The Great HubNuggets Easter Egg Hunt

"Easter Egg" [noun] a bonus or extra feature hidden inside a website, computer game, or DVD, that is only revealed after repeated or lengthy viewing or playing - from Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

Easter was only weeks away, and preparations for the first, annual HubNuggets Easter Egg hunt were in full swing. It would be an affair to rival the prestigious, White House Easter Egg hunt. Heads of State from across HubPages would be attending, along with hundreds of Hubbers, all eager to fill their Easter in-baskets with inventive, and cleverly hidden Easter Eggs. Soon, these intrepid egg hunters would be flexing their fingers, honing their mousing skills and sharpening up their detective's intuition, hoping to be the first to find the prize Easter Eggs.

Jason and Maddie were busy compiling a list of HubPages Who's Who - writers of every description and literary bent, from poets, travel authors, and photographers, to philosophers, political gurus, and humorists, and of course, everyone else in between. Everyone would be invited to participate in the hunt for hidden goodies.

Simone and Fawntia had been working for days, seeking the best places to hide special Easter Eggs around HubPages for clever hubbers to find and enjoy.

...and what better bonus/surprise than a bunch of HubNuggets Wannabe hubs!

We quickly realized there was one tiny flaw in our perfectly planned Easter Egg hunt...

Instead of waiting to hide the HubNuggets picks for Easter week, Simone and Fawntia had hidden this weeks' batch of HubNugget wannabe hubs - all eighteen of them.

Then, with everything safely stashed away, our intrepid duo departed for a well-deserved, three day HubPages Serenity & Cookie Baking Retreat in the remote Sierra Madres.

With over a week left before the Easter Egg hunt was scheduled, or any guests would arrive, and this week's contest to salvage, the whole team knew we had to get cracking.

KoffeeKlatch Gals and ladyjane1 were off, scouting around HubPages for places that our ever-so-clever staffers might have hidden the list of nominees. They searched through vintage car aficionado hubs and auto review hubs, hoping to find some clue.

The girls began clicking everything in sight - except ads, of course - hoping to trigger an Easter Egg. They were almost ready to give up when Gals clicked a tiny "About Autos" tab for the umpteenth time, setting off a barrage of Flash fireworks - there, among the sparkles, were six HubNuggets nominees!

Enelle Lamb and Patty Inglish, MS made a dash for their search engines, their flying fingers tapping in every term they could think of, trying to find some hint of HubNugget nominees.

They uncovered several amusing Google Easter eggs, and brought back video on them. Patty was particularly fond of Klingon Google. As the only team member who could read the page, she was able to quickly translate their search results, but still found no trace of the elusive nominees.

Enelle's sharp eyes scanned back and forth over the HubPages home page. Suddenly, her attention was caught by a tiny text link that read "Financial" at the bottom of the page. Clicking the link led to a page of definitions of finances. The links there led to more definitions, each one referencing a further definition, each of which led right back to the HubPages home page!

Undaunted, she tried again.Then Patty tried, with the same results.

After their fourteenth or fifteenth trip around the annoying loop, Patty and Enelle were growing discouraged, but decided to give the little "Financial" link one more click.

They stared, amazed, as everything - text, graphics, images, and all - slowly slid down the page, giving new meaning to the phrase "cascading style-sheet" ...and revealing a list of six HubNuggets nominees.

Ripplemaker and RedElf were having no luck at all in their search. Trying to backtrack ripplemaker's emails of notification to the lucky nominees, they discovered all the IP addresses had been replaced by tiny, colored eggs.

Worse, every time they typed in a nominee's profile on the HubPages site and clicked "Enter," their CD/DVD drive pelted them with showers of chocolate-coated jelly beans!

Never one to turn down chocolate, RedElf was happily cleaning jelly beans off the keyboard, when the computer burped and expelled a large, beautifully decorated, chocolate Easter egg.

Ripplemaker shrugged philosophically, breaking off a piece of icing, and nibbling it delicately. As if on cue, the rest of the beautiful egg disintegrated, leaving nothing but a few yellow feathers and a handful of duck-shaped confetti.

The startled pair examined the tiny, paper ducks - each had a letter printed on it. Several hours later, as they finally got all their ducks in a row, RedElf and ripplemaker realized they had uncovered the last list of missing HubNuggets nominees.

After we all enjoyed reading and voting for this week's crop of wonderful HubNuggets Wannabes' hubs, relieved we wouldn't have to call Simone and Fawntia back from their retreat, we decided to take an after-voting stroll along the beach.

Maddie glanced up, basking in the beautiful spring evening. Across the rolling sands, she could just make out two figures carrying brimming Easter baskets, and skipping lightly, hand in hand, towards the setting sun.

"Isn't that Empress Bee?" asked ladyjane1. "...but who's that with her?"

Before Maddie could answer, a brightly colored egg fell from one of the couple's Easter baskets, and rolled across the sand to land at the girls' feet. As Maddie bent to retrieve it, the egg cracked open, revealing slip of paper curled inside.

The rest of the team gathered round while she uncoiled the paper. "This is one of my favorites," she read. "Go to Google, type in 'search chuck norris' and press "I'm Feeling Lucky' - Hoppy Easter! B.T."

Happy laughter floated back to us, but as we looked up, the dancing figures vanished from view.

"...Hoppy Easter, B.T.and Miss Bee..."