On Day Nine of their adventure, intrepid Pancake the Penguin and her pal Pep the Land Lubbin’ Fish come across some unusual trees. These are more unusual than the Antarctic pine trees they came across the other day; these trees are made of ICE CREAM!
Now I’m not sure why a tree would have evolved to look and taste like ice cream, but this morning while Jennifer assembled her advent puzzle and I assembled the trees, we bandied about some theories. Neither of us are zoologists, mind, nor are we environmental ecologists. So the best theory we have is this: Much as the Venus flytrap plant generates pheromones that are tantalizing to certain insects, enticing them to explore the plant’s interior and then SLAM get stuck in the closing leaves, we figure these trees evolved ice cream-like properties to entice young adventurers to approach and get eaten.
“NO!” I screamed to Pancake and Pep. “DON’T EAT THE ICE CREAM TREES!” But alas, they did not heed my warning. They’re only papercraft, after all.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Mmmm. Ice cream.
Today’s entry in the Episcopal Advent Calendar reads, “Where did you struggle this week? Do you have amends or apologies or adjustments you need to make? Ask God to open your heart and mind to those opportunities for reconciliation and growth. Thank God for the gifts of mercy and love, and the courage to make the changes necessary. And then do your best, with God’s help, to make
those changes.”
I can admit that I messed up a bit at work this week. My immediate reaction, of course, was to place blame elsewhere: if the client had made the requirements clearer, if the lead developer hadn’t done this or that, and so on… but the reality is that I am the one who misread the requirements, and so on. I’ve made my apologies already, and solved the problem. I think. The lead developer and I worked together on making the thing work. And I told the project manager that a post-mortem on this particular issue, involving the client and our testing manager, would be a good idea.
So yeah. Amends, apologies, adjustments.
I’ve found that it’s always best to take the blame at work. (And frankly, it’ll end up on me anyway if I didn’t.) People love it when you apologize, too.
Thanks for working on the account–obviously I’ve got it to post 🙂
Neapolitan trees look delicious!
If I have to exit this life, being eaten by an ice cream tree seems like as good and fitting a way as any. And I won’t apologize for that take.