My hobbies and interests ...

Reading
To say that I like books would be a bit of an understatement. I am a bookworm, and not ashamed to admit it! According to my mother, I was reading Dr. Seuss by the age of two and a half, and my passion for books and reading simply grew from there. I began to actively build my own personal library around the age of 14, but in recent years, since working for the public library, I have curtailed that habit somewhat.
  • What have I read lately?
  • Scrapbooking
    I have become a scrapbooking fiend over the past few years. My friend Heidi and I attend ScrapMania, a six-hour scrapbooking workshop at least once per month to keep up with our projects. I would love to scan some of my work to display here, but I create 12x12 pages, and my scanner isn't wide enough. Someday, maybe?
  • Archiver's, my favorite store
  • MUD
    In November 1994, a friend of mine (thanks, Kristina!) showed me something neat called "telnet". My first connection was to a talker called Castle and it was there that I first took the name "Ryner" for myself. I thought that being able to chat with people all over the world via a computer was simply The Coolest Thing Ever. About a year later, around September 1995, I was introduced to MUDding. At this point, the novelty of talkers having worn off somewhat, I was newly enthusiastic about the concept of an interactive game. Several talkers have come and gone, and I've sampled some other MUDs, but now I have settled down at just one place: the eternally magical NannyMUD!
  • Play NannyMUD! (You know you want to.)
  • Some people I've met online
  • Genealogy
    A couple of years ago I became interested in researching my family tree. So far I've been able to trace back to and verify family members who immigrated from England, Holland, Germany, Norway and Austria. I'm finding it a truly fascinating and rewarding hobby. I may give genealogy its own dedicated page later on, but for now here are some of my most frequently used links. (See my bookmarks page for additional and locality-specific links.)
  • My family tree at RootsWeb
  • The WorldConnect and USGenWeb projects
  • Geographic nameserver
  • FamilySearch
  • Music
    When listening to music, I prefer the sounds of classic rock to most other genres. My all-time favorite band by far is Queen. Brilliant lyrics, fantastic music and Mercury's phenomenal voice -- pure musical genius! I could go on and on with endless praise for these guys.

    As much as I adore Queen, it is not the only music I listen to. XTC and They Might Be Giants follow close behind. Does a pattern emerge?
  • Queen's official homepage
  • Queen's official fanclub
  • XTC's official homepage
  • The definitive XTC fansite
  • They Might Be Giants' official homepage
  • Outdoors
    A few years ago we bought ourselves some inline skates, and as long as the weather cooperates we try to get out and skate as often as possible -- sometimes at a park nearby and other times we'll make an entire weekend trip out of it. We have tried a little orienteering, and we are very interested in the latest outdoor rage, Geocaching. I have also been participating in aqua aerobics at the health club, which is not necessarily outdoors but seemed appropriate to include here.
  • Minnesota Inline Skating Club
  • Inline skating in the Twin Cities
  • Minnesota Orienteering Club
  • Geocaching
  • Travel
    Like most everyone, one of my favorite things to do is travel. I love roadtrips the best, but I won't hesitate to travel via any other means if the opportunity arises. Fortunately, Jonas shares my tastes, and together we have visited 38 U.S. states and 13 countries.
  • More travel information
  • Pets
    I don't have any pets right now, but there were always animals around the house when I was growing up, including dogs, birds, gerbils, hamsters, rats, mice, fish and an albino frog. I also had an adorable African pygmy hedgehog, HoJo, when I was in high school. I currently have my eye set on getting a beagle now that we have a house and a yard. I would also like a slug.
  • HoJo, and other hedgehog information

  • Updated 07 March, 2004


               
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