My sister's been busy making all these amazing cakes, so I thought I'd give cake making a try to see if it runs in the family. At the least, I should be able to do better than my buddy Scott here, who obviously has no cake making genes in him. No pre-mixed cake packages for me, I wanted to make the whole thing from scratch. My goal? To make a cake that looked and tasted as good as a Loblaws cake, my absolute favourite.
Getting all the ingredients together I went at it. When the oven dinged I took the cake out only to find that it was still gooey in the middle. I put it back in again two more times for five minutes each, a technique that I somehow doubt top cake makers recommend. Finally it was ready. Here it is all iced up, the burnt parts nicely hidden from view. So was it good? Well it was edible, but it was super dense and heavy, like a block of cheese. I think I used like, 20 pounds of butter, and eating a small piece gives you the urge to run out and get life insurance, fast. Well it's a start, but maybe my cake making skills need a bit of work before I start selling them...

Rubik's Cube is back, and is still difficult...

Remember when Rubik's Cubes were all the rage? You tried and tried to solve it, but being a kid (well at least I was a kid), you had no idea what you were doing. To make yourself look smarter, you tried to peel off the stickers and rearrange them. Your parents weren't fooled into thinking you were some kind of mathematical kid-genius however. Fastforward 20 years or so. Now you're in Japan and suddenly the ol' cube is back! After watching some of your highschool students play with one, and one little punk repeatedly solving it in only minutes you start thinking, 'yeah, I could do it now! I'm older, smarter, wiser... All I have to do is be logical about it!' ...Gave up on it after only one day...
(Oh that's Kumi's hand by the way, my nails don't look nearly that nice.)

After years of riding Alex's old mountain bike into the ground, it was on it's last legs. It was dirty, the chain was rusty, the tires no longer held any air in them, pieces were falling off... you get the picture. It was time for a new bike!! Following in the footsteps of Jason, who bought a blue Trek 7.3, and then Mike who bought a white Trek 7.3, I went out and bought a black Trek 7.3. Peer pressure is a funny thing isn't it? Whoever wishes to follow in the steps of greatness, there is still a red Trek 7.3 yet to be bought. Maybe Scott will get it when he returns from Australia? With four Treks we'll be able to merge together into one giant robot: Cyclotron, to battle evil. In the meantime though, I'm looking forward to getting out on Tokyo's best bike paths, and doing some cyclo-camping with Mike and Jason.