Some Personal Information
(Who I am and what I do besides Astronomy)

Besides being an Astronomer and Computer enthusiast, what do I do with my life? First I spend time with my wife Jill and our two children Dianna and Victor, and our remaining two cats. Jill has worked as a teacher, although she is now on leave to be home with Dianna and Victor. We have been together over twenty years, having met when we were undergraduates at the University of Rochester in the same dorm my mother lived in when she met my father. Jill was also a swim team coach, in fact she coached the sons of Don York who was my thesis advisor.

This is my wife Jill (I should get a better picture!) with Dogbert at the back of the CASLEO 2.15-meter telescope. Jill traveled with me when I observed in Argentina, this gave her an opportunity to visit her aunts, uncles, and cousins; she also flew out to the mountain for a couple of days to help me since I know very little Spanish. And yes, we did pay for her entire trip out of our own pockets -- it is amazing what you can afford when you are not a graduate student. Also note, that in June in Argentina it is cold in the mountains, in this picture Jill is modeling the latest in the "layered look" including my jacket.

This is Victor (left) and Dianna (right) at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Jill and I were married on the front porch of this cabin in the summer of 1989. My parents recently sold this cabin, which is located in upstate New York (Bristol to be exact), and built themselves a new house up the hill. I spent a lot of time hiking around the property when I was young, as did many of my friends, plus of course working there (although I remember the hiking more...).

Jill and I have had a number of cats who have shared our homes over the years, in graduate school we had four cats (the last of which died just before Christmas 2004 after almost 17 years) named from left to right Nicky (all white), Siggy, B.D. (either "behavior disordered" or "best darn" depending on the time of day) and Gus (the small black and white cat). Unfortunately over a 1 year period we lost all but Gus due to various illnesses (at ages of 13+ to 17+). We then adopted Beanie at age 14 years to keep Gus company, but she has since passed away (due to cancer approximately 8 months after Gus died).

We have also adopted two stray cats, Little B.D. (Dianna's kitty) and Oreo (Victor's kitty) recently, and continue to share our home with them. Both of these kitties were suggested to us for adoption by our Vets at Howard Street Animal Hospital, who we would recommend to everyone in Rodgers Park/Evanston for their pets care. Their care of all of our kitties was tremendous, and their care for our family (human and feline) as our guys and girl succumbed to their various illnesses was amazing.

This is our family portrait just before Gus passed away in December 2004, Jill is holding Gus, then Dianna with Little B.D. (perhaps the most mis-named cat in history since he is huge!), then Victor with Oreo, and finally me with Beanie.

Given our past history, I expect that we will soon share our home with other cats in the near future.