Current

Location: Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Occupation: Student

Persuasion: Completed active term of service 01 December, 2006. Now studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The day I was born, my dad drove my mom to Community Memorial Hospital in Winona, Minnesota in a MG Midget, which I imagine has influenced my personality in some way. I was born at 9:59 AM on 12 September 1982. The world seemed a lot simpler then, but I do acknowledge spending large portions of my early childhood sleeping.

I grew up playing with my grandparents’ dachshunds, Claus and Effie, as well as my Siberian Husky, Tascha. Having learned to love dogs from an early age, I’m rather susceptible to their pleadings and will often be found sneaking an extra treat for some deserving pooch who is well aware of my weakness.

I have five wonderful siblings, two sets of loving parents, and an enormous extended family. I’m afraid I nearly overwhelmed Jo (my wife) with introductions the first time she came to visit - she must have met nearly a hundred people in four days.

I have been privileged to own two wonderful Volvos, a 1981 242 DL which I named after Steve McQueen, and my current 1994 855 Turbo, “the Turbox”. I almost won a 2003 Dodge Neon when I appeared on The Price Is Right a few years ago, but at the last moment my luck failed me. Still, I did get to meet Bob Barker, which fulfilled a childhood dream.

I have previously amused myself as a United States Marine, pastry chef, kitchen manager, and press operator in a shampoo bottle labeling factory. I graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, studied cuisine abroad throughout France, and performed an internship with a private chef before making the decision to enlist in August 2002. My enlistment in the Marines took me (sometimes briefly) to many different places: Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, and little towns all over Southern California. I was also a columnist for the Winona Daily News (Winona, MN).

I am working toward a double major in Eastern European History and Russian Language & Civilization.