Is there anything people wonÂ’t steel? For three years IÂ’ve had candy at my desk. I set it out to show my appreciation to everyone that works hard. It started Christmas of 2002. Boopie was in Cub Scouts. They had a fundraiser selling popcorn. The Pack ordered some extra items to sell at various events besides what orders the boys took. At the end of the sale they had this tin that was 6 by 10 inches that had popcorn coated in chocolate. Instead of letting the troop take the hit, I shelled out the money and bought it.

Since I hate chocolate covered popcorn, I took it to work and let everyone help themselves to it the week between Christmas and New Years. ThatÂ’s when I discovered that Chocolate made for a much nicer work environment for me. After the popcorn was gone (about 2 days) I started buying various candies to put in the tin. Hershey miniatures and kisses, Halloween candy, ETC. ItÂ’s kind of like a trademark of mine to have chocolate at my desk.

Yesterday at work, one of my employees asked my why I hadnÂ’t put out the candy. I looked around and it wasnÂ’t where I left it. Since IÂ’ve been known to forget to set it out, I checked my desk drawer where I store it at night. (The cleaning crew likes to clean out the tin as well.) It wasnÂ’t in my drawer. What the hell? I looked around to see if it was moved or if something was set on top of it. It wasnÂ’t anywhere!

A couple of years ago the same thing happened, but some people took it as a prank. They returned it a couple of hours later when I noticed it was missing. Figuring the same thing happened, I was pretty sure it would turn up. Today it was still gone. So I started canvassing the usual suspects to see if they where playing a joke. No one had any idea where it went.

Since it now counts as a legitimate theft, I had to make a report with security. I laughed the whole time, because I felt stupid reporting a stolen tin. It was a ratty old tin, and the lid to it is still in my desk drawer, so I have no idea why anyone would want it. The missing candy doesnÂ’t bother me too much because I bought it to give away, but I am a bit annoyed that someone felt the need to take the tin. ItÂ’s just a senseless theft of an item that really has no value what so ever.

Well whoever has it, I hope they enjoy it. But if they are thinking the candy in there magically reappears they are going to be disappointed.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:36 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 471 words, total size 2 kb.

I picked up a new “toy” over the weekend. While in Green Bay at one of the Packer memorabilia shops, they had a red coach’s “Challenge flag”. It’s the red flag that a coach throws out on the field if they disagree with a ruling of the officials. I just had to get one! It was only a couple of dollars and I figured I’d have a lot of fun with it. Sure enough, I was right!

This morning while getting ready for work, I spotted my flag and tucked it into my pocket. I just couldnÂ’t wait to get a chance to throw it. It didnÂ’t take long for that to happen. While talking about my weekend with some of my football loving friends at work, one of them made the comment that their winless team was going to make it to the Super Bowl. Before they were finished with their sentence that flag was flying through the air. Of course all of the football fans found this hilarious. The non-football spectators had no idea what was going on.

All day I kept whipping out the flag every time I wanted to challenge anything anyone said. Then I used it at the wrong time… the middle of a meeting. We were having a meeting going over new policies and procedures. One of my peers felt that a new procedure would hurt the department. The look on their faces when that red flag landed on the table was priceless. However, the humor was lost when I had to explain to everyone what it was. Of course the obligatory “This really isn’t the place for those kind of antics” talks followed. Eh, I explained it was meant to be fun and liven things up a little. No one was mad, and I didn’t get in any real trouble.

All I can think about is the next time IÂ’m at a football party and I get to start flinging it around when the officials make calls I donÂ’t like. IÂ’m going to have way too much fun with it.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:52 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 359 words, total size 2 kb.