Friday15

Picture if you will, a close-knit crew of madcap creative types battling each other to win a challenge. In this case, build a gingerbread house in 15 minutes. The catch — it has to match a theme. The crew is broken into several teams. One team has to build Hogsworth. Another, Lady Gaga's house. Another, Michael Jackson's house. And the poor souls who have to build the Winchester Mystery House. Welcome to Friday15.

Friday15 isn't the same thing as "Friday the 13th." No, that movie has the guy in the hockey mask — or is it the one with the guy in the white-painted William Shatner mask? We're pretty sure it's the one with the hockey mask. Anywho ... Friday15 is something we came up with around 2007. It's where we ZURBians get to let loose and have a little creative fun that isn't work related. Let Jackie , one of our designers, explain:

We get so in the zone (working). It's more to escape from that for 15 minutes.

Jackie has the honor of coming up with most of the crazy challenges we do. Think Double Dare without the slime. Jackie says she tries to come up with ideas that match what's going on in the office that week, like when Ryan, our editor, came on board. Jackie had each of us come up with wacky headlines for some pretty random pictures, such as a gang of Chucky dolls. Then there was the gingerbread house challenge to celebrate the holidays. One time, pre-Jackie, we constructed a tower from uncooked spaghetti noodles and marshmallows.

My team f'ing crushed it. — Jonathan

One Friday afternoon, we stormed downtown Campbell armed with our iPhones, snapping pictures of the letters on signage or the sides of buildings. That was mad fun.

People struggle to be creative when it's not part of the culture — Bryan

So if you walk by our offices on a Friday afternoon and see a bunch of grownups acting like kids. Don't fret, that's just us. Oh, and by the way, the team with the Lady Gaga gingerbread house won that challenge.