JC with his son, Ethan

My hometown is Guilderland, New York, which is located between Albany and Schenectady.    (I also spent summers with my Aunt and Uncle in Brookfield, Connecticut.)  I attended Guilderland Central High School, where I was active on the Cross Country Ski Team.  I grew up at the base of the Adirondack Mountains and spent a lot of time skiing (both cross-country and downhill).  I raced XC Ski throughout high school and did a great deal of bicycling in the mountains, as well as road skiing, during the summer.  I hate running which made off season training very arduous. But my friends and I made due on the bikes.

I went to New England College, where I started out in Computer Programming and ended up with a degree in Economics and a minor in Business Administration.  My freshman year I was on their Ski Team (Division 1, no less) but moved on to the Rugby team and was active in the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.  I played rugby  for 3 years and joined the fraternity after a number of my teammates were members.  I did spend one semester with 2 of my rugby buddies at NEC’s campus in Arundel, West Sussex, UK.  My college years are a run of stories I have little room for here.  Look at the photo albums for more on this subject!

Then on to Florida.  I lived on the Matanzas Inlet, south of St. Augustine my first year there.  Great view of the ocean, right on the beach!  (I coulda been a surfer!).  I also lived in Flagler Beach, across the street form the ocean!  I spent a lot of time there.  (Snack Jacks and the Golden Lion both rock!  The Golden Lion is a true English pub run by a real Englishman!) Then on to Daytona Beach.  Lisa and I lived in a three story walkup overlooking A1A and Daytona Beach itself.

OK.  Lisa and I have lived in a few areas.  Let’s start with where we met.  Rugby.  I was playing for the Daytona Beach RFC.  She and her friends were already friends of a bunch of the guys, mostly the Embry-Riddle students.  We regularly hung out at the Ocean Deck, a little (at the time) reggae bar right on the beach.  It was at a pig roast at my late friend, Dean Zacherl’s home, that we got to talking about, of all things, the cartoon “Two Stupid Dogs”.  Our first date was two months later at the Ocean Deck on New Years Eve 1994.  And it went on from there. 

She joined me when I  moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1996 to set up a small manufacturing plant.  We were married in Palm Coast on June 18, 1998.  In 1999, Lisa started Grad-School at Vanderbilt.  Not much later, I left my job and joined her in Nashville.  Nashville is still one of my favorite cities.  Not Long after  she completed school, we returned to Florida.  In 2001.  To Palm Coast.  It has grown a great deal since I first showed up there in 1991.  After 5 years there, we moved to Lebanon, KY for my current job.  We’ve been here since 2005 and are exploring the area.

So here we are, 60 miles south of Louisville, in true middle America.  The Story Continues.........

Lisa and I on top of the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

Beach Bum.  Holloween 1994