At Home
Both Heather and I are from the Tidewater/Hampton Roads area of Virginia and while she doesn't share all of my geeky tendencies, we balance each other out pretty well. No kids, but we do have two dogs and two cats that may as well be (Punkin, Buttercup, Peaches, and Pepper). Heather is also a frequent volunteer with the Suffolk Humane Society to help get pets adopted out of animal control and to raise money for a much needed local no-kill animal shelter.
Computers and Security
My fascination with computers didn't start until I was attending my freshman year at NC State with the intent to become a mechanical engineer. The workstations in the computer labs ran Solaris which was entirely different from what I was used to. After becoming comfortable changing window manager/environmental settings, I got into shell scripting and playing around with the school's instant messaging system (zwrite, part of MIT's zephyr services). My friend Mike introduced me to Linux and after a great deal of trial and error, I had my own Slackware box set up in my dorm room. If memory serves me correctly, it took almost three full days to get X working (with a three button mouse). Between using Solaris in the school's computer labs and Linux in my dorm room, I realized that I wouldn't enjoy being a mechanical engineer nearly as much I was would like to goof with computers for a living.
I didn't seriously get into the security of computers until I was rooted a couple of years later. I would generally apply patches quickly as they were released - in this case, I even downloaded the patch, but for some reason I decided to wait to apply it (CVE-1999-0704). Within a day or so, I found my computer under someone else's control. I rebuilt the computer, and wrote my first ipchains firewall policy.
Capsaicin
I am a big fan of most anything that is hot. I grow my own peppers at home and had just over 80 plants in the ground last year. I also avidly gather hot sauces from places I visit. My current favorite is probably Miss Anna's - made in St. Croix. The last time I made it out that way, I picked up a couple of bottles to hold me for a while since they didn't have the website up at the time (the left-most two bottles are the "tourist" hot sauces, but I couldn't help myself).
Pretty much everything I cook will have some sort of pepper in it, even if it is only a little cracked peppercorn. Some people joke, but I can't help it - there is just something about it that I can't resist. I've got a shelf in the fridge pretty much dedicated to hot sauces and random concoctions that I have made. It is one of those addicting things I guess. I used to chuckle at the people that would put hot sauce on their pizza, but now I swear by it.
Hot Sauces
Over the years, I've gone through quite a few different hot sauces - some of them good, some of them not quite as good. I intend on creating a list of hot sauces that I have (or have gone through in the past).
Cars
Another nasty habit I have is a facination with older Volkswagons. I have a '74 Superbeetle with widened fenders, 1776cc engine with a fairly mild cam and dual carbs, and custom paint and interior that I love to death. Unfortunately, it is sitting alone right now; its a little dented up from where someone turned in front of me and I haven't really had the time or the money to get it properly fixed. Before I get it back on the road, I plan on a complete suspension upgrade and a bigger motor.