Office 2008 apps slow to close

[kbmb]

I'm running 10.6.2 and the latest Office 2008 12.2.3. I have confirmed that this is not an issue with this particular version of Office (in that it happens on older versions like 12.1.0 and 12.2.0 as well).

I have the OS X firewall turned on. I have it set so that it will ask if I want to Deny/Allow programs for accepting incoming connections.

With Office here's what's happening. The first Office app to open (if you are opening multiple ones), will take up to 10 seconds to close IF that apps is set to Deny incoming connections. The windows for that app will close, but the little dot under the icon in the dock will stay lit, and the CPU will peg a core to 100% for about 10 seconds before the app closes.

If I open multiple apps (Word and Excel for example), whatever apps are opened 2nd, 3rd, etc....will close instantly. The first Office app opened will take the 10 seconds.

Now, if I switch in the OS X firewall to have those apps Allow incoming connections, they will close instantly.

I guess what I'm more curious about is if anyone knows what those Office apps are doing, to need an incoming connection. It is the actual Office app process that you open first, that gets pegged at 100% during the close.

Any gurus have any terminal commands I can run while it's happening to see what traffic the Office app might be sending?

Thanks.

-Kevin