Ducks, Ducks, Ducks Everywhere

I finally brought in the pictures to add to the April Fools Report post I've been wanting to record (because it needed pictures to help get the point across). In the days leading up to the event, I gleefully shared my plans with friends and collegues, and the vast majority of responses were, "Oh, that's interesting", in very moderate tones. I realize that people are not understanding the setting very well, so that is where I will begin.

Imagine if you will, two main characters, let's call one Tom and the other Barbro. They are married, they live together, they share in each other's passions. Several years ago when they married and moved into a new house together, with a fairly small bathroom, it was discovered that from both households there were a fair amount of rubber duckies of varing shapes, sizes and colors. This collection was artfully arranged on any and all available surfaces in the bathroom - on the toilet, in the shower, around the tub, on shelves which seemed to be more dedicated to ducks than holding toothpaste, on the shower curtain (ok these weren't actual three dimensional ducks, but they do have eyes), to the point that one did get the feeling of being silently watched by a multitude of eyes while brushing one's teeth, shaving, etc. I accidently gave a pair of little rubber duckies as a stocking stuffer a few Christmases back to only hear two simultaneous responses, the first a joyful glee from Barbro, the other a groan and plea of no more ducks by Tom. That of course cued me in for future plans to exploit the situation.

Fast forward to 2007. I have a distributor of ducks, I put the order in for XX amount of ducks, and started making lists. Lists of where ducks could be tucked away and found at some distant point in time. The lists were long - there were a lot of ducks. I started getting nervous. Having never taken on the role of hiding items before, I had no idea how long it would take me. I could drag myself up and hide them in the middle of night, but frankly, I do love my sleep. So, Saturday, the last day of March, I started hiding some of the more "long-term" ducks. Feeling fairly confident that they wouldn't be found for at least a day or two. In the end I was able to hide all XX ducks without the main characters in the story being any the wiser, except for one:

This guy, or one similar, was found late at night when dad was cleaning up the office. Almost had it in the bag, although we had all gone to bed so he couldn't find out what it was about until the next day, where there were three ducks (sorry, no photos) lined up on the sink with a message: "And so it begins - Happy April Fools!"

By the time I had left, a fair amount had been found, a total of 13 including the message ducks from the morning:

It turns out Barbro is better at noticing the ducks placed in plain site, but Tom has stumbled on more in his daily going ons. By Monday evening, April 2, 35 ducks had been discovered:

And by Sunday, April 8, a total of 57 ducks have been located. Again, a different strategie taken by the two characters. One likes to hunt the ducks, the other likes to let the ducks come to him.

Needless to say, there are still a few more ducks to be found. I was suprised at how many were found in the first week, but in the end the joke was enjoyed by all. But the brillancy I must point out. In my best guestimate, it will still take quite awhile (months, years, decades?) for all the little ducklings to be discovered (and yes I do have a final head count, sealed up and stored in a safe place). The period of time between sitings will grow, and so it will be a year from now, a duck is found in a pocket, or a shoe, or somewhere and a smile is brought to the face of the fond remembrance of the brillant April Fools joke of 2007.