Birthday treasure hunt

m'gurls went all out for my 49th birthday, unwrapping the morning like a very special present.

Let's just follow along with what they did.

Waiting for me on the dining room table this morning:



Huh! I wonder if I should pay attention to this card? The cipher reads:

17·9·3·5–19·14·1·3·11

What could it mean?

Inside there was a card:



Hm. Cooker. I went right to (eventually, after I tried to look in the oven. "PAPA! DON'T LOOK THERE!" ... *ahem*) the rice cooker.

Ooh! Korean Crispy Rolls! My Favorite! I haven't had these in a year! Present 1. On it was posted a note:



It reads:

Go:

• Gravity makes you go _____.
• Nana Upstairs; Nana _____. (Tomie DiPaola)

Look in:

•  ♫ I like _____, I like tea ... 🎶
• Miami Sound _____. (Gloria Estafan)

EM was shocked – shocked, I say! – that I knew the clue about Miami Sound [something]

Well, – shockingly! – this clue lead me down-stairs to the coffee-machine, and there by it was this:

Yay! My favorite! Present 2. And on it was this note:

I don't know about your Elvish script sight-reading? But mine isn't so good. So my dear EM, who had incidentally been studying the language, for, you know, that just-in-case need, volunteered to translate it for me.

It's amazing. God works in mysterious ways, doesn't He?

The translation ended up to be something like this:

for-clothes-not-me

but-we-end-up-the-same-way

So, off to the laundry room we go (me: wince-wince-wincing on my wimpy feetsies, having just run a 5-miler.) (Oh, poor me!) and, not in the washer! but in the drier was this:

Geddit? Dried cranberries in the dried ... um, drier? GEDDIT?

I haven't had dried cranberries in a while, either. Yay! Present 3. This was turning out to be a cool birthday, particularly with all the fun the kiddies were having.

On the dried cranberries (geddit?) was this note:

"COATRACK" if you read down, not across. sry. So off to the coatrack we go, and there I found Present 4:

Ooh, mmm! Dark chocolate fruity-thingies! On this was the next clue:

The 'yogurt incident' was that EM had preheated the oven ... with my yogurt fermenting in there.

PSA: check your ovens before you preheat them, your yogurt, and all the cookie sheets stored in there! Sheesh! So, the oven had the last gift:

... which I am now wearing! A green, Jack Frost, collared tee and Captain America jammies! YAY!

Happy birthday, everyone! YAY!