"Because I Can"
	Hi, my name is Rich Smith and this is my WEB page. I am suddenly single after twenty-nine years of marriage. Below is a picture of my lovely EX and me on the beach in Ocean City New Jersey in the summer of 98. This picture was taken before the breakup.
		As you can see we were a very happy couple at the time. I can still see her smiling face in my memories of her. Click here to see another example of our love. This is me now
	On the right is the Ex's boyfriend Steve. Steve plays the mandolin. As you can see he's very happy too. In the future, I hope to have a picture of them being happy together.
	You may ask yourself "Where was Rich's head while his marriage was coming apart?" Click on the box at the right for the answer.
	But enough about the past, lets talk about me now. I'm fifty years old (although people tell me I look forty-nine). I wear my hair in a ponytail. Actually very little of the ponytail goes all the way to the top of my head so I wear a hat most of the time. I'm about five foot ten inches tall and weigh one hundred and seventy pounds. I have ten percent body fat (most of which, I'm told, is in my head). Light brown hair in the summer and brown hair in the winter (with lots of gray on the sides). I have blue eyes and most of my teeth. I'm a very active person. I'm an AFAA certified aerobics instructor and personal trainer. I teach aerobics two nights a week for the Goddard Aerobic Fitness Club at Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington DC. I don't do any personal training. I go to the Gold's Gym at 6AM three or four days a week to work out.
	My Kids
	To the left is my son Rich. No, he's not with the Village People, he's in the U.S. Navy. Rich is twenty-nine years old and is currently serving on the USS Donald Cook. He married his wife Theresa last spring. I'll try to get a picture from their wedding. They got married in their uniforms, it looked great. Rich wore his Navy uniform and Theresa wore her Army uniform. Go figure.
	To the right is my daughter SuzAnne. She lives in South Jersey near Margate. SuzAnne is twenty-four years old. The belly you see contains my soon to be born granddaughter Kaleigh. I will soon be a grandfather. Jason, who is Kaleigh's father, is the guy standing with SuzAnne. I'll have a picture of the happy family here after Kaleigh is born. She's here!! ! Click here to see pictures
	Washington DC Area Friends and Co-workers
	I work at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland and the Lockheed Martin offices in Seabrook Maryland down the road. I do system architecture, hardware design, software design and system troubleshooting. I program in C, C++, Java, Javascript, Visual Basic, FORTRAN and the Assembly language of quite a few processors. (Yawn) I specialize in low level programming as I suck at user interfaces. In hardware I design to the chip level, ASIC's, PLD's and also do board layout.(Zzzzz)
	At the right is a picture of me with Charlene and Anne. They work at Goddard Space Flight Center. I go to lunch with them one day every week or so. Anne (on the right) thinks I'm egocentric and conceited. She's wrong, just like she was wrong about the ownership settings on the NFS. Anne criticizes me mercilessly. But I like her a lot anyway. Charlene (on the left) is cool, she windsurfs and does fun stuff like that.
	At the left is a picture of my co-workers at one of my jobs. They are a very happy group. In this picture is Dick, Hardy, Jim, Bob, Milt, Dawn and Karen. If you look very carefully at the picture you will notice I am not in it. Since this picture was taken, Dick has retired, Dawn went insane and left for a job where she actually has to work and Bob transferred to another company where he will probably lose his hair, get in shape, have grandkids and get lots of women (ok Bob?).
	My First Beer
	On June 9, at the Wind Gap bluegrass festival, I had my first alcoholic beverage in about ten years. The ceremony took place in Grillbillie Hall and was attended by numerous Grillbillie friends. After an extremely frustrating attempt to unscrew the cap of the bottle, I realized it was not a screw cap. After using a bottle opener to open the bottle, I had my first beer in over a decade. It was a Guinness Extra Stout. I had a second one and got quite a buzz. I hope to do this again in 2010. Am I a fun guy or what? Note on 09/13/00: Ok, maybe I've had a few since then. I'll write about that later (thanks Linda).
	Grillbillie Friends
	In the beginning there was Matt. And festivals were without form, and void; and darkness was upon the hearts of the people. And Matt moved through the throngs of festival goers, and Matt said to the pure of heart "You are now a Grillbillie". And there came to be many Grillbillies. And they built a great hall. They filled the hall with an abundance of foods. They filled the hall with laughter and mirth. They filled the hall with music of their own making. And Matt saw that it was good. And Matt said this will be called Grillbille Hall. And it was so. Matt said we shall take Grillbillie hall with us to all the festivals we attend and invite others in so they may share our food, laughter and music. And it was so. And Matt saw that it was good. Matt is the one on the right, with the beard and mustache. This picture was taken at Matt's 11th Annual Beach Party at Orphan Annies.
	Comment: People sometimes ask "how do I become a Grillbillie"? There isn't a simple answer and you will get different answers from different people. Really only Matt and Beth can make you a Grillbillie (but don't ask them). Come to festivals, hang out with us, help out, bring food, make music and generally get noticed. At some point Matt may bring you into the fold. You can do all that or you can just be an attractive nineteen year old girl and bat your eyes at Matt.
	The above photo was taken at the PA Renaissance Faire 2000. The photo below is Amie (on right) with her friends Greg and Julie. Amie-IE I believe that everyone should have a friend that is a "bad" influence. I have that friend in Amie-IE. She's the kind of friend that encourages me to go partying on a work night. A friend that reminds me that life is short, and there is so much to experience. The kind of friend that makes life fun. She's also the kind of friend that encourages me to eat greasy foods and ice cream and do Tequila shots (well, she's not perfect). Amie has a personality that opens doors. She seems to fit in anywhere she wants. Amie is a Grillbillie and she's been the president of the Grillbillies Men's Club for the past two years. I want to be just like her when I grow up. Amie and I do seem to have a lot in common. Below is an excerpt from an email she wrote describing our similarities. We are: kids who will never grow up; bad at making decisions; the most fun people on earth; ridiculously attractive; talk like we have the biggest balls on earth but are actually shy; can laugh at almost anything; and finally, vastly intelligent with random spurts of absolutely no common sense ~Amie-IE Update: Amie has dedicated the next ten months of her life to service. She has joined AmeriCorps and will leave Jan. 4, 2000. Check out her web page.
	More to come!!!! Hey, here's a link to a really happy page The Legend of Smiley Land