Locked In...

As many of you know, last Friday I had my top two wisdom teeth removed. Eric was an amazing caretaker--he took the morning off of work to come to the oral surgeon with me, and he was right there when I woke up, patiently telling me that no, I couldn't go back to sleep because it was time to go home. He drove us home, picked up my medicines, propped me in bed with some pillows, a bag of frozen peas, and the remote control, and dutifully headed back to work (though he came home early). All weekend, he made sure I had everything I needed, whether it was an Italian ice or an antibiotic!

So this week, I decided to surprise him with a thank you treat to celebrate his birthday (which yes, was in April, so he's been accruing great interest on this gift). To make the gift a fun surprise, I wrote out a sentence saying what it was, and then made a puzzle clue for each word of the sentence. Then, I got a bunch of my friends and his to send the clues, in order, to him so that once he figured out one of the clues, another would appear via text or e-mail. Here's the puzzle I put together; if you can figure it out, you'll know what we did!

P.S. Locked In is a clue!

When Matt, Kat, and Erica
ride a coaster rolling,
They scream this sound,
a pronoun too,
and hear their eardrums ringing.

The eighteenth letter
is the key to solving this little rhyme
Make it a verb
and be sure to curb
a squeal—you solved it just in time!

Good times, good times
uh huh, uh huh
Is how this song repeats
But what two words come prior?
Add –ing but delete the e!

In days of blank
is how this phrase
of old proceeds to go.
The empty word, it rhymes with pour
a hint to help you know!

To celebrate this prime number
She did not forget.
What is the one that has no sum?
Oops, dividend, and….check!

Three sixty five but plural
is this word’s crucial key
But sometimes it is 3-6-6,
That’s every fourth, you see.

A preposition, two letters short
an early and a late
The first is A, but guess the second,
the one that is its mate!

The different sounds that this word makes
depend on what comes aft
Sometimes it’s ee and sometimes uh,
The vowel sound it hast.

Life and pursuing happiness,
America’s founding phrase,
But in its first great city,
The absent word is placed.

The square root of four;
Six divided by three,
First half of the word is the answer, you see.
Take the hour of noon,
Add six hours, or sev’n
And you’ll have the time that your birthday begins!