I Don't Like Cake

I remember growing up and my older brother Brice saying that he didn't like cake. Being young and in sole possession of a very large sweet tooth I couldn't comprehend his opinion. "Who doesn't like cake?", I would think to myself. However, over the years as my taste buds have matured, I too have come to the same conclusion - I don't like cake. He thought that cake was too light and fluffy and didn't offer much sustenance. And now I realize that he was onto something. It really is a let down every time I eat it. I have such high expectations and the result always falls short.

What brought me to my final declaration against cake was our recent trip to a fancy cupcake joint in Seattle called Trophy. I have been wanting to patronize one of these cupcake shops since they came into vogue over 18-months ago. The cupcakes were lined up up behind the glass so beautifully. Each dressed with swirls of frosting. Each cupcake tempting me with their sugary contents. I chose the vanilla cake with chocolate frosting (my first choice was the coconut but my friend Ryan snatched up the last one before I had a chance to place my order). Let me just say I was more than disappointed - I guess that could go without saying since it has been a week later and I'm still regretting our visit. The cake itself wasn't very flavorful (though they claimed it was made with real vanilla bean) and the chocolate frosting was WAY over the top chocolatey that it reminded me of the awful stuff they pass-off as frosting at grocery stores. Perhaps my opinion would be different had I chose the carrot cake cupcake, or the cafe leche cupcake or if they didn't run out of their top-selling red velvet cupcake...

But really, I doubt it. Because after all a cupcake is cake. And I would much rather spend my calories on pies, tarts, cookies, bars, brownies, or even cake's distant cousin - cheesecake. Chocolate pound cake...I can do that too.

The Family Dog

Wyatt and I received the bad news that Blockbuster's DVD by Mail policy changed. It's pretty lame. Before the new policy we were able to receive a DVD by mail, watch it, return it at Blockbuster in exchange for a new in-store DVD, watch our in-store DVD while we waited for the new DVD by mail to arrive. Now, under the new policy, our exchanged in-store DVD now counts as a DVD from our queue...so if we want to receive our new DVD by mail we have to return the in-store DVD to Blockbuster first. It's pretty lame and inconvenient. So I wrote an angry letter to Blockbuster telling them that their new policy sucks. I have yet to have heard back...

In the mean time Wyatt and I decided to take-up Netflix's 2-week trial offer. And so far we like it! For less money we can now return all our movies to the mail box (remember how we used to have to go ALL the way to Blockbuster (it's only 1/4 of a mile away...but STILL!) in order to get the next movie in our queue?) Plus...we can download movies to watch instantly. Which brings me to the title of my post, "The Family Dog."


Does anyone else remember this short flick that was part of the Amazing Stories series? It's been years since I've seen it and I have really been looking forward to the day I could see it again. My sister, brother and I LOVED it! We used to watch it all the time. And when we weren't watching it we were quoting it. (I'm really hoping that Schuyler reads this post and in turn is a Netflix subscriber so he can watch it too. That would make me happy.) Well, Netflix has this great short as one of their instant downloads! As soon as I saw it on the list of available movies I made Wyatt watch it with me immediatly. It really is a cute little film. If you're a bit hesitant about my recommendation just check out the credits and you'll see a few notable names. LOVE IT!

But you don't have to take my word for it...

Crazy People

Sorry for not posting in a while (kind of). So, yesterday I was walking on campus (I'm a student again/still for those out of the Wyatt loop) and a girl, appearing to be perfectly normal and sane, looked at me and told me very loudly, "I'm never playing with you guys again!" I walked to class but started thinking about all the things that crazy people have yelled at me in my life, what have crazy people yelled you? Alternately, if you're a crazy person, what have you yelled at other people?

Current Events

I thought I'd write a little something documenting what Los Wilsons have been up to the past couple weeks.

First off I had the opportunity to fly to Utah (alone) President's Day weekend to visit my brother and his family...along with my sister-in-laws. It was a great trip that consisted of nothing but relaxing. We watched movies, put two puzzles together and ate lots of yummy food! Here is a picture of my cute niece and nephew modeling one of our completed puzzles. I'm excited to see them again when they come visit in July!


Next up Wyatt and I spent the day exploring one of Portland's parks on Friday. It was merely an excuse to go out and enjoy the gorgeous weather. (As a side note, Portland has been experiencing some very unusual NICE weather this winter. I think I've see the sun more frequently then I've seen the rain. If the weather was always this nice in Portland I might be more inclined to want to plant my roots here. That is if I could avoid all the smug liberal hippies. Regardless, I've had no complaints this winter!)

When was the last time you teeter-tottered?

Notice us squinting...

Saturday we cashed in our "once a year" ski trip. We picked the perfect day to go too. Sunshine, warm weather, no wind, and hardly a crowd. We skiied until our legs turned to Jello. What a fantastic day! I love skiing and am so lucky that Wyatt not only loves to ski too but can keep up with me. Okay, that's a lie, I was chasing him the whole day. The only thing I have left to do now is write Mt. Hood Meadow's and express my disatisfaction with their redicuously high prices ($70 per ticket?!!! That's Rocky Mountain RESORT prices (which I think are equally redicuously overpriced as well)).



And finally that brings me to yesterday. Wyatt wanted to make oatmeal cookies for the people he home teaches, however, I didn't have a recipe for oatmeal cookies. We had 25 minutes until he needed to be out the door and picked the first recipe we found from my odd collection of recipe books. In hindsight it would've been better to taken the extra three seconds to do a quick google search. Half-way into the recipe (that called for four cups of flour and four cups of oatmeal (I suggested we half the recipe but Wyatt was determined)) we discovered it called for molassas. As you are probably aware, the modern-day traditional oatmeal cookie does not call for molassas. So the end result was four-dozen oatmeal cookies that neither Wyatt or I really liked. We gave two dozen away to his families, threw away another dozen and plan on using the last dozen as paper weights. The moral of the story - don't try to make oatmeal cookies in 25-minutes using a recipe that calls for molassas.

sure they look yummy...

Six-Word Memoirs: The Valentine's Day Edition

I was listening to “Talk of the Nation” on NPR yesterday and the topic of discussion was “Six-Word Memoirs: The Valentine’s Day Edition”. The challenge was given to sum up your love life in exactly six words. It was thoroughly entertaining to hear the creativity of the many memoirs submitted by all the callers and emailers. Although I did enjoy the happy stories more than the memoirs that told the story of unsuccessful love (even though the sad ones were just as creative as the happy ones).

I decided to take the challenge myself and create my own six-word love life memoir. Who knew that writing six words could be so much fun?! As it turns out a good portion of my day was occupied by creating several six-word love memoirs. Here is a small sample of some of the memoirs I created – all dedicated to my favorite person, Wyatt.


I was cute. You were smart.

You fled. I followed. You surrendered.

She’s cute! She’s available? She’s crazy.

Glad I get you for eternity.


I dare you to write your own six-word love memoir. I bet you’ll be addicted too. If you want to read the hundreds of six-worded memoirs submitted to the show – or even listen to the show, click on this link. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Question of the Week

Here is my question of the week:

What is the difference between a chocolate muffin and chocolate cake? Does the muffin make it socially acceptable to eat chocolate in the morning? I'm pretty certain they're the same thing.

Food Blogs

I thought I'd share two of my favorite food blogs with you. In case you were looking for some light reading material that can get your salivation glands working. Or something that will make you laugh.

1. Smitten Kitchen
I was introduced to this blog courtesy of the Dyer family. This is the blog I like to read 15 minutes before I'm supposed to leave work and am tired of doing real work. It's a form of self torture. I have made this and this - and both were excellent!

2. Cake Wrecks
Thanks to my SIL Malya for introducing this one to me. It makes me laugh every time. My all time favorite is this post. Happy reading!