The headline immediately caught my eye. Unlike pitches from male potency drugs and right-wing radicals, this e-mail seemed worth a look.

According to CareerBuilder’s survey of employers, 2011’s “most outrageous” excuses employees gave for not coming into work included a job interview with another firm (I’m not making this up) and my personal favorite: A fox stole a woman’s car keys.

We all know you can’t trust foxes. They are wiley, crafty, prone to sneakiness. Foxes also catch you off guard. The Fox River is prone to flooding in the spring. Redd Fox was forever scheming on old television show “Sanford & Son.” And actress Meagan Fox ... well, she’s a “fox.”
 
According to a new CareerBuilder study. Sixteen percent of workers reported they arrive late to work once a week or more, up from 15 percent last year. Twenty-seven percent of workers arrive late to work at least once a month, up from 26 percent last year.

Traffic (31 percent), lack of sleep (18 percent), bad weather (11 percent) and getting kids to school/daycare (8 percent) are the top reasons given for late arrivals at the office. Other common reasons for tardiness included public transportation delays, pets, spouses, watching TV and using the Internet.

Some of the most outrageous excuses for tardiness, provided by hiring managers, included: Cat had the hiccups, thought she won the lottery (She didn’t), got distracted watching the Today Show (With Al Roker?), an angry roommate cut the cord to his phone charger so his alarm failed to go off, no intention of starting work before 9 a.m. (His start time was 8 a.m.) and two that later proved to be true: The employee’s leg was trapped between a subway car and the platform, and the employee had to take a personal call from the governor.

If that governor was named Quinn, that explains the lack of action.

The nationwide survey was conducted between Nov. 9 and Dec. 5, 2011 by Harris Interactive, among more than 7,000 U.S. workers and 3,000 employers across industries and company sizes. CareerBuilder reminds those of us out there who have been in Rip Van Winkle stupor, or doing battle with a cunning critter such as a fox (don’t even get me started on racoons or squirrrels), to arrive at work on time.

More than a third of employers (34 percent) said they have fired an employee for being late, so synchronize those watches.

– Kurt Begalka

And so it ends, the final CES keynote for Microsoft. And with very little in the way of new news, at least Microsoft fans won't have to look for much to surpass when the company begins holding its own news conference events.

Sure, there was some talk about Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Xbox. Some numbers thrown out, a minor news announcement here and there -- Nokia and HTC beat Microsoft to the punch on their Windows Phone announcements, and Microsoft will bring a News Corp app to Xbox that will include TV content from Fox and Fox News Channel.

But in the end, Ryan Seacrest asked CEO Steve Ballmer what's next? His answer - Metro-style apps from Windows 8. Apparently, 2012 is the year of Windows 8. And not much else.

- Chris Freeman

As the Xbox demonstration was under way, a search to call up a Transformers movie resulted in the online stream being halted out of "respect to the intellectual property being shown to the CES audience."

That might be the worst decision I've seen. How could they not have just called the studio and made sure they could stream a few minutes of it? Really?

Xbox getting Fox app with News Corp programs including Fox network and Fox News Channel. No word if they are live or not.

Talking 2 way TV with Sesame Street. Little girl throwing coconuts through Kinect to Grover from Sesame Street game. Weird, but maybe cool.

- Chris Freeman

Moving on to Windows 8 demonstration now, showing Metro style apps that will allow operating system to use mouse, keyboard and touch across PCs and tablets.

Essentially, Windows 8 is going to be based on a mobile/tablet platform, but with the power and capability of a desktop computer. Not sure how that is going to work.

I happen to be a fan of Windows 7. I like it. It works, it's easy, it's functional, it doesn't crash and get a bunch of bugs. I don't need touch apps, or to turn my desktop icons into push buttons. So we'll see.

Windows Store will allow users to gain free apps, across all platform, in every language that uses Windows.

- Chris Freeman

Ryan Seacrest is playing host to Microsoft's CES keynote address, sharing the stage with CEO Steve Ballmer. The event is kicking off with Windows Phone demonstrations, with Derek Snyder, a senior product manager at Windows Phone, demonstrating the capabilities.

They feature groups, connecting all the texts, emails, other info to people rather than to the program.

- Chris Freeman