Welcome

I am pleased to welcome you to the 2014 edition of our Valentine site.  I consider this to be our most challenging and satisfying Valentine project to date. We began the project with much more content than we expected. Brooke, Kevin, friends, and family took quite a few photos before, during, and after Caitlin and John’s wedding in September. These were supplemented by the generous contribution of wedding album photos by Caitlin and John. This fortunate avalanche of content was eventually tamed by a decision to create two Valentine photo galleries: the general 2014 Photo Gallery, and the special Wedding Photo Gallery.

As every experienced project manager knows, big breakthroughs are often followed by disappointing setbacks. This was my situation when I discovered that both Brooke and Kevin were being pulled into other projects just as we were approaching our planned publication date. Brooke spent two weeks in London helping Sharon and Van unpack and set up their newly reconstructed flat. Meanwhile, Kevin was pulled away for final interviews and a very quick semester start-up on his new job at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. It has been lucky for me that my fur color hides grey hairs well.

As both Brooke and Kevin would agree, project management is a tricky business in which the project manager and the other stakeholders have to trade off the key constraints of scope, time, and cost throughout the project. Cost was easy in our case. The entire team (especially the Teddies) work for free. Scope and time presented a more difficult challenge. In the end, we had to decide whether we wanted to put out an abbreviated Valentine and make our original 14 February target date, or whether we wanted to include all of the important content that we had collected and to push the delivery date just a few more days. Like a lot of stakeholder groups, we decided to hold out for the scope that we wanted and let time slip just a bit. We’re very pleased with the result and we apologize for the delay.

The Teddies

The Teddies played key roles again this year and deserve much recognition. By popular request, we have included more Teddie photos this year. Last year’s comments, especially from the Teddies, were emphatic about the need for more Teddie shots.

We Want to Hear From You

Most important, we want to hear from you more than ever.  So, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts using the comment box below.  Also, you may reach us by email.  Our current email addresses are listed on the Contact page. Please note that this Contact page includes Brooke’s latest email address.

Visit the Photo Galleries

Please remember to visit the 2014 Photo Gallery and the Wedding Photo Gallery.

All the Best,

Boo