Look what she made!

I never really played a lot of video games. We never had a Nintendo or anything of that ilk when I was younger. By the time I was in college, my younger brother had somehow managed to persuade our parents to get him a Sega Genesis, but we only had a couple of games. At that point I was in my late teens, and having not banked the necessary man hours to become a Gladwellian expert, and being the possessor of rather slow thumbs, I didn't play that much because frankly, one can only get killed on level one of a game so many times before finding it both uninteresting and a little humiliating. Still, I do have fond memories of Mario. I don't remember where I played it, but I think that everyone in America did. And I certainly remember where I played Mario Kart - in the living room of my law school basement apartment, with my roommates and various friends and usually several bottles of malt liquor covering the thrift store coffee table. So when Lisa said that the mom of one of Conor's former pre-school friends had asked her to make a Mario cake, I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe the kid is a retro-chic hipster who's only going to appreciate the cake ironically, but sincere or not, it's way cooler than Bakugan.



As awesome as the Mario cake is (I'd like one for Labor day please sweets), I think it's safe to say that Lisa's talent for cake decoration has been passed on to our kids. As proof, I'd like to present the cake that the boys decorated for my birthday. It has all of the things that are most important in their lives - candy and legos (OK, not the most important things but pretty important, not to mention books would get ruined by the frosting, and I came down firmly against Finn's plan to cover the cake in garbage). Conor's original concept was to have two lego figures playing soccer, the soccer ball being portrayed by a jawbreaker. Beyond that, the rest of the plan involved testing the adhesive powers of Lisa's buttercream frosting by sticking as many candies as possible to the top and sides of the cake. However, in a moment of creative genius, Conor decided that there should be another Lego guy on the cake, but this guy would be face down in the frosting, having tripped over a grape skittle. After a bout of pratfall-humor induced hysteria, Finn decided that the cake needed a several more faceplanted Lego and candy stumbling blocks. This was actually a pretty ingenious plan, as it ensured that there were large parts of the cake that the parents would refuse to touch, as god knows how many filthy and improbable places I've found little lego men.



Oh, and besides cakes, look what else Lisa made: