Michael Wade

After high school, I enrolled at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. Went on to get a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From there I went to work as a software engineer with Bell Labs in Naperville, IL. I'm now with an algorithmic stock trading firm.

I never did become an astronaut. Lasik surgery came along too late. In the end, I guess it didn't really matter -- we abandoned the moon in favor of that 30 year space shuttle distraction instead of building a moon base.

I enjoy living in Chicago near Lake Michigan with Peggy, my wife of 30 years. Both of my children also live in the city. It's fun being a Twins and Viking fan in enemy territory. I "gear up" appropriately when attending a Twins-Sox game at the Cell or a Viking-Bear game at Soldier.

I remember that it was always a bummer to have the last lunch period of the day. They would always run out of the main dish and fall back on that awful canned ravioli.

Milk bags -- anyone remember when they tried to make us drink milk out of plastic pouches? Apparently it was cheaper than cartons. I recall a few milk bags being thrown against the cafeteria walls.