Comments:
After high school, I spent far too much time in college, going first to the U of I, then Iowa State, and then finally to the University of Washington.
I've been happily married for 18 years (!), and we've lived in Seattle for 13 years. We absolutely love living in the city. We have a house in an urban neighborhood near the university and a large lake, so there is a lot to do close by. Still, we have a yard big enough to accommodate fruit trees, a vegetable garden, and chickens, yes, chickens. It's nice to have a bit of the farm in the city. It is also nice to be close to mountains, lakes, the ocean, and forests. We like to go camping and hiking, and drive around an old VW camper bus.
My daytime job is less hippie: I work as a landscape architect for a small family firm (www.murase.com). Most of my projects are in the Seattle area, but sometimes I'm able to get out of the region. I have designed things like an artificial lake at a mall in West Des Moines, a housing block in China, a performing arts plaza in downtown Orlando, Florida, and a corporate campus in Madison, Wisconsin.
