Well, there were no monsters in the mysterious ice cave. Instead there was an ice cream fairy named Nea. Now, I don’t know if the fae folk actually have outposts in Antarctica, or if they are as trustworthy there as their counterparts in other parts of the world (that is to say, not at all). In the picture above, you can see Nea the ice cream fairy, along with our foster kitty Potpourri.

Nea claims to know about the shining key that Pancake the Penguin carries. “But it’s been hundreds of years since I’ve seen one,” she says. This, of course, brings up the possibility that there’s a whole slew of these keys that open the treasure chest at the end of Pancake’s journey. Are there other adventurers wandering around, looking for keys and treasures that grant penguins the gift of flight on Christmas Day? Will there be a flock of flying penguins?

I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.

But kids: DON’T TRUST FAIRIES!

‘Tis the season for fairy holidailies!

Today is the third Sunday in Advent, but I didn’t go to church today, because we had people over for our monthly board game session. I’m a bad Episcopalian.

Today’s Episcopal Advent Calendar entry (worship) reads, “Imagine the faces you’d like to see at church — an all-star list of folks you want to worship with. This could be people you know from summer camp when you were a kid, people who might have already died, people you work with — all your favorites. Commit to pray for those folks this week. And make a commitment to ask one of your all-stars to come to church with you in the next month.”

I have a long list of “all stars”, people I’d like to go to church with, from friends to long-lost family. Most of my friends are either atheists or agnostic. I think my family is too. We’ll make something work, though.

On day ten, Pancake and Pep encounter a mysterious cave in the mountains they’ve been traversing, just beyond the ice cream trees. The light gleams off the key, and shines into the cave, and there are mysterious noises coming from within…

I think we all know how this story goes.

You may recall H. P. Lovecraft’s tale, “The Beast in the Cave“. In this story, a man who was part of a tour group in some caves gets separated from the rest of the party, and gets lost in the caves. He encounters a MUTANT GIANT ALBINO PENGUIN, of all things (always a source of great amusement to me), and then is stalked by a creature, the titular Beast, which is apelike, hairy, all white, and blind, hunting the lost man by sound alone. In the end, we learn that the best stalking the narrator was once a human being who had gotten lost in the cave himself, many years ago!

Spoiler warning for a story that was published over a hundred years ago and that resides in the public domain.

You can tell that Pancake and Pep are probably going into the cave, since there is a Pancake-shaped opening in the front. My theory is that they go in, Pep finds a nice pond to swim in, and Pancake becomes the penguin that stalks the narrator of “The Beast in the Cave”.

That probably won’t happen, exactly in that way.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Fun fact: Lovecraft wrote this tale at age 14.

A Scary Tale of Holidailies for You!

Today’s entry in the Episcopal Advent Calendar centers on the theme of rest and reads, “Set aside 30 minutes to spend in silence with your best friend today. Sure, it may feel a little weird to be silent on the phone or while sitting next to each other on the couch or across the table. Just give it a try. Make sure to set aside time after your silence to pray for each other and to say thanks for the time of rest.”

This would be easy if my best friend weren’t Jennifer the Agnostic. We do sit in silence quite often, reading or snuggling the cats. But praying for each other afterwards might be hard for her.

Awkward.

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.

A yummy day for Holidailies!

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.

In today’s segment of the adventure, Pancake the Penguin gets her backpack for the key. The packet contained a piece of cardstock with four paper backpacks attached. Here you see the selection:

There’s one missing here, because by the time I’d thought to take a picture of the Penguin Outback Store, I had already selected and removed the green one, green being my favorite color. The idea is that you put the backpack on Pancake the Penguin, then insert the key (that we got on Day Four) into it. Here’s Pancake with her backpack and key:

Forgive the lighting. It’s terrible. It’s my own fault.

I loved backpacks when I was in high school and college, and would take my own sweet time when shopping for one for the school year. I was never really into outdoor backpacking as an activity (I’ve only gone once, at Lassen Park, and that was quite a fun adventure which I will discuss in another post), so the backpacks I bought were mostly for school use. Now I just have a Josten backpack that I bought at Target for about $20 five years or so ago. It doesn’t get much use since I’m no longer in college and I work at home. It’s a good workhorse, though.

But look at me still talking about backpacks when you want to learn more about Pancake’s journey. Sorry for the digression.

I think it’s unfair that Pep doesn’t get a backpack. And tomorrow’s adventure explains why I think that way.

Setting out on an adventure for Holidailies 2022!

Today’s Advent reading from the Episcopal Advent Calendar (focusing on the Learn segment of the Way of Love) is, “Read Luke 1:45. Share your faith story with one new person this week. It can be someone you have known for a while who has not heard the faith part of your story. Well, I feel like I’ve already done this: see Happy Zombie Jesus Day Part One and Part Two. You’re more than welcome to click through and read.

I feel like I ought to contribute more to our community. Sacramento’s a big city, and with a big city there are Big Problems. So I contacted the coordinator of the Sacramento ACT organization which works with Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and got an email back last night. I will get back in touch and see if I can get involved there.

CW: Penguins, Religion

I’m keeping the religious/spiritual part of this part at the bottom, so you can go ahead and skip it if you like.

Anyway.

Today’s Adventure for Pancake and Pep involves going to their uncle Nav, who apparently owns a golden key that can open a secret treasure chest. Here is a picture of the key:

Inside the chest is Secret Christmas Magic that will make a penguin able to FLY on Christmas Day! Now this is spiffy. It reminds me of the book, A Wish for Wings that Work, by Berkeley Breathed. It features Opus the Penguin from the comic strip Bloom County, and that’s about all I know about it. It was published in 1991 — 1991, people! Back before the turn of the century! BEFORE THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM! AIGH! Ahem. — and I don’t think I’ve read it since then.

Anyway, it seems sad that Pep doesn’t get to have any special adventures on Christmas Day. Does Pep get to fly as well? Or walk on land? I don’t know. Perhaps at some point, we’ll learn.

I was also sad that today’s piece is not something to assemble, just a piece of key-shaped cardstock paper. I will place it on the molding, next to Pep, and hope it doesn’t fall off when the wind blows.

‘Tis a season for Holidailies!

Today marks the beginning the second week of Advent season 2022. Some time ago, Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, began preaching about the Way of Love — “If it’s not about love,” he says, “it’s not about God.” — which has seven stages. In the Episcopal Church’s Advent calendar, each day of each week is associated with a different stage of the Way of Love. The stages or steps are:

1. Worship
2. Go
3. Learn
4. Pray
5. Bless
6. Turn
7. Rest

Today, being the first day of the second week of Advent, is about Worship, and this calendar from the Episcopal Church’s website provides meditations and activities that go along with the theme of the day. Today’s reflection: “Read Luke 3:1-6. How does the story
of John the Baptist fill your heart with hope?” I’ve already answered this question for myself in my first blog post of this season, so I won’t answer it here. I will say, though, that I have not been to an Espiscopal service since before the pandemic. I feel like a bad Episcopalian.

I have to say I miss having a lit Advent wreath at home. It was pretty special when I was a kid, having the wreath on the table and lighting each candle at suppertime. Unfortunately, in a house full of curious cats who don’t have enough sense of self-preservation to keep their noses away from a candle flame, a lit advent wreath just isn’t worth the effort.

Anyway. Happy Advent! Remember, the season of Christmas and the Twelve Days of Christmas begin on Christmas Day. So there.