Ice cream for Sale!

When I was younger, probably around the age of 6, I would flip over our pink bigwheel. I'd sit on the back of it and yell at the top of my lungs "Ice cream for sale! Ice cream for sale!" Look at me now- I'm not selling it, I'm eating it. Mmm, thanks ice cream man; for the hope of ice cream all those years ago- though I cannot for the life of me remember actually getting the treat of ice cream from one of those trucks.

In Guatemala, people would walk around town with freezer carts full of popsicles. They'd usually be selling an assortment of cool whip bars posing as ice cream, fruit flavored popsicles, and choco bananas. The choco bananas were the best because they were cheap, it's really hot in Guatemala, and you could find them almost anywhere.

Today, instead of being a weirdo yelling about ice cream, I was creeping through bushes looking for pine cones.

A couple of days ago, a couple friends and I were planning crafts for our breakfast with Santa coming up this weekend. We happened to come across the idea of owls made from pine cones. Imagine our rapture and excitement. We had found a seemingly simple and worthwhile craft any child could assemble and any mother could display with pride.

I was tasked with finding pine cones, as I had volunteered that we have a heavy-laden pine tree right outside our back door.

Unfortunately for us, there were only 8 cones when I looked for them on Wednesday night. Since I have a couple pine trees along the outside perimeter of my work building, I also looked today during my lunch hour for raw owl materials.

I noticed some beds of pine needles, so I was a little nervous about disturbing a homeless person's sleeping area. I threw my caution to the wind, however, and was able to find an additional 22 pine cones to my hoard- many of which were quite daintily sized. 

The nice part about gathering pine cones in that area, is nobody really paid attention to me; that I know of. However, as I walked next to our well-manicured building, looking under the bushes for any stray supplies that might be waiting, I noticed a couple of ladies talking close by.

I happened to crouch in the bushes, rustling around in their vicinity and then Ack! Eye contact. I couldn't look away. So I asked the lady whom I had eye contacted if she could toss the pine cone on her side of the fence over to me. I believe that alleviated about 3 ounces of awkwardness. The rest lay intact at my feet.

Tonight I will be baking them in my oven and getting them all ready to decorate. Owl bet you want to make one yourself, don't you?