Office Rules

I have a theory that you tend to forget your pet peeves when people ask you what they are. However, when you experience them, they are quite gripping to your emotions. I'm actually attempting to capture a pet peeve while it's happening so that it won't slip my mind again.

Someone is eating breakfast at their desk that involves syrup. Probably the strongest smelling syrup ever produced. I mean, I'm generally ok with people eating at their desk, but there are a few foods surfacing my thoughts that should not be allowed in group-work areas: Indian/Chinese/Mexican food, tuna, or SYRUP!

I realize that when you eat these potent foods, you are unaware of the aroma your lunch is creating for everyone else. Strangely enough, I happen to like tuna, but despise when other people are eating it across the row/room. For my particular case today, this is worse because I don't like syrup in the first place. Nope, never have. What do I put on pancakes, you ask? Butter and powdered sugar!

Anyway, now the smell will linger throughout our row of cubes for the rest of the day and might possibly be detected early tomorrow morning. I will keep thinking there is a small child with sticky hands close by... and my sweater will exude maple sugary-ness even though I didn't come in contact with it.

Sidenote: Someone just brought McDonald's to their desk... we'll save that topic for another day.

Piper Z. Frabott

The "Z" in the middle stands for "Zoey" who is Piper's birth mom... and the stunning lady that gave her the beautiful carmel markings on her face ;) So far, the names we call her on a daily basis are: Piper, Pipey, Pipe, Peeps, Carmel, Chai, Little one, Long legs, Buddy, Good girl, and Phoebe (by accident).

Piper came to us from a loving home on December 21st at only 12 weeks old. Her birthday is September 26, 2007 which I intend to celebrate. In addition to her mother mentioned above, her dad "Rico" is a striking, white Chihuahua. Her brothers and sisters are now spread across many homes as adopted family pets (or "toys").

Stats: Piper is a full-bred Chihuahua with deer-like features. She proudly stands tall for her kind, weighing in at 8 lbs. Surprisingly, she has already been mistaken for a Jack Russel Terrier and on another occasion, a Mini-Greyhound. She is mostly white with "carmel" on her face and back-end. Eyes = black. Tongue = pink. Teeth = microscopic, but white. Ears = rising taller and straighter by the day. After a couple weeks of adjustment, she now willingly struts around showing off her Burberry-patterned "necklace." We haven't heard her voice much, but I do know that her "yark" sounds oddly similar to a human yawn. She also speaks this special "chi" language when she nests in her blanket before laying down. Her favorite noises are the plastic scoup digging into her food container and the sound of my cell phone ringing. Her favorite toys are my hair bands... but the heat escaping the vent comes in at a close second. She prefers to sleep curled up in a tight donut-like circle with her head buried in a blanket.

Her special tricks include the record-breaking height at which she jumps, followed by turning a complete 360 in the air while attempting to jump off the couch to catch a toy. She also swallows her food whole... with not one crunch, nope, not one. She sits and stays on command, with treat in hand, of course. The small "pee pad" in our garage smells enough like grass that she relieves herself the second her paws hit the soft, familiar surface. Ringing a bell that hangs from our door-knob is her current trick-in-training. When mastered, this will symbolize her need to potty. Tony is really the trick-trainer, while I just watch and take pictures.

I'm confident that I could write for days, because our new little addition is SO entertaining. I submit that this is only the beginning of posts starring Piper.