I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico -- The Land of Enchantment. New Mexico is an exciting combination of First People Nations and Pueblos, resident whose ancestors came 600 years ago from Mexico, plus those who headed west on the Santa Fe Trail or the Iron Horse and stopped in New Mexico before getting to California. Mixed in with this cultural diversity are the famous -- Geronimo, Georgia O'Keefe, Pancho Villa, Area 51, Sheriff Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Gene Hackman, Demi Moore, Donald Rumsfeld ... making Albuquerque and New Mexico an eclectic place to grow up and one that fostered my love for variety.

Later, I lived in a hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico, while attempting to write a novel, which I burned before crossing the border back into the US. And, I turned the century in Kurume-Shi, Fukuoka-ken, Japan as an ESL teacher before settling in the Puget Sound area.

Today, I'm a history buff whose favorite place in time is between 1890 and 1910 -- the Gaslight Era -- when it looked like we could build anything and were on the verge of conquering poverty and disease. I'm also an avid reader and I swap reading with knitting on my daily commute to UW.