People
I was born a small child in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and spent most of my kidhood on and around nearby Gull Lake. I began my slow spiral away from tiny rural areas in the Midwest by spending my college years at The College of Wooster, in a slightly less rural setting than Gull lake. I inched slightly closer to urban-ness when I went to grad school at Indiana University, where I got my PhD in the Ecology, Evolution, & Behavior program in the Biology Department. Finally pulling away from both smallish towns and the Midwest, I spent three years as a postdoc at the Universitiy of Edinburgh in Scotland, and another three at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.
While I was in Vancouver, I met Karen Faller, who was so good at dogsitting that we decided we'd hang out together. In 2004, when I moved to The Universitiy of Wisconsin in Madison, she decided it might be okay to move with me. We moved to Madison in August, got married in September, and bought a house in December of that year. In September, 2005, we had our first son, Finn; after another year or so of negotiation we decided to have a second. Tasman was born (a month early) in February, 2008.
We love Madison for its city amenities and its small-town friendliness, as well as for the outdoorsy activities we can do in the area. We do, however, feel the need to get out to the mountains or the ocean at least once a year to recharge our "big-outdoors" batteries. Then we can be happy for the rest of the year with the canoeing, kayaking, camping, and cycling the Madison area has to offer.
