Friday, March 10, 2017

Trophies

I was going through some stuff the other day, and came across some trophies. I wasn't exactly the athletic sort as a kid, so I earned my trophies in adulthood.

This trophy is one I earned my first year at VMware.


Obviously that one is work-related.

This next one is one that I'm very proud of. It isn't work related. I received it a year ago today.


Hang on. Let me zoom in on the plaque...


The nephews who awarded this to me are approaching adulthood themselves, so I'll spare them the embarrassment and not identify them publicly.

At the time, they were 8 and 6, but their artistic skills were already developing. The trophy arrived in a box which they decorated:


I was already having a great birthday, but when their box arrived, my birthday catapulted from mere "great" to "grate"!

I'm not sure which nephew did each side of the box, but I have always assumed that this next side was drawn by my other nephew:


I'm in SoCal this weekend, so I'll get a chance to find our which is whose for sure. I plan to place my trophy and its box on their kitchen table and wait to see their reaction (aka wait to see if they even remember it a decade later!).

As you can see from the photo below, they were careful to mark up the box to prevent any unintentional damage to the trophy:


And just in case I got the crazy notion in my head to poke a hole through the other side...


This was one poke-proof box, that's for sure.


They were right. I did find something awesome.

My nieces and nephews are growing up now, but I hope they'll always remember me as "Silly Uncle Brian."