[So'-nia E-li'-se]

For those of you who meander past my site regularly, try not to faint in shock, as I've finally managed to make some long overdue modifications. More are in the works, although mostly of attrition. Sadly, I will soon not have much time for webpage maintenance, so enjoy the novelty now. There is the usual pastiche of superficial photographs, my writing and art, and a few links to other topics of interest and organisations I belong to. I am always (when I find time) looking for new links to reflect the bizarre panorama of my interests, the languages I pretend to speak, (Spanish, Russian, Finnish, Arabic, and Italian, not in order of importance, and German, Friulano, and Polish, which I'm trying to learn) the virtues of snails as the niftiest creature on this planet, and the virtues of anything and anyone else I can think of.

current stuff

• Moscovian Life Here's where you can see the photos and things I have to say about living in Moscow. Look at this page at your own peril...it is a black hole of photographs. However, this black hole is finite and soon the photojournals will be coming to an end. Take a look at them now because soon I'll take a lot of the pictures down, and I don't promise much visual entertainment from Krakow.

perennially cool things and people

• Celtic Knot Sweater My fantastically cool friend Ursula spent a few months knitting me a sweater with a celtic knot running down the front of it.
• Ursula herself This is the maker of my sweater, and her web page of extensive self reference. Have we created a black hole then, between the two of us and our self-referencing?
• Illuminated Manuscript Page My masterpiece of medieval art-this was done with egg tempera and pigment colours. Unfortunately, the photo is rather close up, but the actual art is a few inches larger than a piece of notebook paper.
• My Celtic Knot Drawings Celtic knotwork is found historically in the book of Kells and also as stone engravings in the British Isles and the coast of France. My reproductions are usually done using water colour pencil.
• Adrian & Joni This is the web page of my illustrious sibling and his delightful wife. They used to do loads of cool stuff, but now they mostly take pictures of their galactic children, toddler Aelliana "the Alien" and newborn [super]Nova.
• Writing. And my novel! You can read some of the stuff I've written. Right now it is a showcase of Russian-related things, past and present. Highlight - a Rasputin story. You should read this story, it's great! And take note - my novel is here! As I make yet another set of major revisions, I am adding each chapter to this site. So no more excuses regarding lost disks and misplaced emails. If you really want to read it, you have no excuse.
• Dana Weyhing Pasquali Some people are too lazy to put together their own website. So, those of us who have too much free time can just tack them onto our lists of personal interests. Here is Dana, newly married, and whatever references to her I might collect.

organisations of personal significance

• Medical School This is where I will be studying medicine, starting this fall.
• the Hiking Club Even my Russian friends think we're weird - we go outside Moscow every Sunday and walk around the countryside. In snow and rain! All year round! Doubtless, we're all certifiable. Success is counted by the number of fences we climb and rivers we ford, and by how quickly we fall asleep on the elektrichka ride back to the city.
• Ultimate Frisbee One of these days, I'll tell someone I play Ultimate and I won't have to give a lecture on what a frisbee is, and where the sport came from, and how you play. It's getting around! Teams from the ex-Soviet republics have not only formed, but have started coming to and competing at Russian tournaments, which occur 5 or 6 times a year.
• Associazione la Diana For those who spent much time with me in Siena, you know that my true love is the fountains and the medieval suburban water system. If it interests you as well - heh, go read my novel!
• Misericordia "What is that Miseri-place that you're always talking about?" you all ask me. It is the ambulance association in Siena, Italy, where I volunteer at every possible opportunity. It's a much bigger organisation than just an ambulance service, with a long history in Siena and in Italy.
• Swarthmore Fire and Protective Association My first volunteer fire company's web page. The company responds to about 700 ambulance calls a year, and around 250 fire calls. And they got a new tower ladder in 2002, which was a huge excitement.

old news

• Fire school I photographs. Here, if you are particularly nosy, you can look at some dreadful pictures of me in fire school in 2000. I am sweaty and particularly undignified-looking in every single picture.
• Road trip in May '02 My friend Paul rescued me from the fear of graduation and took me on a whirlwind 2 week driving trip. We saw all sorts of nifty stuff, including New Orleans, the mountains in Tennessee, my friend Allen's house, and the Dismal Swamp!
• December in Seattle After a two year hiatus, I went back to Seattle and visited the family. Here are the newly-truncated results.