Eric Schauber:  

Life My Spouse At a contra dance in Knoxville, TN during a conference My Pets Katie is a black lab/golden retriever mix -- she's great! My Job Lots of number crunching in winter, lots of running around in the woods in summer College College: UMass Amherst (Go Minutemen!), graduated in 1992. Initially roomed with Mark H. and later with Erik P., but really I wanted college to be an escape from all memory of High School, where I hated the persona I thought I was stuck with. Almost nobody at UMass knew me before, and that was great. Joined a fraternity, worked as "houseboy" at a sorority, had debaucherous times, still maintained grades, took up photography and guitar, and landed some fantastic summer jobs (wrangling bears, gypsy moths, mice, and songbirds). Decided I wanted to keep going with school (heck, I'm good at it), but somewhere else in the country. Masters Degree from Oregon State University (Go Beavers!) in Wildlife Biology 1994. Studied how pesticides impact small mammals in agricultural fields. Picture the scene: I was at a bar with several other wildlife graduate students (all male), and a girl was talking with us. One guy told her he studied elk, and another told her he studied spotted owls, and so on down the line of these guys all studying big sexy animals. She got to me and I said, quietly "Uh, I study mice and voles" "What?" "Mice and voles" "What are voles?" "They're like mice, only they're slower and have short tails." "Oh, that's nice" (turning away). Took up home brewing and won a few awards in local competitions. Oregon is fantastic --...Expand for more