It was the annual neighbourhood tag sale on the weekend so naturally I took the opportunity to hide some kid junk among the Nick Hornby novels and five-year old travel guides; purple ponies with irrevocably matted manes, a palm-sized carriage carrying a frizzled Cinderella, a barbie from Italy in full bridal regalia. And so on. While we made $100 (most of which was spent by day's end on Dairy Queen, Tim Horton's and some over-priced boconcini) it was sweet relief to unload some junk. Or so I thought.
With the potential for a meltdown high, the kid was given a pocketful of coins and sent across the street to hang with her gang. She proceeded to do the garage sale version of a pub crawl, spending a few minutes at each house's kid table, casting a careful eye over the goods. I forgot how far kids can stretch a buck. She returned an hour later with a clammy No Frills bag loaded with - to a three-year old's eyes - some seriously rockin' loot. Like, for instance, these Shrek legs. Why Shrek sans upper body was even for sale is anyone's guess (though I'm certain someone must have asked the same question about the matted ponies).
After some strategic questioning ["what are you going to do with Shrek's legs, honey?"] that went nowhere, it was evident the kid was not going to forsake them. True to her word the Shrek legs have turned up unexpectedly over the last three days, kind of like the Travelocity gnome.
