About Me

My name is Julie. I live in West Philadelphia with my husband (let's call him "Handsome Ponytail Ranger" [HPR]) our son, a preschooler known as "da Shmoo" (born 8 November 2004), and baby girl Polly Roo (born 29 September 2007).

I collect abandoned umbrellas off the sidewalks and bring them back to life.

I work as an editor on an academic journal.

I am a born-again Quaker. Just kidding. About the born-again part.

I hate to waste food, and therefore eat highchair leftovers. I will also ask the waiter for a box for a two-inch piece of salmon that I haven't finished. This embarrasses my husband, but he's too sweet to say so.

I lived in Bulgaria from 2000-2002, as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in a public high school. My experience there taught me how to write people's names in Cyrillic (fantastic party trick!)—you know, among other things.

We have two bulimic cats: Loki and Stella, and three mice: Natasha, Tim, and baby Manx. [Manx dropped dead and we decided it might be best to give Natasha and Tim a taste of freedom in the wild before they inevitably join him. They were looking rather old and sick, so we put them out in a box with lots of food and tissue paper insulation.] I have not disguised their names to protect the innocent.

I grew up in North Dakota. Part of me is still on that prairie, going out to take laundry off the line before the storm rolls in.