Jade Ritchie Annand:  

Life I took university to be essentially more of a learning experience than a stepping stone to a career. I took spoken languages, organic chemistry, microbiology, whatever spoke to me. Graduated with a B.A. in German with a minor in Mandarin. I'm still a software developer/architect but after too many mergers where each management group grasped less than the last, after more than two decades, I jumped ship to the software side of a green manufacturing company instead, and I love the people there. I got married October 15, 2005 at pretty much my dream place to have it: the Calgary Zoo conservatory. Married surrounded by tropical plants, reception in front of the butterfly garden, a wonderfully nerdy Struiksma-built cake with a books and garden theme topping it off in grand style. My wife was a high school science teacher, and we just suit each other to a T. We both have way more hobbies than time (though she's more hands-on, I'm more theory), both love gardening and as of this writing have a snake and two cats. We also made three children, as quirky and nice as we are. The eldest has a bent towards animation, the middle, towards math and virtual gadgets, the youngest, towards biology, pink and fighting :) My love of languages has come in handy for travel. In university, I went to China to do summer studies. I've been through Hong Kong, Thailand, Bali, Greece, Germany. With my now-wife, I've been to Switzerland (I actually won that trip - thank you, Garnier! We extended it for other parts of Europe) France, Italy, Austria, my homeland of Scotland, and East Africa on our honeymoon: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanza...Expand for more