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

It is time for more posts!

Well, Dave beat me to it, but I agree that it is time to hear from everyone again. Drew and I are now settled in our new apartment. Things are going well with that. Parking on the street hasn't been too bad and it turns out our laundry facility here is cheaper!

Dave, I'm jealous of your NeighborWorks training. I'd love to do that sometime too. Life as a consultant is going well. I just had my annual review, which was very positive and I did get a pay increase! Things are ever changing and my responsibilites are growing. Through the past few months and in the months to come, I'll be taking on more and more responsibilities as my immediate supervisor is having a baby the beginning of next year. Next week, I won't have to be in the office at all as my team is conducting a housing conditions survey in Grass Valley. We'll be driving around all day every day surveying the housing there and recording on our ArcPad program that is synced with a GPS tracker. It'll be fun!

I've finally heard from Banks and he has moved back to Cali, so I look forward to catching up with him in person sometime soon. He's only a few hours away in Santa Cruz.

Drew is doing well and working his way up at the taxidermy shop but still hasn't found a band out here. He is not going on tour with the Hudson Falcons this year thank God!

Otherwise, not much else to report...what's everyone else doing?

12 pounds 6 ounces

Well...baby Joanna is now 12 pounds 6 ounces and I am finally getting to posting some pictures. Taking care of the new creature in our life has been amazing. After making a few major adjustments the first week home, we are now settled and she has even decided to take it easy on us only waking us up once through the night! Ohbe has adjusted to our new pace of life and tolerates cutting his walk short when Joanna gets overly cranky.

I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well and I will be sure to save you a seat at Joe's your next visit to IC.

Oh, and if you want to view more photos of Joe's newest patron check out...http://picasaweb.google.com/agalluzzo

Bachelor Party anyone?

Any of you men out there visiting Minnesota over the Aug. 24th-25th weekend? If you are, you're welcome to come along on a kick-ass bachelor party (that would be mine). The plan right now is to visit several places throughout the day on Saturday (like bars, bowling alleys, other bars, and whatever else is planned for the day).

If you would like to attend, you can call me (952-200-0420) or reply to this posting (which might actually be easier) and I'll have my best man include your email address on the Evite so you can respond.

Congrats to all the people with humongous news lately. Cheers to Kent for the baby -- any names picked out yet, like Kent Jr.? And cheers as well to Dave for his new digs. Congrats to Sreyoshi on becoming a transportation planner (it's not that bad after all, really). And congrats to Matt who has a new dog now, he looks like fun.

Hey Michaela ...

Hey Michaela and hey everyone! I apologize for not being in touch. Blogging, posting pictures and writing updates are not my strongest points! I am alive and well and very busy. Don't have too much to report though. No, I did not buy a house or a dog; neither did I get married or am pregnant! I did quit my job at NC and now have assumed the role of a transportation planner with the Cheyenne MPO. Work is exciting, yeah its true! Some people learn through trial and error and am I the classic example?! I have tried housing, community devpt, economic development and transportation. I'd like to think that 'wildlife photography' is next but maybe I'll settle with transportation at the moment. Apart from work, Jeff and I am having an amazing time exploring this part of the country.
Also, I am on my 3 month sabbatical at the moment (note without pay). Next month I leave for India to spend around 5 weeks with my family. Apart from the 15 hour flight, I am really looking forward to it!

Ciao!

Onion

Ok the article isn't one of their funniest ever but the headline cracked me UP...
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/5_million_car_pileup_kills

Update time, I guess

I knew that someone else was going to be expecting!!! Now its Derek and Casey's turn.;) Congratualions to Kent and Tiffany! Nice house Dunns! Kristen- I'll have to check out the band. Oh, and what's up with Sreyoshi? I've asked before and no one answered but I take it she is no longer in North Carolina (?)? Drew and I are moving into a smaller and cheaper apartment this week and next. We are excited as it is close to the downtown grocery store and number of restaurants and bars. It'll also cut down my commute about 10 minutes. Job is fine, but we're out of work, which is very bad and makes for long, tense days. We did finally move into a new office where everyone has their own desk and we have a kitchen that does not double as someone's office and about 16 conference rooms!

Drew is mastering the art of taxidermy and is driving me crazy with his heightened sense of detail. He's still looking for a music project.

I guess that's all. I should get back to work

Bye now,

Oh My God (and I'm not a religious man)

I swear I just now figured out how to post a blog.... turns out it's really quite easy.

Anyhoo, I've been reading all of the entries posted and am happy to hear people are doing well. Congrats to Matt on his new pup, the Dunn family on their new digs, Matt again for his new job, Wiggins for having what seems like the best job ever, Kristen for a rocking band, Dan on his new home, Galluzzo for having a child, J-town for having a child, Sreyoshi on her newer job, Aaron for getting hitched, Derek for being a bad ass, Michaela for representing the west coast, and anyone else I missed...

As for me, work is wonderful and keeping me quite busy...I am however having some difficulty sitting in my office during the summer months. To remedy this, I've been trying to spend as much time outdoors as my days allow. Tiffany is well and now working as landscape designer at Forevergreen nursery. I'm also pleased to report that Tiffany and I are expecting our first child on December 26th...So, I'm completely nervous to say the least. And, with any luck, I'll figure out exactly what one does to take care of a newborn before this date.

If anyone ever passes through IC you've always got a place to stay...

Cheers

Still Alive

No word from Wyoming recently. Sorry...

A new show in the UK that may be of interest:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/06_june/01/planners.shtml

Cheyenne acquired a 20,000 acre ranch a few years ago to explore water rights and a potential landfill site. The former is alive and well; the latter is pretty much dead in the water. Now, it's looking mostly like an immense trail paradise that's 25% bigger than the entire city. Check out the master planning and some pix at:

http://www.belvoirranch.org

Otherwise, the usual work sclock, some good hikes, plenty of company from Sreyoshi (who is on a long vacation currently), and enough aridity to stimy this world-class spitter.

Oh, BTW, they're bison (not buffalo). Blame the french (cow = boeuf), and their crazy fur-trapping ambassdors to the new world.

Looking forward to 8 days in the saddle starting next week for a tour of Glacier and Waterton Peace Park on the Canuck side. Winter makes one really savor the summer. The world's largest rodeo starts this Friday a mile from my place...

That's my cue...shrimp curry's ready!

A bientot

-Wiggins

Photos of the new Dunn digs

If I did this right, there should be three pictures of our house on here. If not, then I need a tutorial on how to upload photos to a blog!!!!!

what I've been doing with all my time

(besides the job thing - which is pretty lame and there's not much to say about it besides I'm not fired yet and there's a paycheck)

If you didn't already know, I joined a band in Dallas and we've finally started to get our shit together enough for me to tell people about it. We just finished putting together a MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/gurlfriendzband

It's still in the preliminary stages. We need to get better recordings of a few more songs and probably some other stuff that I can't think of at the moment, but you can get the idea at least. We're not like super "talented" or anything but anyway, we're having fun and that's what counts, right?

I'll warn you though - the other "girls" in the band are all TG. I know none of you have ever really been the type to judge -- I just didn't want you to think they were all just ugly or something. hee hee jk! OK hope you like the noise! And I hope everything is great with you all!

Trouble...

So I haven't been online much lately and here's why: I adopted Toby last weekend. He's 10 weeks old now and full of demonic energy. And we have slightly differing views on the whole housebreaking philosophy. Anyway, he's a handful. Makes me wonder how those of us with kids we can't lock in a crate at night are doing :)

My Update...Finally

Well, sorry it has taken so long for me to post. Life is going pretty good, although hectic as always. The last 6 months or so has been the craziest time ever. Logan was born on February 5th. He was completely healthy and is doing great. He has started to roll over and is making all sorts of fun sounds.

We also bought a house on Friday, April 13th. Yep, that's right we bought a house on Friday the 13th. So far the house is great. The lady that owned the house before us barely lived at the house. She told her realtor that in the past 5 years she probably slept there less than once a week. So, we have had to take care of several things that we neglected, but we got a GREAT deal on the place and compared to our 1,100 square foot apartment we feel like we are in a mansion. For our first project we hired a contractor to completely rip out the master bath and redo it due to a leak in the shower and a horribly out of date tile throughout the room. The bathroom is finally done and in working condition.

To go along with all of this, Logan was baptized recently and we had tons of family in town. Then, the next week we had the sewer line that runs from our house to the street backup and that was ... well, that was NO fun at all. Then, two days later my car finally died. We had been waiting for this to happen and I refused to buy a new vehicle until mine died. We have now found a new car and hope to have it tonight.

On the work front, things are okay. If any of you still get Planning, you should read the article in the latest publication about St. Louis (I think it's called "Bustling Beyond the Arch" or something like that). In the article they make a small mention about a development downtown that includes a grocery store. This is a project I have spent the last 1-2 months of my life working on (kind of cool to see a reference to it in Planning although the mention is extremely brief). I am also looking for a new job, as mine requires far too many hours when you have a 4 month old baby at home. For the first month or two of Logan's life I don't know if I saw him awake, unless it was 3:00 am and he was hungry. I have been trying really hard the last month to stay at 45 hours, but sometimes that is simply not a possibility. I also have an interview for a City Planner position on Monday and am hopeful it will work out.

So, that is my life in a nutshell. If anyone ends up in St. Louis, look me up.

15 Ashbrook Dr.
St. Peters, MO 63376
(636) 447-6691

Up and running again

Well, I didn't have scarlet fever, but both me and my computer have been out of commission for a few days too. Great time to switch jobs and not have any sick time... But now that I'm keeping solid foods in I managed to get the old piece of electronic garbage running again. ANYWAY, here's my new address:

2108 S. Franklin Street
Denver, CO 80210

And that's my house from the street. You can't really tell, but the big wall on the left side is the convenience store that shades my house...

Damn it Hot!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. I'm sitting here in my own personal Joe's with a beer and thought I'd post something. It has been nice here but starting yesterday it started reaching 100 degrees and it sucks! We are still planning on looking for a new place soon to save money. I just got over Scarlet Fever, which for those who aren't familiar is similar to Strep Throat but with a strange red, sunburn-like rash. I'm glad I have health insurance! I guess there isn't much more to report, but that we're gearing up for a hot, but eventful summer here in Northern Cali. Will hopefully go to as many summer fests, car shows and the most anticipated Gilroy Garlic Festival in July!! Its good to be done with school and able to get excited about an entire weekend festival devoted to Garlic!!!

What are others planning for the summer?

Mic

Not me, but close

Hey all! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. And unfortunately this one's gonna be short too. BUT Todd wanted me to let you all know that he was planning to head to Chicago and Iowa City in a couple weeks. (June 26 - July 5) I regret to say that I will not be going with him - since I don't even have enough vacation to cover 1/4 of that trip. But if you're one of those people that liked him better than me anyway (hey it happens) and you'll be aroung that general area... let me know if you want him to look you up when he's there (or pre-book a time slot if you're one of those "always busy" people) ;-) ok that's it for now - I'll try to get back on soon with a "real" update.

Address Change

I just realized I didn't send the actual address out with that last long post. Here it is if people are curious:

2619 Aldine St.
St. Paul, MN 55113

By the way, Gavin Poindexter (remember him??) will be interviewing with my office next week, so I may be seeing more of him soon.