1971 was a good year for me - I was born into this awesome little family.

My older sister adored me (though as the brat kid sis, I wouldn't clue into that for another twenty years), our parents were childhood sweethearts, community activists and academics, we had precisely four grandparents along with a slew of aunts and uncles and cousins, and we lived in the same house my great-grandparents had built after the war (as in WWI). Bonus, there was even this swell cat named Tiger...

All I've got for the post-1985 story is a long version, a complicated version, and a long and complicated version. But for here, today, these are some quickie labels that fit -

• mother (for Nicholas)
• daughter (of W.H. James Taggart and Eileen MacQueen)
• sister (to Kathleen and Warren)
• mate (to Jan)
• orphan (see the long version)
• buddy (and glad the list is too long for a snapshot)
• dog lady (old man Odin, the Delta Dog and Tore)
• cat admirer (Tiger, BJ, Alpha, Omega, Spike, Lady Bing & Bookends)
• Canadian (originally of the small-town Ontario variety)
• 97% Scottish/British/Irish mix, 3% Germanic (according to Ancestry's DNA kit stuff anyway)
• ambidextrous (right, left, take your pick)
  
• grade-school graduate (seriously)
• high-school dropout (see the complicated version)
• university student (3 yrs, cultural anthropology)
• patented electro-mechanical engineer (go figure)
• c/Captain with RCAC program (three lifetimes ago)
• environmental activist & boardwalk builder (two lifetimes ago)
• St. John Ambulance first-aid instructor & training officer (also two lifetimes ago)
• published author (no joke)
• motorcycle driver (another of the lesser known factoids)
• ice hockey player (when I'm not flopping around on my belly)
• ice hockey referee (seems I'm better without a stick)
• little-league coach (baseball 'n soccer)
• golfer (hahahahah!)
• treasurer, director, etc. (assorted non-profits)
• application developer (php, mysql/i, jscript, etc.)
• corporate presenter (human rights in the workplace, environmental practices, etc.)
• property manager (current era)
• amateur mason (funny thing)
• well water system operator
• ???