[lumberjim]

here's a good answering machine prank:

get your ans mach ready to record

using the speaker phone if available, if not get ready to hold the ear piece next to the mic

call a number that requires that you dial a "1" first, but don't dial the 1. start recording, making sure to capture the tone"we're sorry, you must first dial a 1 when dialing that number. please hang up and try your number again"

this is your machine message

when someone calls, they will be told to dial a 1

then, they'll call with the 1 and get " we're sorry, it is not neccessary to dial a 1 when calling that number...please hang up and dial again"

i did this about a year ago, and my sister in law spent 30 minutes on the phone with the phone company, and was about to drive to my house when she remembered my cell #......

she's still pissed about it