My family recently experienced a phenomena over the Christmas holidays when each and every person in the family realized we absolutely love the TV program called The Office. We bought all the season DVDs and can't get enough of this show.

Since I began watching the program, I realized I work in an office with just as many characters as The Office has.

From Steve, who is the equivalent of Dwight Schrute, to Dwayne, who is a near perfect match with Michael Scott, my office really has it all. Although I love watching The Office, I realized I am involved in the Real Life Office ( RLO) each and every day.

With this in mind, I've decided to share some of the funny and strange things that go on in RLO with readers. Simply thought we could share a laugh. I really look forward to hearing from you and learning what you think of my real life office mates.

Here's an example of what goes on in RLO on a daily basis: As I was typing at my desk, Paul suddenly said to me, "Kevin, you lived in Germany, so can you tell me what this means?" I turned and as I looked at Paul's computer screen I realized he was looking at a website for an amusement park in Texas called SCHLITTERBAHN Water Slide Park ( http://www.schlitterbahn.com/). I don't know what you think of when you read that name, but I have to be honest and tell you one thing immediately jumped into my brain. This even though I do speak some German and knew schlitter means slide and not the thing that immediately came to mind. As soon as I pronounced the name to Paul and told him what I believed it meant (i.e. what jumped into my mind), he confirmed he is looking for a place to take his kids over Spring Break and thought this particular amusement park might be a nice place to visit. Of course, because of what immediately jumped into my mind, I had to let Paul have it for the rest of the day. I was surprised just how many times I could work the word SCHLITT into an everyday sentence. From telling Steve that he didn't know " schlitt from shinola," to singing "I'm on the schlitterbahn to hell" (to the AC/DC tune Highway To Hell), I have to admit I had people laughing all day. I even feigned illness and when Paul and Steve asked me if I was feeling alright I replied, "I feel like schlitt!" Suffice to say, it was a pretty good day at RLO. I think the thing that topped it all off was when I went to the whiteboard and drew an elaborate survey graph. As people came in and out of RLO I would tell them we were doing a new survey of the week (something we do on a fairly regular basis). If they agreed to take the survey, I would ask them, "If you were going on a vacation to Texas, would they rather take your kids to Six Flags Over Texas or the Schlitterbahn Water Slide Park?" As you can guess, to date, everyone completing the survey has resoundingly said they would take their kids to Six Flags Over Texas. That's right, Schlitterbahn hasn't received a single vote. Now, this isn't a scientific poll, so results are + or - 4 points, which means Schlitterbahn could pull even and actually win eventually. Unfortunately for Paul, I will end the survey long before Schlitterbahn has a chance to pull even or go into the lead.

By the end of the day, Paul was tired of my schlitt and reluctantly agreed that he is no longer considering Schlitterbahn as a vacation destination. As a matter of fact, if you are in Phoenix over Spring Break, you just might get lucky and run into Paul and his family. If you are so lucky, offer Paul his favorite beer (Schlitz) and I am sure you will get along fine.