25 Things

Okay…this little gem has been circulating like wildfire on Facebook and I’ve been tagged at least 3 or 4 times.  So, since I’m at home due to the snow and ice and we’re hosting storm refugees in our electrified and heated abode, I thought I’d take a minute or two to hammer this out.

Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

So, sit back, enjoy and laugh when you have to:

1. I started running 4 years ago to keep my blood pressure down.  I’ve finished 3 half marathons, multiple other races, and my goal is to complete a full marathon by the time I’m 40.
2. I believe that I would qualify as an expert witness in the categories of baseball and Star Wars.  Everything else I would just make up.
3. I’ve been to twelve of the 30 major league ballparks, having either toured or watched a game at each.
4. I chew my fingernails constantly, even when I’m on vacation.
5. I have sent text messages and surfed the web on my phone during boring parts of church.
6. I will eat anything, but the following items have made the list of things I don’t like at all: liver, pickled beets, lima beans, ketchup, and quail eggs.
7. I’m a Wii Pro in bowling, tennis, and golf.
8. I love crossword puzzles and my wife and I can spend an evening doing the NYTimes crossword over dinner.
9. Only once have I ever had a Scrabble bingo.  The word was cowpies.
10. I can remember all of the words that have ever knocked me out of a spelling bee…but there are times when I can’t remember a friend’s phone number.
11. I will choose a rocking chair over any other type of chair.
12. I would love to visit all seven continents.  Currently, I have three (NA, EUR, AFR) under my belt.
13. John Steinbeck is my favorite writer and I would take his books to my desert island to the exclusion of all other books.
14. I absolutely cannot stand cold, but I love the heat.  The hotter, the better.
15. My wife and I are completely compatible and I can’t imagine being without her.  She is positively the most wonderful woman in the world.
16. I’ve shaken hands with Citizen Cope, Rufus Wainwright, and Keb’ Mo’ and I once shared an elevator with Nellie McKay.
17. I think that a t-shirt and jeans should be standard dress for pretty much every occupation, but every once in a while I think we should bring back boaters and spats.
18. My first kiss was in front of cabin 5 at summer camp…later that night, all the guys in my cabin got loaded on Jolt and pizza.
19. I know how to keep official score at a baseball game, but I still don’t quite understand earned run average.
20. I can sing very well, and, much like Ferris Bueller, I’ve never had a lesson.
21. I grew up Catholic, switched to United Church of Christ in the 9th grade, and I’m now Episcopalian.
22. If I won the lottery, I’d give most of it away.
23. We have three cats: Oliver, Red, and Peach.
24. I can be heard as part of the background chorus on William Shatner’s Common People, but my name is not listed in the liner notes because I didn’t feel like going out to the lobby to sign my name.
25. I’ve only worked for two companies my entire working career and I’ve owned my own home for the last 10 years.

This is a lot more difficult than it looks…and some of these are downright boring.  As well, based on my stats, it seems as though I get more views when I don’t write.  I suppose that my blog is a bit like homemade chili…always better on the second or third day after the flavors have had a chance to mingle.

See you in the funny papers!