On March 4th, our good friend and neighbor began a painting project at our house.  We hired him to paint all the baseboard and trim.  He doesn’t officially have a business, but he keeps busy doing lots of different odd jobs for people he knows.  He thought the job would take a week, maybe two at the most.  He was here until March 29th…seventeen working days!!  It was seventeen days of a lot of people giving him a really hard time about how long it was taking.  In his defense, there was a lot of baseboard and twenty-three doors and most of the surfaces required three coats.  Anyway, over the course of those seventeen days, Tom, the girls and I got really used to having him around.  We would talk about lots of stuff and he would keep an eye on the girls if I had to run an errand.  Tom joked that he was going to include him on our census survey.  I would joke that he couldn’t be making more than 7 cents an hour.  So when he finally completed the job, he left us a framed picture of himself in our bedroom.  Supposedly, he was imitating Uncle Rico from “Napoleon Dynamite” in the photo, but I didn’t know that at first because I haven’t seen the movie. (It’s on my to-do list for this weekend.)  It’s a really funny picture, but it doesn’t look anything like him.

When I was talking to his wife about it she said she couldn’t believe he would give someone a picture like that.  Wasn’t he worried that it would come back to haunt him one day?  My evil plot was hatched.  I realized that April Fool’s Day was quickly approaching.  I have an excellent sense of humor, and I love a good practical joke, but I’m never the one who comes up with the ideas, until now…

I designed a brochure for his make-believe handyman business.  I had them printed at Staples and stuffed them in a lot of mailboxes in the neighborhood.

He was completely blind-sided.  My next-door neighbor currently has him at her house working on a kitchen project, and she showed him the brochure when she brought in her mail.  I know he thought it was funny, but he wouldn’t admit it to me, all he would say is “Touché, Jenny, touché.”  He also didn’t realize that there were several copies floating around the neighborhood until we told him, then I think he was a little more embarrassed.  I have no doubt that retaliation is in the works, but I’m okay with that.  Like I said, I love a good practical joke, even if I’m the victim.

Until later…