My Family

My lovely wife, Julie, and I have two beautiful children, Tom, born in 2006, and Anne, born in 2009. We have family in central Ohio, Lexington, the Dallas area, northwest Louisiana, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and North Carolina. We like Disney World and the beach, and miss being able to go to Michigan Football games in the fall. I haven't converted Julie to enjoying Soccer very much, but maybe the kids will help with that project in the long term! I'm quite partial to Chowning's Tavern Root Beer, audio books, tomatoes that have never been refrigerated (still warm from the sun, if at all possible!), home-made chocolate chip cookies, brownies, mature trees ( American elms, oaks, maples), and orchids (Vanda, Cattleya, Phalaenopsis).

Recent History

I joined the University of Kentucky Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering in July 2009. We moved to the Stonewall neighborhood of Lexington at the end of June 2009, and have enjoyed working in the yard, building a small garden, a sandbox, and planting a few trees, bushes and bulbs. We're lucky to have a great basement with it's own kitchen, rail system, and fireplace. Though less so than my brother, we're a Mac household, and the kids, Julie, and I all enjoy playing the Wii.

Ancient History

I was born on the east coast and ended up in central Ohio at 9--young, impressionable, and 20 minutes from The Ohio State University. In high school I was in the Drama Club, sang in the A Cappella Chamber Choir and Chorale, ran track for a while, and generally, um, well... didn't cause any trouble. I don't know when I actually met Julie, but my junior year we began dating--she was a senior. (Ooooh, an older woman!) I graduated from Dublin Coffman High School in 1997. I wasn't valedictorian or saluditorian, but I did speak at graduation. I did well on the SATs and managed to escape the Buckeye State and attend the University of Michigan. Go Blue!

Hail! To the victors, valiant,
Hail! To the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! To Michigan the leaders and best.
Hail! To the victors, valiant,
Hail! To the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! To Michigan the champions of the West!

Complete Lyrics
UMMGC performs "The Victors"

It wasn't long before I was a Materials Science and Engineering major, and singing with the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club. Julie had headed to Michigan the year before me, and we were (awww!), of course, dating. At Michigan I worked for University Productions, the technical staff of the UM Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance, Professor Rachel Goldman's research group, was an RA in West Quad for a year, and generally, um, well... didn't cause any trouble. I graduated with my BSE in MSE in April, 2000, and jetted off to Australia with the Glee Club for 3 weeks before heading to Chicagoland and Northwestern University for grad school.

After half a decade in Chicago, in June 2005 I managed to finish my thesis, and defend it... successfully! From there it was off to a postdoc at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. We both miss lots of things about Chicago--especially the Cubs, the Botanic Gardens, the Art Institute, the Hancock Tower, the Architecture Society, the El, Ravinia, Broadway in Chicago, and being tourists in our own city. Of course, we enjoyed exploring country music, Cheekwood Botanic Gardens, the Titans, and hills!

I suppose this all means that I'm getting older... or maybe it's the truly lovely and amazing little darlings that have come into our lives that really mean I'm getting older. Of course, with all the challenges, amazements, quandries, and more they brought us even before arriving, you have to wonder what new adventures they'll be bringing us next! :-)

Orchids

While in Hawaii on our honeymoon we bought a little plant in a plastic bag from a souvenir type stand. It was, of course, an orchid. Some kind of Cattleya. We didn't really have any plants at home, and though I had had non-flowering plants in the past, I had never had a flowering houseplant.

When we got it home we went to Target, of all places, and stumbled onto a flower pot for sale there that was tagged as an "Orchid Pot". And, of course, there was Schultz Orchid Food, so, there you go! Combined with some info on the packaging, the lone orchid was potted and placed in the window.

About this time, we encountered a television show on A&E called "Nero Wolfe", about a detective. Rex Stout's famous detective, Archie Goodwin's excentric and genius boss, and TV show that was cancelled after the first season. The few episodes we managed to see were enough to inform us, to a point, of Wolfe's love for orchids, and to convince us to buy a couple of the books. Which we fell in love with!

The plant in the window grows a new lead, and seems to be doing well. This, combined with our discovery of Nero Wolfe, prompts significant investigation into "these orchid things". I am intrigued. I learn that one of the largest growers in the midwest is located nearby, Hausermann's Orchids.

To make an already longish story not as long as it could be, if you have never been to an orchid greenhouse... go. Our first orchid probably had a virus, and was disposed of. During our time in Chicago, culminating with our gorgeous south facing picture window at 3115 Central St., we collected at least ten lovely plants. The moves to Nashville, around Nashville and to Lexington did away with those plants, but my darlings gave me one for my office last year. Maybe some day I'll have a window for orchids again...!

I particularly miss our Cattleya Marjorie Hausermann 'York', our Vanda Sansai Blue, and a Potinara called Afternoon Delight, I think. Also some lovely white Phalaenopsis.

Et Cetera