What’s been happening:

A lot has happened since graduating with my BS in Mining Engineering at Penn State in 1985. I worked in the coal fields of Appalachia for about four years before returning to PSU to get my Masters . I had a lot of fun in grad school and met a lot of additional friends. I took my time and also worked a year while finishing up my thesis, so I spent about another four years in Happy Valley the second time around. I thought I might stick around even longer to get a Ph.D., but decided instead to get married to Manuela, who I met during grad school, and go back to work in industry again. I ended up in Louisiana working for Morton Salt. Louisiana and Morton were good, but after four years Manuela and I decided to move to the Kansas City area where I was offered a job with Lafarge, to I construct a new underground limestone mine. The move worked out quite well for Manuela, as she became a professor at The University of Kansas. Our daughter Alicia was born in Kansas in 1998. Fast forward about 10 years. Manuela and I are now divorced, but still good friends and both still in the KC area. I left Lafarge in 2008 to take a job with Compass Minerals, so I am back in the salt mining business and enjoying it.