 I
was born on March 23, 1959 in Yellowknife, NWT, Canada, eh? Yep, my birth
certificate is in two official languages: English and Innu! Like most good
atheists, I was baptized in a Catholic church and went to catholic school.
I even have the scars to prove it. Fortunately, none of that took :-) |
 The
son of a second generation Canadian of Ukrainian decent and an immigrant
Italian, I was fed well at an early age. Pasta mostly. Still have pasta
every Friday in my house. |
 Here
I am, at the age of 4 years, sitting in the dirt taking something apart.
Some things never change. |
 Age
5 with my dogs, Blackie and Sargent. Either one of them could have torn
me apart if they had wanted, but I guess I never gave them reason to do
so! Do you like that dorky tie? |
 |
OK
let's fast forward though the teen years, which weren't all that interesting
anyway, to sometime after they invented colour film. I graduated from University
in 1982 with a BSc in Civil Engineering with specialization in geotechnical
engineering. After that I worked at the University on academic staff doing
research on oilsands tailings. When the research money dried up I went
on to work as a conslutant in the geotech field. That sucked.
In 1985 my longtime friend, Jane Starr, and I married.
A very happy day.
In 1989 I became a snivil servant when I joined the Provincial
Government in their Transportation Department. Starting out in R&D
then moving on to Bridge Branch I finally found my area of interest: bridge
hydrotechnical engineering. It's fascinating stuff and I'll talk your ear
off given half a chance. In 2007 I left the government
(death by 1000 cuts as it were) and went back to the consulting industry. It
was a very good move.
|
 |
 We
now have 2 boys, Thomas born in June of '89 and William, born in March
of '92. We live in a 50 year old 2-story house, just across the river from
downtown Edmonton. The house is paid for, the cars are paid for, the kids
are healthy and happy.... life is good.
|
 Everybody
wants to know what our house looks like. It's a typical house for this
area in Canada. Here we are Building a new garage addition in the back
yard. The one in the background houses the workshop where I do most of
my work. We bury the cars under the snow and wait for them to thaw out
again in the spring.* |
| *Our friends south of the border that do not see the
humour in this should check below the computer desk to ensure no one is
pulling their leg. |
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