When I have the time to escape from the lab, I enjoy a variety of different activities.

Music - I play electric bass for a contemporary worship band at my church (Hope Community Church in King of Prussia, PA). In general, our music would be classified as "pop" or "soft rock"; we play Paul Baloche, Chris Tomlin, Lincoln Brewster, and lots of stuff from Gateway Worship and Hillsong.  I recently upgraded my equipment!  In October 2013 I purchased a Roscoe Century Signature V bass (gently used!) from Bass Specialties in Bensalem PA (Shout out to Glen here!) Awesome bass, beautiful tone and very fast. I also own a Cort A4 bass from EBay.  Nice bass with maple body, Bartollini pickups, and Hipshot tuners, and a Raven RMB 550 5-string bass with standard pickups (a little bright, but otherwise fine).  The Raven is an inexpensive Korean instrument, but I really like the action.  There's virtually no fret buzz, the neck is showing no signs of bowing after twelve years, and it holds its tune extremely well.  I also upgraded my amplification in October 2006.  After some serious repairs on my Trace Elliot SMG head (still works, but problems with the compressor and Eq controls), I purchased a Yorkville head with a tube preamp and solid state electronics.  Really nice sound out of the thing; not as good as the Trace in its prime, but still really good.  At Church, I play off of a Gaillen-Krueger RB-400 head  on a Mesa Boogie 1 x 15 cabinet.  For speakers, I also have a 4 x 10 Trace Elliot cabinet, along with a Kustom practice amp.  I also play a little French horn; I own a 1957-vintage Conn 6D.

This is me kayaking on the Snake River in Hell's Canyon, on the Oregon/Idaho border.

Athletics - I enjoy golf, tennis, running and lifting.  Golf is my favorite passion, but teaching leaves little time for a round.  My favorite golfing experience was a round several years ago at Highland Links in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.  This is one of the top 100 golf courses in the world, in an absolutely beautiful setting.  If you're interested in "What's in the Bag?":

Driver: Wilson Staff (Christmas present in 2011!)

Three and Five woods: MacGregor Tourney V-Foil

Irons: Nickent hybrid set (3 and 4 hybrids; 5-SW irons)

60 degree wedge: MacGregor Tourney

Running - After losing a few pounds and some incentives from my son, I took back to running four years ago. After running two marathons in graduate school, I've run three half marathons and two marathons in the past four years. Best half time was 1:50:12; best recent marathon was 4:02:20 (Wineglass marathon, October 2011). I also did a Ragnar relay in January 2013 with my brother on an ultra team; I ran 35+ miles in three segments over a 30 hour period.

I played competitive tennis in college, but never was very good. I try to lift several times per week.

Traveling - We've had the good fortune to travel to a number of US National Parks in the past ten years, including Acadia, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Redwoods, Olympia, Northern Cascades, Great Smokies, Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde, Arches, and most recently, Everglades.  We've also been to Canada a few times.  In (2004), the family had a wonderful trip to Australia, where we visited Kangaroo Island, Cairns (the Great Barrier Reef), and Sydney.  Australia pictures are posted on the site.  In February 2006, my son and I took a trip to Utah, where we skied Alta, Snowbasin, and Solitude Mts., with a side trip to St. George to play golf at Entrada at Snow Canyon.  To celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, my wife, daughter and I took a trip to London during Easter week 2007. In January 2008, my son and I took another ski vacation to northern Idaho and Montana.