Day 10 - Picture Swap

Before:

Today Helper Elf Two was the mastermind.  We decided to bring a little color into Hua-yu's office while she was at the eye doctor.

After:

The new pictures are actually those normally hanging in Helper Elf Number Two's office.  She had originally laid out the idea to just swap Hua-yu's two pictures, but they wouldn't hang on each other's nails, so we had to get creative.  I think it turned out great!  H.E.N. 2 had one great touch at the end where she took the picture that was hanging from one of Hua-yu's pictures and moved it to the one we replaced it with.

Getting the whole office shot was basically impossible, but this didn't stop me from balancing on a desk in the window!

She noticed this one quickly! And we've made it through 10 days.  Woot!

Day 9 - Coming Out of the Closet

Several of us tend to eat lunch in our office kitchen at the same time, including Hua-yu.  There's a closet in that kitchen:

The plan for today was for me to get into the kitchen ahead of Hua-yu, hide in the closet and then somehow come out and scare her.  The details were as always a little fuzzy.  This would work great as I had a doctor's appointment earlier in the day and so she thought I was out of the office.

It almost failed.  When I got there the guy from the company who stocks the closet arrived at the same time.  Obviously I couldn't hide in the closet while he was stocking it, so I assumed the gig was up.  However, Hua-yu was running late and wasn't there when the guy finished.  I decided that I would go in and give her up to ten minutes to get there.  Thus I entered the closet.

This closet is not particularly large.  Here's the view of the space between the shelves and door:

I fit in with the door closed, but it was tight.  And I also discovered that a place with no moving air gets hot.  I took my phone with me and was reading on it when I heard Hua-yu come in within a minute or two of my going in.  Then I realized I didn't have a real plan and I had no way to know what was going on outside.  Helper Elf One was out.  Helper Elf Two had left her phone in her office.

My fears included that I would come out while someone was in the kitchen who might not appreciate our jocularity and that I had no way to know if Hua-yu went to get a drink.  I was worried that I might just be stuck there. And it was tight.  Like I couldn't really move my arms

The view with my hand all the way back at my ear (with flash)

Luckily, I heard Helper Elf Four come in and my text to her was successful (I had tried texting Hua-yu as well to throw her off the track, but she didn't get her text either).  She advised me that Hua-yu was in the kitchen with her back to the closet I was in.  I slid out of the closet, sneaked over behind her and grabbed her on both sides of her back.

She screamed.  She jumped.  She spit out food.  It was beautiful! 


Hua-yu was unexpectedly out of her office for a few minutes later in the day, so Helper Elf Number Two did this bonus as well:

It's a toe ring put around the neck of a bulldog that Hua-yu has on her monitor.

Day 8 - SIlence is Golden

It has surprised me how the seemingly small things have proved to be effective.  Today's was just a little bit where I didn't talk to Hua-yu for the second half of the day.  That's it.

By three she was in my office asking me if it was killing me as much as it was her.  Now, while I'm not a silent type by nature, I am competitive and enjoy a "bit", so I persevered without much issue with the exception of one guffaw escaping my mouth.

This did extend to not talking to her in google talk or via email as well.  This seemed to really be a little unnerving.  I debated whether half of the day meant half of the work day or half of the day and ended up deciding that half of the whole day was much more amusing.  Then it was decided to have a happy hour for an employee who is leaving the company.  Uhoh.

I made it through the first part of the happy hour not talking to Hua-yu, but then my bossy nature took over and I felt the need to explain a policy (free second order of enchiladas) and thus found myself talking to Hua-yu.  This resulted in a scream loud enough to upset one small child, a pout-off and a sad, sad face (that would be me).

So, silence may be golden, but I'm not qualified!

Day 7 - Mini Helper Elves (Saturday bonus)

So, I've had questions on what happens if Hua-yu is out and my answer is there is always a possibility that we will still do something with her, but it's more likely that we'll just take the day off.  Similarly, our official stance on weekends is to not do anything.  But sometimes, if the opportunity presents itself, why not do something?

This weekend Hua-yu was working in the office a fair bit and so on Saturday when Helper Elf One and I were at the park with three of our collective kids, we decided that if Hua-yu wouldn't come to us, we'd go to Hua-yu.

Meet the Mini Elves:

This is in the elevator on the way up.  We were just going to stop by and say hi as our thing for the day, but Helper Elf one suggested that we make random phones in the office call her.  The Mini Elves agreed that it would fun and that being quiet would be amusing and we preceeded to start buzzing her phone from other phones.  Sadly, after the second time we did it she switched her phone over to voicemail (since it was obviously us).

So then we ran down and climbed on and around her. And that's it for this Saturday special!

I'm still not sure what they were doing.

Day 6 - Bagging Hua-yu's Office

So, one of the fun quirks of Hua-yu is some germaphobia.  It's not just straight-up germaphobia, but more just some weird habits.  Like she'll like her finger or knife and then touch something you are going to eat, but she removes the edges that have previously been touched by the knife of others before cutting her own piece of cake.  If her cup touches the water cooler, she tears it.  She touches doors that aren't bathroom doors, but is a big fan of hand sanitizer. 

Thus, the idea of today is to bag her office.  Placing things into ziplocs to protect them from the world!  At least that's the theory we are giving for why we are ziplocing her office because it sounds cooler than just saying, "because it's fun."

Her office before:

We took a large ziploc to her keyboard and smaller ziplocs to things ranging from her phone to client files to knic-knacs (no idea how to spell that).  We even bagged cheese wax!

No closeup of the desk because of the presence of pesky work, but it was lovely :-).

Day 5 - Keyboard Outage (More of a success than intended! )

So, today's was meant to be a brief one.  I hid in Helper Elf Number Two's office while Helper Elf Number One lured Hua-yu into the kitchen.  Helper Elf Number One texted me and let me know Hua-yu was out of her office and I went in and turned off her keyboard.

We all have the same keyboards:

Basic, wireless keyboards. 

They all have a feature that many people don't know about though:

An on-off switch.

So, I flipped the switch and then hightailed it to the kitchen for some minor fun with Hua-yu psychological games.

She got back to her office and her keyboard didn't work.  Now, I expected her to either flip the switch (if she knew about it) or call me to ask what I did.  Possibly that she would go get new batteries.  None of these occurred.  Instead, she called one of our other employees who currently heads up a lot of the tech troubleshooting.  At this point Helper Elf Number Two went to intervene and I called, so it stopped with changing of the batteries and didn't go down an IT path.

Hua-yu has told Helper Elf Number One to be scared, but overall has been a good sport about it.

Definitely more of a reaction that I was expecting for today's event which I honestly intended to be a very brief one.  Personally, I enjoyed it as it added some unanticipated mirth, interest and fun to a bittersweet day.

Carry on team.

Day 4 - Blinds (plus a bonus)

Today was a pretty simple one.  Just went in her office and took the blinds from halfway down to all the way up.



Then, just for giggles, a bonus today!  I went out to lunch with my loving spouse and while there received a request from Hua-yu to "bring [her] some chocolate stix!" via text message.  So, I did.

And this picture is proof that Hua-yu is a good sport.  I took pictures, but they had some client information in them that I would have had to censor out and when I mentioned this, she took her own picture and sent it to me that doesn't reveal any client stuff!

Day 3 - eating Hua-yu's lunch

No, not like that. Remember, not mean/malicious, but fun.

You see, Hua-yu has a "standard" lunch. Greens, chicken salad and this time of year, watermelon.




So, I headed to Whole Foods this morning and bought myself a set of Hua-yu's lunch. And then ate it. I also tore part of a styrofoam cup holding my water to embrace a different quirk.






This one was a definite hit and makes me realize I need to really think harder to have more fun with this.

I did check in with Hua-yu today and she is fine with my continuing this, I think based primarily on her understanding that I am not as creative as her husband and do not have a malicious bone in my body. All kinds of other bones, but not malicious.

Last thought: I really liked Hua-yu's lunch. I'd always thought she was a little crazy (I may have said bat shit crazy in the kitchen, but you can't prove it) for eating salad without dressing, but it was really good with the chicken salad. Also, I ate two days worth of Hua-yu's lunch in one meal. Oops :-).


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Day 2 - Accidental One

I had an action in mind for today, but I was late to work due to a kid having to go to the pediatrician and so I didn't get it done early.  Then, it was assumed that I had gotten it done and had an enjoyable time of getting told a whole list of things that maybe I had done (thanks for the ideas!). 

So, today's thing was psychological warfare.  Really did not intend to do this this early, but since I accidentally did, today's thing is not doing anything and then smiling.

Definitely more of a success than day 1. 

My original plan of day 2 is likely to show up at day 4 or maybe day 5 as I already have a thought for tomorrow.

BTW, the cookies were accepted, eaten and the game is on.

The Premise

Hua-yu is a coworker.  She's fun and enjoyable, but like many of us she has her quirks.  Me, I'm a fun, kind soul who might just like to work peoples' quirks.  In a completely loving way!  Seriously, loving.  Thus the name is "Fun with Hua-yu", not "Messing with Hua-ya". 

It all started with Hua-yu decided that I was doing something to her.  I wasn't, I wasn't even scheming anything.  But it was just so much fun when she thought I was that I decided I should do something. 

Then, another coworker who is also mischevious and I were talking and the idea of 100 days of fun with Hua-yu came up.  Helper Elf Coworker 1 said I needed to make sure and write down what we did to make sure it stayed unique, so here it is.

Fact 1: Hua-yu knows I am doing this and received cookie delivery from Tiff's Treats as compensation.  M&M and chocolate chip to be exact.

Fact 2: coming up with 100 days is likely to be very hard.  I know what day two is though!

So, this is fun with Hua-yu.  Rules are: don't repeat and everything is based in fun, no malicious aspects.  So, lets see what turns up!

Operation 1 - Failure

Operation 1 was a failure as it was not noticed.  It consisted of switching the order of cups, trading the location of two calculators, reversing a pencil cup and swapping two tea boxes.

However, operation 1 was in a sense a success as the psychological buildup definitely was enjoyable to all central parties--well, maybe not Hua-yu.