Greetings Friendliest of Friends!

I am about to uncover the mystery of the universe.

Well, my universe, anyway.

Yep. I am going to tell you why I’ve been getting the Shakopee Valley News.

” I was born in a log cabin, lo,  these many years ago.”  Whoops. Wrong story. Let me try again.

“It all started when I was going through chemotherapy, five years ago. I took to writing long emails and sending them out to family and friends as I sat there for hours. I mean, a girl can only take so many naps.”

“When I finished my rounds of chemo,  I was trying to decide how to re-imagine my life like I did after the first go around twenty years earlier. (That was when I decided to go back to school for my elementary  ed. licensure)”

“Hmmmm. It needed to be something enjoyable and sustainable. Maybe this time it would be something that I already did, but I could do more of on a deeper scale. And, I really didn’t want to owe the U of MN , or U of MN Parking any more money, so, no more classes.”

“Got it! I really enjoyed writing those emails. Maybe I could get the hubster to set up one of those blogs for me. And the rest you know.”

“I have thoroughly enjoyed writing the blogposts. The feedback has been heartwarming and I get a chance to be creative.”

“I shared them with my friends and family in person and on Facebook. A small group of 40-60 or so.   Dependable. Happy. Curious. Complimentary. Trustworthy. And not at all pranksterish.”

“Well, there are a few who might.  You know who you are.”

“So I did not see this prank coming. Not at all.”

“It was from the hubby of a work colleague of my hubster!!!! Somehow he got wind of my blog and started reading it. And he liked it! He thought it was funny and started sharing the pertinent funny parts with more of the hubster’s work colleagues.”

“YES!!!! They ALL knew about the prank. For weeks they knew about it!!”

“As  we struggled to figure out why we were getting this newspaper in our mailbox, the chief prankster kept up the ruse and was very sneaky about it.”

“You see, the prankster and his wife( the hubster’s work colleague) had moved to Shakopee!!!  My address book had their old Robbinsdale address.”

“And here was the other clue that I missed. If you recall, the paper was addressed to a Jason.  Well, I know the prankster only as Jay.  I never connected the two.”

“Okay, here’s the best part. Every Monday, after they had taken the sales circulars out of the Shakopee Valley News that they have delivered to their house, the paper would be put into the prankster’s car.  After work, it would travel to Brooklyn Park  to the old Brunswick Zone, newly named Bowlero, which is just a hop, skip and  jump from our house.”

“The prankster bowls every Monday night with his old elementary school friends.  And afterwards, he’d drive by our house and drop off the Shakopee newspaper!!!”

“Oh, he was careful not to get caught. A few times he had to go around the block once or twice because either I was working on my craft room with a good view of the mailbox, or there was a crack in the blinds.  He even thought maybe we knew about it and were pranking him back!!!!”

“And here he is, Prankster Extraordinaire, the Jason, not Jay, who had us completely bamboozled about why we were getting the Shakopee Valley News.”

“So, now you know. The Mystery of the Shakopee Valley News Delivery has been solved.”

And, oh my goodness, how we laughed. You see, last night we had just gone to an escape room themed on Harry Potter. We solved it with about a minute and a half left. WooHoo!! We were congratulating ourselves with dinner at the  Bonfire on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, when the prankster handed scripts to the hubster and myself, prompting us to read them out loud.

“One more puzzle!” he cried.

My reading was a blog written by the SVN newspaper and the hubster’s was a parody of “I’m Just a Bill.”  Both were very, very creative and funny.

But we still didn’t get it!!!! It had to be spelled out to us!!!!!!

Unbelievable.

I hope the rest of your weekend is full of laughter and joy, friends and family, reading and making things.  Oh, and from the second grader world,  spinosaurus means “spiny lizard.”

Love,

Janet