The Mystery of the Unknown Visitor

As you all know, my family and I spent the weekend in Kingston, Ontario for my niece, Amy’s wedding.  She was an absolutely beautiful bride, and the wedding was perfect!  I fully expected to upload the hundreds of photos I took and do a quick post tonight about Amy and Nick’s special day, but after a long four hour drive home with five people crammed into my rental car (yes, my baby is still in the body shop), we arrived home to find a mystery of epic proportions.  I knew I had to begin my sleuthing right away.

Mike and Daniel were the first ones to the front door, and they stopped in their tracks with looks of puzzlement on their faces.  Calling me over, they pointed at the door on which was hanging the following gorgeous wooden paddle which, considering my blog name and email address, is absolutely perfect for our home.  Now this is where the humour creeps in.  On the reverse of the paddle we found the standard warning: “Choking hazard – small parts.  Not for children under 3 years”.  In handwriting underneath was the following:  “So don’t let Mike put this in his mouth”.  Ok, right off the bat we know the mystery person has an awesome sense of humour!!

On to the second part of the mystery.  Attached to the paddle was an envelope which made it very clear that this person was determined to keep his/her identity secret.  I immediately analyzed the handwriting very carefully to see if I recognized the hand in question, but it was totally unfamiliar to me.

Opening up the envelope we found a beautiful card with a picture of the Easter Bunny on the front and a detailed note inside which you will find below.  We all read the note together and were soon laughing uncontrollably.  It became obvious that this person has a major bone to pick with me over the difficulty of my weekly mystery photo LOL.  Now I just don’t understand the problem here – I have made it perfectly clear that I created the weekly mystery photo to help my blogging friends challenge themselves regularly in order to keep their brains sharp.  I do it for all of you because I care about your mental health so very much :).  Let’s be honest now – if the mystery photo was totally easy every week, you guys would get bored with it rather quickly because what you really love is a challenge, you know you do!

Now to play detective.  The mystery visitor made it clear that pitiful guesses would not be accepted, so I am going to be thorough and organized in my sleuthing.

1)  First, I reflected on which blogging friends regularly play the weekly mystery game and where they live.  Of all the regulars, the only ones who live in Southern Ontario within driving distance of my home are LouAnn, Sayvan, and Edith Levy.  However, Sayvan did not guess on the mystery photo this week and the note actually refers to how hard this week’s photo was.  I also didn’t consider Edith because she generally doesn’t complain about the mystery photo being too hard (tee hee) plus she doesn’t talk about chocolate the way some of the others do.  I also thought about a friend of mine from right here in Dundalk who plays the mystery photo through the Facebook link, but it can’t be her because the note mentions what a lovely home we have as if he/she is seeing it for the first time.

2)  I then questioned all of the neighbours to see if they had noticed any strangers in the neighbourhood over the weekend, but sadly nobody saw a thing.

3)  I then considered the clever and quick wit of the mystery visitor and the entertaining writing style, and combining that with all of the other clues and the fact that she loves to complain about the degree of difficulty of the mystery photo the most out of everyone :), it was obvious to all of us that the mystery visitor just had to be LouAnn.  Trying to get in to my home to search for chocolate was the clincher for me because I know that LouAnn is as much of a chocoholic as I am!

I know that I may be wrong in my deductions, but I hope the mystery visitor will reveal or confirm her identity seeing as I did make a concerted effort to solve the mystery without delay, and I must conclude with the following thank you’s.  First and foremost, thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this.  Nobody has ever done something like this for me before, and it absolutely made my weekend!!  I will hang the paddle in my home with pride and will always cherish this memory :).  Also, thank you for saying I am a bright girl, for saying that I have a lovely home, for wishing us a safe trip without any deer encounters, and for saying that you really do enjoy my blog.  I only wish that I had been here to actually meet you in person and welcome you into my home.  That will definitely happen one day though – I am sure of it!!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart ♥♥♥♥♥♥.