Hey Erin, I know your pain about finishing Arrested Development.  The good  news is that you can start watching them in sequence all over again in a couple of months and it will all be fresh to you and you will pick up hilarious things you missed the first time.  Chris and I have been through them I think about 3 times, and we have yet to get tired of them.  Also related, I have a major crush on Michael Cera, AKA George Michael, AKA Evan from Superbad.  He is awesome and so cute.  You NEED to get you hands on a copy of Superbad ASAP.  Also, if you are looking for a Michael Cera fix, check out www.clarkandmichael.com.  I'm sure it will suck on your slow connection, but him and his bud have these hilarious web videos that totally hit the spot and also guest star some AD dudes as well as some Freaks and Geeks fun. 

Sorry that the job is sucking.  Why is it that stupid bosses can take a good job and make it suck so much ass?  I was having similar situations this summer with dumbass bosses at the lab.  The peeps here are all bosses strictly on their PhDs and have no human resource training whatsoever.  Its like they get off on making relations between labs crappy.  Here's an example: A tech down the hall had her day care cancel for a week, so instead of taking the week off, she brought her two screaming kids to work with her, amidst needles full of sedatives, mice, and all manner of expensive equipment.  She was actually injecting mice with one hand while holding a 1 year old in the other!! So everyone on the floor was talking about how irresponsible it was, including how the lab could get shut down if the right people saw what was going on, and her boss, the biggest jackass alive, came in, saw the shenanigans, and just laughed it off.  None of the other bosses on this floor even have the balls to stand up to Jackass numero uno, so it took a tech to write an e-mail to JA#1 about how bringing kids should not be allowed.  Instead of JA#1 feeling embarrassed about not handling the situation on his own, he gets mad at the tech who wrote the e-mail, even bitching to another boss that HE should be fired for complaining!!!  And then he tells his tech something like "I don't have a problem with you having kids, but this dude complained so you better stop it" and continues to forward the complaint e-mail to his tech.  So now the girl bringing in the kids knows who complained about her, and it incredibly pissed with that tech instead of understanding that she was wrong.  What a clusterfuck!! Anyway, there should be mandatory HR training for all bosses, to be renewed every year! 

Sorry this comment is longer than your post, but jobs suck because of stupid bosses and I'm tired of it.  So I feel your pain.  I think you should just come home, I miss you guys a ton!!

And I am super jealous of your trips.  I am dying to go to Tibet!!  Even though I bet it will be really cold there.  Take care!

I am more jealous than Amy of your trips.

I always feel like I am on the other end of the boss conversations now. Although I love The Office, the idea of being a "David Brent/Michael Scott" scares me. I do think you have to listen to your people. The Tao Te Ching says "To lead people, walk behind them." I agree with that. It's weird. I like my job, but my biggest frustrations now are always about other Store Managers. Sometimes I see how they run their stores and it really pisses me off.

I also know how you feel about AD - best show ever. Another show that I was really into but also got canceled was Veronica Mars. It was annoying because the producers didn't know it was being canceled - as the CW decided at the last minute - so Season 3 ends on sort-of a cliffhanger.

In other news:
"I don't want no part of yo' tight-ass country club, ya freak bitch!"

Mongolia is defs one of the places I'd like to visit before I die.

I comisserate about office politics. My office is pretty bad, too, with the added twist of lemon that a number of the women here are undergoing menopause. Hopefully you'll get to come back early enough to visit Vermont before everybody hightails it out of the state?

So are you really going to go on a scary long wilderness excursion hike when you return to the US?

Mike! That is such a creepsville picture of you!

Great carved pumpkin, or greatest carved pumpkin ever?
http://bp0.blogger.com/_KO5JQI7UKvE/RxgyXsCodDI/AAAAAAAACVY/aqtLOyH1WxU/s1600-h/pumpkincarving+-+5.jpg

(lower left in that picture)

GREATEST CARVED PUMPKIN EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man, that is freaking awesome!!!! If only my man would carve me a pumpkin like that . . . sigh . . . .