a story told in Kyelitweets, photos, and a bit of narration for suspense and glue
Our story begins on the morn of Kyeli’s 33rd birthday. Pace hands Kyeli a battered manila envelope containing a sole piece of paper.
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My first clue! Birthday treasure hunt! |
Kyeli googles “kyeli33″, but Google fails her. She takes the hint of the stapled business card and constructs a clever URL:
There were two paths to solving the second clue: a nerdy path and a geeky path. The nerdy path was to look at the lengths of the letter groups. The geeky path was to View Source and examine the almost-but-not-quite-black HTML color codes of the clues. Kyeli chose the geeky path and filled in the answer: 2 2 2 2. Coffee and 2222 could mean only one thing…
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Got it by cleverness! Starbucks on 2222! And we’re off! (: |
At Starbucks, Kyeli was struck by pronoid fantasies. Who was out to make her happy on her birthday? It could be anyone, lurking behind any corner. It could be the barista, the customers… who knew? After scouring the rest of the coffee shop, she ventured over toward the bulletin board…
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Wow, that was hard! Found the next clue on the memo board at Starbucks! WTF??! |
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Omigosh, I’m texting someone I don’t even know! |
But what Kyeli didn’t know was that it wasn’t someone she didn’t know — it was Marissa!
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Fast response! “Happy birthday, Kyeli! Your next clue is: “Nada Chicken @ A&B”! That’s a Thundercloud sub – Anderson & Burnet! Going! |
…and on the bulletin board at Thundercloud Subs:
I don’t know who could have committed this misdemeanor, but it sure was a lucky coincidence that it contained the next clue for Kyeli’s quest, leading her to Conan’s Pizza…
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Graffiti! Defacement of public property! Clue #5! |
You see, @martieu had already tweeted the next clue ahead of time.
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Woah, clue said: quilling croix samurai comment, led to @victoriashmoria‘s blog, clue there is: email another person I don’t know! Wow! |
Kyeli googled “quilling croix samurai comment”. Click on the first link and scroll to the bottom to see the next clue.
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Email sent. Now to lunch while we wait for a response! (: |
But while Kyeli refreshes her email, her phone rings. It’s a mystery caller!
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Clue received, mysterious call from an unknown person. “Broken Legolas, abbreviated Luke.” O_o |
This was another googler.
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Clue found: isbn 1932394699, within 100 meters of sushi. Huh! That’s a Ruby on Rails book… Sushi… Hmmmm… |
Kyeli ponders. Where is there a bookstore near a sushi place?
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Got it! Sushi at Whole Foods, and Book People is about a block from there! On to Book People!! |
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OH!! It’s IN the Ruby book! Wow, I nearly missed that one! It almost didn’t even occur to me! Next clue: @sarahbairstow! |
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Man, I hope this is at least almost as fun for you guys as it is for me! Next clue: “go to the exact spot where you and Pace got married.” |
That’s a particular spot in our backyard. The intrepid adventurer returns to the place at which her quest began.
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Is the suspense killing you?? |
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Found it! More graffiti!! Hmmm… |
OKC stands for OKCupid. On Kyeli’s OKCupid profile, there’s a picture of her sitting on top of a marble cow. She took a peek…
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HOLY SHIT SHE HACKED MY OKCUPID ACCOUNT!!!!!!!!!!!! |
…and found that some sneaky internet ninja had logged in as her and photoshopped her picture!
“The young wobbler” refers to Wobbly Thing Jr., a rolling file cabinet thingy that (as you might expect) wobbles.
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Treasure found! Here’s the box, kindly mutilated by the cats… |
(I have no idea why the cats were trying to get at Kyeli’s birthday treasure.)
Pleased and satisfied with the contents of the final cache, at last, Kyeli had completed her quest. Or so she thought…
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HOLY SHIT I’M NOT DONE!!! |
Google leads the way…
After solving the riddle and texting yet another mystery number…
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Fastest response yet! “Final clue is Plato’s theory of forms”! Eeeeeee! |
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Hey! Hey! We read about that in “Sophie’s World”, which is currently in the glovebox in the car! |
Rushing to the garage, Kyeli opens to the chapter on Plato’s theory of forms.
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…with a twist! Pace is taking me to Portland!!!! Ooooooh happy happy! Squee!! |
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Well, that’s pretty fucking epic. A trip to Portland so I can shop in my favorite store in person. I am one happy girl. <3 |
Soon, we will get in touch with our Portland friends so we can be sure to see them when we visit. Soon, Niq will give us the Grand Tour of Sock Dreams HQ.
There will be photos. There will be blogging.
But for now, this concludes Kyeli’s 33rd Birthday Quest. Not To Say That She’s Had 33 Birthday Quests, But More Like That It’s About A Quest In Honor Of Her 33rd Birthday.
Tagged as:
birthdays,
quest
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Fun!! Have a great time in Portland, and a wonderful 33rd year.
Aww! It was awesome seeing Kyeli tweet it live, but it makes much more sense all laid out like this. Congrats Pace on pulling this off. ;)
Love love loved this, and yay for happy 33rd birthdays!
.-= Nathalie Lussier´s last blog ..Behind The Scenes of The Magick Menu Launch =-.
Treasure hunts are the best birthday thing EVER. I organized an awesome one once for a friend’s birthday on Earlham College’s campus. It ended with an army of watergunners and a cake shaped like a pair of boobs. It was pretty epic.
Happy birthday, Kyeli! I’m glad you were born! :)
.-= Oliver Danni´s last blog .. =-.
This was awesome and adorable. Thank you for letting us in on it – via Twitter and this post. :) Have a great 33rd year!
.-= Chris Anthony´s last blog ..On degrees of uniquity =-.
Awesome!
Yay! I’m so glad you shared the whole treasure hunt with us!
I’m amazed at Kyeli’s clue-solving abilities…I don’t think I would have been able to solve many of those!
Happy birthday, Kyeli! xoxo
.-= Victoria Brouhard´s last blog ..Remembering =-.
@Victoria: A lot of the clues were specifically tailored to places and things Kyeli is familiar with, so she had an advantage over you. (:
You did an awesome job with this, Pace!
To answer your question, Kyeli: yes, following along on Twitter was a lot of fun!
.-= Josiane´s last blog ..Middle of the night musings =-.
What fun it was to follow along with Twitter, but how awesome tto see it put toggether with the pics!
This looked like so much fun. I love turning life into a series of adventures. Happy Birthday :)
.-= Cha´s last blog ..Conflicted =-.
That was so amazingly awesome to read.
*blinks* So when will you guys be in town? :)
Not sure yet! Haven’t firmed up travel plans yet.
Would be neat to get to meet you guys for lunch or something while you are in town :)
Drop me a line if you are interested?
You two are AWE-SOMMMMEEEE! I’ll be laughing for hours!
YOU are THE CUTEST !!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
((hug)) athena