Happy Tuesday (from Niki)

Good afternoon all!
I’m glad everyone, especially Paul, is happy and healthy. Life with the Strotmans is going well. Last week was Matt’s 27th birthday (and our two-year engagement anniversary!) so we had plenty of cake and lots of lovely visitors. Gigi and Maria came to visit and drop off a card and cookies, John and Sue came by for cake and beers, and Matt’s entire family came to town as well.

As Gigi so graciously complimented, I do indeed have a black movie-themed office. I attached a picture since nearly everyone says, “wow, this is much nicer than what I pictured” when they finally see it. :o) It was a gift for our one-year anniversary, and I was completely surprised. It’s the perfect place to do work without distractions. Maria is too funny with her “colorful” description, and I guess I’d have to agree when it comes to wall color. Our great room and kitchen are a neutral tanish-green, but we go quite bold on the other rooms. Other walls include redish-purple, terracotta orange, butter yellow, lime green, navy blue, mint green and chocolate, and black. You are all welcome to stop by anytime. I’ve already muscled my way into line for the Bull Family picnic!

I’m heading to New Orleans on Thursday, so hopefully I’ll get some work done among the chaos. They said it will be pretty calm by then, but who knows what “pretty calm” means to a New Orleans-ier this time of year.

Connie had asked what I did, so here’s a brief description: My official title is National Federal Marketing Coordinator. HDR is a full service architecture and engineer (A/E) company, and I work in the federal division. That means anything the federal government wants to spend money on for A/E services, we can do. This includes everything from barracks and rifle training facilities on military bases to environmental studies and bridges for the National Forest Service. Basically an agency will say, “We need a company to do XYZ, give us a proposal and we’ll pick the best one”. I work with the engineers and architects to take the technical information and make it speak to the specific client and creatively tell a story for that proposal. (All that “marketing” stuff.) In the case of New Orleans, we’re pursuing work with nearly every government agency that needs A/E services right now. The Veteran’s Affairs needs hospitals rebuilt, National Parks need cleaned up, and this week, we’re pursuing work with the US Army Corps of Engineers to do future hurricane protection and coastal restoration. It’s pretty high profile, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

I loved Nancy's story about seeing the lotto check press-conference. Matt was pretty interested in your backstage dish about the lawyer. I was definitely looking for you in the background when they showed it on all the channels later.

As always, it’s great to keep up with everyone, so keep posting and I’ll see you soon!

Take care,
Niki