It's April Fool's Day - No Joke!

Today is April first, also known as April Fool's Day. I awakened this morning wondering why it is called April Fool's Day and what the history is behind it, so I started a quick research project. It appears that there are tendrils of roots going back to the days of Imperial Rome (although pushing back into B.C. times in Iran, so perhaps they are the birthplace of this strange tradition), continuing on through Chaucer (of course, because Chaucer had his fingers in many pies) and firmly continuing on into the Middle Ages.

This bust of Chaucer is in the Guild Hall Art Gallery in the City of London. 

Our weather goddess has decided to play April Fool's Day pranks on us here in Minnesota, giving us a cold and wet day with a small bit of snow today. However, just a bit farther west on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota at the towns of Fargo, ND and Moorhead MN, there is a blizzard and some places have received up to 20 inches (yes - 20 INCHES) of snow overnight. In fact, yesterday they were under both a blizzard and a tornado warning at the same time! I'm so very grateful that this storm hit the Red River region instead of a few hundred miles farther southeast.

Although this is actually a photo from yesterday afternoon, I wanted an old-time
feel to the picture. 

According to Wikipedia, if I shout out "April Fool" to you before noon, you are the Fool, but if it is after noon, I am the Fool. I suppose it depends on when you are reading this, but I'm writing this before 10:00 am London time, so I think I'm safe for at least two more hours. Therefore..."APRIL FOOL!" to all of my UK friends. My in-box has had several excellent April Fool's Day pranks already, the best being an offer for an upcoming clear coffee (a definite convenience for those who tend to spill their coffee or leave coffee stains on their paperwork at the office) from my local coffee house.

Some places in Europe celebrate April Fools Day by sneaking paper
fish onto the packs of unsuspecting victims. Thus - April Fish Day! 

I'm a bit (well ... maybe closer to a lot) frustrated today. The backspace key on my laptop was acting up, taking several pushes to get any response. so I had to pull it off and see what was messing it up. Now, newly cleaned and working well, I can't get the keypad re-installed properly and am now thinking up alternative methods of attaching my keypad instead. (grumble...growl...arghhhh!)  I'll fight with it for another day or two while I determine the best way to get things together again. Maybe watching the video from the photo below will be helpful since the connections are the same as what they have pictured.

I'll probably have to watch this video. It looks quite similar to the key
configuration I'm dealing with. *sigh*

On the other hand, I did a necklace repair for a customer the other day. It was repairing a single strand of a multi-strand twisted piece of pearls and faceted gemstones. Very pretty. She decided, when she came over to pick it up, that she wanted me to do the remaining strands also. So what was a quick $20 repair has now grown into a several hour $60-$80 repair and that's not a bad thing. I can use the money. So I'll settle down to that tomorrow.

YES! It looks as though our house sale is going through! 

And finally, apparently the house sale is proceeding and we will be able to put a "SOLD" addition onto our sign. The buyer had until midnight to pull out of the Purchase Agreement. Our Realtor phoned me last night telling me that the buyer will continue with the purchase, so now she needs to get her financing into line and have her bank appraise the property, then we're home free with an anticipated closing in mid-May. Although I tend to not look too far ahead, I'm hopeful that this is a done deal and that one more thing will be off our backs within six weeks. What a relief!

Happy April Fool's Day!

Happy April Fool's Day to all of you!