I have the following pets... Unfortunately, with the taking in of another cat (three total), I am now an official crazy cat person.  Plus I have a long suffering office fish (Indiana Jones the tetra).

My childhood dream was to become a veterinarian.  Plants took over – they do not cry or feel pain and are cool in their own way.

The most unusual thing in my office... I have quite the mélange of strange artifacts from my life as a biologist – a mouse brain, a luffa sponge, dental molds, a foothill pine cone (the heaviest of the pine cones - the one in my picture), old plastic teaching models, etc.  It is an eclectic collection of biological artifacts.

I am afraid of heights. Terrified in fact.  It makes me sympathetic to others with phobias.

My favorite job growing up was working in the horticulture department on sweet corn. 

In my spare time I love gardening, cooking, ballroom dancing, music, art, beer making, and wine.

You may not know this about me, but I was a belly dancer when I was in college.

Something someone told me that I still live by today:  My masters thesis advisor told me that no matter how badly you mess up, someone has always done worse and it is better to come clean and move forward.

One of the most useful classes I took as an undergraduate was Art History.  For me, it was a very challenging course - I worked my behind off and earned a B. To this day, I remember information from that class and use it every time I walk into a museum.