Connie and I met in August 1972 as a result of a mis-charted half time show as members of the University of Miami Band of the Hour. We got hitched in Nov 76 right after I completed Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a Naval officer. Over the next 20 years until I retired from the Navy we lived in Orlando, FL; Idaho Falls, ID; New London, CT (twice); Charleston, SC; Auburn, AL, Vallejo, CA; San Diego, CA; and Fairfax, VA. Whilst I was driving submarines, buying torpedoes, educating the young Navy officers of tomorrow, and doing other things I can’t talk about Connie completed her intern year in Medical Technology and had a succession of jobs in hospitals and doctor’s office laboratories and finally ended up running a laboratory certification program for the COLA for about 8 years or so. She finally got tired of commuting from Fairfax to Columbia, MD and moved over to to work as the Director of the Medical Laboratory Evaluation program for the American College of Physicians. After leaving the Navy I became the computer guy and have worked in a succession of IT related positions around the Washington, DC area.
Bryan came along while we were in Auburn but was only 4 when we moved to Fairfax. He vaguely remembers a few things from our house in San Diego but Fairfax is home to him. He married his college sweetheart Jen after graduating from Longwood University in May 2006 and lives with her in Midlothian, VA.
After about 15 years of living in Fairfax we did a huge remodeling job to make the house the way we wanted it…we moved about 90 percent of our stuff into a temp warehouse and lived in a corner of the dining room for about 3 months. It was a huge hassle but worth it for the really nice family room we got out of the deal…windows all around, fireplace in the corner, and wraparound deck out the French doors. We’re currently thinking about knocking the kitchen wall down to open up the family room/dining room/kitchen area into an open area. We live pretty much in the kitchen and family room anyway; this will give us the ability to socialize with guests or family while whipping up gourmet food.
Aside from work…Connie sings in the choir at St Andrew the Apostle parish and as a member of the New Dominion Chorale…and recently received a promotion to Sous Chef in our kitchen. I’m the Executive Chef (AKA chief cook and bottle washer), run every day, and the home IT support desk.
The only other strange thing we’re involved in is our quest to travel the world to attend performances of Camile Saint-Saëns Symphony #3 Op. 78 “Organ” in as many different locations before we die. However, we recently stole an idea from Hollywood and have created the “Bucket List”. Details on both are elsewhere on the site.
