Nothing Beats a Case of the Mondays Like a Little Show and Tell

According to the omnipotent Wikipedia, "show and tell is the process of showing an audience something and telling them about it, predominantly in North America." Well, our main office is smack dab on the central west coast of North America, so we are clearly on the right land mass.
Also according to Wikipedia, "it is usually done in a classroom as an early elementary school technique for teaching young children the skills of public speaking." Phshaw. Whatever, Wikipedia nerds. We need to edit that entry to read, "Show and tell is a great way to start out the week with a little break from the ordinary. Particularly if you are in our office." Here's a rundown of what our office was able to come up with for show and tell this morning - pics where available.
Let's start with the winner. Because while third graders may not be competing for prizes and street cred, we sure were. And the winner was clear. Only one of us dared to bring in a living creature, and that winner is Zach Chin, who introduced us all to his itty bitty baby ferrety ball of cuteness, Gwendolyn. At least she WAS adorable until she started chomping on everyone's (mainly Andrew's) fingers. However, the former teacher among us, Roxy, taught everyone, including Gwendolyn, that a ferret cannot bite a flat hand. Wha-BAM. Smack that marmot. Just kidding. We didn't hit the ferret. Here's a picture of Gwendolyn (and her friend Seymour) at home, safe and sound:

The rest of the placing was close. Almost too close to call. But since I'm writing this here blog, I declare myself the ultimate judge. Any objections at the time of this writing? No? Good. Because I totally came in second place with a classy, tasteful and expertly executed interpretation of Van Gough's 'Bedroom at Arles' that I painted for a college literature class back in the day. So what if it was paint by number, I still came in second. Boo yah.

Third place was Alli Ball, who brought in some of her family's very own maple syrup. The pure kind that comes from trees in Connecticut. There's a hint of nutmeg in it. Hahaha. Bad Connecticut joke. She explained all about the sapping and tapping of trees, and gave everyone a sweet spoonful of sticky goodness. Everyone except me, that is. Because I don't like maple syrup, hence the third place finish.

Fourth place finisher was Roxy Taghavian, who brought in the one and only season of 'My So-Called Life' on DVD. Yeah, she's that cool. We got to reminisce about Jordan Catalano and Buffalo Tom and how cool Claire Danes was before she messed with Mary Louise Parker. Rox really showed us how hip she is with this hot ticket item. Points revoked because we couldn't actually watch it and we really wanted to. At least the girls did. And Ricky.

Fifth place: Andrew Stewart. Apparently he and some friends ran a cool foot race near Big Sur this weekend where US 1 was closed to traffic and really athletic people got to run it (read: not me). He didn't take any pictures, but he did bring in the tee shirt he got. Cool shirt and cool story and what a cool guy, but points revoked because it was stinky and we couldn't pass it around and try it on. So we really just got a glimpse of the awesome schwag.

Sixth place (the man who, err, tried the hardest and had the most fun): Ian Fraser! Seeing as this whole, fun event was his idea, we were kinda bummed when he told us that he forgot to bring something in. But instead of showing up empty handed, our courageous leader delved deep into the trenches of this backpack and retrieved the tome "Shadow Country" by Peter Matthiessen. Having just finished this book, Ian offered to lend it out to any one of us who were interested. However, since our boss concisely reviewed this dark tale as "this guy who kills his employees," there were no takers. Don't wanna make the bossman mad and dog ear those pages, ya know?

All things considered, show and tell was great. As the second place finisher, I can't wait for next time. I want first place. I think I'm gonna get a baby lion. No one could beat me if I got a baby lion.