Hi! I'm Darla Kay Sanders-Weatherford. I live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA. I've lived here since the fall of 1984 when I moved here from Mena, Arkansas to go to college. I got my degree in English in 1989. I used to be certified to teach high school English, but my certification ran out because I never used it. I substituted for a while (and had some very interesting experiences like when a girl went into labor in class and another time when a boy set the trashcan on fire), but gave it up when I went to work for Computing Services. I had lived in Mena (in the same house) since I was born on September 9, 1966. (Mena, AR is the place where Bill Clinton allegedly flew cocaine shipments out of the airport -- in case it sounded familiar to you, but you just couldn't place it.) My husband, Terry Weatherford, is also from Mena (born there January 20, 1968). We were married February 7, 1987. We both grew up in the "backwoods" of Arkansas and loved it. We both like plants and animals and nature stuff, although that's about all we have in common. Opposites attract.

I love cats.

I have a sister, Sue, and a brother, Gary. I have a cat, now, named Kitty Cat. (We called her that while we tried to think of a name and it stuck.) She lived in a truck shop the first couple years of her life (we're not sure how old she is; she was thought to be 2 1/2 when we got her on October 11, 1998.) I had a cat, Elizabeth, until recently who was feral for the first year of her life; she was born in the thicket beside our old house here in Fayetteville. She eventually decided (on her own) that she wanted to be a housecat and moved in with us. She would sneak in through the window, and, eventually, trusted us and became a very fat and happy housecat. She was a calico. She was killed on October 9, 1998.

Terry has two dogs, Scrappy and Sheba.

I love spiders. My interest in them began as an attempt to get over a minor fear of them because I felt that it was a senseless fear. After all, more people are bitten by dogs than by spiders. Then I came to really enjoy them. I used to have a few wild-caught Ozark/Ouachita Arkansas tarantulas, but over time, they passed away, and I have decided that it is wrong to put wild animals in cages and do not catch them anymore. I have many spiders that live in my house. My favorites are the jumping spiders. They are so cute. I also really like wolf spiders and huntsman spiders.

I like to write. I have written some short stories and poetry. I have put a few of my poems online. I have some novels in my head, but I have trouble writing them down. I prefer telling stories to people. I have begun writing down some of these stories, trying to keep the voice and dialect, and I am compiling them into a sort of autobiographical thing as the stories are all true. Let me know by e-mail if you would like to read some of them, and I will put them online.
I am in a writer's group that meets every two weeks. We put out a magazine sporatically called Falling Sideways, full of poetry, short stories, and drawings.

Another of my interests is photography. I have a few of my photos online. I have thousands of photos in albums that I force all of my friends to look at...

I love chocolate!

I like building flowerbeds. Here is a picture of two of them.

I believe in God and reincarnation.

I am an optimist.

My favorite TV show (the only one i really watch) is Friends.

I work at the University of Arkansas in the Information Services Department of Computing Services. I am co-webmaster; I do Web development, publications, and WordPerfect support. I also teach four short courses, Build Your Own Web Page, Web Development on UARKinfo, Intro to the Internet, and Intro to WordPerfect, as well as writing the handouts for the courses.

My favorite comic strips were Calvin and Hobbes and Far Side.