That's right, the one and only Miss Rosalilnd S. is today's Zapponian of the day! Ros is the cruise ship assistant here at Zappos and she does such a wonderful job at keeping inside Zappos crusin'!

Andrea L (Andi to her friends) is a photographer in the KY Warehouse. Andi says, "I believe my spot here at Zappos was fate. I love it here. It is the best job I have ever had and I love the people I work with."

This is the story of her first tattoo!

Oh, what an exciting and proud day it is here at the Zappos Headquarters! The game we've been talking about for quite a while is finally here – Zappos Monopoly!

The Zappos Monopoly game board, designed by our amazingly talented Creative Services Team, is a limited edition piece and all the proceeds go towards the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. Some of the fun Zappos touches that were added to this ever-so-popular family game are:

• Custom Zappos.com collectors edition money
• Custom Title Deeds Cards that feature the biggest and best footwear companies
• Culture and WOW cards to replace the classic Community Chest and Chance Cards
• Traditional houses and hotels are renamed to Wish Lists and Shopping Carts (aren't we clever)
• And 6 collectible pewter tokens – Clarks Wallabee, Babydoll Pliner, Lacoste Crocodile, Converse All Star, DC Shoe Snowboard, and a Reebok Freestyle Hi

Now that's WOW!

"You be trippin' if you don't donate your blood!" -Rosalind S. as Ubie from the United Blood Services

You may remember UbieUbie making an appearance here at the Zappos Headquarters in order to rally up Zapponians to give their blood in order to help save some lives. Well, the day is finally here and our Elvis Presley conference room looks like a crazy labratory complete with doctors in white coats (very fitting for our week of Halloween madness).

Donating blood really isn't for the faint of heart, nore for those who have been tattooed in the past year, nor for those who have lived out of this country for more than five years. So If you don't fall in any of those categories, then please...DONATE YOUR BLOOD!

Welcome again to yet another blog about the "things" that Zapponians keep on our desk.

Today's Zapponian is Josiah B., and besides being a very talented pumpkin carver, he's also an amazing artist! If you are able to check out his Halloween tribute paintings at his desk in the 2280 building, you should. They'll leave you breathless - kind of like Zombies. Oh yeah, about the Zombies that have been lurking around the Zappos Headquarters. Josiah B. is the man to go to handle this Haunting situation. He has a whole stack of Zombie survival books on his desk. I'm sure we could all use a few tricks on how to ward off Zombies while we're out and about Trick-or-Treating tomorrow night.

On Wednesday, Halloween came a bit early in the Zappos Headquarters, but it is very "Zappos" of us to do things a little out of the norm.

Every team was encouraged to decorate their area of the office however they see fit for this spooktacular event. Creative services made a mini haunted house for our Trick-or-Treating visitors complete with slimy, creepy bowls of old lady skin, eye balls, baby poop, brains, blood, alien babies, zombie teeth, worms, and guts. Who doesn't like sticking their hands in a tub of eye balls!?!

The Comfort Team made a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fun zone full of sugar and spice and everything that kids look forward to all year long - tubs, and tubs of candy.

The Legal Team made their own crime-free city with the center of it being "The Hall of Justice." They were all super heros, so they fit in quite nicely with their overall theme.

At 4PM, the offices were opened up for trick-or-treaters, and 300 little ones came dressed up and ready for candy! We didn't get any video or pics because that's WAY too many parents to have sign release forms....but trust us, they were here! : )

Here is a video of the madness that is Zappos Halloween!

It wouldn't be Halloween without a Jack-o-Lantern on our doorsteps, and that rule goes for Inside Zappos as well. On top of having Halloween decoration competitions, and prizes for the best costume, we battled it out in the pumpkin carving and painting department as well.

The winners of this years Pumpkin Carve-off are:
1st place: Josiah B.
2nd place: Nikki S.
3rd place: Karen S.

And in Pumpkin Painting:
1st place: Anastasia P.
2nd place: John F.

Way to ward off the haunting spirits of this All Hallows Eve.

Although spirit week has since passed, I wanted to share the team's spirit sticks with everyone. Each department in the KY warehouse created their own spirit stick with a hint of department flavor. The spirit sticks were judged to find the winner, but I think every team is a winning team here in KY! We all need each other to get the merchandise on the shelves, posted to the site, and out the door in superhero lightning speed!

Enjoy the Spirit Stick Showdown!

This year marks our fourth annual Halloween Costume Contest here at our Las Vegas offices, and it's another crazy one! We take this very seriously, and literally, more than half of the company dresses up!

One of the members of the Zappettes had to sit out this round (or should have, but instead decided to sing happy birthday to herself) because It's Kathleen J.'s Special Day!

Happy Birthday Kathleen. Now you are officially over exposed on the Inside Zappos Blogs, but we don't care because we like ya!

Hope your day was full of Birthday wishes, bundt cakes and unicorns!

Since Halloween is just around the corner, we decided to up the creepy and spooky factor of Zapponian of the day up a notch.

Meet Tiffany G., our hilarious copywriter. I am now convinced that if she can survive the horror of being interviewed next to a freakishly large spider, then she can survive through anything.

Yes, that's right! The 2008 book Tribal Leadership made such an impact on us here at Zappos that we have decided that we will share an audiobook version of the book for the rest of the world.....FOR FREE.

Zappos.com has partnered with the authors of Tribal Leadership to bring you the audio version of the book, and we've included a special audio foreword featuring Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, having a conversation with Dave Logan, co-author of Tribal Leadership.

Tribal Leadership is an exploration of how:

"Within every company there are tribes, often several, consisting of 20 to 150 people who know each other and work together. But while everyone tribes, the culture of each tribe is different, as is its effectiveness. Improving a tribe’s culture—and its chances for greater success—requires a tribal leader who not only understands the tribe but can leverage its collective assets to build a greater team."

This book is helping us to shape our culture, and we hope it can do the same for you! To download, click here!

Grace H., HR Coordinator, has many roles here in the KY Warehouse. One of which is to handle events and planning. One of her most recent events was the Health & Wellness Fair. Several vendors from the area came out to speak with the KY Warehouse Superheroes to share information about their services or products. Among the vendors were Bullitt County Health Department, Hester's Gym, Etown Swim & Fitness, Two Ten Organization, Shepherdsville Chiropractic, and many more.

Employees received a Zappos.com goodie bag filled with lots of stuff including a jump rope, pedometer, jar openers, hand sanitizer, and many more things you shouldn't ever be without.

It was a long, but fun filled day of blood pressure screenings, body fat analysis, stop smoking campaigns, financial planning chats, and tips on ways to be more active and healthy. Thanks for all the work, Grace. We really enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next one!

As anyone that frequents the Zappos blogs must know, we have quite a unique relationship with Twitter. We love it! Our CEO, Tony Hsieh, or as he is known in Twitterland, @zappos, embraced this a few months back, and we currently have 460 Zappos employees using the micro-blogging site, and @zappos has nearly 16,000 followers.

We even have our own Zappos/Twitter site at Twitter.zappos.com where you can see all tweets that mention the company and all Zappos employees and what they are tweeting about!You can even follow the Inside Zappos blogs @insidezappos for updates on all sort of fun and weirdness that go on inside the Zappos HQ.

The Wall Street Journal just did a piece in which Zappos is mentioned in a discussion of companies using the site. The piece can be read here.

This week we've got our eye on Miss Heaven T. Heaven is new to the Help Desk.....Sorta. She started as an intern in Human Resources, she bounced over to help desk then back to HR and now she's back with us. We're very happy to have her.

Heaven loves to Hula hoop so if you see her, challenge her to a match. Heaven likes bugs, movies and her puppy snuggles. She camps and is kinda clumsy, she's the oldest of 3 and is originally from San Diego. Come by and say hi and when you do, ask her about the DDR Machine :)

Welcome Heaven to the Help Desk, we're so glad that you are here!!

Happy Monday and welcome to a new episode of Things on my Desk. Today we explore the desk of Jackie M. from our Customer Loyalty Kid's Business Unit.

Here at Zappos.com, we take our holidays very seriously. And every day leading up to Halloween, the office begins to look more and more like a huge spider has been spinning a web and Gargoyles and Huge Bats frighten all those that enter any of the buildings.

Make no mistake, Zappos takes dressing up and decoration seriously. Halloween here will be celebrated next week, and the entire company will dress up. Trust me. You will be amazed. It's not required, it doesn't need to be. You'll see : )

Kaya was told there was a meeting in the photo studio today. However, the Superheroes in the KY warehouse planned a surprise party for team mate Kaya. Kaya is a stylist on the KY Photo Team. He styles, designs, and assists the photographers so the product images on http://www.zappos.com/ look amazing. Keep up the great work team!

Thanks for putting together this surprise party and showing our Core Value of Building a Positive Team and Family Spirit really works! Not to mention, its fun and, who doesn't love cake?! By the way, I'm not sure who has the creepy voice saying "this is cake in the dark" but enjoy the video.

Good Luck Kaya!

Do you have voices in your head? I know I do. And I'm beginning to discover that I am not the only Zapponian with obscure thoughts running through my head at all times.

We would like to welcome you to our new series of blogs that highlight the small voices (or people if you will) that control our thoughts even we're not thinking. Don't worry, these thoughts do not keep us from being productive, they just keep us company throughout our seemingly normal day.

Here's a sneak peek of the voices that dwell in Shanda's head.

The always pleasant and Giggly Jennifer B. from the Fez team is our Zapponian of the day. Why you may ask? Because she giggles at our bad jokes...that's why!

Last week on the Kids’ Content Team, we weren’t really feeling the Halloween spirit. So, we decided to do something about it and what better way to get that fall feeling then having a pumpkin decorating contest?!

So, we all went home with dancing pumpkins in our heads and spent hours upon hours hunched over our masterpieces. Monday morning we all proudly displayed our squash centerpieces. We needed a judge, so we outsourced Bob from the Outdoor Content Team. Bob pondered over each and every carefully crafted pumpkin until he finally came to a decision <drum roll, please>

EVERYONE WINS!! We all erupted in cheers and overall jubilation. Nowadays the Halloween spirit is high on the Kids’ Content Team and we are all eagerly anticipating a ghoulish good time next week!

If you are a regular Zappos Blog reader, you probably already know we love our company core values. In spirit of Core Value #3, Create Fun & A Little Weirdness, Help Desk has decided to be locked up for the holidays! We decided to build a Jail Cell in the front lobby of our main building for Halloween. It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to build the cell walls… Overall there were 4 burns, 1 poke, 2 hand cramps, 1 sore thumb, 1 toe nail caught on the carpet, 1 pole dropped on a foot, and 1 lost shoe.

Contractor Jo questions “Whose idea was it to give the girls power tools? Either way, I had a blast building!”

Oh… and yes, Help Desk is now available for hire!

Today at 9am and at 4pm, we are showing the episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show that features an interview with Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh!

Employees from all 3 building are gathering in the lunch room to watch it live, as well as on laptops in the breakrooms for everyone that can't make it down.

Exciting day for Zappos! Our blog team will be reporting all day on the celebration that is Zappos on Oprah!

Check your local listings!

The Zappettes were busy today with back to back bookings. They gave singing grams to birthday celebrants, Kathy C. and Steph B. This in house Zappos singing group has been a huge success. Not only are they spreading angelic cheer, but all proceeds go to the Zappos charity of the month. Happy Birthday ladies, hope your birthday is as harmonious as your singing gram!

Dave C. and Kelly B. are buyers for our Athletic Merchandising team, and they made a little wager last week. All I will say is that Dave loves his facial hair, and Kelly loves her team. : )

So, as some poetry stars in the Zappos office might have noticed, the Spoken Word, scheduled for National Poetry Day on October 9th, ended up being the Silent Word. This particular Spoken Word was also part of Customer Service Week.

When we went to set up for the Spoken Word we could not locate the microphone or power cord for the PA System. Since we really did not feel like telling people to shout over the din of the lunchroom, we canceled the Spoken Word.

So, in honor of the type of business we are in, I offer this:

When I came to Zappos I thought that life was great
Now I look back and realize how little I controlled my fate.
I had worked for companies both large and small
At some I had done quite well, at some I took a fall.

No matter what I did or for whom I worked
Never was I truly happy, never was I truly perked
I always felt so undervalued, my talents lost among the noise
I always found I never fit in as “one of the good 'ole boys”

When I came to Zappos, I found a weight lifted from my shoulders
Suddenly I wasn't occupied with the material, papers, and folders.
Here there was more emphasis on the human aspect of the job
No longer was I working for a listless, broken mob.

In acceptance and in warmth came satisfaction
Here people took a solid action
Backed it by their words
Threw the rest out to the birds
And lived . . .And gave. . .
And made me feel an equal, not a slave.
No longer did I feel depraved.

Even though I came in thinking that I was just the best.
I sat down in my class one day and looked around to all the rest
And saw people that were much more experienced than I.
I sat back and gave a sigh.
Realized that by-the-by,
I am so very blessed.

I hope I never leave this place that brings me joy
This is the place that I want to forever be employed
I feel so at peace when I come on through this door
And find out what new and greater things I can explore.

Zappos is the best job that I have yet to find.
Its like the best of every job I've ever had combined.
I will never leave it, as long as I still can breath air
For this is the place for which I will always care.

Here's a Zapponian we've been trying to track down for a few days now, but he's a tough one to catch. So since we couldn't get Rob S. (aka Smiling Rob) in one spot – mainly because he's a pretty busy guy – we decided to follow him from one place to the other.

Thanks for smiling even though we sort of came at you Paparazzi style.

Lacy G, Production coordinator in the KY Warehouse, shares her behind the ink stories with us. Lacy is an artist and part of our photo imaging department. She enjoys drawing, painting, tattoos, piercings, and horror. Her favorite book is The Giving Tree. She loves music and listens to her favorite punk and hardcore groups often. Lacy plans to grow her skin art collection by eventually having full sleeves of tattoos covering her arms. Keep us informed Lacy!

Watch the Lacy G Behind The Ink Story here:

Yes, that's right! Zappos.com will be featured on the Oprah Winfrey show this Thursday, Oct. 23. A camera crew from the show came to our offices a few weeks ago and filmed our daily crazy activities, and Tony Hsieh, our CEO, did an interview with Oprah via Skype last week. We are all very excited about the Oprah's spot on us, and we hope everyone tunes in on Thursday!

Click here for your local listings.

Check out the promo below!

At the end of last week everyone on the Kids Content Team left the office like normal, but Monday when we arrived we had a most interesting surprise waiting for us... Mr. T!

Well, not the real one, but cleverly drawn pictures of him. They were everywhere! They were taped to desks and hanging off name tags... it was madness! All of the pictures depicted Mr. T doing things across the country, like eating Maine lobster or visiting his oil derrick in Texas. I don’t know how all these Mr. T’s got here, but I don’t know how we ever lived without him now. So, I'll leave you with the words of my personal hero: “I pity the fool who don’t love these amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesties!”

Way to go Mr. T, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

My Mythology - Creating our own living legacy at Zappos.

One of the joys about working at Zappos is the freedom to be ourselves through our own personal style. Style shouts! Individuals identify themselves through their personal style. Taking the chaos out of the closet and using clothing as a celebration to create personal mythology or legend is something I have been fascinated by.

What is someone trying to say through their style?

Join me in the discovery. Each week I will take an employee from Zappos and find out their personal psychology through their favorite outfits.

Today we study the mythology of Scott Julian, Fashion Buyer at Zappos.com.
Scott is sporting super cool Gucci sneakers and a wide variety of silver jewelry that includes stylish brand names like "King Baby"!



How would you define your look?
That’s tough? I’d say casual with accessory excess!

What inspires your style?

Punk and Hip Hop …European Youth.

Who is your favorite designer?

Neil Barrett.

What fashion item would you never leave the house without?

A good pair of flashy socks!

Who are your fashion/style icons?

George Esquiveland Alexander Mcqueen.

What are your favorite labels?

Diesel, Neil Barrett, and Gucci.

How would you define your mythology that you portray through your style?

+Good shoes, nice jeans, and a crisp shirt + 5 lbs of man jewelry and I’m out the door+

What is your favorite decade for style?

80’s.

What is your favorite fabric?

I don’t have one…

Chrome Hearts or King Baby?

King Baby!

What is your favorite color?

Black and white.

What item do you allow yourself to splurge on?

Sneakers and jewelry.

Vivienne Westwood or Alexander McQueen?

Alexander McQueen.

Silver or Gold?
Silver!

Black tie, bow tie, skinny tie or bolo tie?

Bow tie for sure

Which bag?

Hugo Boss

Sunglasses?

Dior Homme

Skateboarding or rollerblading?

Dang!..Was hoping this wouldn’t come up… I can’t lie, I’m a rollerblader!

What are your fashion rules?

Your outfit should be conversational.

Man bags or man jewelry?

Both!

Would set foot in a thrift store?

No …Not patient enough.

What is the most you’ve ever spent on fashion and for what item?

500+ for a pair of Alejandro Ingelmosneaks.

The KY Photography Department meets daily to discuss updates, goals, and core values. To build a positive team and family spirit, the photo team has daily questions. All superheros give their answer to the same question and it goes around the room until everyone has responded. The questions today is "Outside of work, what is your favorite thing to photograph?" See their answers here:


Feel free to leave a comment and let us know "What is your favorite thing to photograph?"

Sometimes it's hard to get your brain working on a Friday morning especially after a challenging week in the Zappos HQ. So, in order to get a few Zapponians thinking, we created ZAPPOS FRIDAY BRAIN BUSTIN' CHALLENGE! Well, it really is more a challenge on coordination...but it still wakes you up.

So here are the rules:
You must be seated in a chair in order to play this game.
Once Seated, rotate one leg clockwise (no, the other clockwise), ok good.
Now, draw a "6" in the air with one hand.

Did you get it? It really is harder than it sounds. I couldn't do it, but at least it got me thinking, so it worked out after all.

David L., without you our computers would be a mess. Thanks for being such a wonderful tech support.

Here he is, the ever so strange, David L.!


I do apologize for this very strange Zapponian of the day interview. It won't happen again - or at least I'll try to not make a habit of it.

Nothing makes you want to cook more than a new set of kitchenware. Today at Zappos we hosted a Houseware Expo with several of the leading brands in kitchen cookware, appliances, cutlery, and glassware. Brands such as Mauviel, Emile Henry, Kuhn Rikon, Shun, Peugeot, Riedel, Demeyere, Terraillon, Aerogarden, Wenger, Staub, Twin, Rosle, Viking, as well as our Zappos exclusive brand Highburry were all here demonstrating the use and quality of their products. All of these brands will be available on our site in the coming months.

Happy Cooking!

It's not just a color, it's a movement that's hitting Zappos by storm. Zappos is taking the right step in the green direction by handing out Blue, reusable water bottles out to all employees and will no longer carry disposable water bottles in our offices. From here on out, Zapponians will quench their thirst by filling up their water bottles at the several coolers posted around our Headquarters.

Way to demonstrate corporate responsibility Zappos.com. Hopefully more corporate companies will follow in our shoe prints.

FAQs about Bottled water and its effects on the planet and you:

Q. Is Bottle water safer or healthier than Tap Water?
A. Federal regulations are nearly identical to tap water, resulting in equally safe water from the tap or from the bottle. "In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water; often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefit". -http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2006/Update51.htm

Q. How many gallons of oil go into the manufacturing of Bottled Water?
A. The production of the 28 billion bottles of water Americans buy each year uses 1.1 million barrels of oil and releases one billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to the Container Recycling Institute.

Q. Where do my bottles go once I am finished?
A. Of the billions of water bottles Americans buy each year, 80 percent end up in landfills or incinerators, even after getting recycled. Those bottles could take anywhere between 400 and 1,000 years to degrade, the EPI estimates. - insidethebottle.org/us-real-cost-bottled-water

Q. Where should I get my water?
A. Zappos will provide all employees with a reusable water bottle that you can fill up at any of the Sparkletts coolers.

Q. By reusing a bottle, how many bottles are kept out of landfills?
A. By choosing to refill a reusable cup with water from a cooler, you are saving 1900 bottles from ending up in landfills. Each jug (equivalent to 38 bottles of water) is reused 50 times, (Once the Jugs have "retired" from Offices and homes, they are recycled into things like speed bumps, park benches, and other municipal uses.) - sparkletts.com

Q. Are any other companies not using bottled water?
A. Locally, the Levi's distribution Center has completely banned the use of Disposable Bottled Water in their facilities. Cities such as San Francisco and Ann Arbor, Mich., have already acted on the problem by banning bottled water in city buildings. - insidethebottle.org/us-real-cost-bottled-water

Nothing brings a group of people together like a potluck! Everyone may know by now that Zappos provides lunch for its employees, which is something that few companies do. Recently Zappos is switching over from catered lunches to our own in-house kitchen - but until then, it's soup and sandwiches for us.

Of course, we're not complaining about Soups and sandwiches, but sometimes it's nice to spice up your lunch break without spending money on going out to lunch. So, for this very reason, departments have been coming together in order to spice up lunch time the old fashioned community way - through potlucks. I've noticed at least one pot luck per week here in the Zappos HQ - and lucky for me, Zapponians are a friendly bunch, so I got to partake in quite a few. Sharing is Caring!


Keep on potluckin' Zapponians!

Mike K, IT Manager, gathered his group to build a positive family and team spirit. He asked each of them to climb 4 or 5 feet in the air and fall backwards. Trust ladder time! This great team building exercise needs nothing more than a ladder, a team, and a trusting soul.

Would you trust your team to catch you? Even I trusted the IT team (but only after seeing several people go before me:) Every team member completed the challenge, even if it took some longer to do so than others. I feel standing on the ladder several feet off the ground gave some a different point of view about height and trust. The Risk and Safety Manager, Leah M., was on stand by to ensure the team was observing safe falling conditions. I hope you get a kick out of watching the IT superheros plunge to the earth with only the arms of their fellow superheros there to save them. Please note: No one was injured during the making of this short film.

Earlier this week, our resident financial expert & host of “Feelin' Frugal, Matt T. had a birthday. We all got together in the days prior and brainstormed on how to make that day extra special for him. We decided that the greatest gift would be to show him that his frugality has made an impact on our lives.

So, instead of spending our hard-earned money on a cake from the market, we made him one from things that we found in the lunch room. Who doesn’t dream of blowing out their Cheetos candles on their special day? No birthday is complete without the perfect card, though… something that really says how much you mean to the people around you. So of course, we ripped out a sheet of notebook paper and came up with a little rhyme to sum up the day. Roses are red, violets are blue. You’re so frugal and your birthday is too. Happy Birthday Matt!

We don't joke around all the time here at the Zappos Headquarters, and that's a fact. If we're going to post a product on our site - such as a new line of facial creams and cleansers for men and women - then we make sure that we are experts in this line so that we can give the customer as much information as possible. Just last Friday Miss Casey L., our wonderful buyer for our new product type, cosmetics, along with a vendor from Bioelements, taught Zapponians the ins and outs of Bioelements skin care products.

But this sure wasn't the first class held by vendors in the Zappos Headquarters, in fact once a week (and sometimes more) vendors from different product lines teach Zapponians all that they need to know in order to better assist our customers. After all, customer service comes before first in this company.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! I'm pretty sure everyone has heard this saying before - and if not, well, now you have. But what are you doing at home and at work to apply it to your everyday life?

Recycling isn't just about throwing your bottles in the blue trashcan. Although it's beneficial, it's not the most effective way of applying the "reduce, reuse, recycle" law because recycling alone causes waste from the cars that transport the recycled goods to the machines that melt, mulch and reproduce the product.

If you really want to make an impact, the best way to do this is through reducing the amount of trash and recycled products that you dump per day. Here at Zappos.com, it wouldn't make sense (especially during the hot Summer months) to get rid of bottled water all together in our offices. However, individuals can bring in their own reusable water bottle in order to lessen the amount of waste he or she uses in an average work day. And we have plenty of water machines throughout the building to fill 'em up!

Ok, so you cut back on the amount of plastic water bottles you go through in one day and that's a great way to start your transition into a greener lifestyle. Now, what the about paper plates, bowls and plastic cutlery that we use during lunch hours? Well, why not bring in reusable lunch supplies. A few Zapponians have already jumped on board with this green movement...but not enough to make a big dent in lessening our waste.

Here are a few Zapponians who do their part in keeping their wastes down.

Maura S. is a longtime Zapponian, and today we feature what's on her desk! Sully works as a manager in our Customer Loyalty department.
Take it away!

OMG, how we all love a good sale! Just stopped by the Zappos Outlet Store located at 376 Zappos.com Blvd in Shepherdsville, KY to see what's going on; the super heroes were busy stocking the store for a big sale coming up October 15-31.

Despite how busy we were, we took a few minutes out of stocking and straightening to show what we would pick out if given the chance to buy ANYTHING we want!

For more information on the sale, please call 1-888-927-4114.

Enjoy our wish list!

Nothing puts a little Zappos in our day quite like the Merengue. It's true. Just the other day, Stephanie R. was pleasantly surprised to walk around the corner to a beautifully organic and full of life Merengue dance performance. Well, it really wasn't a performance, but the ever so beautiful Kathleen J. and the always suave Rudy R. we're so in sync with their Latin dance moves that one would think they've done this hundreds of times. Stephanie R., as well as many others, was so touched by this that the mere thought still puts a glow on her face.

Thanks Kathleen and Rudy for dancing the warm fuzzies into our hearts!

(Since we didn't have a tape of the original heart warming Merengue dancing session, we kindly asked them to reenact the event. Lucky for us, they were kind enough to do so.)

Oktoberfest: it's synonymous with FUN! The sheer mention of that glorious German word conjures images of beer & babes that dance in the heads of people all over the world.

At Zappos, we do things a little differently. Our beer ended up being root beer candies we politely chucked at passing coworkers, and our "babes"... well, you'll just have to check them out for yourself!

My Mythology - Creating our own living legacy at Zappos.

One of the joys about working at Zappos is the freedom to be ourselves through our own personal style. Style shouts! Individuals identify themselves through their personal style. Taking the chaos out of the closet and using clothing as a celebration to create personal mythology or legend is something I have been fascinated by.

What is someone trying to say through their style?

Join me in the discovery. Each week I will take an employee from Zappos and find out their personal psychology through their favorite outfits.

Today we study the mythology of Brandon A., Merchandising Assistant for Fashion at Zappos.com.



How would you define your look?
Classic Americana

What inspires your style?
Classic Amerciana.

Who is your favorite designer?
John Varvatos, Ralph Lauren and Daiki Suzuki

What fashion item would you never leave the house without?
One of my watches. A great timepiece is essential.

Who are your fashion/style icons?
Ralph Lauren, Marvin Gaye and Frank Sinatra

What are your favorite labels?
Engineered Garments, Levi’s LVC, Gilded Age, John Varvatos, Ralph Lauren, Woolrich by Daiki Suzuki.

How would you define your mythology that you portray through your style?
Classic Americana.

What is your favorite decade for style?
1930-1940

What is your favorite fabric?
Cotton. You can never go wrong with cotton.

Which watch?
Dior or Movado M125.

Skinny jeans or straight leg?
Straight leg.

What is your favorite color?
Navy/Blue.

What item do you allow yourself to splurge on?
A good pair of shoes.

Chanel J12 or Dior Christal ?
Neither. Dior Chiffre Rouge over all.

YSL or Louis Vuitton?
YSL

Black tie, bow tie, skinny tie or bolo tie?
Bow tie all the way.

Which bag?
D&G small tote with strap or Pharrell’s custom purple croc Hermes tote.

Sunglasses?
Cross between Rayban Wayfarers, Oakley Frogskins or my Gucci-Persol style sunglasses.

Alexander McQueen or Vivienne Westwood?
Westwood.

What are your fashion rules?
If you’re not confident then you can’t break them.

Man bags or man jewelry?
Man bag all the way.

Fred Perry or Rosasen?
Fred Perry for sure.

Fixed gear or free wheel?
Fixed gear. All the popular kids at Zappos only ride Fixed Gear. Only novices ride free wheel (please see Jason’s blog for reference).

Would set foot in a thrift store?
Yup.

If your answer was yes, what is the best thing you’ve ever found at a thrift store?
Vintage Burberry’s tweed blazer for $3.50

What is the most you’ve ever spent on fashion and for what item?
$1000 on my Dior Chiffre Rouge watch. Can’t beat Memorial Day 60% off sales. Plus I believe it was designed by Heidi Slimane so that’s always a plus.

Alicia L. from the RRRRRDesk in CLT shows us her Hello Kittie collection at her desk in Customer Loyalty.

The KY Dev group is 10 super heroes managed by Jon Jacobs.
In KY, our Dev team is comprised of 10 Dev-ers and they are led by the great Jon J. They sit in a little office writing codes in Perl, analyzing warehouse operations, investigating process inefficiencies, and starring at computer screens all day long. We decided to have a little fun and check out how hard they do work! This video shows what would happen in the event the warehouse actually did have an issue. Fingers crossed, we hope everything goes as smoothly as it has been!

On our last day of Customer Service Week, many Zapponians dressed in lederhosen, yodeled and danced the Chicken Dance in a parade around the office to celebrate Oktoberfest one more time before week's end. We have some special visitors today and they were allowed to see the true craziness that is Zappos.com!

Nothing puts a smile on your face or a chill down your spine like a Jack-O-Lantern. In the spirit of Halloween, our Creative Service and Couture team took a field trip to the "pumpkin patch" then brought their prized pumpkins back to the office for the carvin'!

Thanks CS for bumping the festivity level up a notch and for bringing the wonderful, yet strange, smell of pumpkin to the office!

Unable to accept defeat after their pathetic attempt to overthrow the Dev Empire, opposition forces have resorted to dirty underhanded acts of treason and propaganda.

In an attempt to "Spin It to Win It", opposition leaders published false depictions of what they claim to be the Dev Empire surrendering by raising a white flag. These false depictions provide a clear indication of how low they are willing to stoop. The poor attempt at Photoshopping a white flag into the hand of fearless Dev leader Brent Cromley leads one to suspect that they have drafted the children of the preschool next door to turn the wheels of their propaganda machine.

After repeated failed attempts at negotiating a peaceful end to this propaganda campaign, militant factions within the Dev Empire decided it was time to take action and provide a strong example of the consequences of resistance. The action was swift and decisive as small strike squad infiltrated the eastern DMZ into enemy territory and captured Brian K., a key member of the opposition leadership. After being found guilty of treasonous acts of propaganda Brian stood before the firing squad. Justice was served. It remains to be seen if this action has provided a strong enough example to those who seek to undermine the Empire.

Newly formed in-house Zappos singing crew, the Zappettes gave CFO, Alfred, a harmonious birthday greeting today. They sang two special songs before he entered the Dunk Tank for today's customer service week festivities. You can now hire the lovely and talented Zappettes, Alane, Liz and Kathleen to send a special someone not only a birthday sing-o-gram, but a singing telegram for any special occasion or even just because. All proceeds go to the Zappos sponsored charity of the month.

Everyone knows that Zappos is all about customer service. Well our true heroes behind our grand customer service reputation is our wonderful Customer Loyalty Team, thus, we've thrown a whole week of fun filled festivities in their honor.

Today we celebrated Customer Loyalty Week by having the managers from all departments BBQ delicious hamburgers, cheeseburgers, veggieburgers, and hot dogs for all the employees here at the Zappos Headquarters. Way to serve, Managers!

And, because Zappos likes to mix fun and a little weirdness into everything we do, we brought a dunk tank to the BBQ. That's right - a dunk tank, manned with Zappos volunteers brave enough to get dunked for half an hour straight. We charged one dollar for three throws and all the proceeds went to the Arthritis Foundation (the same orginization as last week's bake sale). We were able to raise over $200 and a good amount of laughs!

So as a loyal soldier of the UX team I can stand behind the claim that Development lost the battle held this morning. While I am a firm believer that a war consists of more than one battle, the first battle does set the tone for the rest of the war. In the pic below you will see clearly the white flag being waved by those across the battle lines on the development side. All should bask in the glory of the victorious UX, PM, HR and Finance allied powers.

Fore score and several weeks ago our Dev team raised up a great army unlike Zappos has ever seen in order to claim the 2300 building for their own. Today it was PM, UX, HR and Finance teams that decided to join troops and to fight this great army of nerf gun nerds. Though their courage is something that all of Zappos should honor, their army was no match for the smoke machine and customized nerf weapons.

Today we all take our hats off and bow down to the new kings of the hill - Development.

Maybe once the Finance and Human Resources army gains it's strength back, they will strike back

Grace H. is HR Coordinator in Zappos KY. She helps bring the fun inside the warehouse. She assists HR with many duties, but one of her favorite responsibilities is event planning. Grace has helped plan holiday parties, picnics, car washes, vendor fairs, health fairs, and many more events. Her next big event is KY's Fall Festival on October 25th. (KY team members make sure you RSVP using wiki, search for surveys).

You could call her KY's very own Superhero of Fun. Grace's desk is full of fun reminders of her dream vacation so basically when Grace comes to work, she is on vacation. Unofficial Warning: Working at Zappos.com may feel like you're on vacation! It's that much Fun!

As much fun as the Zoktoberfest was, the event that really took the cake (pun intended) was our German Cake Bake off. That's right. Four brave cake lovin' Zapponians spent a few outside work hours baking their hearts out in order to WOW our judge's taste buds. The best part about today's bake off was that no two German Chocolate Cakes were alike.

Out of our four contestants: Ryan Q., Amber W., Arcelia L. and Rowena D., only two walked away with a winning title, but no hurt egos here because they all got Zollars for effort.

Thanks to our wonderful Judges, Clarissa G., Rob R., and Dr. Vik, each cake was carefully examined and judged fairly according to best taste and most creative.

And the Grand Prize for Best Taste and Presentation and overall WOW went to Ryan Q.! Way to go Ryan! I asked our winner to share a few of his baking secrets with us so that we can better attempt to make his tasteful cake at home.

"The cake batter was a combination of cake flour, meringue, and chocolate sauce all mixed by hand so it would stand up against the weight of the cake. There were 3 types of chocolates used in the batter and the frosting (a bittersweet, a semisweet and a German sweet chocolate). I owe everything to the Zappos dev department who let me test an earlier version of this recipe on them last week. Their feedback helped me come up with the final product"

And the prize for most creative went to Amber W. for her German Chocolate Cheese Cake - my personal favorite, I'm a sucker for cheesecake!



Check out our winning Cake Above...Oh, and Ryan, you must have been a baker!

Even though we can't smell the crisp cool breeze of Fall or see the leaves of big beautiful trees change colors, we sure don't miss out on the ultimate Fall activity in the history of man, that's right Oktoberfest. Ah yes, nothing beats polka music, bratwurst, Beer stein and fennel cakes! Ok, for those of you who got a bit concerned when I mentioned Beer stein, there was NO alcohol at this Zappos event - we have work to do! But it did go over and beyond most fun and a little weird days in the office, that's for sure.

Some of the highlights from this years Zoktoberfest was definitely the Fennel cake stand. For those who went to a good amount of small town fairs as a kid, like myself, then I'm sure those deliciously fied cakes brought back a bit of nostalgia. Oh and of course no Zoktoberfest would be complete with out a bratwurst eating contest and a Beer stein holding competition! A big cheers to the brave Zapponians that participated in these physically demanding events.

Do you ever wonder who the people are that are at the front desk when you walk by, or are driving shuttles. Have you ever wanted to get to know those folks better? Well I am here to help!!

This week we are putting the spotlight on our very own Missy R., A.K.A The Irish One.

Missy has been a member of the Zappos family since July 2004. One of her original trainers was Jacob P.. She started on the Customer Loyalty Team and was also part of the Quality Assurance Team for a period.Missy joined the Help Desk in November of 2007.

Some fun facts about Missy:

She loves any food that's hot and spicy, we joke that she no longer has taste buds, and to quote "Anything hot and spicy is a sign of sure goodness"

She has 4 tattoos and loves the band Social Distortion.

She’s from a small town in Arizona and comes from a big family.

She loves the culture here at Zappos and she says that the best part of being at Zappos is how every day is different. Missy says the biggest change that she’s witnessed is seeing Zappos grow from 70 people in one building and now there’s over 900 in three buildings.

If you see Missy at the front desk make sure that you give her a big “Hey Baby”



We love you, Missy!

Today inside Zappos we discovered that we have a much more musically inclined group than we thought, during our all day Zappos Idol competition (or should I say Karaoke madness!) We had everything from Broadway musicals, to songs that you only listen to your car but somehow worked up the courage to sing them in front of your co-workers, to the oldies-but-goodies.

I would really like to debut all of the videos in order to show off the singing talents of my fellow Zapponians, but unfortunately, we don't own the rights to every song in the world, thus we are not allowed to post them. But, before you stop reading any further due to disappointment, Brett H. wrote a lovely and very original diddy that we can post for you. Background vocals are by yours truly, Melissa L. and the human microphone stand is the one and only Brooke H. ENJOY!

Angela K., Zappos.com's KY Warehouse Recruiting Supervisor, shows us what's on her desk. Angela's job is to keep the warehouse filled with Zapponians eager to deliver WOW. She attends job fairs, tours, and networks with many HR folks to find the very best employees for Zappos.com.

Angela's desk is filled with fun trinkets to keep her focused on building a family and team environment in the warehouse. Although she is flooded with resumes, stocked with paperwork, and inundated with phone messages, she finds Mr. Wonderful waiting at her desk for her everyday when she arrives! She also collects hats, so feel free to leave a few more on her desk. (Bert, please don't leave anymore spiders though, she is terrified.)

Well, a lot of us here at Zappos are trying to live a life of frugality. Thanks to Matt T.'s Guide to Living Frugal you too can have a comfortable yet frugal lifestyle in no time!

Here at the Zappos HQ we understand that every once in a while it's hard to wake up and go to work in the morning. Well, we can't give everyone the day off whenever they feel like staying in their jamies, but today we are allowing everyone to wear their pajamas to work! Now that makes getting ready in the morning a lot easier! And since Zappos provides cereal and coffee, the only thing our pajama wearing associates had to do this morning was brush their teeth.

Bringing the comfort of your own home to work. Now that's service!

This is the first day of Customer Service Week, in which we celebrate our commitment to the customers of Zappos and our CLT department, and we always have a theme every day of the week.

Keep you eyes on the blogs all week to see the craziness!

'Tis the Season to donate your blood - either to a blood sucking vampire or United Blood Services, Inc. We don't discriminate if you do both, but we do recommend donating to United Blood Services, Inc.

On October 30th, Zapponians who wish to give their blood in order to help those in need, may, right here in our very own headquarters. It's quick, relatively painless, and you can say that you got your Blood drawn for real on the eve of Halloween! A few rules do apply: You must be at least 17 years old and in good health and if you are one who likes needles so much that you just got a full tattoo sleeve, then you need to wait a while before donating. For more information about blood donation and to see if you are eligible, you may go to the United Blood Services website.

Here's Ubie, the mascot of United Blood Services with a very important announcement:

You be trippin if you don't donate your blood!

For those who are interested, email rsearcy@zappos.com with THREE ideal appointment times and she'll get you in there.

Some people just aren't born with natural good timing. In fact, I am one of those people who have bad timing on just about everything – jokes, smart comments, merging lanes, clapping to a beat, catching food in my mouth, you get the idea. Though I've gotten used to being know at the girl who says "who's that?" about a person who I really should know, before they are a safe distance away from me so that they can't hear my comment.

But now I have to add yet another thing I have bad timing with to my "list of things that I really should time better but probably never will" and that is having to use the restroom or "pee" at any time in my 8 hour day besides the 20 minutes that our facilities close it down for cleaning. It's true, that on an average week here in the Zappos headquarters (which is five days) I get up to use the loo the very same time our wonderful facilities member Laura E. (you may remember her from Zapponian of the day) has it shut down due to cleaning, three times. That means that three out of five times I have bad pee timing.


Laura E. now walks back to my desk to tell me it's time to go potty right before she shuts 'em down for cleaning. Laura E., you're the best! Thanks for helping me improve my pee timing.

We do what we can here at The Zappos HQ to help out our community and those who need help within it. So, today we hosted a bake sale within our offices here in Henderson, NV in order to collect money to donate to the Arthritis Foundation as well as satisfy the sweet tooth of our Zappos employees. Needless to say, it was a huge success! Of course the exceptional baking talents of our employees made it pretty tasteful to donate for this cause, but I am still blown away by the vast amount of generosity that lives within this office. And, I am proud to say that inside Zappos alone, we raised over $2,000 for The Arthritis Foundation! Way to go Zapponians!

If you didn't have the chance to donate today, don't worry, you still have time to either enter in the October 25 Creep Walk here in Las Vegas, NV, or give money to Zapponians who are participating in the walk. For more information please visit the Arthritis Walk Home Page.

Welcome to the third episode of 'Meet the Kids Content Team'. This week I got to know Anastasia a little better. I learned that she is a very complex person with a love/hate relationship with animals, and an obsession with German cats. Let's learn more...

Anastasia was born on a hot July day in Guatemala. I asked her what she would like people to know about her birthplace and she told me that they have a very pretty bird with an exceptionally long tail....that's all. She feels very strongly about animals. She is trying to become a vegetarian but frequently complains about her dirty 10" long goldfish named 'The Fish'. Sounds more like an old mob guy than a goldfish to me.

Anastasia is also enraptured with German kittens, i.e. kitties with funny and grammatically incorrect captions. She spends time scouring 'the Internets' and using 'the Google™' to find appropriate pictures for each and every occasion. The main thing I learned about Anastasia, was that she is secretly the funniest person I have ever met... a witty connoisseur of hilarity in a small and unexpected package.

Something extremely tragic has taken place here at the Rdesk. This morning, we found that our beloved dog Spart has gone missing. Some of the AM team here at the Rdesk did not hear his little barks to state that he was hungry, or needed to be walked. As you can assume, the disappearance of our beloved mascot has really taken a toll on our morale.

This does not mean that we are taking more time to answer calls, or work or queues, or schedule pick-ups for mis-ships. This only means that we're working through our daily routine empty. Not like a deep emotional empty. We're not all writing depressing poetry, and drawing pictures of emo angels to later scan and share on a forum where depressed people tend to hang out on. We are just missing a team member, and the space that Spart used to take up on Jeff's desk is in disrepair, and may even start collecting various forms of dust.

It is true that we could take this dust mound and draw a face on it, throw an eye patch on it, and call it our new pirate dust pile, "dusty the pirate of the dust pile". We choose not to do this because, quite frankly, that would be insane. Some of us may actually think that Spart the stuffed dog mascot actually does bark, but still...that doesn't prove anything in regards to madness.

We also would like you to stop thinking that we're all insane, thinking that walking a stuffed dog may actually stop it from whining. It's early in the morning, and some of us have yet to actually taste coffee.

So in closing, if you have our stuffed dog, then please give it back. We don't want to make a dust pile our new mascot. It would be very dirty, and not at all flattering to show off when doing tours around the building.

Early this week, I found out all about the fruit called Durian. According to Wikipedia, it is quite popular in Southeast Asia and is referred to as the "King of Fruit". The Project Management team were kind enough to bring prepared durian to the office at 2300, and people came running....and, went running, as soon as they smelled it. It's known for it's distinct odor. I grew up near hog farms in Indiana, I thought that no scent was too much for me....but alas, I was wrong......I just filmed, I didn't eat: )

Long time no blog..right?! We've been busy moving and getting situated in our new habitat. We finally got moved into our HUGE new Studio in the third quadrant of the warehouse. You know, next to the cute little KIVA bots!

We get to watch them glide, spin around, and nap all the time. Life must be so great if you're a KIVA baby! If you're in the warehouse, you should stop by and check out our living space. Its massive. I tried to get a few photos for you, just show you how big it is, but the photos don't even do it justice! In our new area, we have Strobe City where all the apparel (adults and kids) are photographed, We have a meeting room, known as Hall of Justice, some of the production coordinators are in here, and Image Coordinators reside by the Hall of Justice. I do wish we were a bit closer to our other studio, because I miss seeing the photographers, assistants, and production coordinators over there! We are all one big happy KY Content family no matter what studio! Come and Visit us!!

I took this photo from the very back of the room to try to show you the size of this place!

My Mythology - Creating our own living legacy at Zappos.

One of the joys about working at Zappos is the freedom to be ourselves through our own personal style. Style shouts! Individuals identify themselves through their personal style. Taking the chaos out of the closet and using clothing as a celebration to create personal mythology or legend is something I have been fascinated by.

What is someone trying to say through their style?

Join me in the discovery. Each week I will take an employee from Zappos and find out their personal psychology through their favorite outfits.

Today we study the mythology of Janelle G., Content Detailer for Fashion at Zappos.com.



Janelle is wearing Diesel wide leg jeans, a Guess watch, Miss Sixtyheels, Chanel earrings and a matching ring.

How would you define your look?
-Random and unpredictable, but in a good way.

What inspires your style?
-My mood.

Who is your favorite designer?
-Karl Lagerfeld

What fashion item would you never leave the house without?
-A watch

Who are your fashion/style icons?
-Gemma Ward

What are your favorite labels?
-I’m a sucker for Diesel, Custo Barcelona, Chanel, and Dolce & Gabanna.

Preppy or Punk?
-Punk, definitely

How would you define your mythology that you portray through your style?
-Ever changing.

What is your favorite decade for style?
-The now.

What is your favorite fabric?
-Satin.

Bubble skirts or pencil skirts?
-Pencil skirts to show off the ‘curves’ I don’t have.

What is your favorite color?
-Brown & Orange.

What item do you allow yourself to splurge on?
-Handbags and shoes.

High heeled boots or sandals?
-High heeled boots.

Diamonds or pearls?
-Diamonds are forever.

Which bag?
-Francesco Biasia, Dooney & Bourke.

Sunglasses?
-Chanel.

What are your fashion rules?
-I don’t have any.

What is the most you’ve spent on a handbag?
-Roughly around $800.

Would set foot in a thrift store?
-Never!!

What is the most you’ve ever spent on fashion and for what item?
-That’s for me to know and for my Dad never to find out! (He reads these blogs) ;D

In the spirit of Core Value #7, Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit, Casual Lifestyle Content Team invited the Size and Width Merch Team for breakfast and conversation. We had yogurt & granola, pastries, and mini-frittatas. We cleared tables and ate family-style. Here's a pic of Sam H., Rudy R. and Latrira S from the breakfast feast:

We went around the room and talked about one thing in our lives that's new or interesting outside of work. Graham M.'s wife is about to have a baby girl any day, Rudy R. is excited to see Madonna in concert, Nicole S. is picking up the keys to her new house today, and Anji C. is attending a dream analysis lecture on Thursday. Exciting stuff! Yours truly is super-pumped about the upcoming NKOTB concert on October 11th.

I made a batch of mini-frittatas for breakfast that everyone enjoyed. They're a great breakfast to make on the weekend, throw in the fridge, and heat up on your way out the door during the week. Here's the recipe:

Mini-Frittatas

• Ingredients:
• 5 eggs
• shredded cheddar cheese (any cheese will work)
• black pepper
• onion (yellow or red)
• chopped bacon (or turkey bacon)
• canned diced tomatoes

At Zappos, we sure do like to decorate conference rooms here in Vegas...to my count, I think we have 91,000 conference rooms, all with a different theme. (Editor's note, that number is greatly exagerrated. That's why we don't let Brett near accounting) The rooms are all decorated by employees with little money put towards them. So, creativity is the name of thy game, my friends. And we are chalked full of that, man.

In the original 2280 building, all conference rooms were named after Vegas casinos, but we then decorated each to represent the different departments of our Merchandising team.

At the new 2290 upstairs locations, which is filled with Customer Loyalty Reps banging away at the phones with some members of Help Desk and a few more departments soon thrown in the mix, there are multiple conference rooms with one big theme: Vegas Icons!

Each room is named after a show, a personality or infamous character from Vegas past and present. This includes Cher, Elton John, Hunter S. Thompson, Oscar Goodman, Penn and Teller, Wayne Newton, Liberace to mobsters like Lucky Luciano and Bugsy Siegel. There are even rooms dedicated to Vegas entertainment phenomenons The Killers and the television show, CSI.

They did an excellent job in true, do more with less attitude, one of our Core Values. Good job!!!

The Zappos.com content team is usually a peaceful, loving group, but during the “Murder at the Salty Sea Dog” pirate murder-mystery party, chaos and distrust filled the air! The shocking “murder” of the Jaded Jewel’s first mate, “Merciless Morgan” (AKA Jay from the Performance Team), created turbulence and disorder among the group.

Actually, this was the backdrop for the Fashion and Performance content teams’ recent outing. The drama unfolded at the old pirate watering hole called the Salty Sea Dog, or Nick P.’s house to be exact, although there isn’t much of a difference!

Being that this was the first murder mystery party I had ever attended, I was surprised to see how committed and in-character some of my colleagues were. In the photos below, you’ll see Jennifer, AKA “JB”, AKA “Butterfingers Bailey”, take on her pirate persona with full-on commitment. Jay, who played the unfortunate “victim”, took on the role of “Merciless Morgan” eagerly, only to be killed off in the first half hour. Needless to say, he wasn’t too happy about that!



In the end, all the evidence led to the conviction of “Sealegs Sam”, AKA Bob A. (pictured above with a big evil smile on his face!) , as the conniving murderer. He was promptly made to “walk the plank” for his vicious crime. Pirates are a ruthless breed!

Overall, the party was filled with shady, suspicious characters, eye patches, “Captain Morgan” poses, and of course, lots of booty…pirate booty that is. The Best Costume award went to Performance Team’s Jeff B., who played the part of “Governor Napier”, and the Best Performance award went to none other than the Jaded Jewel’s captain, “Cap’n Redbeard”, played by Jason Lee of “Getting Down and Dirty with Jason Lee” fame.