Name: Jennifer Ann. My poor mother tried her best to name my sisters and I something that wasn't too common. Since all three of us fell into the ten-most-popular-names-for-our-birth-year category, I'd say she struck out. The fact that she did this with their most recent cat has been cause for a lot of good-natured teasing.

Vital Stats: Born in 1969 (you do the math). Straight brown hair that gets its lovely red highlights with a little help from Miss Clairol. Green eyes and a smile I've been told is my best feature, and the rest of me is, well, ordinary.

Addictions: Cats, dark chocolate, books, logic puzzles, knitting, and things that make me laugh.

Thumb color: Pale green. The only plants I could ever reliably grow are the hanging type that allow me to forget to water them for weeks on end and still forgive me. Cactus survive only if they're too large for the cats to uproot.

How Many Cats? If you want to see them, go here - I try to keep the page up to date.

How I Afford all the Cats: I'm a Research Associate for a construction costs consulting firm which I have yet to come up with a clever name for. Prior to this I worked as a trainer for Benthic Creatures, teaching the mollusks (and mollusk handlers) of California how to use the new shell-polishing kits. It should be fairly obvious that those are all code names, shouldn't it? Before that, I was a technical writer for The-Company-To-Be-Nicknamed-Later until they laid off my entire office without warning, thereby allowing me to join the ever-growing number of the proud, the (not-so-few), the Dot-Bombed. And prior to that I was working as a software consultant for the Big Fish, where I played with databases for a living (SQL and VBA are your friends, oh yes!). The Big Fish bought the Little Fish about two years ago, and...well...let's just say that the transition was not clean and leave it at that.

I Read: Anne McCafferey, Steve King, Piers Anthony, Andre Norton...the list goes on. When I was first introduced to science fiction / fantasy, I devoured every single book in the school library. Now I'm a bit pickier, having learned the difference between good and don't-even-bother.

Why the Online Journal? Why not? It's someplace where I get to write about things that happen to me. This is not a blow-by-blow description of my daily life, since I find that deadly dull to read (so why would I write it?). This is just me - my perceptions and my opinons. I enjoy writing it and I hope you enjoy reading it. For a little more info on why I do the online journal thing, see this. I welcome comments and questions, although I can't promise to answer all email.

Who else shows up on these pages?

• Richard: My soulmate, he who shares the server brain, and the man I still cannot believe I was lucky enough to get to marry.
• Various family members, including two sisters (one older, one younger), two nephews, one niece, two brothers-in-law, two sisters-in-law, parents, and any other family members who may happen to crop up from time to time. Richard's oldest sister, who is 5 days older than me.
• Random friends (if they've got an online presence, I usually link to them in the related entry), neighbors, strangers on the street, and of course the cats.