Home

My family and I live in the middle of nowhere on a small farm. Our closest neighbors are monks at the Holy Cross Abbey. Our land is on the Shenandoah river...lush and green in the summer, and beautifully crisp in the winter. We have a large collection of animals (the menagerie) including: 2 dogs (ike and skillet), n cats (where n is greater than 3), a rabbit (moustache), 2 chinchillas (chin chin and chilli), 2 goats (louis and lucy), a quarter horse (flight), a pony (guthrie), and 2 peacocks (picasso and petunia-too). Sometimes we have chickens (in between chicken massacrees).

Our house was built in 1760 or so (nobody is really sure), and was once part of a creek-driven indistrial complex before the big flood of 1870. We built a timber frame barn a few years ago on the property, which we expect to last for at least 200 years. In the summer, we have a large garden in the bottom land. In the winter, we light fires and work in the kitchen.

McGraw House

We once lived in Loudoun County, but it grew so fast we were pushed over the hill. It's still possible to escape suburbia in Virginia, but it takes some trying. Our log cabin in Leesburg looked like this. As you can tell, we prefer old houses.

Family

Here is my extended family on the front steps during Thanksgiving 2004. My grandma Ruth came to visit us from St Louis where she lives. She is now 97 and remains sharp as a tack.

My family itself seems a bit crazy at times. Here we are in front of the fireplace at Halloween. Jack is a ship captain. Eli is brer rabbit. Amy and I did not dress up this year.

The boys at 11 and 8. Jack is 12 and Eli is 10. Watching the boys grow is one of the essential joys of my life.

Trivia

Believe it or not, I like to do other things besides raise boys, write books, rennovate cabins and do science. When I am not in a caffiene-induced, corporate working frenzy (too rare these days it is true), I play violin, mandolin, and guitar. Why, I once even played tunes with a now-famous friend, fiddler for the Dave Matthews Band. (That was back in the undergrad days when time was plentiful.) I also played violin in the UVa symphony.

I enjoy backpacking in the wilderness, though I confess that it has been too many years since I spent the night in the woods twenty miles from anywhere. It's hard to camp with small boys. We do some day hiking on the Appalachain Trail (which I have hiked at one time or another from Georgia to Pennsylvania).

I like to cook too, and I got a palm pilot to keep track of wines. I used to have this problem of recognizing a wine on a menu, but not knowing whether I recognized it because it was good or bad. The Leesburg Vintner is my favorite wine shop.

Other notable trivia

Ok, so it's an oxymoron...

I was born on February 25th, 1966 in Miami, Florida. That makes me...old. I grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee . I also lived in Rochester, New York (for six months) and Longview, Texas (for two years), before heading off to college. (We followed dad around when he was transferred.) As a result of his transfer-survival techniques, my became a big banana at Eastman Chemical Company. Dad is retired now and lives on Dewees Island in SC. He thinks he is a pirate. Dad taught me hedonism, which I practice to this day.

My mom died of leukemia in 2003. It's from her that I inherited my drive and ambition. This appears to be a curse that my oldest son Jack has inherited. Lets hope it serves him well.

I have two brothers. Chris, the youngest, finished his Biology degree at Emory and moved to Washington, DC. He works at Amnesty International, and is a strong supporter of human rights. He balances out my corporate avarice factor. Walt, one year younger than me, used to write TV for a living (CNN and Nick News for Kids). He now works for the Evil Empire, er, I mean Microsoft.

A few years ago, Walt won an Emmy for his work. One year he was beat out by Bill Nye the Science Guy (really). He lives with his wife Nora and daughter Simone on Bainbridge Island.

My wife, Amy Barley, and I met at Virginia in the good old days. We have been living together since 1985, married since 1990, and raising Jack and Eli since they were born. Amy has a Masters degree in Public Environmental Policy (the International variety). She was an environmental specialist for an Indiana civil engineering company before she quit her career to adventure in Italy with me. She does most of the work raising our boys. Amy runs the NEAL program (nature in education), coaches many teams, and directs class plays for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at Powhatan School in Boyce, VA. This is the same school Amy attended as a girl, and the school where our boys go now.

Looking back

Here's what I looked like in 1992.

Here's what I looked like in 1996. See what corporate life will do to you?

Here's what I looked like in 2005. Notice the gray hair.