Mark and Claire's Page!

Family

Claire and I have been married since 1969. We met in Cleveland, while in school (Claire at Lake Erie College, Mark at Case Institute of Technology - now Case Western Reserve University). We started near Boston, lived in New Jersey for four years, then settled in Ohio.

Mark is a software developer currently between jobs, and Claire is the records retention person at Columbus State Community College.

Our older daughter Karen, her new husband Mike (married August 13, 2005), and our two grandchildren Heather and Hannah live in nearby Hilliard, Ohio. Our younger daughter Barbara lives with her husband Tim Ten Hoeve in Columbus, Ohio. They were married on July 6, 2002: everything went smoothly, and a good time was had by all. Click here to check out Claire's on-line wedding album (yes, they're still available). Karen is a research chemist at Battelle Memorial Institute, and Barbara works for Pizzutti, Inc. a large real estate development firm.

International Associations and Guests

An AFS exchange student from Norway lived with us in the 1985-86 school year. Kjersti Klausen (now Kjersti Vallotto) lives in Switzerland with her husband Emanuel and four children Matteo, Nils, Elia, and Smilla. We visited them in 2000, and she and Nils (at 6 monhs old!) came to Barbara's wedding. We had such a good time with Kjersti that we began hosting adults in 1992. (Karen and Barbara were out of high school by that time.) Most of our guests are visiting profiessionals that come to the United States thrugh the Columbus International Program or the Columbus Visitors Council. Our current guest is Stefan Haun of Berlin, Germany. Stefan is a social worker with an internship in Westerville. He's a really nice fellow, and we have some interesting discussions.

We have hosted guests (or friends) from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Peru, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, the Ukraine, and maybe even some others. We already visited some of these folks in their home countries (see below), and hope to see more when we can.

Recent Travel Experiences

Now that the children are grown, we have been able to do some serious traveling. We have lots of people on our list to visit, and lots of neat things to see. Unfortunately, the economy has put a crimp in our travel plans, but we still manage a trip or two. So far, we have been lucky enough to go to:

Photo Stuff

I first started dabbling in photography in high school in a friend's darkroom in Pittsburgh, but developed (no pun intended) a serious interest in the late 1970s.

Some of my favorite photography organizations are:

Some Photos

Check out two of my photos:

... and a friend's gallery

Click here for the gallery of my good friends Manfred and Hermine Gsteu of Enns, Austria. Enjoy!

Other Art

I have begun collecting some interesting Tarot cards. Check them out!

Poetry

I have a pretty brown eyed cow
who gives me milk and cheese
and now I'm sitting in my room
with hoof and mouth disease.

Our New Pet! --->

They aren't calling me lefty just yet. Nikita is an 800 pound Siberian. Nikita and his friends have unfortunately left their one time home near Johnstown, Ohio, but they sure were fun while they were here.