Is that a mouse in the house? I'm seriously a pushover.

A few years ago I received a report from my wife about a statement my oldest daughter (7 or 8 years old at the time) made to a friend while being chauffeured to some activity.

"I'll just ask my dad to do it," my daughter had offered her friend, "I can get him to do anything."

I was determined to be must less accommodating at that point. I've realized however that she must be right. I wish my inability to say no was limited to my relationship with just one of my children. Alas, the fact that I've got a mouse in my house is proof that I am weak, weak, weak! And my weakness may just end up costing me my health.

Seriously, don't these kids realize how many germs rodents can carry? Wasn't it a mouse that brought down the Roman Empire with disease? I'm pretty sure it was a rodent that brought disease and depravity to the new world, wasn't it?

I have to admit that watching the determination of my kids to get the mouse home (they had to write a one-page essay on why they should be allowed and how they would care for the little thing) and their ingenuity when they realized a standard hamster wheel wasn't going to give Lulu the exercise a healthy mouse needs.

Now, let's just hope the little beast doesn't get out unattended. I can't imagine the sadness we'll have when Lulu no longer make the Shasta bottle buzz across the floor.

New Projects Keep Work Interesting

While the title of this post certainly isn't interesting it strikes me that there are a couple of reasons we work.

First, money. While we hate to admit that we need to have some money the fact remains that we really can't easily trade the eggs from our chickens for a new pillow, toothpaste or a family vacation. Our world requires that those in it use money from time to time.

Another reason I work is for the satisfaction I get. I recently launched a new Web project and you can see the banner (at least right now) for it here on my blog. We had an aggressive timeline and of course many side projects cropped up along the way that could have derailed this but I'm pleased to say that we launched on time. It's that sense of satisfaction from accomplishing the task before you that I believe is the most powerful, underlying reason that we work. At least it's motivates me.

So, regardless of whether you're working at or away from home, try and find some new challenge and then accomplish!