For those new to this web­site, here are a hand­ful of facts about yours truly.

1. While a col­lege stu­dent in Chicago, one day I went to go play ten­nis down­town with a friend. Once we got back, my car, which was a 1977 Chevy Caprice Clas­sic, had been stolen. The police found it 2 weeks later with most every­thing gone: the tires, rims, seats, all of my belong­ings, even most of the engine. I loved that car.
2. In high school, I was an exchange stu­dent to Ger­many. I was the worst stu­dent when I left and came back the one who spoke Ger­man the best. How? My Ger­man teacher had me live with a fam­ily that spoke no English.
3. I’ve seen many con­certs in my life­time: my favorites being U2 (Joshua Tree and No Line on the Hori­zon tours), Echo and the Bun­ny­men, Sufan Stevens (three times), Bobby McFer­rin, The Smiths, Gen­eral Public, Bro­ken Social Scene and some unknown  jazz quar­tet at the Green Mill in Chicago when I was in my early twenties.
4. Eas­ily my worst job was sell­ing vac­u­ums door-to-door. I was 19 years old. The name of the vac­uum was The Pig and my boss was decep­tive, manip­u­la­tive and greedy. Fun times.
5. I met my wife Julie through a week­end retreat through our church. We were camp­ing in Wis­con­sin and the name of the park where we camped was called Devil’s Lake State Park. Except for meet­ing Julie, it was a mis­er­able week­end, because I had to sleep in a wet sleep­ing bag, because it rained all week­end. I mar­ried her 11 months later. Sec­ond best deci­sion of my life (see below).
6. Eerie: When I was in col­lege, a friend and I the night before spring break started were talk­ing late into the night. We were dis­cussing the peo­ple, if we lost them, would dev­as­tate our lives. She gave one name: her older brother who was her hero and best friend. He was killed in a bicy­cling acci­dent that week. This taught me for the first time an impor­tant les­son: life is fragile.
7. Also while I was in col­lege, I worked with kids and adults with severe autism and other dis­abil­i­ties. Peter, a young man who had autism, also had a major metab­o­lism prob­lem and would eat any­thing in his sight and there­fore, all food had to be locked up at home. One day, we went for a walk and two high school girls were com­ing in our direc­tion. One of them was eat­ing a dough­nut. In a flash, Peter snatched it out of her hand and gob­bled it down. Not quite know­ing what to do, we just kept walking.
8. Some things I love: Smart­wool socks, golf­ing with my sons on a sum­mer evening, sushi and raw oys­ters, World War II movies, my job, Arts & Craft fur­ni­ture, many dif­fer­ent HBO series, art muse­ums, hole-in-the-wall restau­rants, and Illi­nois Fight­ing Illini bas­ket­ball. I do not like roller coast­ers, lima beans, being cold, climb­ing up on a roof (i.e., heights), wear­ing con­tacts, and though this may sound sac­ri­le­gious, putting up Christ­mas stuff (e.g., the tree, orna­ment, lights, etc.).
9. I love the ocean. I love stand­ing next to it. I love swim­ming in it. I love the sounds it makes. I love the smell. The oceans always reminds me that God exists and that he is good.
10. I began to fol­low Jesus and became a Chris­t­ian in my sopho­more year of col­lege. I was really into U2 and a friend told me that Bono was a Chris­t­ian and said that my favorite song, “I Will Fol­low” was about fol­low­ing Jesus. At this time, I began to inves­ti­gate my faith from years past (I grew up Catholic) and through the books of C.S. Lewis books (Mere Chris­tian­ity, The Great Divorce, and Screw­tape Let­ters) I decided to begin “fol­low­ing” again. At that point, I had made a pretty big mess of my life, e.g., drink­ing a lot and the other stuff asso­ci­ated with that and was begin­ning to real­ize that there was more to life than how I was liv­ing it. It was the best deci­sion of my life.