In recognition of Valentine's Day, I am creating this page for my wife, Christine Dickson. I was always against marriage as a concept, for me, and basically for everybody, so for me to say that I actually married Christine, is a testament to how special she is as a person and who she is to me. Here are just some of things that define her as a person, or at least her online persona.

Psychologist

Christine holds a dual PhD in Clinical Psychology and Industrial-Organizational Psychology.  She recently started her private practice, Tri-Valley Psychotherapy, in downtown Pleasanton, CA.  I never consulted a psychologist in my life, but I see how Christine really helps people get through very difficult circumstances in their lives.  Her past career experience has made her very good at diagnosing a person's situation extremely quickly and from their her no-nonsense style allows her develop a path for the patient to follow to come through the other side of whatever they're facing.  To me, psychology is still a "soft science" but I respect the field a lot more after meeting Christine.

Christine recently appeared on local television's "Conversations with Robin Fahr" to talk about her new practice and the types of issues she addresses with her patients.  She also has a lecture series every third Thursday of the month at the Pleasanton Library.

Vegan Baker

Christine has been a vegetarian most of her life and spent some time as a vegan when she learned just how few desserts are vegan-friendly, and of those few options, they didn't taste very good.  It turns out to be quite a challenge to create desserts without eggs and dairy and there's a real art to choosing alternatives and replicating or improving on the taste of the original.  Christine has done just that and will show you how on videos at Secrets of Vegan Baking . Com. 

Also, Christine was the facilitator behind my switch to vegetarianism due to all the wonderful food she knew how to make.

Singer

When I first met Christine she told that me she could sing and from her speaking voice I thought she only thought she could sing, but she sent me some MP3s and I was really surprised and impressed.  I've since learned that she has natural perfect pitch and a really good taste in music.  We've formed a band together called "Piled Higher and Deeper" where we do cover songs, but we don't try to mimick the songs exactly and instead approach the song with our own style.  You can hear our music on Piled Higher and Deeper's band page on Facebook.

Web developer

 When I met Christine, I had not made an update to my web page in years, so she decided that she would redo my web page for me.  The site she made was aure.com for over a year.  She also created all the web pages you see on the sidebar of this page.  While she is not a programmer (yet!) she approaches web design with fierce determination and gets things done very quickly.  

Mountain Biker

I met Christine when a mutual friend got us to mountain bike together.  She was described to me as an avid downhill mountain biker to which I thought, I'll beleive it when I see it. It was true and she was able to introduce me to a lot of cool trails in Marin County I had never heard of.

We even had a mountain biking wedding, what more could you ask for?

& More

Just like on my web site, having an "& More" section for Christine is a necessity because she's not stuck in a rut with her life, she's has the ability to reinvent herself and do anything she puts her mind to.