Actually, I think I did.  Try this one, of course it may not look the same thinking about it: (may need a group by clause)

SELECT

Oh, it wasn't really from reading the plan that I came up with the rewrite, I simply "looked with eye" at the code and made what I thought were logical...

For S & G's could you post the new execution plan?

Never mind, you did.

Not sure if this will work (return the same result set) as your current query, but it is a shot at a rewrite with nothing to test against.  Be sure...

Good to hear.  You may want to check out this post[/url].

Also, I would look at a rewrite of the existing query.  It looks like a year to date reporting query and there is a better way to do that little...