Someone in Australia wants to know how I met Allison. The basics of the story are rather typical. Boy falls in love with girl, girl falls in love with boy, boy gets scared and messes things up only to figure it out in the nick of time, boy and girl get married. I had graduated from Ohio State University and moved out to Phoenix for a job. I had been working a couple of years when I heard on the radio that a local band would be playing that night. I gathered my friends and set off. This sounds pretty mundane, but the odd thing is that I had never been to this place before and the band was not hugely popular. Regardless, I was strangely drawn to attend, so I called the venue and asked how to get there because I had never been there before. It turned out to be near the local university, Arizona State. Once I was there I quickly noticed the beautiful redhead standing with a collection of suitors surrounding her. She was clearly not interested in them. It looked as if there was a spot light shining on her. It took me the rest of the night to try and talk to her. I was sitting in a booth and she was walking by. I caught her attention by tugging on her squorts (it was the early nineties). She turned to me and said, “If you touch me again, I will make your life a living hell”. How can you not love that kind of fire? We started dating a few months later and were married a year after that. I was young and in love, so it did not seem that unusual that she could finish my sentences or read my thoughts because that is how I knew it would be when I found the right woman for me. The hardest part for me, like many men, was taking the final step and making the marriage proposal. I had lost my father to pancreatic cancer six weeks before I first met Allison. I was close to my father and it hurt a lot to lose him. I was afraid to get close to anyone at that point because I was afraid I would lose them too. A bit irrational, but true. I brought Allison to San Francisco to propose to her. We were there for a long weekend. There were several perfect opportunities to ask for her hand, I let them all slip away. This really upset Allison. She knew I would ask her, but I had not. What did this mean? We ended up getting in a fight and she stormed off. I followed close behind pleading with her. As is usually the case with me, my timing is a little off. I finally got her to believe me that I did bring her to San Fran to propose marriage to her and that is was not a reaction to her being upset. I did drop to my knee and I said “will you marry me”. To this she replied, “Why should I?” That’s what I love about her, she does not compromise. I finally convinced her that I was sincere. The next day is when I proposed to her the way I had wanted to. I brought her to the pier. As I knelt down, I saw her in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. What a majestic and beautiful sight. The funny thing is that I did not consider how it would look to her. Given the geometry of the bay, if I’m on the pier looking at the bridge, she is looking at Alcatraz. She said yes anyway. The truth is that although she does amazing things, I love her because she owns my heart. I feel blessed to have her. Sometimes I feel that my whole purpose in life is to be her husband.

As you know, I am an aerospace engineer. I have spent 16 years working on satellites and satellite technologies. My most recent poject is IPACS. Engineers love acronyms. This one stands for Integrated Power and Attitude Control System. The funny thing is that the research is being conducted for the Air Force, and they don't call it IPACS, they call it FACETS. Either way, this is a fancy name for a flywheel that can both store electricity and steer a spacecraft. Kind of cool. I am quite excited because the project has been dormant for the last year and a half, but now has been revived. There was a false start a few months ago, but now, finally, it seems that we can really finish this project and raise the bar on the technology. If you are interested you can find out more information directly from the Air Force at http://www.vs.afrl.af.mil/Gallery/ Joe p.s. To my Dutch friends. My most recent work is in control systems and simulation. Like all engineering, this is a branch of applied mathematics. This branch is particularly strong in math. So strong that my primary softare tool is called MATLAB, short for Mathematics Laboratory. Also I have taken several graduate level classes in Mathematics, specifically in chaos theory. Hopefully this clears things up a little.

I started this entry as an update an update on our pug Eleanor, but then realized that I wanted to discuss all of our pets. We currently have four pets, 3 cats and a dog. Pets have been an important part of our lives. Animals in general are important to our lives, even the wild animals who visit us from time to time. Through our thirteen years of marriage we have had many pets. When we met I had two cats (Lefty and Blondie) and a black dog named Jake. After that we had a Japanese chin named Einstein, a boxer named John, a siamese named Sinbad, blue birds named Kiwi and Blueberry, and finally our current pets, a pug named Eleanor, a big orange tabby named Caeser, his slender niece named Stella and the newest member, a calico named Julia. All but two were saved or otherwise given to us in their adulthood. Eleanor had her first birthday and is a really great dog. She is not supposed to be able to swim, but she does. She is not a retriever, but she likes to play catch. She can't hold her pee for anyone but me. Actually, I just remember to take her out every other hour. I hear this is pretty common for pugs. Jake Weber, the actor who plays me on tv also owns a pug. We got Eleanor last September on the 3rd anniversary of Allison's Dad's passing. Allison took the loss of her dad pretty hard. I couldn't bear to see her be so sad. Even though she know's his soul survives, she misses hugging him in this world. Although having a puppy is hard work, I was glad to do it on the chance that it could cheer up my wife. It helped. Eleanor has one of those faces that you can't help but giggle when you see it. Here are pictures of Eleanor's first birthday.

This is just a little note to keep everyone interested. Once my girls are back in school, I will be adding stories for the following topics: Yes that is Allison on VH1! Rest, Relaxation and Writing a book. Allison guest hosts the Pat McMahon Show in Phoenix Medical Miracle File: Growing a new bladder for our godson Allison's next book I just read a post asking a little more about my engineering work. I will elaborate soon. see you soon