On this day...

April 11, in the year…

…1689, William III and Mary II were crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain.
…1865, President Abraham Lincoln gave his last speech.
…1919, the League of Nations founded the International Labour Organization.
…1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
…1970, the United States launched Apollo 13.
…1976, Steve Wozniak designed and created the first Apple 1 personal computer.
…1994, Kendall Tacon was born.
…2001, Australia beat American Samoa in an international match of soccer, 31-0.

Oh wait what? Back up there.

Happy birthday, Kendall!

You have a cool birthdate, 4-1-1.
Why does “4-1-1” mean “information”? Because 411 is the directory assistance number here in the United States. If ever you need operator assistance or a specific area code (or a really awesome best friend), you dial 4-1-1.
__________

Kendall: Instructions for your 17th-Birthday-Puzzle-Scavenger-Hunt-Mash-Up
Part 3: Remix!
You’re doing well so far… was that triple puzzle hard?
The three puzzles should have told you what you need to look at now. Just take the first eight. Each of these eight “sets” consists of two letters.

You’ve actually already started to try to crack their code. But you have to know this: these sets are phonetically spelled, so make sure you sound them out correctly. Pretend you’re in Spanish class; the pronunciations there apply here also.

You should have started with 8, but you should have 16 individual “pieces” after you finish. BUT MAKE SURE THAT YOU KEEP THE PAIRS TOGETHER, IN THE CORRECT ORDER.
For example: 1--2 becomes 1 and 2
(See what I did? I kept them together and in the same order. This part should be simple!)

After you translate them, “remix” them around. You should end up with three words, a song title of one of my favorite bands.

Once you figure out the song title, Google the lyrics and use the CHORUS (yes, just the chorus) and the following Ottendorf cipher (A what? Come on now, be resourceful) to figure out the next step.

1-6-1, 4-3-5, 6-1-5, 1-2-3, 2-1-2, 6-1-4, 1-2-1, 3-6-4

Good luck!
_________

Recap of Kendall's scavenger hunt? I'll just describe what I set up, Kendall can tell you his side of the hunt.

Okay, I got to school early so that I could set up everything in time. I have been busy for the past couple of weeks so I didn't get to do this as timely as possible. Last year, I was ready by the time spring break ended, but my spring break this resembled a senior's fourth quarter. So I didn't get a lot done, including preparations for Kendall's annual birthday scavenger hunt. Nevertheless, I succeeded in preparing something that I was proud to call mine and dedicated to Kendall.

So, Kendall and I walked up to homeroom and his locker had a sign on it that said, "Are you ready for this? Open your locker." in a ransom-note kind of font with the cut-out letters and mismatched fonts and sizes.

Inside, I placed another sign that said, "Just follow the spiders. No, not the butterflies. Follow the spiders." with an accompanying post-it on which I wrote a three-number lock combination. Oh yeah, and Kendall is deathly afraid of spiders. TERRIFIED. He wrote about arachnophobia for his big Biology research paper last year.

I taped strips with images of black spiders along the Weinberg walls and the lockers which led from Kendall's locker (thanks Spencer for taping the ones above the lockers--I couldn't reach...), through the back fire-exit-stairs near W301 and to the second floor. The spider trail led to Shayne's locker.

Inside Shaynes locker was a picture of Aragog (hahahahahaha) and a folded piece of paper with the next set of instructions, along with 6 pieces of construction paper with designs on them. These strips of paper were pieces of three different puzzles, and Kendall had to piece together each of the puzzles and flip the strips over in order to figure out the three words needed to move on in the scavenger hunt.

I believe the three puzzles formed something like, "Look at my blog post titles."

He then read the instructions on today's BEDA post (above) and the song title he came up with was, "Friend Like Me" by Hawk Nelson.

Using the Ottendorf cipher and the chorus lyrics of the song, he then decoded the next message which said, "SAO TABLE."

Under the SAO table, I taped a piece of paper with the sentence, "PRINCES BATHE EVERYDAY SINCE PRINCESSES CAN SMELL." The letters were printed within puzzle pieces and were lined up in a way that you could read "PHYSICS" downward. I alternated the highlighted the letters to trick him.

In the Physics hallway, I taped a strip of spiders on one of the mirrors. Then, I placed the next set of codes onthe bulletin board across from the mirror so that when Kendall looked into the mirror, he would see the reflection of the codes behind him.

The next set of codes consisted of pictures that basically meant, "Go to Winney and say, 'I surrender to the strawberry ice cream.'"

I instructed Winney that she would only give Kendall the instructions only, and only if, he said the exact words mentioned above. Kendall got it right and she told him, "It's in Jen's locker."

Which wasn't that big of a deal beause all that was in there was a measly, though well-picked and appropriate, card that apologized for my lack of a real present and that strongly suggested that Kendall hold the guilt card above my head until I sufficiently make up for it.

Originally, I had planned on getting him this, but I never got around to ordering it. Next year will be double, no worries, I promise. He seemed to enjoy himself though. I expected him to take a really long time (especially with the triple puzzle thing) but he was very quick. I swear, he gets better and better every year. I have to make next year's harder. Much harder.

Oh and I'm wearing all blue for your birthday week. You didn't notice last year, I think, so I'm making sure this year that you know it's in your honor!

TODAY......
I really loved... 1000 Awesome Things
I smiled because... "Wait, P-H-Y-S-I-C-S isn't a word, right???"
Lyrics playing at this very moment as I type up this portion of the blog:
"...and the world is turning inside out, yeah..."
(Don't Stop Me Now by Queen....performed by Rhys and Cole)
Times it got COLD today: 4 so far....hopefully that number will go up?
Hours of sleep last night: 3 hours and 50 minutes
Friend of the day: Kendall!!!

--Jen :)