My father was a man of love. He always loved me to death. He worked hard in the fields but my father never hit me. Never. I don't ever remember a really cross unkind word from my father.

My dad's sense of humor was direct and sometimes surreal - his quick wit is well known amongst our family and friends. He raised me on Spike Jones records and W.C. Fields movies and his sense of humor fell somewhere in between.

I get around OK with a toolbox. As a kid I picked up skills following my dad through the oil fields of Oklahoma and West Texas. My wife Janine is hard to impress but she does think it's cool when I fix things around the house.

My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.

The American flag is an enduring symbol of liberty democracy and justice. It is fitting that the House act to protect it as we approach our nation's birthday and as our men and women in uniform rally behind it in Iraq's battlefields.

I left science then I went into art but I approach things very analytically. I choose to pursue both art and architecture as completely separate fields rather than merging them.