Things I do for fun

Playing the clarinet is the main thing I do for fun.

• I studied clarinet with Patti Kroth and Christopher Hill in high school, Corliss Johnson at South Dakota State, and Gregory Oakes at Iowa State.
• I am a member of the Fort Atkinson Community Band. We perform every other Monday during June, July, and early August at the Barrie Park bandshell in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.
• I also play with some other ensembles in the area, including the UW-Whitewater University Band (a mix of students and community members) and the Rock River Woodwind Quintet.
• I had the pleasure of playing with the ISU Symphony Orchestra from 2007-2009 and 2010-2011. It's a great university orchestra, and most of their concerts are webcast.
• I performed as an occasional substitute with the Central Iowa Symphony, our local community orchestra in Ames, from 2009 to 2013.
• I performed as a member of the ISU Clarinet Choir from 2007 until 2012.

My other hobbies are:

• Enjoying music: especially classical, jazz, and indie
• Reading blogs
• Watching birds, in our backyard or elsewhere
• Spending time with my wife Carrie

In addition, Carrie and I both enjoy traveling together. Here is a photo of us standing together in front of a geyser in Yellowstone National Park during our honeymoon, longer ago than I would like to admit. Although we usually don't have time to travel that far, we do make time once in a while to take shorter trips to visit family, friends, or interesting places or events in Wisconsin and the Midwest.