Chocolate Pumpkin Halloween Cake

Mmm...mmmm...good. I love halloween!

The Stalker

Our dear friend Matt went all out this year for Halloween. Moustache, mullet, outfit, the full deal. At least he said it was a costume.

P.S. - this is the full res version, so click on it, save it, and enjoy it whenever you need a smile.

BYU Women's Soccer

Caroline and I went to the BYU Women's soccer game tonight (thanks Grant and Kelly). It was fun and BYU crushed New Mexico 3-0. About a 1/3 of the way into the game, Cosmo (the mascot) threw a mini soccer ball into the crowd near where we were. To the dismay of the guys behind us I stood up and caught it. In fact, the two guys behind us were so eager to catch it that they both basically fell on me. One used me to catch his balance, while the other fell to the side and caught himself on the railing. It was pretty funny and we joked with them about it afterwards.

It's Fall!!

Last Friday evening Brad and I went for a hike up Provo Canyon in the foothills of Mt. Timpanogos. It was beautiful. The leaves on the Aspen trees were still mostly green while other vegetation had begun to turn reds, yellows, and oranges.

This was the beginning of the path. The sun was quite low at this time so you it is hard to appreciate how spectacular the green and yellows were against the white Aspen trunks (which of course are beginning to turn green in anticipation of winter).

One of many self photos of me and Brad.
Some of the colors that we got to see on our way back down the canyon. Anyone living in Utah, now is the time to take those fall leaf drives up the canyons.

Designer Cakes/Handbags

Last week I took some pictures for a friend's husband who makes wedding cakes, desserts, etc. They needed a picture of this handbag cake, which I was quite impressed with.



Apparently a man had given Martin a handbag of his girlfriends and asked him to make a replica of it as a cake.

So if you are interested in a very customized cake, Martin is the man for you. He is located in Salt Lake, his website is http://www.weddingcakessaltlake.com/.

Adventures in Canada

While in Canada, Caroline and I also went shooting with my Dad and went on some hikes. Here are a few of the highlights.

Calgary Zoo

In August, Caroline and I went to Calgary to visit my Dad. While there we went to the Zoo, which happens to be a great one.


By far Caroline's favorite animal was this little gorilla. You should have seen her face light up when she saw it.

We are not the best bloggers.

I realized today, well before today, that Brad and I are not the best bloggers. I mean there are so many things to keep up with these days, as far as electronic communications. There is facebook, which we recently joined. We have our Clark family website; I have my cooking blog, twolittlechefs, our photography website and our fineart photography website. That doesn't even include checking personal email, work email, reading what the word of the day is from dictionary.com, reading the news that I have delivered into my inbox, reading friends blogs/facebook, etc, etc....

How does one keep up with all this electronic communication and still have time to actually call and visit with friends/family? Not to mention eating, sleeping, playing, working, you know - living?

ps...this picture has no relavance to my post, I just know that people are more likely to read something if there is a picture along with the text. True?

Little Critters

For those of you who don't know, my wife absolutely loves little critters. And by that I really mean all animals of any kind. Seeing cats, dogs, birds, even cows will fill her with glee. Thus, it is to her great pleasure that we have a family of quail living in our backyard. In fact, she has even named them the Murphys. I must admit that watching 9 or 10 little puff-balls (chicks) following their parents was one of the cutest things that I have ever seen. The little babies just looked like fluff with legs. Ever since, Caroline has been stalking them trying to get a picture, but they are rather elusive. This one shot with the telephoto is all she has been able to capture thus far, but the hunt continues.

Soup is Good for your Car

I spent a couple hours lying in a gutter on Saturday, fixing my car. The exhaust pipe between the engine and the muffler broke, so little Rafa was sounding a lot more robust. To solve the problem I made Caroline and I some tomato soup and grilled cheese for lunch. Then I cut the can and clamped it around the ends of the pipe where it broke, and viola, good as new. Well, as good as new as a 39 year old car can be. : )

Extra Money?$?

Looking for a way to earn some extra money? In January 2005, Joe Tamarog earned $510 to have this ad permanently tattooed on his right arm. What do you think?


That same year, one man had his forehead temporarily tattooed with an anti-smoking ad. He was paid $37,375 for 32 days...not bad eh?? Would you do this?

Time Killer

Brad and I joined the 21st century yesterday...ta da...we joined Facebook. And already we realize what a time killer it can be. We are wondering, what is the love of Facebook? I mean we can see the perks of it, it is fun to see what people that you knew when you were 7 are doing now...

Basically, I would love to know why people use Facebook. I am not criticizing it or anything, I am truly just curious what your feelings about it are.

Mad Scientist and Books

Clayton, Part I:

This is my brother Clayton and his wife Jessa. Clayton has been working with a company called Mad Scientists for the last 7 or 8 months. Basically they do science experiments for kids at birthday parties, school classrooms, etc. Brad and I got to go and watch him perform once at the Pleasant Grove library. It was awesome. If you know Clayton, you know that this is the perfect job for him. Anyways, I guess yesterday while working at a summer camp the local paper, The Daily Herald, came and interviewed him and took some photos. There is an interview with him and another Mad Scientists on the The Daily Herald's homepage, and he said there will be a blurb about it and a picture in the paper today. Check out the video interview here, and if you are interested call up Mad Scientists and ask for Clayton to do your kids party, he really is great at it!

Part II: Books

Clayton is also a writer and reads many, many books. He started a very interesting blog where he reviews books that he likes and plans to post some of his own writing. Interested? The blog is called Books By Clay, check it out!

What Would a Piano Made by a Car Company Look Like?

For some reason Audi decided that they needed to design a grand piano. I guess, so loyal fans could put one in the garage next to their R8. If you want to see more pics click here.

Friends

When I went to graduate school I met some really amazing people, including my wonderful husband. The year that I started graduate school at BYU there were 3 men and 6 ladies (including myself) in my class. With such a small group you quickly become friends. I was also lucky enough to get to know some of the students from the year before me and the year after. In fact, if you didn't know this, Brad and I met in the master's program at BYU, which of course was the best part of the whole thing!

Anyways, every couple of months some of us ladies, we call ourselves the master girls, get together and reminisce and catch up on each others lives. It is great fun! We had one such night this week. Included in the picture are from left Liz who recently moved from Philly to Minniapolis, Brooke, Jen, Holly, me, Dr. Baker (one of our professors who became friends with us), Tami, and Caitlin and new son Guy.

Thanks ladies for making this a great night!

ps...Kelly and I are hosting a contest with a prize on our cooking blog, check it out!