As a self-employed investor I can go anywhere, anytime and make a living as long as I have my laptop and an Internet connection. Past vocations include photographer, musician, motorcycle mechanic, salesman, jeweler, bank robber. OK, I'm kidding about being a bank robber. I was a cat burglar. OK, I'm kidding again.

The headline with my profile "Those b*stards! They killed Kenny!" is from South Park. They kill Kenny in almost every episode. The asterisk appears instead of the letter "a" because Fish's software replaces letters in "bad words" with asterisks. It's just too funny.

On a personal level I'm thoughtful, considerate, honest and playful, always engaging people with humor hoping to create a joyful interaction. This doesn't mean I can't be serious because I can and often am. I can be playfully mischievous . If you're interested in an example you can see my KQED story at the end of my profile. I've been accused more than once of being very romantic.

"Balance" is probably my favorite word: you can have fun but not at the expense of being serious when necessary. Spontaneity has its virtues, but if you don't plan ahead sometimes it can be problematic. Life is full of bittersweet things where happiness accompanies sadness. Perfect beauty in things we see and experience, as much as we might wish to capture it and hold onto it forever, tends to exist in flux and to be fleeting like each second in time. Someone once said “All that we have is the moment in which we live and the memories of those already past.” Come to think of it, that was me :)

I love animals: my first job was in a pet shop and I spent 5 summers on a ranch camp riding horses.

Once a professional photographer, shooting and making images of beauty is still something I enjoy. Lately I've taken a shine to flower photography. I could have said I'm a blossoming flower photographer, but that would have been too punny. Aren't you glad I didn't?

Another previous vocation was that of a musician. I played guitar and banjo in the orchestra for touring companies of the Broadway musical Annie. You may have heard the song made famous by the show "The sun will come out tomorrow...". I once tried to tally up how many people I performed for and came up with about a million.

I've been passionate about the high Sierra back country for as long as I can remember. Spending a few days out there once or twice a summer is an experience I relish. Typically my wilderness adventures have been solo but sharing that with an amazing woman would make it that much better.

Little kids crack me up. I'm a total sucker for little girls.

A friend, upon returning from Nepal after a stint in the Peace Corps, told me how much of an effect an education (or lack of one) can have on a young woman there. I then made a small donation sufficient to put 10 girls through a year of high school. I'm not a super do-gooder, but I occasionally give a little. Most recently a little to feed hungry kids and families, before that something for the ASPCA.

My daily routine usually involves a trip to the gym and a short motorcycle ride, some work managing my stocks, and lately sometimes a long walk, camera in hand, shooting flowers in my neighborhood.

Even though I believe myself to be very romantic, I don't really believe in love at first sight. How can you possibly love somebody you don't even know? I do believe in like at first sight, attraction, and that some couples who've been together for many years started that way and built upon it later calling it love at first sight. A woman may capture my attention with her beauty, but she won't hold it for long unless we connect on more substantive levels.

I tend to be very affectionate and to enjoy it when a woman hangs all over me :) Spooning is a favorite pastime of mine, and I have a black belt in snuggling, so watch out! :)

None of this paragraph is chiseled in stone and I wouldn't be surprised if my eventual coconspirator in life looks a lot different than the image I'll now paint: I'm most attracted to women who are at least several inches shorter than me, those of slender build, pretty is always good, and since I haven't totally given up on the idea of becoming a dad, those of child bearing years have that as an added attraction, but contact me even if (more) children are not in the cards for you. Perhaps a little long in the tooth to have my heart set on starting a family, that would be my first choice should the opportunity arise. A fantasy I sometimes entertain consists of a wife, 2 kids, a golden retriever and a couple horses in a country house with the proverbial white picket fence. (What's yours?)

If you're wanting a grown-up relationship with a man who will make you laugh, listen to you, communicate with you, accommodate you when possible, love you, nurture you, support you, but say no when he has to, I'm probably a pretty good candidate in those regards. I've also won three international kissing contests! OK the part about the contests I made up, but it could happen! Did I say I have a sense of humor?

Life is good, but a good woman would make it great.

Oh, and one more thing: CHOCOLATE RULES!

====================

KQED Story
I was volunteering at KQED--the local PBS TV station--during a pledge drive. They gave all the volunteers who were taking phone calls a little card on a stick, a placard I guess they call it. One one side was written "Call Me" and the other side was blank. They provided a marker so the volunteers could write their own message on the cards. The idea was to hold these up and wave them around when the TV camera panned around to the volunteers.

So, Mr. Smartipants here takes the marker and crosses out the word "Call" and writes in "Do", so now the placard says "Do Me" which had quite obviously been edited from Call Me. Of course--you know it just had to happen--just as I'm waving my placard around the camera pans onto me and a woman calling in to pledge gets connected to my extension. It was a slow day and only a few of us were on the phone. The rest of the volunteers were watching the monitors and they all saw my Do Me card and started laughing hysterically. The woman whose pledge I'm taking sees it too on TV and asks me playfully "is that included?", and now I'm stammering and turning a rather crimson shade, just a wee bit embarrassed as a result of my own mischievousness.

Almost anything as long as it's something we both enjoy. If there is good food, conversation, the outdoors and some exercise those are all things I enjoy. While movies may be enjoyable I'm not sure they are great for first dates because you can't talk to each other or even look at one another. We could go for a walk, photographing flowers or a motorcycle ride along the coast; maybe a hike through the redwoods. That said, planning to meet for an hour or so over coffee or tea may be the safest bet.