A sampling of bumper stickers...

I was out walking around today (had the day off) and decided to take some pictures of bumper stickers on cars around my neighborhood. I thought you might find some of them entertaining (and they said Montana was conservative...disclaimer, I am in Helena, home of state government, aging hippies and health food nuts.)

Proof of snow

OK, here it is. I finally went out and took a picture of the mountains south of Helena. Proof of snow. It's actually been really nice this week, so most of the snow has melted. But a couple of weeks ago it was everywhere. I have to drive back and forth between Butte this week to cover a meeting, so I really have my fingers crossed that a blizzard doesn't decide to pop up. I don't have "chains" or “studs” for my car tires yet. I'm kind of wondering if I even need them. I guess I'll need to figure that out soon.

Watching the New Orleans-Atlanta game on Monday Night football now. Somebody (hint, hint--not me) needs to do a study on this. The role of football/the Saints/Superdome in the recovery of New Orleans. Sports and society is such an interesting topic (yes, I know, I'm still talking about it even after my disastrous thesis experience.) I just keep hearing all kinds of interesting things that I think would make a good paper.

Cake.

Wow. That's the most comments I've ever had on a blog entry, I think. And it was about cake. So I'm thinking about making that the focus of my blog. Maybe I should change the name. "JByrdie's Nest o' Cakes" has a nice ring to it.

I went out and bought a cake last night. It was all about research, of course. I had to figure out how they make all those flowers. On the cake was this sticker. I put it up because it reminds me of a funny KU story. Lisa got up in front of 500 freshman and sophomores and told them one of her biggest pet peeves was the word "moist." So, of course, the kids tried to work "moist" into all of their papers during the semester. I don't really get it. Moist doesn't seem like too bad of a word to me.

Most of the snow has melted here and I was too lazy to go take a picture earlier. So sorry. But don't worry, I'm sure I'll see plenty more and will eventually get a picture up.

Here are some of my favorite cake-gazing links, for your pleasure:

Cakes by Sam
Cake diva
Mike's Amazing Cakes
Colette's Cakes

Yes, it snowed

I'll put up a picture of the snow-capped mountain peaks tomorrow. It's actually quite pretty. None of the snow stuck in the valley though. But it has been in the 50's. Kind of weird for September... I think it's supposed to snow later this week too.

I went to Missoula today. That place is awesome. So pretty. The college-town vibe reminded me of Lawrence, which was great. Had some sushi too, which was great. I haven't had sushi since I was in Chicago in June. Yum, yum.

I have a new favorite show: Ace of Cakes on the Food Network.

I love the cakes these people make. It really makes me want to go to culinary school and become a professional cake decorator. That would be AWESOME (mind you, I've never actually decorated a cake before...oh well, details.)

For more awesome cakes to look at, go here.

It snowed here today

But this isn't a picture of that. It was too cold outside to do that...
This is a picture I took coming back from Great Falls. It's a lonely looking tree, don't you think?

I kept meaning to update my blog, but I'd go to and see Rocky and think 'I don't need to update, Rocky is so cute!' Anyway, I figured the first snow fall was a reason to blog. Not much to say here, actually. I just wanted to change things up.