Dear Friends,

This week it’s Ben writing for Don while he’s in China. Spring is finally in the air here in Vermont. The seemingly endless masses of snow were vanquished by a formidable foe—nearly 70 degrees of glorious sunshine—over the weekend. Burlington emerged from its winter slumber and dosed its denizens with an extra-large helping of spring fever. The bug bit me so hard that I decided it was a good idea to go for my first hike of the year. I twisted a few arms and gathered a group of friends to hike nearby Mt. Philo. In my excitement I neglected the fact that snow doesn’t melt instantly, and when it does it creates mud. As we hit the base of the trail, our running shoes and shorts were met with slushy residual snow and goopy mud. Momentarily dissuaded, I offered up my building’s laundry services and we pressed on, slipping and sliding up the mountain. We rewarded ourselves at the top with a picnic and champagne toast. Having never before tried it, I attempted glissading down the snow-covered trail on our descent. This yielded very mixed results, and I now have a brown—originally white—tee shirt to prove it.

Earlier in the week, we had a special guest in the office. Cody—as we now know him—was a lost yellow lab picked up by Jan, our director of marketing, who found the pup wandering stray in her town. As he was without a collar, tags or a microchip, we posted photos to our Facebook page and Twitter feed, hoping for any kind of lead. Thanks in part to the prevalence and power of social media, we were able to reunite Cody with his family by the end of the day. A great guest once he got used to the other dogs in the building, Cody is welcome back to the office for water and biscuits any time!