Now Departing: National Ice Cream Month

The moment many of you have been waiting for. One day left before bidding farewell, for another year, to National Ice Cream Month. Finally we are featuring July's celebratory cookie - compliments of Fancy Flours.

Background. Once a month Highlowaha partners with Fancy Flours to host a Cookie Cutter Challenge. I identify a holiday worth celebrating and you identify the cookie cutter I must incorporate into the celebration. It's a challenge, because many of you select the cookie cutter you think least likely or least related (i.e. National Ice Cream Month and airplanes, Richard's birthday and mermaids, Earth Day and porcupines). Once the cutter is identified, I have one month to make the cookies and "serve them up."

This month was a double challenge. Not only did I have to find the point of intersection between ice cream and planes, but I also need to construct (literally) the 3-D airplane cookies. Baking 3-D cookies are not for the faint of heart. In fact, I'd say the ideal resume of a 3-D cookie maker is part baker, part architect.

I haven't quit my day job, but still I'm pretty pleased with what I, and the rest of my flight crew, came up with. Take a look.

Now Departing: First Class Sundae!

You'll notice, we kept "decorating" to a minimum. Only the tips of the wings were dipped in chocolate. The cookie itself is so remarkable, we wanted to keep the main thing the main thing. Each cookie sat atop a mountain of ice cream surrounded by cumulus whipped cream clouds. Weather conditions changed as passengers showered their "plane" sundaes with crushed Oreos, coconut, sprinkles, nuts, or hot fudge.

For added touches, baggage tags served as napkin rings and boarding pass sleeves served as covers to our First Class Sundae invitations.

Two cookie tasks today.

First, win your own 3-D cookie cutter by making the winning suggestion (as judged by me, Cheryl, Heather, and Katie) for another occasion when you might use the airplane and the accompanying slogan.

Second. Help select the cookie cutter for next month. Theme?...

College campuses all around the country are gearing up to present their award winning orientation programs and welcome week activities to the class of 2013 (or so). I am sure there are impressive things happening everywhere, but the one program in the country I have the most fun following is the Orientation program at Bucknell University.

The Assistant Dean in charge of their program is one of the most visionary, most creative, and one of the biggest thinkers I know. Student staff at Bucknell must feel like they've returned to campus early, not only to selflessly serve new students for a week, but also to step foot into Disneyland. From theme to decorations, to leader treats, to table decorations, and promotional materials, there is no detail unattended.

Today we will gear up to celebrate Bucknell's orientation program. This year's theme? Tricky, that's what it is. The theme they will bring to life, under her leadership, is...

"O" Museum. She will transform portions of her campus to be exhibits of dinosaurs, air and space exhibits, a portrait gallery, and leader-created modern art. Maybe in early fall I will work with the Assistant Dean to feature pictures of her production. Then you can see the magnitude of what I'm so ineptly describing.

In the meantime... give me my cookie cutter. What's it going to be? Peruse the Fancy Flour museum of cookie cutters and find me the one you think I ought to have to use. Then tune in early next week to find out the winner.

Signing off until tomorrow...