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I was on the phone in our home office the other day, talking with our travel agent when she said, "I hear your baby crying."

"Our baby? No, that was our dog. She wants to go outside and run around," I said with a laugh.

"Well, she's your baby, right, you know."

The point here is that this was a business call from our home office. Some who work at home say one should keep one's pets in another room. Sure that would work. She (the dog) would whine big time then until we let her in to the action place, in her mind, the office.

Trying to explain to the dog that tossing a Frisbee is not on my "To Do" list right now is a waste of time. The dog figures, "Why would she want to sit there banging on a keyboard when we could be out there leaping for those round plastic things that zoom all over the place?"

Such is the stuff of working at home. You crowd a spare bedroom or maybe a purpose-built office in the house with every device one must have to do the job. For many that means printer/fax/copier/scanner all in one, a couple of phone lines, a TV (no, not for soap operas. One must keep up with breaking news you know) and the most important thing in a home office —- will power. No, I will not check out YouTube until I accomplish the three must-do projects on my calendar. Nor will I email a relative about an upcoming visit or text message my grandson for the score of his soccer game. Yeah, right. Some distractions are unavoidable. When the door bell rings one must respond. It could have been Ed McMahon, after all. More likely, the pest control guy.

Working at home also exposes one to the curse of the telemarketers. This may be the most annoying aspect of "office-ing" at home, except for the tendency of people who work at home to use "office" as a verb, a sin, "where do you office?"

Some comedian gave me the best line to use when some guy from Bangalore calls with a free offer of "Joint Juice" or free catheter service. Just say, in a panicky voice, "Oh I'm so glad you called right now. Help me please. Do you know how to get blood, I mean lot's of blood, out of a rug?"

I realize that working in a home office isn't the best thing to help the commercial real estate business here. Marco has a few vacancies in several strip malls and commercial complexes that I suppose I should rent for an office. Or maybe I should follow the example of a friend and neighbor who has plenty of room for a home office and the sort of business that can be done from home. But home was full of interruptions and distractions. His solution was to rent office space in one of those storage complexes, the type originally designed for storing excess furniture, etc. When tricked out, they make good, small, quiet offices. Sounds great and it would help the economy. But I couldn't go to work in shorts and T-shirts, could I?

Not to mention that I'd be at least 1.2 miles further away from my kitchen refrigerator. I'll have to rethink this whole thing, soon as I finish my Frisbee game with the dog.

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Chris is a former news anchor for CNN and ABC-TV stations in Atlanta, Houston and Washington, DC. Email: chris@chriscurle.com.