More than anything, I'd like to write fiction for a living. I'm fortunate to have a good day job until my writing does pay off.

When I'm not writing, I’m kinda a fitness nut. A couple years ago, my doctor finally got it through my head that my body is a use it or lose it proposition and so I turned myself around, and got really into fitness. I work out 2-3 times a week, and run/walk around the Five Mile Drive at Pt Defiance 2-3 times a week, too. I like to ride my bike.

I like to hike a lot. One of my long-term goals is to do the whole Wonderland Trail at Mt Rainier. Or better yet, I want to summit Rainier some day.

For relaxation, I watch movies or listen to music or read. I like to dress up and go out to dinner - and to the opera and the ballet and plays and stuff like that. In the last year, I've seen two of my favorite operas - Carmen and Pagliacci. It would have been a helluva lot more fun if I'd had someone to share that experience with.

I like to cook - I'm a very good cook. But for the last year or so, I find my self nuking Lean Cuisines more often than cooking something from scratch. But that is a good thing.

I'm a very creative person. I like to write. I've written three novels (never sold diddley). But in the past few years, all I've written is op-ed stuff for my blog.

I've got a lot of hobbies: I build computers and restore old Porsches. I like to play first person shooter video games. I play okay guitar. And I'm a good photographer (and pretty decent with Photoshop). I can make a decent web site. Way more hobbies to do than time to do it.

Politically I'm way left. I believe in the Golden Rule (Do unto others...). I'm not particularly religious, but believe implicitly in karma (seen it in action many times). I'm kind to animals and kids and old people.

I don't smoke, drink or do drugs. Cigarettes were the hardest to quit.

I don't really watch TV, but am mildly obsessive about news (TV and print). Using the internet, I read highlights usually from 4-5 newspapers daily (Washington Post, NY Times, News Tribune, WSJ, etc). Which may be a stupid waste of time, but I just like to know what's going on around me.

I've got two boys that I've raised myself since 1995 (20 and 22) - and they are the most important thing in my life, by far.

Wanna go for a hike?

There are a lot of different things to do on first dates - depending on the circumstances and what's happening.

It could be as simple as having coffee together at Starbucks and talking.

Or maybe dinner at a nice restaurant - say Shenanigans, down on the waterfront in Tacoma, followed by a movie or maybe a play.

Or maybe a nice hike? Say a walk around Pt Defiance and the Five Mile Drive - or something more challenging, like from Paradise to the base of the Muir Snowfield.