Personal Information

    For those who want to know more about me, here's the skinny.  I am a 23 year-old originally from Hutchinson, KS and am now residing in Lawrence, KS with my wife. Lawrence is located on I-70 about halfway between Kansas City and Topeka.

    Andrea and I were married July 14th, 2001 in Hutchison.  Pictures are coming soon.  My wife (originally Andrea Bell) also grew up in Hutchinson. We're both going to school currently.  Andrea is going to the University of Kansas as a political science/pre-law major and I'm going to Johnson County Community College in Overland Park (metro Kansas City) as an Information Technology major.

    Andrea and I met when we were both working as overnight stockers at Wal-Mart in Hutchinson, KS.  We started dating in February 2000 and we were married the following year.  We've been together for about two and a half years. 

Just a brief bio on Andrea...she is 26 years old, grew up in Hutchinson like me. She graduated in 1994 from Buhler High (my high school's bitter rival). She has two younger brothers. She currently drives a 1997 Ford Ranger. She used to have a Chevy...a Chevette specifically.  Her nickname for it was the "cracker box". Although she currently claims to be a "Ford woman", she drools whenever she sees any Grand Ams or Camaros. She also used to have a Plymouth Acclaim, which met an untimely demise when a little old lady pulled out in front of her. Andrea got pretty banged up, but she's OK now.

I parted ways with Wal-Mart when I moved away from Hutchinson (although Andrea remains with them, for now). I worked for K-Mart Distribution Center in Lawrence for about 6 months.  After K-Mart's financial situation came into question,  I left there to work at Sunflower Broadband as a technical support representative for their high-speed internet service.  I have since left Sunflower to work as a Route Manager at a lawn care company in Shawnee, KS.  Not the line of work I really desire, but it pays well.

Cars I've Owned

The first car I drove was a 1975 Plymouth Fury.  Under the hood was a 5.2L 318 V8.  I'll tell you, that car hauled tail for its size. The Fury had to be scrapped because I hit a dip too hard and broke the power steering gearbox from the frame and ruined the steering.  The only way to fix that was weld it and there wasn't any guarantees it would hold up. The 318 never did die and the transmission was solid also. The Fury was my parent's car for me to use.   I got my first speeding ticket in that car incidentally...although I've never even been pulled over in either of my Berettas.  Been ticketed or stopped in my mom's car, my wife's truck, and my old Fury, but my *very* visible bright red Beretta has never been stopped yet. Not even on the K-10 (aka the Kansas Autobahn...it's the only reasonable route from Lawrence to KC that's not a toll road). The first car I owned lasted all of two weeks.  It was a 1978 Plymouth Volare.  I couldn't tell you what engine it had, just to say that it froze up after those two weeks so I had it towed off.  The next car I owned was a 1982 Ford Escort EXP.  It had a 1.6L four-banger with a four-speed stick. I liked having the stick, but the car was problematic.  It did give me 10,000 miles before blowing its head gasket. 

After this, I got my first Beretta.  It was a 1988 Chevrolet Beretta GT and I paid $400 for the car.  It was a Z51 GT with the sway bar package not given to regular FE3 or any other Berettas.  The car had 151,600 miles when I bought it. The car gave me 8500 miles before developing a knocking connecting rod bearing.  I sold the car to a fellow BerettaNet member from Colorado Springs named Aaron Choate.  He has since sold it to someone else.

After I couldn't use the Beretta GT as my daily driver due to the engine problems it had, I went car hunting and found a Beretta GTU for sale, but it was hurting.  The car leaked oil, had a discolored hood, and had no second gear when I bought it, so I got it for $900 in March of 1999. I have since taken the large task of fixing this car up.  The Restoration link goes into great detail on this project of mine.

Last Updated September 9th, 2002