Personal History:

I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio (don't hold that against me). I am a survivor of 12 years of Catholic education, graduating from Erieview Catholic High School (class of 1973). I got married to a wonderful guy, Frank (Rick) England, in August of 1975. We have two sons, J.T. and Tim. J.T. and Sip (Siprasert Phoneyavong), have given us four beautiful grandchildren, Johnny, Diamond, Desiree, and Amelia. They are all wonderful people and I don't know what I would do without them all.

Rick and I enjoy doing things together. We like a lot of the same stuff; movies, music, TV shows. We are Buckeye fans; go to as many of the home games that we can. We follow the NASCAR season closely. We got to go to our first race in the summer of 2001, in Michigan (of all places). That was fun. Our latest obsession is going to the movies. While most Americans see 2-4 movies a year, we see that many in a week. Anything that is worth seeing, we will see; almost always at a matinee price, and the earilier in the day, the better. The weekend morning matinee at $4.00 is a wonderful way to see first-run movies. We have also gone to several Neil Diamond concerts. We just seem to enjoy each other's company, which is a good thing. I think I'll keep him around for a while longer. I have plans for our retirement together.

Pets:

We currently have 3 cats; all three are brown tabbies: Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb (sister and brother), and Princess. Our cats are all wonderful creatures, and they get along pretty well, most of the time. Miss Dee and Dumb are pretty much inseperable, which is how we wound up with both of them, instead of just one kitten at the time the kids talked their dad into bringing one home. They were playing together, and he said "You can't separate those two. What would they do without each other?" Princess was donated to us by a neice who couldn't keep her any more. She is truely royalty. She believes that she should be an "only" pet, but after several months of self-enforced exhile to our family room, she decided to become a little more sociable and now mixes with the rest of the family.

We also have a dog, Henry. He is 100% mutt, and has more energy than any three dogs combined. We acquired him from the mountains of North Carolina during Christmas vacation in 2005. He had been dumped in the area that Rick's brother was living in, and every time anybody would go outside, he would show up. Rick's brother had placed an ad in the local paper about a "found dog". It ran for two weeks and nobody called about him. They were going to have to take him to the pound if nobody came forward. We decided at the end of the week that he would go home with us. He has transplanted well. Henry is a fairly well-behaved animal. He came pre-trained with all the basics; house-broken, sit, come, stay, down, and cats are not squeeky toys. He loves to play tug, and fetch, but more than anything else, he just craves human contact. He can lay quietly if you just keep a hand on him. He's a good boy.

Work History:

I just completed my 24th year with The Ohio State Univeristy in July. I spent 15 years in the Typing Pool in the Math Department, and have been with the Statistics Department since November of 1999. I enjoy my time in the Program in Spatial Statistics and Environmental Sciences (SSES). I like my job and all the people in the Program. I also get to learn new and interesting things all the time. Including how to make and maintain a web page.

I have done some extensive free-lance typing, as well as on the job typing, using a scientific software called TeX. I am fluent in Plain TeX, AMSTeX and LaTeX, which makes me a TeXnician. I have also taught several people how to use the software. I have done numerous Master's theses and Ph.D. dissertations. I have typed a Calculus textbook and several volumes of technical proceedings for the Math Research Institute here at Ohio State. The software is a challenge to use and keeps the job from becoming boring. There is always something new to learn how to do with it.

Hobbies:

My most time consuming hobby is crocheting. I love to create things. Currently the majority of my time has been taken up with making baby afghans. There seems to have been a boom recently, and I have been making afghans for relatives who are having their first.

I also like to crochet doilies and christmas ornaments with cotton thread. I enjoy needlepoint and counted cross-stitch. I have at least 3 cross-stitch projects that I am working on as well as the afghans. There are so many patterns for projects that I want to try, but I am going to have to finish some of the other stuff first.

I have taken up painting. They style is called Tole painting. It's pretty much just rustic, free-hand, self-interpretation of flowers and vines, in my case, and I put it on such things as paper mache boxes, or small wooden boxes, tissue box covers, doorknob hangers, and so forth. I am thinking of starting a web-based business with all of these crafty things for when I retire. We will see how it goes, when the time comes. Along with the painting of things, I have recently learned the art of "Face Painting". Kids love to have their faces painted, or their arms, or their hands, or their legs. You get the picture. This is quite a fun way to spend an afternoon, and it makes you feel really good when you see the kids smile when they look in the mirror. It's great. If you are in need of a face painter for a party or outing of some kind, you can contact me, and we can work something out.