I am most fortunate to have wonderful people in my life. My husband, Roger Lipera, is a creative web designer by profession and an inventive MG restorer by hobby. My sister, Linda Zhang, has a passion and true talent for photography. I enjoy exchanging ideas with my colleagues in the Department of Communication. Several friends have blogs that are worth visiting: Gwen Mergian writes about food and health at http://blogs.timesunion.com/lowlife/. Jennifer Stromer-Galley writes about politics and current events at http://pomegranatethoughts.blogspot.com/. Lissa D'Aquanni writes about the challenges and solutions for small businesses at http://blogs.timesunion.com/microbusiness/

I take pleasure in observing social interaction. In addition to studying the way people interact, I enjoy watching and interacting with animals. We currently have two dogs, Annaleigh and Maggie, and a cat, Luna. We took Annaleigh to dog training class when we adopted her and now we're taking Maggie to the same "Good Manners" class. Our dog trainer, Jody Diehl, has a blog at http://blogs.timesunion.com/dogtraining/.

In summer 2008, I participated in a conference at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. The aim was to have primatologists and social scientists exchange research findings. I was totally amazed by how similar some non-human primate conduct is to human conduct.

I have a lot of house plants, some of which I propagate. During the growing season, I enjoy a variety of peonies, hostas, roses, azalias, dahlias, and colorful annuals in our garden.

I find SuDoku engaging and relaxing. I do the puzzles daily in the newspaper and buy SuDoku books for plane trips and watching television.