lot I've been meaning to blog, and it's time to get some of it out!!!

First up is some cup art I did back on December 7th. I was going to subscript it with "We will never forget", but it didn't come out too recognizable. It's supposed to be the Arizona memorial, in honor of Pearl Harbor day.

There was another birthday, where as usual I was contracted to make a cake. Actually, it was a double birthday celebration, so I was requested to do two or something... I forced my older boy to do the second cake, ergo the title of this post!!!

My niece is a fan of Justin Bieber, and that was my only direction for a cake. I utilized the Rage Comic "Now Kiss" guy, and made the dolls her and Justin, then added their names (+ each other) to the bottom, along with a heart. She LOL'ed.

I'm sure he's been featured here before, but the other requested cake was for SpongeBob. I've done at least two other SpongeBob cakes, and even Wubbsy with Bob's pants on, and I'm about Bobbed out. My older boy is quite the aspiring artist, so I told him, "It'll be a new medium for you to work in!!!" He wasn't especially enthused to be doing so, but he came up with this slightly Picasso themed cake. the smaller eye is actually 3D about an inch tall!!!

That same evening was my company's Christmas party. There we are dressed up for it. This year, instead of having a photographer on the way in, taking a formal picture then selling it to you on the way out, they had a photo booth. The pictures were free, and they had a lot of costumes and props to use, too. I wore a sparkly hat and my wife wore a black & white feather boa and a necklace that read "HO HO HO" in large letters.

I worked the Friday after Thanksgiving, at time and a half, plus getting paid for the vacation day. I'm doing the same for tomorrow, Christmas eve. They fed us breakfast and lunch last time, and I'm assuming they will tomorrow, too. If not, I'll be going hungry.

I saw the Counting Crows at the Wiltern back at the end of November. It was a pretty good show.

Personal space and general admission shows are pretty much mutually exclusive.

Opening act one was Tender Mercies, who come to find out, Counting Crows has been doing several of their songs for years as covers. I have many as bootlegs, and one (maybe two???) are featured on their latest album. Instant fan!!! The second opening act, Mean Creek, well, they were loud. They feature a cute girl guitarist, who constantly jumped up and down the whole set. She made a comment that she loves when the crowds are rowdy, and we were the rowdiest. Pretty much the opposite was the case, I LOL'ed.

I liked the artwork for the Wiltern show. Wish they'd had it on a shirt. I never much care for the concert shirts from Counting Crows. Strange.

Goody day at work was kinda bad this year. We're back to three lunch breaks, and by the time I got my break, they were out of a lot of stuff, including drinks. Oh well, I've been told next year will be better. This year WAS better for gravy day. If I'm not mistaken, it was only 5% under what I've been told was the record amount. Also 10% under what I was told by a "reliable source" to be this year's amount. I'm good with it.

Belated Birthday

It's been a while, I've got at least three, maybe four posts in me. Time to do at least one!!!

Back on the 12th, we held the first celebration of my firstborn's 16th birthday!!! Much like last year, My Little Pony was featured, more than was even there last year. The cake I was charged with decorating was Princess Chrysalis. A lot of dark frosting, and all the Swiss cheese holes made this more challenging than most.

We got him a new pocketknife, the latest Assassins' Creed game, and a USB connected drawing pad. I don't have any samples to post from that yet.

His grandparents gave him a shine bright Fluttershy My Little Pony, as well as some cash to buy either a handmade custom pony or a Brony shirt. He has done neither yet.

Of course, since it was celebrated on the 12th, I had to wear my 512 shirt.

One of the cards he received had a "Happy Birthday" teeth grille, which I 'shopped into his face for the effect!!! Not great, you really have to enlarge it to be able to see it.

Queen for a Day

Yesterday was the observance of my wife's birthday. Good times!!!



The cake turned out to be something of a challenge. I had a can of frosting in the fridge that I'd thought was about 1/3 full still, but when I opened it turns out all that was left in there was colors I'd had mixed for the last cake!!! There was just enough of the frosting this one'd been iced with to do most of the color, and the portal orange worked out for a crown.



We celebrated at my parents' house. It was overcast, typical June gloom all morning, with no sign that it would burn off, but no sooner than we got ready to go into the pool out came the sun!!!



Don't know if my slide animation will work on here. Try clicking on the pic if it's not moving.



It was the first time I've made it in the pool since the slide has been installed. It's quite cool!!!








OM NOM NOM!!!




And there's the Birthday Girl!!! A queen every day, truth be known!!!





Last shot is my dad & I, I was showing him the remote control I picked up for my camera. If you look closely you can actually see it.

Now You're Baking With Portals

Last weekend was the observance of my firstborn's Birthday. He didn't have any specific idea what he wanted for his cake, but on his wish list was the Portal 2 video game. Oh, and he wanted two cakes.



This is what I came up with.

In case you're not familiar, that's Long Cat going through a portal!!!



The party was pretty low key. The boy & his friends mostly played video games & watched videos (a little clip of them singing along to one is here, the first vid from my new camera I've posted) The part I found most amusing was when they got on a kick where they were watching "My Little Pony" videos!!! That just says Happy Birthday!!!

Bonus Birthday

Today and one week ago today we've been celebrating my younger boys' birthday. Last weekend we had a party at my parents' house, with all the cousins, because they are going out of town afterwards.



I think the first cake I made for that event ranks as one of the best I've done!!! He wanted me to do the look of the Halo Reach logo, only replacing the words with "Nine Years".



It came out quite nice, I think, with the exception of the "E" on nine kinda looks a bit like an "O". Nino years???



For this weekend, we invited several of his friends from the neighborhood. Of course, I didn't want to do the same cake, so he said he wanted Super Sonic.



I think this one came out pretty nicely, too!!!

Weekend of Wings

The older boys' birthday celebration was observed this weekend. I like the age he's at now, he just has a few friends over and they play Xbox most of the afternoon!!! His requests for food was a cake similar to the Portal cake and honey BBQ wings. The Pizza Hut wings were a big hit, and didn't last long at all. In retrospect, being barefoot in the kitchen after that wasn't a brilliant move.




I was of the opinion that the Portal cake has probably been about overdone, and thinking of a way to do a variation on it, came up with "The Cake" style cupcakes. Of course, this leads to all kinds of questions on what can be said about them. "The cupcake is a lie"??? Or would that be, "The cupcakes are lies"??? "The cupcakes: Just a bunch of little white lies"??? "Cupcakes = Fibs"??? "The cupcakes: Not really lies, just fudged a little"??? You see the quandary.



Anyway, in addition to Xbox, they did have a bit of a water fight and loquat war.

Sunday we went to lunch at KFC and had more wings there, too, so it was indeed a weekend of wings!!!

Belizean Birthday

Over the weekend we observed my dad's birthday. We went to their house, where my sister's boyfriend made a nice dinner from his native Belize. Tasty chicken that falls off the bone, seasoned potatoes, interesting veggie stew and fresh fruit. The only thing we'd been asked to bring was for me to decorate up a cake. This was my mom's idea, and once again, I think the cake came out quite nicely!!!

Cup Cake Cupdate

Haven't done one of these in a while, a blog post OR a CupDate!!!



These cups are actually from a couple months back, I took their picture, and put 'em in the bank for a while!!! Now, they're back and here for your enjoyment!!! I did these around the same time I did the other Portal themed ones.

First up is the weighted companion cube. This plays a part in the game, and you are supposed to form an emotional bond with it, ala Wilson in Castaway. This makes the part of the game where you need to incinerate it that much more painful.



The second cup features the cake, which is promised as a reward throughout the game. Turns out the cake is a lie.

For a game I've never played, I know quite a bit about Portal!!!

But there's no use crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake...

Open House & Graduation

An eventful weekend, and blogworthy. I got to take several pictures, too, for a change. It's been a while.



Saturday was the company picnic at my work. Plenty of food and drink, games and bouncers for the kids, and it was in the back docks, so they were giving tours of the place.



Is that a big ass fan or what???



Yep. That's a Big Ass Fan.



So, this is where I work. I hope this conveys some of the scope of the place. Over 700,000 square feet.



Around a mile of conveyors.



Later on that night, my sister was throwing a graduation party for my niece, who has gotten her degree from college.

Here is the proud graduate. When asked why she had taken her sweater off, she replied, "Because my shoe got wet." Ah, to have a college education like that!!!


I also got a short video of her dancing with my mom that I said I would be posting on YouTube. I should have asked what her degree was in.



My wife was admiring how the light was reflecting off my skull, so I had her take a picture. After that, I got my dad to come over to see if he had the same effect. We put our heads together and made an ass of ourselves!!!



I also got to see my nephew Eyeball for the first time in a long time. Didn't get any pictures of him or his new car, though.