Like ugly sweaters and fruitcake, the family update letter is a wonderfully annoying/possibly charming holiday staple. Here is our contribution to that time-honored tradition.  (Note:  In keeping with tradition, this post may have been embellished a bit.):

Chet

• Took his first sabbatical after 28 years at UConn.
• Scoped out a few promising spots to plant a CLEAR flag in the world of Ecosystem Services.
• Perfected his Shrimp & Grits and his Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza recipes.
• Wrote a book of poetry for undiscriminating children.

Emily

• Created an award winning Story Map on Connecticut’s Changing Landscape.
• Did lots of cool, complicated, thankless, behind-the-scenes stuff that continues to make CT ECO an awesome resource.
• Received her first dedicated geocache. Solidifying her status as the coolest of geo-geeks.
• Became a fitbit champion.

Mike

• Drilled lots of holes on the UConn campus in the advancement of green infrastructure science.
• Taught an undergraduate water course for a professor on sabbatical. Now encouraging the professor to take more sabbaticals.
• Staked his claim as father of the year by building a go-kart race track for his daughter on their “quiet corner” estate.

Cary

• Defied the “old dogs/new tricks” paradigm by teaching non-GIS geeks to use their smartphones to collect geospatial data.
• Coordinated the update of CT’s digital National Hydrography Dataset (in case you’re not sure where the water is).
• Memorized every word of the Curious George collection of books. She was a good little monkey, but always very curious.

Bruce

• Helped communities think about the legal aspects of climate change, which no one would do of their own free will.
• Was finally rewarded for his tireless efforts in support of land use commisisoners everywhere.  (Well at least in CT.)
• Added to his collection of grandkids and his fleet of boats to transport them.

Kara

• Started sharing her design talents with the rest of extension and even other colleges.
• Staked her claim as mother of the year by dusting off her vast and valuable Star Wars action figure collection and giving it to her boys!

Juliana

• Introduced many in CT to the concept of Living Shorelines. We’ve lived with dead ones for far too long.
• Kept Bruce in line.
• Became an empty nester.

Dave

• Spent a lot of time thinking about how to squeeze a little more LID into land use regulations.
• Taught people geospatial gymnastics they can perform with nothing but a smartphone.
• Spent way too much time on a soccer field. Only recently stopped instinctively kicking things in the office.

That’s it!  Hope to see you all in 2016!

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