Yummy is my fave of the cupcake places I've tried, though their service sucks. (My Little Cupcake is meh. Leda's is good but overpriced). I hear there is a place in Silverlake, but I've never been.

Yay wireless, Allyson! Are you actually going to the vintage dress thing?

Oh, Stephen Colbert, you are adorable.

Uh huh. I so want to talk to an astronaut. That would be awesome.

Bragging on my ridiculously cute bug he makes this face a lot and he is learning yoga.

Awww. Noah is adorable!

Freaky thunderstorm here. REALLY loud thunder.

He looks so much like you, Kat.

Are there any good cupcake places down Santa Monica way? I know there are Beverly Hills places, but I never end up that direction.

Of course I should probably wait the week and a half before asking that. I'm sure the doctor won't keep me off wheat much longer.

There are a couple in culver city, ita. Gimme a sec and I'll get the names for you.

I can see how (for people who love kids), having them would increase general stress and frustration and lower one's general day-to-day happiness while still providing a profound sense of fulfillment and more intense peaks of joy. The author seems to be overlooking the fact that love of various kinds is actually quite effective at making people miserable a substantial portion of the time. But I think most everyone finds the pros worth the cons.

I definitely want to have kids. I'm currently 27. I'm starting to get worried about fertility, and about when I'm going to have time, and about finding a guy to have the kids with, and all of that stuff. I've got decent genetics on my side -- my mom had her first kid at 30, one grandmother had her first at 30, the other grandmother had her first at 38. But still, worried a bit.

There is Dainties [link] which is the one that is closest. I've never been. Susiecakes [link] is another one. It was actually pretty tasty. I've heard that Buttercake [link] is meh, but a woman at work swears by it. Bluebird Cafe [link] does more than just cupcakes... their lemon bars are yum.

If the guy is just asking about how people feel within the day-to-day effort, he might not be asking the right questions to get at what kids really mean to their parents.

The article is misleading -- he didn't do the study, but there have been at least 3 with very similar results. He talks about them his book, Stumbling On Happiness. Which is an excellent, fun read, btw. It's about why people are so terrible at predicting what will make them happy.

But the studies were about day-to-day (and moment-to-moment) happiness, because memory is extremely unreliable when it comes to how happy, or unhappy, something made you.

Anyway, here's a bit from a essay he wrote for Time about the parenting issue:

Our children give us many things, but an increase in our average daily happiness is probably not among them. Rather than deny that fact, we should celebrate it. Our ability to love beyond all measure those who try our patience and weary our bones is at once our most noble and most human quality.

[link]