I was born in San Diego, California, in 1962. I lived there for 18 years, except for a couple of one-year stints in Prague, of the Czech Republic (although it was Czechoslovakia at the time), in 1968-69 and Munich, Germany (although it was West Germany at the time), in 1975-76. Then it was off to four years of college at the University of California, Los Angeles, followed by five years of graduate school at the University of California, Irvine. Next, I spent three years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, beginning my journey through places that have real seasons, especially winters (I still love snow).
In 1992, I and my cat, Cloudy, moved on to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Benjamin joined and became the most important person in my life. Continuing travels took me in 1996 to Brunswick, Maine, followed by a year in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Around this time, I also co-founded (in Ann Arbor) Soar Technology, Inc., a small company that builds software systems that emulate and aid human decision making.
In 1998, I moved back to Maine, this time to the city of Waterville, where I taught in the Computer Science department at Colby College, and telecommuted for Soar Technology. In 2006, I left Colby, and now I focus my professional activities on Soar Technology.
We added Kaboom to our family in 2004 and Sprite in 2005. Cloudy and Kaboom unfortunately died in 2005. Fuzzball joined us later that year.