I grew up in an old farmhouse in Cazenovia, NY.  The surroundings and family environment naturally led to a variety of interests in the world around me, including history, archaeology, geology, geography, natural history, etc.. I stuck around town for a few years into adulthood and worked for nearly a decade at  Lorenzo State Historic Site and for a bit at Lorenzo's sister estate "The Meadows" when it was still occupied by the descendants of the village founder.  In those early years I turned much of my energy towards history and archaeology and from 1982 to 1987 I was the Historian for the Town of Cazenovia.  In 1987 I started my secondary education at Morrisville College, and then went to the University at Albany where I completed my BA in Anthropology (1991) and went on for my MA in Archaeology and Public History (1997) (focus on Northeastern Woodlands / Iroquois and Historic Preservation / Museum Management).  In that time away from Cazenovia I had a number of great opportunities in history and extensive internships with the New York State Museum's History Office (Dry Docks of the Erie Canal and The Little Falls Canal & The Durham Project) and also chiefed crews at David Starbuck's archaeology field school at Rogers Island (Fort Edward, NY) in 1991 and 1992 and at  Mount Independence (Orwell, VT) in 1992.  After school, I, like most archaeologists at some point in their careers, was unemployed and survived by doing some construction, gardening, plenty of snow shoveling, house sitting, helped settle a giant and historic local estate, worked with the Madison County Conservation Corps, and took up Rowing!  Eventually I found work conducting Cultural Resource Surveys in Maryland at places such as Riversdale and many projects around Annapolis.  Soon after, I found my way back to New York where I was a Project Director at the Public Archaeology Facility at Binghamton University.
            In May of 1998 I left Binghamton and headed south to Richmond, VA, where, although I was told the job prospects would be a little better, but the road to finding a decent job was long and tiring.  I did enjoyable stints volunteering in the research library at the Valentine Museum and with the Virginia State Library's Dictionary of Virginia Biography project, and for a year was employed as a technician for the Library's Digital Library Program.  I'm still looking for permanent work in the museum/research/preservation field (see my latest resume).
            To get a good idea of who I am check my resume, my curriculum vitae, a sampling of my favorite quotes, and I have many samples of my work on two different web pages: one for local history and the other for my archaeological and other interests.