The monkey and the bear

Vivian and I have been witnesses to quite an adventure this week.

  

It all started on Saturday, when we dropped by our mutual friend Kaleb's house for a game night / birthday party. Kaleb was recently featured in the Omaha World Herald (and by connection, Saturday Night Live) for having close to two-thousand board games crammed into spare rooms in his house. Viv and I enjoy games as much as anybody, but we've never dropped by for a night-long game of Werewolf, which apparently happened later. We stayed only long enough for some Catchphrase and round-the-world ping pong before it was Hannah's bedtime.

The next day we dropped by Lindy in the Park and enjoyed a couple hours of good dancing with some of our fellow Jitterbugs. That's when we heard the news from Sarah: Eric's Gearshift Monkey and Omaha Royals Beanie Baby had been kidnapped!

We couldn't believe it! Who could have done such a thing? Speculation on Facebook was running rampant, but nobody had seen who had broken into Eric's car. Eric is known to have left his car doors unlocked in the past, but it's quite possible someone had gotten inside by prying open the sunroof.

The kidnapper had also left a horrifying ransom note demanding cupcakes by one o'clock on Sunday, a deadline that Eric apparently slept through since he didn't bother to look at the back of the photo. Fortunately, the kidnappers did not make good on their threat to harm Eric's plush friends, but they did send another threatening photograph:

It was a dastardly deed only a Snidely Whiplash could come up with! Eric was cleverly able to deduce that the culprit was somewhere in Bellevue, as the photograph clearly showed Bear and Monkey on the railroad tracks near Gilmore Ave. The back of the photo also revealed that it had been printed at the Walgreens over on Galvin Road.

Eric boldly stated on Facebook that he would not negotiate with the kidnappers, but one final photograph finally broke him:

Eric gave in and agreed to pay a ransom of homemade walnut and somethingberry ice cream, and the exchange went down Thursday night at 9 pm. Vivian and I dropped by that night to share our condolences with our friend for his harrowing ordeal, but I took it upon myself to find the culprit. After some thorough research and careful deduction, I can now state that we finally know who the kidnapper truly was:

 

It was Steve the Drive-Thru Guy at the Galvin Taco Bell! Yes, it was Steve who broke into Eric's car and stole the plush toys on Saturday night shortly before starting his shift. He also stole the camera out of my car like a ninja and used it to take pictures of Eric's plush friends as he put them in compromising situations all over Bellevue. Oh, Steve, you evil person! When will you ever learn? Fortunately, I was able to strong-arm the camera back from Steve so I could put all these pictures online for you all to enjoy.

In other news, Hannah turned nine months old and learned how to escape from her crib. She's literally growing up fast, going from the 10th to 90th percentile in height for her age in just a few months (so says our pediatrician).