About Me

Just in case you've never met me, (and in response to MomDot's Introduce Yourself Day) here's some stuff you might like to know. My name is Noelle, I'm in my late 30s, married to Greg (9 years!), with 2 little ones: Rebecca(6) and Gregory(3). I have 3 beautiful stepdaughters (18, 16 and 14). We live in central Massachusetts, where I've lived my entire life.

I graduated from UMass, Amherst in 1994 with a BA in Sociology, and minors in Psychology and Economics, but somehow I ended up working in computers as a web developer. In 2003 I received an MS in Computer Science from Boston University. I've worked as a programmer for the past 14 years, mostly on web-based applications. In that time, I've held a plethora of titles (Programmer, Web Developer, Software Engineer, Technical Business Analyst, Internet Software Architect) but they pretty much all mean programmer, mostly web-based. I started this blog 2.5 years ago because I found I really suck at scrap booking and keeping a journal. It's not commercial. This year I started another blog, The Naturalista about my family's attempt to live naturally, reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals, and enjoy the great outdoors. I might try limited ads there, but haven't done too much on the commercial front. Since I've enjoyed creating my first 2 blogs so much, i'm thinking of starting a technical blog - a mix of programming and technical tips for social media, web pages, etc.

Enough with the official details though, here's some other random facts about me:

• I was born on Christmas Day. That's where I get my name, Noelle. I guess I just wasn't destined to be Debra (what my parents were going to name me before I was born on Christmas and they decided they had to do something special).


• I laugh when people fall. I can't help it. I've always done this even though I try really hard not to. I do stop though if they hurt themselves.


• I'm hopelessly addicted to sugar. If I could just skip the meal and only eat dessert, my world would be right.


• I enjoy making things (crafts), but have no talent for it. I keep torturing my family by giving them 'homemade gifts'.


• I can't cook, but I'm a decent baker. Fortunately I am married to a man who is a fabulous cook.


• I've had a huge crush on Johnny Depp for 20 years.


• I love traveling. Anywhere. I've been to Europe 3 times in the past 5 years and keep trying to figure out a way to go back. I even love airports. That's right, I said it. I get all excited when driving to the airport, even if I'm just dropping someone off.


• My favorite color is yellow. This is because when I was a little kid, I had a yellow baby blanket that I carried everywhere. I still have Yellow Blankie - it's folded up on the top shelf of my linen closet. Every once in a while I let my kids play with it.


• I've worked in at least 9 different programming languages.


• Here's what I look like right now:


• I have 285 movies on my Netflix list. I only watched 37 movies from Netflix in 2009.


• I love dark, scary and/or fantasy themed movies.


• I try to hide it, but I'm a total dork!

That's me in a nutshell. Nice to meet you!