Karen Nordquist & I married January 4, 1992. She graduated with a Master of Arts in sociology from McGill University, after spending several years studying battered women's shelters and how their structure and methods are influenced by funding agencies. She is taking care of Lindsay and Nicole full-time.

Lindsay Anne Nielsen was born August 18, 2000. Her favourite thing she's done is paragliding off Grouse Mountain, and her favourite food is macaroni & cheese (at least, if cake and cookies are unavailable). She is in Grade 6 at Canyon Heights elementary school.

Nicole Maya Nielsen was born June 30, 2003.  Nicole started grade 3 in September 2011. She's an avid reader of both paper and e-books, and likes to swim, ride bikes and play for the Angelfish soccer team. She currently aspires to be "a doctor, and a painter, and a mommy!"

Jorgen Nielsen, my father, grew up in a working-class suburb of Copenhagen; coming to Canada was his idea! He is a former paratrooper and high-school English teacher. Roswitha (Roby) Nielsen, my mom, was born in Bremen, Germany, and came to Canada in 1960. My younger brother, Norm, completed the law program at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He works for the British Columbia Securities Commission in Vancouver.

Mavis Nordquist is my mother-in-law, and Dave Nordquist my brother-in-law. Dave holds Master's degrees in microbiology, business administration, and economics, and works as a quantitative financial analyst for Victory Capital Management. In 2009, he married Sindhu Kuhlis in a beautiful ceremony on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands and they live together in Manhattan.

The rest of the family is comprised of Aero and Kitkat. Abandoned in a cardboard box as littermates, we adopted them in fall 2009. They are extremely nice and well behaved, not what I was expecting when the family ganged up on me and made me get a kitten (or two).