About Me

I was born in Anchorage Alaska and raised mostly in Kenai, but we moved away and back again often. I started school at Sears Elementary in Kenai. Sometime in third grade we moved to Anchorage where I attended Ocean View Elementary. Before finishing third grade, we moved back to Kenai. In the fourth grade I went to Kenai Grade School, it was the next step after Sears. After fourth grade we moved to Juneau Alaska where I attended the fifth grade in Glacier Valley Elementary. The following year I went to Floyd Dryden Middle School for the first quarter, and then we moved to Anchorage. After one quarter at Ocean View, we moved back to Juneau for one more quarter at Floyd Dryden. The fourth quarter of my sixth grade was back in Kenai at the new Mountain View Elementary. Seventh and eighth grade were at Kenai Jr. High School and Ninth Grade at Kenai Central High School. I moved to Washington the summer before my sophomore year where I attended Lindberg High School in Renton for eight months and then moved to Everett.

At the age of seventeen I joined the delayed entry program in the Navy. I graduated from Mariner High School in June of 1994 and three days later I went to Michigan to live with some friends, and my future ex-hubby. I worked full time at a Burger King and part time on a farm. I went to boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois in October 1994, and from there, the Navy in it’s infinite wisdom sent the one person who asked for over seas back to Washington. They stationed me at Whidbey Island…so much for seeing the world. I spent my entire three-year tour in Oak Harbor, with the exception of two weeks on the USS Abraham Lincoln, and twelve hours of liberty in California. It was an experience, I had some fun, but I will never do that again.

I was married in June of 1995 and divorced in October of 1998. My ex and I partied together (as in with each other) after the divorce (We had been friends since I was 14, and remained so for years after the divorce). I met Kurt, my current live-in non-hubby in February 1999, and we moved in together on the second anniversary of our first date. That’s right, Kurt and I have a kid together and we’re not married with no intention of getting married - deal with it.

I graduated from Skagit Valley College in June of 2002 with an Associates degree in Technical Arts in Multimedia & Interactive Technology with an emphasis in Web Development. In addition, I received the Outstanding Student award in Computer Science for 2002. In March of 2003 I finished my second Associate of Technical Arts degree, this one in Computer Information Systems with an emphasis in Networking.

In 2001 I started volunteering Sundays at the Everett Animal Shelter. For about three years I helped take digital photos of the available cats and dogs and place them on Pet Finder. I also filled in as a dog walker on occasion, and helped add content to the shelter’s website.

Activities I enjoy:

I enjoy tinkering with my blog and I hangout in a couple IRC chat rooms on the Undernet server.

I’m very interested in genealogy. My father’s side of the family is Mormon so I have a lot of information, stories, and pictures of my ancestors readily available to me. My mother’s side is an entirely different story. She is Mexican and so far accurate documentation of the family history has been difficult.

I like to go camping, hiking, biking, canoeing/kayaking, swimming, ice skating, and cross-country skiing. I’m not into sports, but I do like watching hockey. I can’t ever remember all the rules, and I don’t follow the teams, but I like to watch the fights (There is just something about people pummeling each other and the crowd going nuts over a few drops of blood on the ice). I also like to watch motorcycle racing with my boyfriend - mostly because I like to listen to the highly excitable announcer, “He’s going to pass him, Yes he is, No he isn’t, Yes HE IS!” I haven’t seen a demolition derby in a long time, but I like those too. I’d actually like to be in one someday.

Favorites:

• Books: Anything about real life serial killers. My favorite author is Harold Schechter.
• Movies: Twelve Chairs (1970 Directed by Mel Brooks), Same Time Next Year (1978 with Alan Alda), In-Laws (1979 with Peter Falk), Outsiders (1983 with Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze), The Princess Bride (1987 with Cary Elwes), The World’s Fastest Indian, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
• Music: This is not a complete list, and is only in the order that it came to mind: Violent Femmes, The Cure, White Zombie, AC/DC, Tom Petty, John Cougar Mellencamp, INXS, Tears for Fears, U2, UB40, The Beatles, The Doors, NIN, Marilyn Manson (only with Trent Reznor), GNR, Aerosmith, Lindsey Buckingham, Garbage, Merrill Bainbridge “Mouth”, Peter Gabriel, Wolfgang Press (I LOVE the singer’s voice!), Alanis Morissette, L7, Smithereens
• Food: Sushi
• Drinks: I drink rum - all drinks require a tiny paper umbrella and a ton of sugar. Brandies and Ice wines are good too (those can be served without the umbrella).
• Actors: Viggo Mortensen, Carry Elwes
• Comedians: For their perspective and impeccable delivery I love… George Carlin, Lewis Black, Carlos Mencia, Penn & Teller.
• Places: The Beach
• TV Shows: M*A*S*H, Cheers, Cold Case Files, Lost, My Name is Earl, Mind of Mencia, Bullshit

A bit about my other “kids”:

I have two dogs. One is a Malamute (the one lying in a pile of his own fur) the other is a Husky mix. I’ve had the male since he was five weeks old (April 1996). His name is Petie. I named him when he was about two months old. At that time, he had perfect black circles around both eyes and it reminded me of the dog on the Little Rascals.

My Husky I saved from the Everett Animal Shelter November 18th, 1999. She was about six months old at the time. I named her Chelan before she even made it home. We actually took her for a walk around the Olympic Peninsula with Petie right after we left the shelter. I named her when I pulled the maps out of the glove compartment and started looking at the wrong area of Washington. Her name comes from Lake Chelan.

I also have a cat named Bailey. I adopted him from PAWS in Seattle in November 1st, 2000. Bailey was listed as a two-month-old Orange Tabby, but he still doesn’t look orange to me. He is more of a two-toned cream, or cream and light brown, so I named after Bailey’s Irish Cream. I almost didn’t adopt him due to his size, I thought he was actually four months old. I was afraid that a four-month-old kitten might be too old to learn how to get along with the dogs, but I took the chance anyway. I brought Bailey to the vet for his health check up and found out he really was only two months old, and he had no problem with the dogs. He wasn’t the least bit shy around them even on their first nose-to-nose encounter. He is the cuddliest kitty I’ve ever had. Bailey even snuggles with the dogs and cleans their faces, but he doesn’t like it so much when they try to clean his.

Gandalf is the newest addition to our family. He is a DNA sexed male Congo African Grey. Gandalf hatched September 30, 2001. Kurt and I met Gandalf when he was three and a half months old. Of the six hatchlings, we could choose from, Gandalf was the friendliest towards us. He was the only one who actually sought attention from both of us immediately, and he was already saying, “Hello”. He was a little confused about what, “Hello” meant as we found out when we brought him home on January 29, 2002. His use of “hello” seemed more like “Let me out of my cage!” probably because his surrogate mom, Jeri Wright would immediately take all the birds out of their cages upon entering their room. After a while he switched to, “Step up” when he wanted out of his cage, which is what I say to him when I want him to step onto my hand. Now when he wants out he imitates the song on the Vontage commercials that comes from the Kill Bill all-girl Japanese surf-rock band and sounds like, “woo hoo woo hoo hoo”. Gandalf got his name before I even knew his gender. I had the name before I even chose a breeder. I thought I was being clever and original when I named my African Grey after Gandalf the Grey from Lord of the sRings, but Jeri just laughed and told me it was very common.

Jeri Wright (30 May 1941) of The Wright Roost passed away on 19 November 2004. Jeri had over 20 years of experience breeding and raising parrots. She served as Northwest Regional Vice-president of the American Federation of Aviculture, and then as an AFA Washington state coordinator/legislative liaison. She was past president of the Northwest Exotic Bird Society twice, and then more recently served as a board member. She was also a regular speaker and lecturer at other regional bird clubs and associations.