Matt's family loves a good practical joke. With three boys at home, that's not surprising. Apparently, the best one ever came from his parents. When Matt was little, they bought a new car that's main selling point was its excellent gas mileage. After a month, Matt's mom still hadn't filled the tank despite driving the car every day. She touted this feature to friends and family in amazement.
Then, one day, she headed out to the garage to find Matt's dad topping off the tank with a gas can! Little did she realize that he'd been slyly adding a half gallon of gas or so each day to keep the fuel meter level.
Since then, she's been more skeptical, but they still get some good tricks in. This is entirely different from my family. I don't ever recall a practical joke, but witty reparte and punning are regular features in conversation. I tell you this because of the phone conversation as I drove home today.
Matt called me to talk about dinner. Then, he hesitantly said, "so, are you playing a joke on me with the spoons?"
I burst out laughing as I realized that I'd forgotten to tell Matt about my day's activity. I had grabbed all our spoons that morning to use in a class activity for my freshman intro to science class where we investigated friction and vibrations with dry ice. Not a practical joke, but it sure played like one. Maybe his family is rubbing off on me more than I realized.