Harvesting the Whale

We had our holiday party at the SeaLife Center last night, full of good food (although, coincidentally, no seafood was present at the long harvest feast buffet table) and shananegins. The above picture is from my shared cubicle at work: the interpretation department (that is, my friend Sara and I) entered the centerpiece competition for the night. We were given a little bag of goodies-a wicker cornicopia, red and yellow leaves, some plastic gourds-that we had to incorporate into a Harvest Feast centerpiece for the tables at the party. We wanted to keep with the harvest theme of the party, so we titled our piece "Harvesting the White Whale: Ahab's failed attempt". We made Moby Dick out of paper mache (he even had red googly eyes) and utilized a cheap Prince Charming Ken doll to create a proper Ahab, complete with a whaling spear. The bright neon blue is a Jell-O ocean, welling forth from our cornicopia. We had looks from everyone at the party, but we won't find out the winner until later. There was some formidable compition: a pilgram scene made completely out of chocolate and cookies, a bird coming out of a pie, an octopus battling a cornicopia. Apparently, I have quite a reputation at the center already. Everyone automatically assumed the centerpeice, with a Ken doll stabbing a whale, was my creation. Hooray. I'm a radical. At least Ahab doesn't actually win in the end--it was really a piece for animal rights. Win, Moby, win!

    I was even able to take Tyler on a flashlight tour of our aquariums we keep behind the scenes. The fish look so much creepier in the dark when they're spotlighted by a flashlight. I think one of the rockfish thought the flashlight would have been a tastey treat, too. It was attempting the heave itself toward the light at the surface. Silly rockfish.