_________________________________________________________________ It is with a bit of a sniffle that we bid farewell to yodeling and lederhosen jokes.  And our fearless leader, Brigitte Rath, who once had the patience to try to teach me to say 'cutie' in her Austrian dialect, but I ran out of saliva on my second attempt. So, being the boss around here?  Well...let's put it this way... We're a rather, hm, interesting bunch.  And it takes a special kind of person to keep us in line.  One who isn't afraid to shred vacation requests when we get a little too rambunctious....

This week we had the distinct pleasure of meeting with Val, our rep with Summit Express, for some BLTs and chit-chat. Surprisingly, Sarah and I forgot to ask Val if she is a fan of the Walking Dead. Because Sarah and I? Are apocalypse obsessed. Just ask Joel at Charter Sports who stops by rather often to talk about skis.  And zombies. I'm sure Brigitte and Kate were relieved. Ahem, where was I?  Ah, yes.  BLTs.  And the awesome Val.  Seriously?  Val is great.  And we all had nice chit-chat, lack of apocalypse plan discussion notwithstanding. Oftentimes...

I have been under contract to buy a house since August 26th of this year. It has been…something else.  Actually, it's always something else.  I gave them everything.  Pretty much anything I'd touched in the past six months that had a number on it.  Only to find out they needed something else.  An explanation of this $20 deposit, a picture of a dollar bill drawn by my eldest.  A side of fries.  You get the idea. For the record, I have not closed yet. It has been delayed twice since October 1st. Though, the other day I was reassured it will happen. The underwriting...

Zube: All righty, let's see who has to be nice to who in the office today. *flipping to the horoscopes on the last page of the Summit Daily* Zube: Nice!  Four star day for me!  Oh, Beth, you're going to have a four star day, too! Beth: Great.  So we don't have to be nice to each other. *Brigitte strolls in* Zube: Brigitte, Brigitte, Libra.  Uh-oh.  Only three stars.  Beth, we have to be nice to Brigitte today. Beth: We always have to be nice to Brigitte.  She's the GM. Zube: Heh. This horoscope check?  Is a morning ritual.  Except on Sunday...