Interesting Day at Work

Monday was a little different at City Hall. Apparently, one of the citizens decided to add a drive through to the remodeling project.

Read all about it at the Wichita Eagle.
www.kansas.com/news/local/story/274793.html

Notes From the Nation's Capital

With the holiday season past us, it’s great to reflect on the many things that we’re fortunate for. This year has been a fantastic year and one that I’ll certainly cherish. This Christmas the Goltry clan, Elizabeth, and I traveled to Washington D.C. Elizabeth lived there for about six years. Her brother and his family (Bryan, Heather, little Owen, and Savannah) live in the suburbs of D.C. They were the best hosts as the whole clan set up camp in their house and the nearby Marriott.

The first day we made it over to the Mall. It was amazing to see the memorials and monuments in person, especially since they are features that every American sees in the media. Most of the tour was like being a little kid again, because so many of the places and structures are icons that I associated with grade school. The scales were especially shocking.

There’s a lot that can be said about the memorials, however I’ll keep this section brief. The Washington Monument was huge, I only expected something about three or four stories tall. The World War II memorial was a fantastic addition and I especially enjoyed seeing how they respected the visual corridor of the Mall. The Washington Memorial was by far my favorite. To me it symbolized how strongly this country felt about Lincoln. The Vietnam memorial was interesting. Both it and the Korean memorial tried to touch something within people in a way that was strangely different than the rest of the places mentioned above. Almost in an eerie fashion. One of the most interesting memorials was the one to F.D.R. This little known memorial was fascinating not only because of the quotes and symbology used to try and adequately describe the person, but also because it was contradictory to his wishes.

The travels through the D.C. area were mostly done by automobile. However, we did have a short adventure on the Metro system. Elizabeth has made me into a true believer concerning the majesty of the Metro. It’s simply amazing how many people it handles. However, like many features in D.C., it appears that funding for maintenance is sorely lacking. Also, the shier density of the area leads one to believe that the Metro system has a great future and that further expansion is inevitable given its popularity.

There are many more stories about the trip, the comments above are simply some highlights. I would strongly encourage everyone to make a trip to D.C. if they have not already. It was a wonderful experience. Also, it’s one of the cheapest vacations. Just think, you’ve already paid for most of the attractions!

Cheers,

Scott

City Managers Run Amok In the Steel City

It’s been about forever since I’ve posted any of the latest update about what Elizabeth and I have been up to.

The latest adventures include a trip to Pittsburgh for the annual International City Managers Association (ICMA). It was a blast to see the old downtown and the new convention center. I really liked the urban feel but was amazed at the lack of a 24 hour city. Although, they have recently started adding a large number of condos so things should change in the next few years.

Below is a link to the photos on picasa.

Pittsburgh 2007

Whirl Wind Adventures

September 17, 2007

One hot and blustery day in Wichita. City hall employees were able to take an extra day off work today due to an electrical fire at the building. We’re not sure exactly what happened, but it was substantial enough to do approximately $100,000 of damages to the structure. Below is a link to the story. http://www.kansas.com/news/updates/story/177289.html

It’s been a while since I’ve written, so I’ve got to mention that the wedding was absolutely fantastic. I’ll get some photos up on the web as they become available. Any photos from folks who attended would be great. Please shoot me an email if you’re one of those infamous folks.

Everything went so quickly, and from the wedding it was a very short amount of time and we were off to the honeymoon. We had quite the adventure up in Canada. Nothing too crazy, but lots of fun times visiting our neighbors to the north. I’ve put a map of our trips up on the web at the following link. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=117273634735420858724.0004395a5e0c565a72255&ll=42.032974,-109.951172&spn=30.134414,59.0625&z=4&om=1

We should have some photos up soon.

We’re still in the process of getting the bungalow together, but it’s coming together very nicely. We initially started with piles of boxes up to our ears, but now have gotten it down to about three or four boxes left in various rooms. We’re waiting on a few more small projects to get done around the house and we should have those cleared up pretty quick.

Training as you can imagine has been pretty sporadic at best. It’s been great to take some time off and recoup. It’s just tough because it’s right at the peak of the season. I’m already looking forward to some adventures next year. It should be a great year for training with a more regular schedule ha.

Gotta run and get to the cookies in the oven. More posts soon.

Cheers,

Scott

Wedding Website

Hey all, the wedding website is....

http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/view/co_main.aspx?coupleid=9591043978518794

PROS Plan, Pools, and Wedding Planning

7/8/2007

The weeks since the last post has gone by in a blur. We’ve spent a lot of time fixing up Elizabeth’s house. Most of it has consisted of landscaping for the front and side yard. I’ll try to post some pictures pretty soon. Thanks to Larry H. we’ve got some great directions on where to go with the plants.

All of last weekend we spent it trying to bail water out of the basement. I thought we might have to get one of the deep-sea diving suits ready to do the laundry. Fortunately, we only took on about half an inch of water in the basement. The rough part was that it was coming up through the floor because of the hydrostatic pressure.

Hmmm… looks like wedding plans call. I’ll write more soon.

Mile High Mayhem

6/10/2007

The annual pilgrimage continued this weekend with a last-minute jaunt to the Elephant Rock bicycle ride (www.elephantrockride.com) in Castle Rock Colorado. This year the pack consisted of the Boulder Bicycle Bomber Dean the Destroyer Densmore, the Destroyer Tamer Mo Momentum Melissa, The Beast of the East Jason the Juggernaut Deel, and myself. Unfortunately, the Goliath of Golden Travis the Bicycle Terror Meyers was unable to attend due to a cycling injury that we believe is simply a bad cover for his inability to pass an EPO drug test. Maybe next year he’ll get the hang of the doping/testing cycle.

The air was crisp, cool, and decidedly Colorado (God’s Country) on the morning of June 3^rd. Jason, Dean, Melissa and I headed out with an awesome roar (right after stashing our goodie bags in the bushes near the start). We had decided to give the majority of the other 70,000 Elephant Rock riders a break by allowing them to start the ride an hour or two before us. So like a river we headed out like a small tributary flowing towards the larger stream of cyclists already swarming over the foothills.

On the first hill I connected with my inner Lance and took off like a banshee howling in the wind. I arrived at the crest of the hill, approximately .5 miles into the ride, with my first hill victory over my companions. From there, I knew that besting them on any other portion of the 65 mile course was simply not necessary. I think they knew it too, because that was the last time I saw the front of their bicycles.

The rest of the adventure that day went great. We had the best weather ever and the landscape was especially awesome. The recent rains had greened up everything to a lush emerald hue. The riding was fun, and the folks out on the road were as amazing as ever. At the end of this entry you’ll find some links to photos from the ride. Some photos also include a quick trip to downtown Denver to check out the new DAM building and the capital.

The next day after the 65 mile ride I really couldn’t think about riding on the bicycle again. However, Dean and Jason convinced me to try an easy 23 mile ride to get breakfast up in the mountain town of Johnstown. We took off from Boulder and took 36 towards Lions, CO. on the way there we turned off onto a small two-lane road that gradually headed up a valley/canyon. It was a breathtaking ride. Not just because of the scenery, but also because I was out of breath pushing my bike up the hill ha.

Group photos

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2091142791&code=28418696&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite

The Real Deel
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?userid=sundanceimages&gallery_id=714307&image_id=49

http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?userid=sundanceimages&gallery_id=714307&image_id=159

The Dean Machine
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?userid=sundanceimages&gallery_id=714307&image_id=159

http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?userid=sundanceimages&gallery_id=714307&image_id=176

Super Scott
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?userid=sundanceimages&gallery_id=714307&image_id=196