August 27, 2012

Monday Mischief: Scavenging!

This Monday Mischief is actually mostly about me and some mischief Mike's admin asked me to join in - but Rita benefited from the mischief as well!

Last week I participated in a scavenger hunt that was a team-building event for my hub's Finance department at work. The hub's admin was the one who invited me to be one of the "things" they scavenged for, so he didn't know I'd be there.

The hunt took place in downtown La Jolla, full of nice restaurants and shops and always bustling on a Friday afternoon - especially in the summer. I was told to hang out reading What the Dog Ate on the bench outside Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. There were 6 teams, and even though the hunt was to last all afternoon, they were told that my particular clue was only good from 2 to 3 (so I didn't have to sit there forever).

The clue was something like: "The dog ate my homework" is one of the most common excuses in America. Stop by this 3000 mile mountain range for a sweet treat, where you'll find a La Jolla author who can tell you what else the dog ate.

When I got there, the bench I was supposed to sit on was otherwise ocupied by a homeless guy. Luckily there was a tiny little wall about 6 inches off the ground in front of the shop, so I sat on that and pulled out my book and tried to make the cover obvious.



Only 3 teams found me. It was funny because they'd run up to the store and then stand there staring at it not knowing what to do. I'd smile and wave (btw, I only know about 5 of the 80 people that work for Mike locally so they had no idea who I was...) and they'd go, "Are you part of this?" And I'd say, "Read your clue again." Then they'd "clue in". They had to take their pic with me to prove they found me.

Mike's 2nd in Command managed to find me!
Guess whose team did not find me??? That's right, my own hub's team. I mean, don't you think he'd recognize that maybe that clue was about me? Nope. Turns out there were so many different clues that he didn't even see that one. I saw him and his team across the street at 3:05 so ran over to say hi. He was a little surprised/confused to see me. His team had split the pages of clues up to divide & conquer, and he hadn't seen that page. Oh well!

I thought for sure they'd lose, since I was a 100-point "find." (One of the highest available, I might add!) But, no, true to his competitive nature [remember last year's badminton tournament? and who could forget this year's dodge ball], they won! So, our winning streak here continues. In addition to a fine "winner" gold medal, the whole team won Amazon gift cards. (I told him if his team knows how to suck up to the boss right, they'll each use part of their gift card to purchase the boss's wife's book!) But wait, there's more... they also won this fine trophy:
Get it? ...a "G-gnome". (It's a biotech company... cute, eh?)
Things I learned:
  • If you want to draw people to your window, put chocolate in it! So many people stopped to look, drool and take photos -- some of them even went in and bought stuff! (I was one of those people...)
  • Sometimes cliches are cliches for a reason. There was a fat security guard in front of the jewelry store next door whose belly was so big he could barely reach to tie his shoes when he put his foot up on the planter. Two separate toddlers that toddled by with their parents threw fits when Mommy said "no chocolate." And tourists will snap pics of anything -- even candied apples in a window.
  • People watching (and eavesdropping) in La Jolla is fun! I heard at least 6 different languages: Spanish, French, Italian (I only know a few words of Italian but I heard them decide to go for gelato instead. Another cliche?), Russian (pretty sure it was Russian, or something close to it anyway - I recognized that sort of "wuzgsh" sound a lot of their words have from when we went there long ago), Swedish, and Japanese. Plus English of course. And add an 8th language if you count "cussing like a drunken sailor" as another language.
The cussing like a drunken sailor came from the homeless man - who got scarier and scarier as I sat there. At first I thought he had a phone, but then I realized he was talking to himself. A lot of the time I couldn't hear what he was saying, but at one point he started talking really loudly and in an annoyed tone, listing numbered "reasons." Such as "Reason number three: the &*$*-**@$ son-of-a-*%($) that came from *#@% [incoherent mutterings]." He got up to about reason number 8. I sat there hoping he wasn't listing reasons to go ballistic on the city streets of La Jolla. (If he had, at least there was an overweight security guard handy!)

Scary homeless man aside, it was a fun afternoon. And Mike wasn't the only one who came home with goodies. For participating, Mike's admin gave me a bag of dog treats for Rita, which she has very much been enjoying over the weekend. And I gave myself a dark chocolate caramel-covered apple. Hey, it's a fruit!

So everyone was a winner. 
Daddy brings home the hardware again! Hooray Daddy!


8 comments:

  1. Oh! That sounds like a hoot!!! I'm glad there were prizes! MB Bunny seems to always win!
    --


    Oh dear, prove you're not a robot words are getting harder! Here comes try #2.

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  2. By chance was the homeless dude African-American with dreadlocks up in a knit cap? Just asking because he sounds like one who was going crazy in the park a few weeks ago ranting like a #$**@ drunken sailor about the Park and Rec dept. (Disgruntled ex-employee perhaps?) Anyway, sounds like fun. And who could hang out by RMCF and NOT get herself a treat. And it is, indeed a fruit.

    P.S. The robot words (and today I have a picture) are almost illegible.

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  3. No, this was a white guy with a very deep tan and a really white goatee and white hair.

    I'm glad you are backing me up on the "it's a fruit" thing.

    And I'm sorry I have to do the stupid robot words. I know they are a pain, but if I get rid of them, I get a ton of spam comments. Grrr! I hate spammers.

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  4. I bet you couldn't believe Mike wasn't the first one there getting his 100 points!! Divide and Conquer or Divide and miss the easy clue? :)

    My Mum and Dad would have liked their Badminton challenge, they're always playing - they never let me play - doh!!

    Glad you had lottsa fun and Rita got the real prize!! :)

    Wags to all

    Your pal Snoopy :)

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  5. Wowie, your hubbie's office sounds like a fun place. I never have that much fun at work...at least not doing office-sanctioned activities :) That was a very creative clue. What DID the dog eat, by the way?

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  6. His office is mostly a stressful place, but they do manage to have fun sometimes! The dodge ball tournament they did this summer was a huge hit with everyone.

    The dog ate a lot of things... but there was one KEY thing... Here's the first two lines of the book:
    "The vet handed Maggie Baxter a plastic specimen bag containing a pair of size-tiny lavender thong panties extracted from her dog; but they were not hers. Or rather, they were hers now since she'd just paid $734 to have Dr. Carter surgically remove them from Kona's gut."

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  7. What an adventure! I laughed all the way through reading this post. I can't believe your hubby's team didn't find you, but others did! At least, your man still won. Love the garden gnome trophy and Rita looks adorable with her gold medal!

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  8. This was a very entertaining description of the scavenger hunt. Loved it!

    BTW, if you get too many complaints about the spam bot, come to the light--WordPress is calling. :)

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