_________________________________________________________________ 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...

In fifteen years I've yet to go to the Post Office or the City Market without running into someone I know. Generally the number of people I run into would seem to be in direct correlation with the lack of effort I put into looking presentable that day.  Naturally.  A good friend of mine recently posted on Facebook that she loves living in a town where, upon realizing she had forgotten her wallet, she continued grocery shopping confident she would run into someone she knew who would spot her the goods.  And, of course, she did.  I've had many similar experiences.  My children...

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...

Usually somewhere between 8:05AM and 8:30AM the topic of conversation around here will turn to what everyone plans to have for lunch. And it carries on intermittently throughout the morning. Every once in a while it quiets down. Like when Beth is eating her grapefruit. Or I'm eating my ramen noodles. (Yes. I really just said that. I'm old enough to be President and I still eat ramen.) And when Sarah or Brigitte are drinking their fancy shakes. Well, they call them juices but I personally contend that juices are made of things that grow on trees. Like apples and oranges. However, things that grow...