Rat Tail...The Nemesis

All the great ones have a nemesis... Superman, Batman, Liz Lemon... And US!
Before our very first competition, we were understandably nervous. We weren't sure what caliber of competitor we were up against. Upon arriving and dropping our MASTERPIECE off, we were able to scope out the competition a bit more and were instantly relieved. It's not that the other houses were bad... they were adorable, they were charming, they were cute. But not a'one of them had the detail, the intricacies, the magic that ours had. We assumed we were a "shoe in"... we assumed wrong.

While we placed 2nd in our very first competition, the piece that won 1st place was, how shall I say... underwhelming? The theme of the competition was "Winter Wonderland".  *WE* created a gorgeous, sparkling, sugary palace, compete with a covered bridge and a horse-drawn carriage. We named it "The Lustre of Mid-day on Objects Below". Rat Tail's submission was called "Alice in Winter Wonderland", a name that the judges found terribly clever. There were some impressive elements, a molded caterpillar with a hooka pipe on a mushroom, for example. But overall, it was sloppy, it was poorly executed... it was just ok.

The creator of said house was a young man who's name we never actually caught, but his one distinguishing characteristic was a 14"long rat tail. Yes. A rat tail. We were both thrilled at placing but baffled as to WHY we came in behind this less than spectacular submission.

Flash forward, one year. We are ready to submit our second piece to the same competition, certain that this year we NAILED IT. We had detail, we had whimsy, we had realism, we had molded marzipan for cryin' out loud!!!

We dropped off our piece and went to grab some breakfast and who do we see at the charming breakfast cafe we stopped in???? RAT TAIL!! Our old nemesis had RETURNED!
Thankfully, we received 1st place that year... But it didn't remove the sting of having come in behind something that looked like a terrible 6th grade diorama.

Next week takes us back to our usual competition, which of course, we are certain we're going to win. But in the back of all of our minds... we all wonder, will Rat Tail return to give us a run for our money???