For the last couple of months, every time I referred to our oldest grandson, Ian, I pointed out that he was "almost 9". Well, I don't need to say "almost" any more. Yesterday, the 25th, was Ian's ninth birthday. I'm sure his smile in the picture above demonstrates his appreciation for his birthday cake, made from scratch by his mom, our daughter Melissa.

The cake is inspired by the Wii Super Mario Galaxy game that we gave him for Christmas. Ian and Melissa named it the “Bowser Galaxy Reactor Cake” after the final level of the game. They designed Mario and Luigi to look like they were flying into space after defeating Bowser on a lava-covered planet. The top of the cake is Bowser’s shell and is made of cake covered in fondant. The rest of the cake is chocolate with peanut-butter-cup filling and buttercream frosting. Mario and Luigi are made of chocolate, and the lava is a combination of frosting, edible glitter gel, and colored chocolate…with chocolate lava rocks. The cake is 3 double-layer cakes high. In spite of that, I doubt there'll be much left over after Ian's birthday party this afternoon. We wish we could be there.

Also for the last couple of months, every time I referred to my sister Barbara, I pointed out that she was "almost...". You know, I better not go there. Her birthday was two days ago, so here's a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY from us to her. There's a picture of Barb with two of her daughters and her grandchildren in the archive. Click here to see it.

[Follow-up Note] Last week I lamented the lack of snow in Huntsville after warnings from our the-sky-is-falling meteorologists of a pending Winter storm. Well, they did it again. For the last two days, they've been predicting dangerous "ice and snow" beginning late Friday and into Saturday morning. In fact, I attended a concert last night that was cut short so people could get home before the bad weather set in. Yep, you guessed it. Nothing.