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Karen and I met in November of 1992 on a pets forum on Prodigy. She lived in southern California with her teenaged daughter, Erin, but was thinking of moving someplace quieter; I lived in northeast Kansas (definitely quieter). She came to visit me for the first time in July of 1993 (photo at left taken during her first visit). It was one of those rare situations in which we both felt as if we had known each other for a long time the moment we met. We saw each other every six or eight weeks after that for the next fourteen months, becoming overly familiar with the Kansas City and Los Angeles airports. She moved to Kansas in October of 1994 so we could get married before we went broke paying air fares and phone bills. |
| Meeting that way seemed a little odd at the time, but in retrospect, it was not all that much stranger than meeting at a laundromat or grocery store or veterinary office. People often ask us if we were worried about making such a serious commitment when we didn't really know each other. Well, Karen kept all of our e-mails from the winter of 1992 to the fall of 1994. The e-mails fill nine 3-ring notebooks. We were both recently single and lonely and talked in those e-mails about everything imaginable, perhaps more openly and honestly than we could have in person. In many ways, we knew each other better than a lot of people who get married, and I think we've had fewer problems than most newlyweds. |
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We are currently living happily ever after with nine indoor cats, two water turtles, two box turtles, a variety of fish, and two sugar gliders, little black-and-silver marsupials that are similar to flying squirrels. The pregnant stray, Maxine, had kittens in our garage in June 1996. Through Karen's hard work, we were able to find homes for all the kittens. Maxine is an adorable, intelligent, feisty cat, and we grew very fond of her. It's harder to find homes for adult cats, so, after a great deal of soul-searching, we decided to keep her. We had her spayed, flea-bathed, and tested for feline leukemia. Although we intended to introduce her gradually to the other cats, she proved to be absolutely fearless and quite at home. Karen and I were surprised at how quickly she adapted. |
| I work full time providing telephone technical support for computer software and have a computer repair business, The Computer Guys. I spend most of my free time learning computer programming, although I do have other interests, including song-writing and playing the guitar, travel (although finding the time and money to travel is often difficult), and writing. Karen has a full-time job she enjoys and many interests (even some that are not computer-related). We have been known to e-mail each other from our respective computer rooms. |