...or, you know, tell me to set my watch forward by a month.
It's actually Mother's Day today (happy day, Mommy!), and it's now actually five Sundays late, but I do want to share something with you vis-à-vis Easter. (Sorry I didn't post this somewhere around the actual date of Easter - I've been busy counting ecclesiastical moons.)
***
One of my lovely roommates had a lovely tradition with her mother: every Easter Sunday, instead of doing an Easter egg hunt, her mom set up an elaborate a scavenger hunt, at the end of which was hidden an overflowing Easter basket.
So, that's what we decided to do as a house for Easter! Everybody designed 1-4 clues that they hid in various places around the property, and people gave their first clue to the previous person on the list. So, for example, I wrote two clues, the first of which I gave to Melissa. Melissa hid that clue wherever she wanted. When we eventually found that clue as a group, only I knew where that first clue led to (which was the place I'd hidden my second clue).
We all worked together, and apart from some bad sportsmanship (we should have said Googling answers was punishable by flogging), we all had a pretty good time. When we finally found the Easter basket that Corrina put together, we had a fantastic picnic outside.
I thought I'd share some of the clues with you just to share the love: see how many you can figure out! (and NO Googling.) (Some clearly are inside jokes, but most are universally answerable). If you only decide to do a couple of them, take a gander at #3 & #5. Enjoy!
Clue #1:
 |
Clue #2:
 |
| *the asterisk in the first line should be a blank. You're looking for the letters in the blanks (and the accidental asterisk letter). |
Because we wrote the answers on this clue, here's the typed-out version. This was the most fun clue to solve!
1_____ 2_____ 3_____ 4_____ 5_____ 6_____ 7_____ 8_____ 9_____ 10_____
It was a pleasure to burn. (last name) 1
I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. (title) 2
"To be born again," sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die." (last name) 3
Call me Ishmael. (title, 2nd word) 4
riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. (title) 5
I am an invisible man. (last name) 6
Elmer Gantry was a drunk. (title) 7
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. (last name) 8
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. (first name) 9
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. (first name) 10
Clue #4:
 |
| *this clearly is an insider's clue, so I'll just tell you where it led: We have a fantastic board game called "Ticket to Ride" that we love to play as a group, and one of the game's logos is this rainbow train. So, we found the next clue in the board game box. |
Clue #5:
Again, we wrote the answers on the clue, so here it is in its original state. Can you guess who set up this one? :) (Take the time to solve this - I swear linguistics is fun!)
utanira elmen amapp
This clue speaks Obblewobblemock, a language that you have
to figure out. Here’s an Obblewobblemock
dictionary to help you out for the first two words. The dictionary got a bit gobbledygooked for
the end of the clue, though, so you’ll have to use your logic and your
knowledge of the house’s layout to match the Obblewobblemock with the English:
#1:
ilinitaga s/he
asked me
imemtaga s/he
has asked him/her
inakutaga s/he
is asking you
itakuzapala s/he
will hide you
unamzapala you
are hiding him/her
tulikura we
found you
***
#2:
ejmen under
the shelf
ejdwikmen under
the little shelf
ele in
the book
disdwikme on
top of the little sink
disimizin next
to our sink
leniz the
chair
lenizdwike in
the little chair
lenizin next
to the chair
***
#3: (remember, the word on the left DOES NOT MATCH the word on the right. You'll have to figure out the connections yourself!)
OBBLEWOBBLEMOCK ENGLISH
app downstairs hallway
amapp upstairs hallway
emez downstairs bathroom
oz downstairs kitchen
ez downstairs
closet/cupboard
amoz upstairs
closet/cupboard
ipp upstairs
bathroom
*note: I am not counting the basement as a floor;
“downstairs” refers to the main floor.
*note: the native speakers of Obblewobblemock do not
distinguish between “cupboards” and “closets”
Clue #6:
Clue #7:
Clue #8:
We seem to have lost clue #8, which was too bad: Tony wrote a computer program for his router. (Tony has built himself a CNC machine - a router attached to a computer - that now lives in the garage). The program essentially gave a whole set of X, Y, & Z coordinates, and if you plotted out the points on graph paper, you ended up spelling the word UKE. Meaning, the clue was in the ukelele (or, I should say, one of the ukeleles - we seem to have several around the house).
Clue #9:
I can't include clue #9 here, because it was a mix on a CD. We had to figure out either the artist name or song title for each song as it played, which were the answers for the final clue.
HAPPY EASTER! Once you get the answers to all or some of the clues, email me, and I'll buy you chocolate.
No comments:
Post a Comment