Attempt 2

Hi folks,

I was perusing the SPA blogosphere and it turns out that my first attempt was a rather miserable failure, declining to appear in these esteemed virtual pages. So.. back on the horse.

Thanks again to Dave and the others for settting up this blog. It really is great to hear from people again. Unfortunately I don't make it back to MN much and will not be able to make it to reunion. Would have loved to go back home and to see old friends.

My life in a nutshell.. My apologies to Dave, but unfortunately these little summaries can sound like a resume. Partly due to the realities of time. And partly due to the fact that... whatever happens in Boulder stays in Boulder, so to speak.

I met my wife, Jennifer, at Carleton right before graduation. Move to Los Angeles to start at UCLA in Chemistry. Transferred to U of Texas and lived there with Jen and had a buncha fun in a very cool (albeit hot as hell) town. Did a postdoc there. Moved back to Los Angeles to help startup a fiber optics company. DId that for a couple of years. Got a job back in academia which I find much more fun. So I came to McGill University in 2003. The things that keep me up at night (other than kids) are looking at nanogoo with really big lasers. Lotsa fun and games.

We are loving live in Montreal. We have two boys, Rohan (3.5) and Nico (1.5). Rohan was born to be a banker and Nico was born to be a surfer. you can tell it from birth! Mostly we spend time hanging with the kids, trying to do the foodie thing with kids (not so easy) and trying to get the kids to rawk out to Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies. Nico seems to dig it - but as before, the surfer thing..

All told, things are great but intense. It seems such is life in one's thirties.

Pat

Thanks for doing this...

It is great to read about everyone after all this time.

I have not returned to the Twin Cities for any length of time since high school, but have visited at least a couple of times a year because my mother and my sister and her family still live in Minnesota. I went to Brown undergrad, took a year off, and went to Penn for med school, then moved to Pittsburgh for residency.

My husband Phillip and I met in college, have been married 11 years, and live in Pittsburgh, PA where we work as academic physicians for Pitt.

We spend the rest of the time chasing around our kids...I too am the proud parent of a future Jedi named Oscar who is going to be 5 in June. I also have 2 daughters, Elena is 7 and Maria will be 2 this summer.

Will try to make it to the reunion, would love to reconnect.

Michele Dorfsman

Hey kids!

I'll admit right now I forgot how funny Dave Salchow can be.

I'm so unlikely to make the reunion I can't even believe it—not only will I be in Minneapolis twice already over the summer but every weekend in September is booked already—but am excited to read more about what you-all are up to.

As for me, I'm based in Chicago, where I active and art and write. I've published a fair number of books, but my recent one, an anti-corporate treatise aimed at reinvigorating democracy and independent culture and called Unmarketable, was recently read by Pamela Anderson in a bikini at her Malibu beach home. I also just did an activist/self-publishing project in Cambodia that was amazing and wonderful and thrilling and dangerous and lovely, but still, nothing's ever made me laugh as hard or for as many consecutive days as this picture. (I'd post it here but it just can't compete with peoples' cute kid pictures. Not even Pam!)

Mostly, everything else about me is probably the same since the last time you saw me, at the 10-year reunion, and the time before that, in 1988. Including my manner of dress and my haircut. Actually, wait: the hair's cuter now. I guess I have learned something!

Hope to read more soon,
aem

Hi!

Hi Everyone,

I love this blog idea. I didn't realize that our upcoming reunion is this fall. Time flies!

I live in the Bay Area, California. I've been here for about 11 years. I'm married with two little kids. Henna just turned 1 year and my son Shawn is 3 1/2 years old. I love living in California. You can't beat the weather. My family still lives in Minnesota, so I'm always visiting...

I work in high tech in Human Resources. I graduated from St. Olaf and then received my graduate degree in Industrial Relations from University of MN. I'm currently Director of Human Resources at Intuit, inc.

Can you send more information on our reunion?

Thanks.
Reema Singh (new last name is Batnagar)

What's Dave been doin'?

Hello and thank you for supporting this blog and our forthcoming reunion!

One of the purposes of this blog is to re-connect, so I guess I'll start with myself. Here a short recap of my post SPA years and I'll try not to make it read like a resume.

Along with several fellow alums, I got a degree from the local U of MN in 1993. I went to the business school and majored in accounting. I started out as an auditor and stayed an auditor working for several places in different capacities. Currently, I'm working for the Lockheed Martin Corporation in Eagan, MN. I haven't found an employer I really like, which is nurturing and inspiring my entrepreneurial spirit. I really enjoy the customer service aspects of my job. I still find that doing for others are my most rewarding experiences. I think of myself as being in training for opening my own consulting shop.

This summer, my wife Krista and I will celebrate 12 years of marriage. Krista works in the Aging and Elderly services industry in an information and referral capacity. We have two children. Kirk is seven years old and in the first grade and has his first loose tooth. Connor is four and is a big pre-schooler and wants to be a Jedi when he grow up. The boys get their looks from their mother. We live in suburbia, Twin Cities.

I'm attaching some recent and not so recent photos for your viewing and ridicule. No, I'm not hiding another person under my shirt; I've actually gotten that big.

OK. I stuck my neck out. Who's next?

Dave

Spartans Rule!!!

Hey guys just wanted to say I'm looking forward to the reunion in the fall. Since High School I"ve moved around quite a bit but finally settled in New York. I"m looking forward to coming back to see fall in St. Paul. Let me know if there is anything I can do from out here - also if anyone has a list of the people we absolutely can't find send it to me - I can use some of my media resources to track some folks down.

Thanks for all the work that's going into the planning!!!

Cat

Catherine "Cathy" McKenzie

How to join the blog

Anyone on the world wide web can read this blog.

If you would like to join and write to this blog, please send your e-mail address to me: davidsalchow@yahoo.com

I'll enter your e-mail address into the blog and an invitation will be generated and sent. Accept the invitation and you're in!

I'm sorry for the extra steps, but this is necessary to keep unknown people from possibly disrupting our blog (especially if they went to Breck!)

Dave

Welcome!

Welcome former classmates!

I've created this blog to begin generating interest and excitement about our upcoming 20 year reunion. Your reunion committee will be reconnecting with as many alumni/ae as we possible can and also working to select a site for our class party. We are especially interested in ideas about a location. The SPA alumni counsel has provided us a budget of $500, so we clearly are looking for efficient ways to locate the party and stretch the budget as far as possible. More details about the reunion will be forthcoming shortly as spring is upon us.

Your reunion committee consists of:

Rich Barlow
Fred Kaemmer
Chris Cheney
Dan Deuel
Jennifer Bastyr (O'Brien)
David Salchow

The purpose of this blog is to share your memories, tell us a little about your current life, or anything you think will be of interest. I'd like this blog to be open to anyone who attended SPA with us for any period of time; not just fellow graduates. I'd also love to here from classmates who came a few years before or after.

I'm new to blogging, so I'll need to work out the administration and security, such as how to keep out the spammers. Bear with me and I'll hammer out the details in the coming weeks!

Again, welcome to the blog. I'm excited about its possibilities and look forward to re-connecting with as many of you as possible. Please feel free to contact me directly at davidsalchow@yahoo.com.

Sincerely,

Dave