A couple of years ago, I had an in-flight meal that included a two-pack of Oreo cookies.  Not having a cup of milk (or coffee), I didn’t eat that delightful treat and dropped in my backpack.  Once I got home, it found its way onto my desk…where it sat…taunting me…for years.

The truth is that I absolutely love Oreo cookies.  Although two is almost the perfect size for a small snack, it became my own personal inside joke.

One day, one of my kids asked if I was ever going to eat those cookies.  My business partner, who was standing right there, said that he had been wondering the same thing.  So I let them in on the fact that this little packet of cookies was my own little joke and that I just hadn’t built a box for it yet because I didn’t know how I wanted it to look.  Besides, making a little enclosure with “In Case of Emergency” seemed to ruin the whole thing for me.  (Yes, that was the joke.)

When we opened the office in 2013, the cookies (and the joke) came with me.  I pinned them on the corkboard at my desk.  I didn’t pierce the package, just carefully wedged it between two pushpins.

The legend died on Monday.  Sometime over the weekend, a mouse chewed through the Mylar packaging, and snacked on my emergency cookies.

Then again, maybe the legend didn’t die after all.  It was pretty cold and snowy outside.  Just because they were not used in the way I expected, doesn’t mean they didn’t serve their purpose.

PS: The cookies were pinned 14 inches above the surface of my desk.  I would LOVE to have seen how the mouse got them down.

PPS:  The mouse trap has bits of Oreo in it right now as bait and remains empty.  I am really getting mixed messages about the cookies.