My woodturning club’s “president’s challenge” for May and June is to make something that uses screws, nails, or tacks.  That’s a pretty wide range of possibilities, but I was having trouble trying to figure out something I could do that would be different.  When I went into work last Monday, things got real clear, real quick.

Usually, when I finish making a bowl that I like, I take it to work and use it as a candy bowl, bringing the previous bowl back home to put in the box.  I’ve been doing that for the last 5 years and it’s become kinda like a hummingbird feeder to the people I work with.  They know that new projects typically come in on Mondays, so at some point, people will wander by for the candy, then admire the bowl.  Now days, since I’m packing up all of my personal belongings to bring home, I let the current candy bowl run out then brought it home.  The day after it was gone, five different people stopped into my office to take a piece of candy, only to find there wasn’t any.  Four of them (realizing that my days working for the company are numbered) wished me well and either left or asked if I was giving the bowl away.  The last guy – who I didn’t even know – asked when I would be bringing in a replacement bowl.  Then he went on to tell me that he relied on the peppermints and root beer barrels in my bowl to make his breath pleasant before going into meetings.  The sense of entitlement that was wafting off of him really was hard to ignore.  I smiled and wished him a good day.

This last weekend, I made “the candy bowl from hell” with this fool in mind.  Not sure if I’ll bring it into work or not (could be a little passive aggressive) but I’d really like to see him go fishing for a mint when it could cost him a little skin!