76 Little Known Facts about Me

I was inspired by cw2smom to write down some random facts about myself that most of you don't know. Of course, I'm throwing out the givens that I have triplets and my wife is an MD.

Here goes nothing....and I really mean nothing!

1. I was considered my parent's second child after "Chad" the three-year old gray miniature poodle.

2. I was very attached to Chad and after he fell off the balcony at our cabin at age 16 (he was blind), my Mom and I cried for hours while my Dad took him to the vet to have him put to sleep.

3. I was an only child with ONLY two imaginary friends who I won't name in case they decide to randomly "Google" themselves in hopes of finding me.

4. My earliest memory is 4. I was on the teeter tooter part of an old style swing set with my "girlfriend" when a neighbor kid squirted me with a hose. I fell off and the larger bench-type swing sliced the inside of my upper arm. NO stitches, just a lot of bandaids & Bactine baby!

5. I never became friends with the kid who squirted me with the hose.

6. That girlfriend of mine and I soon broke-up....I don't even remember her name, but my Mom might.

7. As a child, I didn't like candy. In fact, after Halloween trick-or-treating my Dad pretty much polished off all my candy.

8. What I loved was Donuts and cheese (not at the same time). Both came from my Grandma Edie who picked up the donuts at Albertsons, and the cheese that was given to seniors.

9. My Mom and I learned about a new revolutionary food called the quesadilla from the Hispanic grocer at Champs Supermarket on Balsam Street. This became the primary destination for our free cheese.

10. I loved my Grandma Edie. She rode her bike to our house daily. She played games with me and taught me pinochle and scrabble. She was a great cook. When my parents dragged me to the big city of Bakersfield, she would ride along and we'd spend the afternoon sampling food at Hickory Farms and she'd always buy me a matchbox car and soft ice cream cone.

11. The only two fights I had with Grandma were over locking her out of the house (I was 13) and when she thought I had friends over to drink when my parents were out of town (I was 19)

12. I hated my third grade teacher. She was an evil witch who favored the girls and played insane mind games with the boys.

13. I played youth soccer, basketball and baseball as a child, but only played basketball in high school

14. I won two free throw contests, but my coaches never liked the way a shot the ball?

15. I contracted chickenpox 3x. The third time was on my 17th birthday and caused me to miss high school baseball tryouts which still stands as one of my more memorable disappointments as a young person.

16. At the time, I honestly thought I might die of chickenpox. To this day, I don't even like to talk about it.

17. I attempted three instruments (piano, guitar and trumpet), but none of them took

18. Trumpet was by far my favorite. In fact I pictured myself doing the solo on Barry Manilow's disco hit "Copacabana"

19. The very first girl that I went "steady" with in six grade was named "Kama."...sounds like a good omen of things to come, but not really.

20. The first girl who ever kissed me (my story) is deceased.

21. I have had three cats in my life (one in high school, one in college and one as a older adult).... Every name started with a "B" - Beethoven, Buddy and Baby.

22. I loved them all equally - Beethoven was a lover and a fighter, Buddy was just a fighter, and Baby was just a lover.

23. When I went to take my driver's license written test I was given the adult version and easily passed.

24. When the DMV clerk realized that I'd been given the wrong test, she made me take the brand new provisional test with statistics and crap, so I failed!

25. I have only been pulled over by the police 1x and this was when a guy in a similar red VW bug was cruising elementary schools and talking to children....I was in school and had proof!

26. In college, I gained 40 lbs which isn't so bad considering it was six years.

27. I went to Chico State with one of my best friends. We decided that we didn't want to be roommates our freshman year, but did want to live in the same dorm....we ended up across the hall.

28. I was a Journalism major for one semester.

29. I wasn't Greek, but I did join two clubs during college - "GDI" and "Men Against Rape" - what the heck?

30. My girlfriend was President of her sorority, so I was dubbed "first man" by my roommates.

31. My roommates and I never learned Rule #1 for hosting a kegger, never go out and get a second keg after 11PM.

32. Not one time was I given the responsibility to tap the keg and therefore never learned how to.

33. During college, a friend of a roommate's girlfriend knew a guy who played in a band. He'd come over on occasion and strum out "Big Balls" which I'd sing to.

34. A GDI morning Olympic event, followed by a few hours of sleep, followed by a night of bar hopping was the ONLY time that I can say that I was drunk twice in the same day (like a day/night doubleheader for you baseball fans).

35. I was always attracted to "achievers." Those coed's who had no time for anything but studying, internships, volunteering, sororities, etc. Most of the time, they didn't have time for me either.

36. I married one of them.

37. In college, my favorite TV show was "Unsolved Mysteries"

38. I never drank coffee until I was well into my 20's.....during finals week my roommates would say "I'm going to start a pot of coffee"...I'd say "what for?" I wonder why I could never stay awake.......This was way before the era of coffee shops.

39. I worked at a pet store for a couple years during college.

40. I helped my good friend get a job there and he didn't know anything about animals...the other side of that story was that he got me a landscaping job one summer for the city and I didn't know anything about anything!

41. I was entrusted to euthanize a bird one time and was told the best way to accomplish this was putting it in a plastic bag and sticking the bag around an exhaust pipe...it worked!

42. For wild rats stuck on a sticky platform (trap), I was told to put them upside down in a hot bucket of water...it worked too!

43. One time while baby sitting a co worker's 11 foot Burmese Python which was allowed to run lose in the store, I became distracted and it moved very quickly and ate a rabbit...thank heavens we didn't have any puppies or kittens at the time!

44. I was kicked out of the Madison Bear Garden one time for ordering a vodka collins which turned out to be a greyhound which I then thought the bartender was giving away for free since he messed up....wrong!

45. Since college I have had seven employers (all in mortgage)...only three are still in existence and I bet you've heard of two of them - GMACM and Citigroup.

46. I've lived in three states/three time zones.

47. I sing when I'm stressed.

48. I can't carry a tune to save my life.

49. I can't dance either, but I love "So You Think You can Dance"

50. I people watch and try to see which celebrity someone mostly resembles...for example Diana Taurasi, Kristy McNichol and Bernie from "Weekend at Bernies" all go to my gym.

51. I look at standard state issued license plates and try to make them into personalized license plates....like what do you think CA's "4YOR411" means?

52. I believe that the Swivel Sweeper, DVR's and IPOD's are the best household inventions in the past 10 years.

53. I have 100% success playing Yahoo Fantasy Baseball, I've won 2x.

54. My favorite type of food is Mexican.

55. My favorite food is Filet Mignon.

56. My favorite beer is Anchor Steam.

57. My favorite restaurant is Mikuni (although I've never dined there, just take out).

58. I've sprained each ankle 1x.

59. I've had two surgeries in my life time (wisdom teeth and a back).

60. I have only been to one professional basketball, baseball or football game in the past 5 years.

61. I have learned more about myself in the past 2 years than I did in the previous 30-something. **** I'm running out of space, but I'll add a few more*******

62. Three of my favorite movies are "Footloose", "Grease" and "Chicago" - the ONLY conclusion you may draw is that I like MUSICALS!

63. I don't like elevators (been stuck in a few) or overhead lights (especially at 1A in the bars).

64. I don't like to gamble, but I love to play games especially Chess, Balderdash and Trivial Pursuit.

65. My wife and I are a killer Trivial Pursuit team.

66. I love Gin and Tonics....shall we Tangueray?

67. I love to read about American History.

68. I watch the History channel, but think the newer programming especially "Ice Road Truckers" is lame as sh#$!t.

69. I know what TV phenomena started 8/1/81....do you?

70. I was disappointed when Barry Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single season home run record, but hey - they were probably both juiced...........

71. I fell in love with St. Louis when we lived there from 1996 to 2000. What a beautiful city with so much to do and see....long live A-B.

72. My Mom's current age and sadly my only living parent or grandparent.

73. I knew ALL four of my grandparents, but none of my great grandparents....the first one passed away when I was 10, the last one died when I was 33.

74. I always wonder what my Dad would have said about 9/11...he died in 2000.

75. I believe people the main difference between people on the East Coast and people on the West Coast....is that a person on the East Coast will drive the wrong way in a parking lot to beat you to a spot, but kindly hold the door for you as you walk into the store and talk to you in the elevator....a person on the West Coast will politely offer you the parking spot, but is more likely to ignore you and let the door slam in your face on the way into the store.

76. Not one of my four favorite professional sports teams have finished better than 4th this year.....so I'm not in a good place right now and usually read the sports page after the obits!

OK, that's enough...I can't stand it anymore....I'm stopping at 76 which seems like plenty......I'm wondering if Barack Obama had any time on his first day to jot down some unknown facts about himself......probably not.