Family/Other Interests

1. Husband: Bradley McIntosh Broom PhD, Associate Professor in Computer Science, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. Joint affilication with the Gulf Coast Center for Computational Cancer Research, the Center for High Performance Software Research, and the NPACI Programming Tools and Environments Thrust.
2. Son: Alexander Do McIntosh Broom, seventeen year old senior at Episcopal High School. What a dream child! The joy of my life and the apple of my eye. Alexander's academic interests: maths and computing. Alexander's sports: Kuk sool (Korean martial arts), tennis, swimming, badminton, bicycling. Alexander's hobbies: reading, computer games, piano, Lego, electric trains, visiting NASA.
3. My favorite hobbies: travelling, brushstroke ink & watercolor painting,reading, bridge, embroidery, pottery painting, knitting, quilting, cooking and eating international dishes, wine tasting.
4. My favorite sports: tennis, swimming, badminton, bicycling, hiking.
5. My favorite countries/places to visit: France, Canada, Portugal, Mexico, India, Scotland, Santorini.
6. My favorite country in which to live: Australia.
7. My favorite country in which to work: USA.
8. My favorite alcohol: Bombay Sapphire martini, Veuve Cliquot, Hennessey cognac, Bundaberg rum, Cointreau, Australian shiraz, Jordan's cabernet, California Groth, French Cote-du-Rhone & Chateauneuf-du-pape, Ruffino chianti, Louis Jadot chardonnay & Pouilly Fuisse, top quality tequila, Sapporo, Corona, Old Speckled Hen, and Belgian beers ...
9. My favorite film stars: Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Charlize Theron, Kristin Scott Thomas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sandra Oh, Mel Gibson, Ethan Hawke, Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Jimmy Stewart, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks,
10. My favorite movies: Too many to name, but here are several that I really enjoyed: Babette's Feast; Mostly Martha; Spring,Summer,Fall,Winter,..., and Spring; Tampopo; Une hirondelle a fait le printemps (The Girl from Paris); Witness; Tim; Dead Poets Society; the English Patient; Great Expectations;
11. My favorite books: Too many to name, but here are several that I really enjoyed: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquivel), Crossing to Safety (Wallace Stegner), Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes).
12. My favorite flowers: orchids, tulips, lilies, roses.
13. My favorite food/restaurants : Chili (Australian) mud crabs cooked by the best Singaporean chefs; lobster mornay; Tandoori chicken from the Moti Mahal restaurant in New Delhi;mangoes from India, Vietnam, or Thailand; Peking Duck and all the seafood dishes and view of the SF Bay at the Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood Restaurant (Emeryville, near Berkeley,CA); French food at the Fleur-de-Lys restaurant (Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas); nouvelle Hong Kong cuisine at the Jasmine restaurant (Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas), gourmet organic food at L'Etoile restaurant in Wisconsin; Steak Diana at Carver's Steakhouse (Sheraton Cavalier Hotel, Calgary, Canada.
14. My favorite musicians: Classical - Chopin, Vivaldi; Modern - Anne Murray, Dionne Warwick, Enya, Chris Isaacs, Buddy Holly, Santana ....
15. My favorite hotels, B&B’s, and resorts : Pestana Palace (Lisbon, Portugal); Bellagio Hotel (Las Vegas); Grand Mayan (Acapulco); Lake Palace Hotel (Udaipur); Novotel Twin Waters Resort (Sunshine Coast, Australia); Daisy Hill B&B (Nashville); Kananaskis Lodge (Kananaskis, Canada); l'Hotel Des Grandes Ecoles (Latin Quarter, Paris); Capitol Hill Mansion (Denver).