Hey Everybody!  My name is Rick Mullins and I’m a Lead Budget Analyst in the ScienceIBU.  I was born in Gainesville, on the campus of the University of Florida.  My parents must’ve realized while I was a toddler that I was destined to spend my life on a campus much further north.  We moved to Somerset, KY (about 75 minutes south of Lexington) when I was 2 years old.  I moved to Lexington in 1999 and began working as a Student Worker here at UK.  This is my second go ‘round with A&S and I couldn’t be happier to be back. 

In my spare time, I traveling.  A couple of friends and I have been lucky enough to travel to Major League Baseball stadiums around the country (and 1 in Canada).  This yearly trip has seen us take in 19 of the 30 MLB stadiums so far.  My wife Kristen and I have taken long road trips to Canada and up through Maine.  We were also able to fly to Chile and Easter Island last November.  I used the top of a volcano on Easter Island to propose marriage!  Continuing the travel theme, we had a destination wedding on the beach in Hilton Head back in May and are currently planning our (delayed) honeymoon to the Dominican Republic in January. 

My favorite movie is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.  Anything written and directed by Wes Anderson is certainly high on my movie list.  At any given moment, I can come up with a fitting quote from any number of his movies highly quotable lines.  A tip of the cap to any movie Chris Nolan is involved with as well. 

Are you a cat or dog person?  I am highly allergic to cats so I’m definitely a dog person.  My wife had 2 dogs when we met.  A German Shepherd (Minka) and a boxer-mix (Rosko).  They are both very large with hair that does not stay on their person very well.  We had to purchase a Dyson hand-held just to constantly suck up the hair-based tumbleweeds. 

I have never had a brush with fame, unless you consider being on SportsCenter holding a sign at a Cincinnati Reds game back in 1994.  Funny sidenote, it was written in Pig Latin.  I’ve had the chance to meet some fairly famous PGA golfers as well as the former US Senator Fred Thompson.  I kindly offered chewing gum to each and every one of them.  The Senator was the only one to take me up on the offer.  Seriously, who turns down gum?!

My favorite meal is peel and eat shrimp.  Every year I visit my family in Georgia and we have a shrimp boil, with corn and potatoes all mixed in the same massive pot.  There’s just something about cooking outdoors then pouring everything on a newspaper lined table.  We make our own cocktail sauce… it’s a whole big thing.   

Favorite place to go on vacation?  I would have to say any beach, anywhere would be tops in my book.  I’ve been blessed to visit a beach, basically, yearly and hope that trend continues.  The repeated severe sunburn is always completely worth it!  One day in the distant future, maybe I’ll even start wearing an appropriate amount of sunscreen!