Canine Equestrian Shenanagins

My son, my brother and his dog Milo

Writing For Jetson Green

I got a gig writing about LEED platinum projects for Jetson Green a green building blog created by a guy named Preston Koerner, an attorney and LEED AP in Salt Lake City. I'll link to articles as I write em, here's my first article on the Kerr Foundation building in downtown St. Louis.

Happy Holidays Everyone

Long week of Christmas/Hannukah celebration. Freddy was captivated by the tree, but was also tried hard to touch the live flame on the Hannukah candles. Both traditions offer a lot to a five month old. I got some pretty good gifts all around including some Dogfish Head60 and 90 Minute IPA from my lovely wife. I also ate like a king and my fridge is still stocked with leftovers.

Last year I went to a holiday party and played with a friends' baby who is almost exactly a year older than Freddy. Laura was pregnant at the time and I remarked to myself that I would have a son that age next Christmas.

So, in the most Jimmy Stewart way, I got everything I wanted for Christmas.

The Original Frank Robbins

My aunt Mary just sent me a collection of obituaries of my great-great grandfather, Frank Robbins. Here's the handsome devil right here:

One newspapaer described him as a "bluff, cheerful, hearty, agressive citizen", hopefully those were good qualities for Canadians to have in the early 1930's. Though I knew that he was elected to the head of the school board and reffed many a soccar game, revelations include his membership in the Knights of Pythias, being in the 91st Highlander Regiment and his tenure as the president of the Ontario Baseball Amateur association.

Frank Robbins LEED AP

Over the last few months I've been telling everyone that'll listen that I've been "studying for my LEED exam". About two weeks ago, I decided to go ahead and schedule an exam because:

1. "I'm studying for my LEED exam" was starting to sound like "I'm working on my novel"
2. In 2009, the test will be even harder
3. If I passed it I would have six letters after my name. That's twice as many letters than a CPA and three times an MD!

What the hell is LEED?
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It's a building accredidation program through the US Green Building Counsil (USGBC). Basically, if you want to have a LEED certified building, you have to follow some proscribed steps, design it in a certain way, document the heck out of it and have it all reviewed by the USGBC. Then you get to tell everyone you know that you have a LEED Certified building.

It's a complicated and involved process and so they set up a testing system to identify individuals who know how do to this (LEED APs). There are about 43,000 of them in the world, and now there is one more...me.

Gee, That Sounds Easy:
Well it's not, at least is wasn't for me. You have to be responsible for a heck of a lot of information, terms, calculations, percentages etc. Not being an engineer or an architect, I had to learn a lot of the terms for the first time. No worries, I like learning new things, and now that I know what a chlerestory is, I'm going to use it in my everyday vocabulary.

Here are the flash cards I made:


Who I can thank for this:

-Rachel: Thank you for giving me a copy of the Colorado Reference Guide, your study materials and answers to my assinine questions.
-Lauren G: Thanks for answering spot questions and turning me on to ARE Forums, I woulda been screwed without it!
-Laura: Thanks for watching everything while I studied for hours and hours.

What this means now:
Boy I don't know, I can put it on my cards, I look more serious than someone who just says, "I'm into green building." Oh and when I'm working my next LEED project, I'll be able to add a point to the overall scorsing under ID Credit 2!

LEED Exam on Wednesday

I dropped myself into the deep end of the pool and sceduled my LEED AP exam for this Wednesday at 3:30.

I haven't crammed for something since I was in high school, I've got acronyms and percentages oozing out of my ears. The test is really freaking expensive, so that just adds to the pressure.

And speaking of pressure: Jeremy, you said that you might get your LEED AP, Rachel I don't know if you've taken your test yet, but I challenge both of you to a LEED-OFF!

Joe Felice Was Here

My good buddy from school, politics and former work, Joe Felice stopped by this week. He's moving to California from New York and stopping at many points along the way.

It was a good time, he came bearing gifts (pickled squash) and we did some video-blogging on Blog TV. I also got to show Joe the joys of St. Louis beer culture.

Let The Masters-Off Begin

I am going back to school next semester, that much is clear. My friend Jeremy has been talking a good game about getting his masters in urban planning for quite some time.

And so, in the spirit of competition I have challenged him to A MASTERS-OFF!

BARE KNUCKLE
WINNER-TAKE-ALL
BATTLE...TO...THE...FINISH

Never has there been academic rivalry so intense, so bloody, so completely ridiculous.

Let the games begin.

Officially Admitted To Wash-U

I got the call about an hour ago confirming that I've been accepted to Washington University in St. Louis' masters program in construction management. I was pretty sure I'd get in, but I've told enough people that I was going that getting turned away would have been a big -ahem- embarassing.

Instead of an envelope, I got a phone call from the woman in charge of academic advisement, which was pretty darned civilized. I remember when I was in high school pulling up to my house after school and looking at my mailbox and coming close to vomiting with anticipation. When I got in, I danced around the kitchen with my mother and she gave me an NYU t-shirt she had picked up when she was working in New York that past summer. She told me that if I didn't get in, she would have just chucked it without letting me know she'd bought it.

A friend of mine told me that I should go out and get a Wash-U hoodie now to celebrate. I came up with a better idea:

For my son Freddy: Wash-U Onesie

For Me: Wash-U wrestling singlet

We'd match, and the ensuing photos would be memories that would last a lifetime.