My parents grew up in East Texas hill country, around Gilmer. When I was 6 we went to Nigeria, West Africa, where I grew up. We came back to the States permanently when I was 14; I finished high school in Texas, and then embarked on life's great adventure. That included a child (1977) and several careers (piano performer, teacher, organist, pilot, linguist, academic research librarian in Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, and software engineer). After I left grad school at University of Chicago, I moved to the Bay Area, where I'll live out my life.

In 1998, I began flying again after a long hiatus. I retired from the software business in 1999, the same year I bought an airplane (a Mooney Bravo), another in 2001 (a Pilatus PC-12), and a helicopter in 2003 (a Robinson R44). While I was retired I renovated a great old house in San Francisco (2280 Vallejo), and traveled all over the world. Some of that travel was in my Pilatus; all over the western US, often to the east coast, Baja and the west coast of Mexico, to Alaska one summer, and to Jamaica. I unretired in 2004 by buying a small helicopter business in San Carlos, which has been a wonderful adventure in itself. I work, I cook with my friends, I hike every day with my dogs, I play the piano, I fly, I read history and trashy romance novels, and occasionally I go somewhere I've never been before.

That explains most of these pictures.