Despite all the green around here, not all of us have green thumbs. While many of us garden and farm outside the office, the peace lily inside the Sidney office had seen better days. Until recently.

Indeed, we have a history of neglecting plants here at Choice One. This latest victim would wilt from lack of water, then be overwatered, then dry up again. Thankfully, Jacqui Lohman guilted… er, encouraged… Megan Bornhorst to nurse the plant back to life. The nursing process may have required some “thoughtful pruning” (which graphic designer Sammy Kuck observed as “hacking”), splitting, and repotting, but we’ve often enjoyed the “benefits” of a sudden, unexpected shock around here from time to time, and we hope this plant experiences similar increased vitality in its suddenly surprising cared for state.

Thanks to Jacqui’s efforts and Megan’s guilt, the plant has been revived. Soon one half of the newly thriving plant will head to Loveland, so all the peace (and plant life-sustaining responsibility) may be shared. Will we be able to keep TWO plants alive? We’ll assume that to be another thrilling surprise!

If it isn’t engineer Michael Goettemoeller letting us know how cold it is in the office, it’s definitely landscape architect Jacqueline Huelskamp. Luckily, engineer Andy Shuman noticed Jacqueline’s chilliness and just happened to have a handy, wearable sleeping bag in his car to lend to Jacqueline.

We’re happy to let each other borrow all kinds of things around here. Besides the everyday, normal things like pens, manhole hooks, and sleeping bags, we lend out our brains, brawn, and expertise to each other on a regular basis. For instance, we often borrow each other’s  “logic” to decide between Chipotle and Hothead, offer up big muscles (or, more realistically, combine many people) to move a desk, or volunteer several of our oldest… er, “most experienced” surveyors for a project.

It’s really no surprise that Andy had a wearable sleeping bag in his vehicle—Choice Oners are known for having random things in their cars. And while Andy offered his sleeping bag out of generosity, Jacqueline, we’re certain he wouldn’t mind if you started keeping random extra snacks in your car to share when you notice he’s hungry.

Wes Goubeaux is typically a quiet, focused person, so any sudden actions seem a deviation from his calm, tranquil demeanor. So when Wes snapped to attention as Kyle walked by, Kyle knew something was up. Upon coming back, Kyle was pummeled with several stress balls from various assailants, including Wes (proving Kyle’s quoted theory).

Wes is one of our licensed Professional Surveyors, and that means he is always busy with property lines, easements, and legal descriptions*. Indeed, the National Society of Professional Surveyors states that a P.S. “provides for a purchaser’s peaceful occupation of the land.” So it only follows that when Wes is not “peaceful,” something is about to go down.

Apparently, the group effort to ambush Kyle centered on his statement desiring colder weather and more snow, but really, there are at least 2,190 good reasons to throw things at Kyle. Wes was really doing us all a favor. Thanks Wes—despite previous suggestions that you are a Worthless Dumb Guy, we know you’re the peaceful protector of all of us who also have to endure Kyle’s crazy talk… er, the cold.

*Sound like an interesting career? We’re hiring additional surveyors!

Project Manager Nick Selhorst attended the ODOT’s Ohio Transportation Engineers Conference back in October, and we stumbled across this photo on ODOT’s Facebook page. Unlike a Where’s Waldo image, it shouldn’t take you long to find Nick—just look for the bright green.

If you’re a fan of the Waldo series, you might know that beyond Waldo himself, there are always other hidden treasures in the images. While the photo above doesn’t offer many unique gems other than Nick, what might a true Choice One Where’s Waldo image also prompt one to locate?

• Find four Michaels—shoutout  to our newest Mike, Mike Francis!
• Look for Craig Frilling’s van—a little tougher on paper since you can’t hear it coming.
• Identify six traffic engineers—hint: check the roundabouts.
• Spot the Hamburglar.

We’ve mentioned the usefulness of our green when finding each other in a crowd, and once again, this feature of Choice One green comes in handy, albeit just for a random game of seek and find. Keep your eyes peeled in real life—who knows where Choice One will show up next!?

After the Sidney Choice One office completed it’s recent annual seat swap, Casey found herself “alone” in her new pod for a few days save for some special guests courtesy of our holiday decorating contest (check out all the photos on Choice One’s Facebook!).

There was concern the week before Christmas, as Mary’s light bulb burned out (there is some kind of analogy to make here about mothers with newborns… ). Luckily, Casey and her pod-mates Kyle Siegrist and Zach Borchers were able to remedy the situation to make sure Mary was brightly shining for Christmas Day and into the New Year.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and from all of us at Choice One, including Mary and Joseph: Happy New Year! May you avoid burning out in 2023!

If you didn’t catch Choice One’s social media last week, you missed a post about our annual Skyline Chili Coney-Off. 27 Choice One competitors raced to see who could eat the most cheese coneys in an hour. If it isn’t clear from the photos, Dane was not the winner.

It was an epic day. Wagers were placed. The local Skyline locations were forewarned of impending doom… er, our arrival. Sabotage doughnuts may or may not have been sent to the Loveland office the morning of the event. A winner was crowned (congrats Nick Sanders!). And, at final tally, 58 feet, 11 inches of hot dog were consumed, which is about the height of an average silo, according to our farmer-engineers.

It’s a little surprising that the cheese slowed Dane down. Historically, Choice Oners, especially Dane, love cheese. Regardless, Dane was able to stuff down 5.5 coneys (and their cheese), but it wasn’t enough to beat Nick—who has once again won with a Lucky 13!