Wednesday, April 02, 2008

I Got Yer April Fools Joke Right Here

Bump had a rough day yesterday. First, he fell for my joke post. Now I think I'm hilarious, but saying you just made someone's life 1000 times easier - then telling him you're only kidding - is plain mean. Even I recognize that.

Second, he got not one, but TWO parking tickets. His tags expired at 11:59 on March 31. Nine hours and seven minutes later, he got slapped with a $30 ticket. Oh, Arlington County, now I understand how you can afford to renovate that park across the street every other damn year.

Nana was driving his car when it was ticketed, and she was mortified. We laughed it off - Bump has his renewal stickers, he just hadn't put them on yet - and the last time a similar thing happened with our county decals he was able to get the violation waived.

Now, he should have gone out right then and put the stickers on his plates. But it was raining. And Bump was a little distracted by the contractors, scheduling the cleaning lady before the Sunday Open House, finding a sitter for Friday, having to constantly bark "Baby, get out of there!", Lumpyhead needing another tissue, juggling nap schedules with one available crib but two children, and getting Nana to the airport.

We scored a babysitter for our anniversary. We should have put the stickers on when she arrived, but we were distracted by a baby for whom boxes and furniture present no obstacle (over, under, or shove it out of the way - she's quite wily - curse you, Mobility!), briefing the babysitter on the location of stuff in the chaos that is our house, a whining Lumpyhead ("Lumpyhead come to dinner wif yooooouuu!" "Lumpyhead go out for dinner tooooooo!"), finding an appropriate bribe to appease His Highness, and Bump requiring a shower before appearing in public.

After our very nice dinner, we returned to Bump's car to find a second little love note from our fair city for expired tags.

How was your April 1? Tell me about any good pranks you saw/heard of/played that didn't involve parking enforcement.

9 comments:

Anne said...

Oh ... I would have been your anniversary babysitter!!

Delora said...

Does Arlington not bother to log into the system to check on those things before issuing the ticket? The DMV database should have you down as renewed (last summer I was about 2 weeks late renewing, and after I did was given a cute little paper to print off to show to the officer if I was ever pulled over saying I had paid).

MoD said...

My colleague put a post-it note on the bottom of my mouse - over the infared sensor. I actually got down on my knees under my desk to check that everything was still plugged in and was reaching for the phone to call IS when I turned the mouse over and found a cheeky note. That will teach me to give someone at the office my extra key.

Anonymous said...

Dude. It's the Socialist Republic of Arlington. You should know better. Every year SJm tempts fate and every year he loses as the guy rolls up at 8:01am with a pre-written ticket. Every year he gets into it with the guy. One year he threatened to set the dog on him, who looked particularly non threatening as she lazily licked her crotch. Seriously. They drive around and around and watch those stickers. They count down the days with a hard-on.

Em said...

Poor Bump!

I hope the open house goes well and that you managed to enjoy your dinner.

BTW, Lumpyhead sounds a lot like Lucy when I try to leave the house.

Violet said...

My daughter April Fool's me every day, when she goes willingly down for her nap, then sits up 5 minutes later yelling for me to come play with her.

Laura said...

Personally, I saw/did nothing remotely April Foolishy, but I did enjoy AD's suggestion over at:

http://ambulancedriverfiles.blogspot.com/

I guess I'm just too focused on other stuff.

mo-wo said...

You were it for April 1. It was a good one.

Poor Bump.

Stimey said...

Did you hear about the Loof Lirpa?

See here.