wow!

yeah it's been a while. And I JUST read michaela's last 2 posts. Can't even claim that there's no news to report... baby on the way in about 5 wks for those who haven't heard or read on the facebook. I wonder... is there a way to get an email alert if something new is posted on here? My hunch is that it's dying because we're all starting to assume anything we post probably won't be read for a few months... which may not be an inaccurate statement. Man it's been a while since I talked for real with anyone. The more efficient the technology gets, the lasier I allow myself to be (but I still blame facebook!) Okay, I will TRY to do a better job on here. Or at least call or email or something beyond twitting about nonsense to the universe and hoping someone reads it. Miss you guys a lot!
-kristen

Come on, guys!

So I was the last one to post in order to "save" the blog about 2 1/2 months ago. Does no one care anymore. Or, are we all on facebook and don't need it anymore? Either way, I'm committed to trying to salvage our little blog. I realize maybe no one has any news to report and maybe that is wny no posts....I don't either! Haha! People getting laid off/fired at work, but thankfully not me. Drew may be close to lay off, though. His company if floundering :( Hope all is well with everyone.
Cheers to the weekend!

Wow, It Almost Died

Real quick here..busy at the job but I had to post something because I see last one was Dave's in JUNE! It was on its last breath so I decided to revive it - a least a little.
I was looking on here to see if, by chance, Derek had posted pictures of his new baby but alas, disappointed.
Still no new news from us. Going to Mexico in a few weeks so yay for that!
Who else? What else?

Answer this question...

Okay so I'm trying to drum up some business on this old site before it officially dies, and we'll all have to cry cry cry. So here is.... the First monthual Question of the Month! I'll try to make it silly enough to be worth your time. And it's way better than having to fill out one of those email quizzes like my HS friends try to make me do! :) So seriously. Answer it ( in a comment) or suffer the consequence of me making up a new dorky nickname for you. Don't think I won't do it! And while you're at it... why not a post or two?

Q: If you were a superhero... what would be your super power/special move, costume choice, and name of your arch nemesis.

First person to answer this question gets title of "officially the coolest person I know". AND I won't even cheat and answer now. I'll give you all a week head start. Come on someone.... people are getting sick of me being "officially the coolest person I know".

In case you haven't heard...

Dear alums:

I am emailing to inform you that after seventeen great years, Heather and I will be leaving the University of Iowa. I will be moving to the University of Sydney and will replace Ed Blakely, who will continue on with dual positions at USyd and as Tsar of Reconstruction for New Orleans. Heather will take a post at the University of Western Sydney. Our lives at Iowa have been immensely rewarding and enjoyable but there comes a time to step up to new challenges and opportunities. Although it will be sad to leave we are both excited (hopefully, not foolishly so) about what lies ahead. If any of you are ever in the region please look us up.

I believe the Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning will be organizing a reception for us in the Old Capitol on May 9th from 4-6 PM (John Fuller will be sending out invitations at some point in the next few weeks). We would greatly enjoy seeing you there.

Best

Alan

I'm so sad for Iowa! Things up in the old drafting room just won't be the same w/o those two...

Kristen's Weekend

Last Saturday my band played our first show... which also happened to be my first show ever. It was so much fun. We got a pretty decent crowd for it and I got to meet a few other amazing bands. Did you guys know musicians get free drinks? Damn. That's a hobby I would have taken up a lot sooner if I'd have thought about that. :) Anyway... one of my friends got some video which you can check out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt8WGXozSxo. I think this was our first song for the night... and I'm not even all that nervous! yay. That video as well as some pictures and songs are up at www.myspace.com/janelovesdickband. I'll warn you... our stuff is a little... uh... immature. But well... you all know me so you should probably see that coming. hee heee.
Work's going well. Not much new to report on that front. Hope you are all doing great!

Estelle Marie is Here...

Well, I'm now a father...Which is odd to say the least. But, it's been the best experience of my life. Estelle Marie was born on Dec. 29 @ 3:23 AM and weighed a whopping 9lbs 12 oz. ( for those of you that remember, Tiffany is 5'2" 120 lbs at sea level). What this situation created was a 36 hr. labor that ended requiring a 'c' section. Not the natural childbirth that Tiffany had in mind, but everyone is happy and healthy. The following link will take you to some pics from the hospital...

http://picasaweb.google.com/kentralston

Hope everyone is doing well...

-KR

D & C's Annual Update

I've attached Casey's annual update she sends out every year. It does a fine job of highlighting what we've been doing the last 12 months. I hope you all have a good holiday season and I look forward to hearing what'cha y'all been up to. (We took this picture on Casey's 30th birthday.)

Greetings! It’s been a busy and productive year, filled with travels and entertaining. If we weren’t able to meet up this year, here’s why. Derek spent the month of February building a second bathroom on the main floor of our house (yes, he’s that handy). Aside from a little help with plumbing and electrical work, he did it all himself. The only interruption was when the dog (Neko) ate a sock and required serious and expensive surgery. In March we traveled to Hawaii and stayed for a week with Bryan and Serena. They were kind enough to lend us their convertible so we covered the island of Oahu, stopping at every coconut stand and beach for a swim. In April we attended Dakota and Audrey’s wedding in the hip town of Palm Springs, CA. I flew to Bismarck, North Dakota and danced my heart out at Jessica and Jason’s wedding and I was struck with the stark beauty of the land.

And then they came: Patrick and Anne, Derek’s family, my sister and her family, Jessica and Jason, Greg, Jerad and Kate, Kristina, Hans, Wiggins and Sreyoshi, and the LeBoutillier/Helget clan to name a few. From May to August we had visitors every weekend except for two. With all of these guests, we wound up traveling to Door County or the beach about every weekend this summer. We discovered our favorite spot in Wisconsin—Point Beach State Forest, located on the lake. It’s one of the few beaches that allow dogs and since we also discovered that Neko’s favorite thing in the world is to swim (he truly is one of us), we hit it up every weekend that the weather allowed. All of these trips to the beach with the dog solidified my suspicions—happiness is being able to bring happiness to others.

We chartered a fishing boat on Lake Michigan and went salmon fishing not once, but twice, with Hans and Kristina. The first time around the weather was so warm that the fish weren’t biting, but the one fish we did catch was enough to give us the itch. When the temperatures dropped in September we all went out again, in the dark and with flasks of black gold. Aside from the bitter cold and our lonely, creepy captain, who talked incessantly about women, we caught 11 salmon weighing in at over 100 pounds. If you’re in for a good laugh you should check out our captain’s website, which he recently had updated to include pictures of our big catch: http://www.bumsandbigshots.com/. (Note all the pictures of me and Kristina.)

In August we crossed the pond. We visited Wouter and Katrin in Antwerp, Belgium (our favorite city in the world). They were gracious hosts. After a few days in Belgium we traveled to Amsterdam, where we ate well, wore holes in our shoes from walking, lounged in Vondel Park, hit up some museums, and visited all of our old haunts. A week after our return we took the dog and met up with Dakota and Audrey at the Witzenburg’s cabin in Canada. By the time my 30th birthday came around, all I wanted was a quiet weekend camping and hiking in the woods with my boys (Derek and Neko).

We were Wisconsinized this fall! That is to say we attended two Packer games. It was a cultural experience. Derek has taken to watching football on T.V. now and I keep asking him what he did with the guy I married—the guy who never watched football. He claims it’s just work related (so he can swap sports talk at the water cooler) but I’m not convinced. We’ll see if the habit goes with him when we leave Green Bay. At least he hasn’t started hunting. Besides, he’s still the kind and supportive man I’ve always known. He helps keep me motivated to write—always giving me the time, space, ear, and encouragement I need when the rejection slips come in the mail. With all of the travels and guests, and with my continued employment with Pearson, my writing life has been suppressed. However, I continue to pluck away and find my voice, and I did have two publications this year. Derek was promoted this fall to the Deputy Director of Economic Development. He still functions as a planner, working on redevelopment projects throughout the city, but he feels the Economic Development department is a good fit because it enables him to see his projects through instead of just writing planning documents. I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be here—a year or so, certainly not two. We plan to spend the next year figuring out where we’re off to next. We hope to meet up with all of you along the way, and of course our guest room is always open. Happy holidays, and may your year be filled with simple reasons to appreciate. Wishing you peace and progress.
Love, Casey and Derek

I see it's update time again!

Hey everyone!
It'd been a little while since I got on here but how exciting to hear from so many of you. Well I guess it's my turn then, huh? Man it's hard to imagine it's almost the end of another year, again. Last weekend we had an 80-something degree day, so it's been hard to convince myself it's already December!
Well, Work is going pretty well. We had some team reorganizing in October... I ended up in the same general group, but I have gotten a little more responsibility... getting to try out leading on a few projects, so that's keeping me pretty busy. I'm in a new band... and we have our first real show coming up in January, so I am very excited about that! Get this -- we're playing at a place called the 'Lonestar Road House'. How Texas cliche is that? Oh well, at least it's not a country bar. ;-)
Anyway, I'm sure there's more going on here... but nothing I can think to write right now. I've finally saved up a bit more vacation -- so hopefully I'll get a chance to visit some more of you guys in person and catch up. Miss you all!
- Kristen

Update, sorta

Hmmm... I feel the need to post an update even though I don't think much is happening around here. Drew and I had a nice steak dinner at Morton's today for his company's holiday shindig. It was nice, we won Macy's giftcards.

We're trying to go home again this year for Christmas. Hopefully we won't get snowed out this time! Otherwise, we're settled in to our new place, I started going to the gym again after a more than 3 year hiatus. It was just time.

Work is good mostly. We're all freakin' out 'cause my boss is going on maternity leave and since she keeps everything going, we're preparing for it all to fall apart. I just found out this week that get to go to Imperial County (as in the Mexican border) to train the County officials on housing conditions surveys and our software - before Christmas - so that's cool, I guess. I'm also moving into a sort of project management role for some projects in anticipation of the boss's maternity leave so I guess that is also good.

Well, I've bored myself now, so hopefully didn't bore anyone else too bad.

Hopefully I'll have more interesting news one of these days such as: we're getting a dog (which I really want) or I'll be working on the City of New Orleans Housing Element (as my company has submitted and made the short list for selection to do the City's next General Plan)!

Until then...

Virgin Poster

WOW! It's taken me nearly a year to get this blog thing figured out. I couldn't sign in and post any thing other than comments because of technical difficulties (it had something to do with my cache and some other pop-up problems). I have, however, been an active reader and know exactly what is going on in all of your lives.

I don't have much time to post now, but I promise more later. Casey will soon be working on our annual New Year's e-letter and I promise I'll post it to our forum. In the mean time, I've included a picture of my new hobby--salmon fishing. Four of us went out this fall and caught eight fish this size. If I died today I would have to be disposed of as hazardous waste because of all the mercury in my system - I shut my eyes and picture everyone at my funeral in haz-mat suits.

It's been fun reading about everyone's life. I have a lot to share (NO kids on the way), so you'll be hearing more soon.

Woo-hoo!! Number 17!

Are these rankings really accurate? I don't think this guy ever visited Fairfield, IA on his tour --

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/04/walkable.communities.ap/index.html

Updates .....

Hello all who read this blog,

There are many things to update since I've last written. First of all, I'm now a married man and, no, married life doesn't seem all that different from before the big day. The key things at the wedding went well (i.e. the pastor showed up and the rings didn't get lost). Our flower girl got a little awestruck walking down the aisle, and I burned up quite a sweat standing for 35 minutes in my tux, which lead everyone in the audience to believe that either I might pass out during the ceremony or I was really nervous about getting married. But I didn't faint, and I'm now happily married. Dave Dunn stood up at the altar with me which I was very grateful for, and we all had a good time at the reception. I've pasted a few pics down below.

We honeymooned in Maui for a week in October and saw several memorable sights and places. We drove the Road to Hana, which is quite a feat -- 618 hairpin S-turns and 54 one-lane bridges (one-way) all on a road that was really no more than 15-20 feet wide at any given point. And the city of Hana wasn't really that much, just a small little town where some celebrities own beachfront property (Woody Harrelson among others). As a transportation planner, I can't imagine what could really be done to improve the driving conditions on those roads. The locals all drive twice as fast as the tourists and I wonder how many people actually drive off the cliffs or suffer serious injuries in head-on collisions coming around a turn. I enjoyed the drive though and the scenery. And I bought a t-shirt commemorating my survival of the trip.

I have also been a firsthand witness to both Minnesota Viking losses to the Green Bay packers (Ugh!). I traveled to Lambeau Field in my purple jersey and was quite embarrased at the end of the game (we lost 34-0, the worst in the history of the rivalry).

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving went well. I think this holiday season might be the one that makes me have to buy a larger pant size. Every time I go with Kayla to Wisconsin, there's three or four Christmas dinners where there's way too much food to eat, and I get guilted into eating too much. Hope everyone has a great Christmas too --

Dan

Somebody needs to update, might as well be me

Hey URPs, how goes it? Same old here I'm afraid. I really wish I had something earth shattering to share with you all, but really not much is new since I moved here. Things are good (except my puppy, he is semi-evil in a hyper way), work is good (except for ESRI), and I've been staying busy. Are any of you on Facebook these days? I joined last weekend so look me up (my gmail address) if you're on there.

Yeah, lame update, I know, but it's all I got right now.

--Matt

It's always sunny in Denver...

Yeah, its snowing already. Looks like the world series is going to be a cold one!

Blast From the Past...

I was just thinking about you guys as I went to the ACSP conference in Milwaukee this weekend. I happened to run into Alan, Heather, Jim, Jerry, Lucie, Paul, and Rick at various points, which was really nice. Sounds like there are some interesting changes happening around the department, primarily with faculty comings, goings, and retirements. They all seemed to be doing really well, though, and presented some excellent research (okay, admittedly most people go to these conferences to drink...).

Other than that, the news from Chicago is pretty quiet. I interened for the City of Chicago's office of special events part time for about 13 months after I left Iowa. About six months of doing the work of several staff people while getting paid chump change compelled me to quit and focus more on my own research. As such, I'm still taking classes and doing research for my advisor's center. I'm looking at taking comps next summer or fall (then I can take out my frustration on wee undergrads or master's students!). I've broken my GIS addiction and haven't used ArcGIS for weeks (sorry, Matt... Dave, I'm sure you were taking bets as to whether that would ever happen- sorry you'll have to pay up to someone)... Congratulations to those of you who have/are getting hitched, making babies, buying houses, or some combination thereof. I'm jealous.

Conversation Starter

so yeah... I wake up this morning and decide to get dressed (something I've become accustumed to ---go figure) anyway I just happen to grab a t-shirt w/o really paying much attention to which one and it happened to be our old bar crawl shirt "CBD in the CBD" Anyway I've worn this shirt aroud plenty and no big deal... but today it was like a magnet. Something like 5 different people asked me what it stood for. Man, I didn't realize before how tough that is to explain to other people... especially some people that don't even know where Iowa is:

"weellll... see, UI URP stands for the University of Iowa which is where I went to school... no that's ohio... yeah with the corn... no thats idaho... anyway... and the URP bit is the graduate program I was in -- Urban and Regional Planning... no 'Urban and Regional'... yeah planning... like cities and stuff... like transportation planning... well no, not exactly... um, yeah close enough i guess... anyway see we had this bar crawl... that's where you get a bunch of people and you go to lots of different bars in one night and get really drunk... what do you call it down here? ... huh, that's funny... anyway we had one of those and, CBD well, it' this planning term for central business district... basically means downtown... yeah and see planners have to use a lot of acronyms for things, so we thought it'd be funny to make the... yeah i know, right? ... anyway and the other cbd, this first one stands for something else though... um... well i'm not sure, we never really reached a consensus on that... we had lots of funny ideas... pretty much whatever you wanted it to mean... no that was sort of the point... we tried to have a different answer everytime... no i guess it doesn't make a lot of sense... but... well we drank a lot."

And that's about how most of my day went. And I knew only you guys would get it.

Hey! Does anyone remember the username and password for the UIURP alumni site??? I thought I knew it... but apparantly only half of it. They probably wouldn't be happy if we just posted it online... but if anyone knows it, could you shoot me an email? (mylastname.myfirstname@gmail.com or myfirstinitialmylastname@nctcog.org) THANKS a TON! - kristen

New Job

Well, I have officially changed jobs. I am now a planner for the City of Chesterfield. I left my previous employment in order to get some more free time and working for a government agency is nice. Previously I was working 45 hours on a slow week and in the upper 50's on a busy week. It didn't take long after Logan was born for me to decide to try and find another job. For the first two months of Logan's life I only saw him sleeping and when he woke up in the middle of the night to eat. While my new job is a bit more mundane, I really enjoy leaving at 5:00 everynight (unless of course there is a night meeting which is only 3-4 times per month). While I miss the projects I was working on, I love having less stress and free time. Other than that, life is the same in St. Louis.

Pedal Power

The summer seems to have evaporated. I got in one lovely bike ride, which I have chronicled at
http://picasaweb.google.com/wigjeff

In other news, I am on the cusp of being a homeowner again. I'll post some shots in a month when I actually live there. Otherwise, just twiddling my thumbs until Sreyoshi returns from Delhi.

-Wiggins