Tagged: Six things about me

I was tagged by Unfocused Me (a few days ago, sorry it took so long) for a meme to write six things about me. Since Tuesday I wrote ten quirky things about me, I'll put six normal things. It's probably a good thing since my wife told me Tuesday's post made me seem a little unstable. I'm really not. Just quirky! There is a difference.

The rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules.
3. Write six things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their sites.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up

I might break a couple rules. Let's get to the six.

1. I was born in Chicago, grew up in the northwest suburbs, and I still live there. I never had a job offer out of the area, but I don't remember ever applying for one either.

2. I like infomercials. It's not that I want to buy the products, far from it, I enjoy the cheesiness (is that a real word?) of the commercials. Every product is revolutionary and is going to change the world. They always show someone incapable of doing a normal, everyday activity without hurting themselves; unless they use this awesome new product.

3. I like cars. I read Automobile magazine and drool over the cool cars that I will never be able to afford. I told my wife I want a used Porsche for my mid-life crisis car. We'll see how that goes.

4. I used to work for Applebee's. It's been about 10 years now, I worked there when I went back to school, but I have fond memories of the job. I waited tables and worked the bar. I had a lot of fun.

5. Since number 4 reminded me of it...I graduated from college in 1992 with a B.A in Psychology, worked in 'the real world' for a while, then went back to school in 1996. I graduated with a B.S. in Meteorology in 1998. No, I don't know what the weather is going to be tomorrow. But I can tell you why some things happened -- maybe.

6. I met my wife in college and we have been together ever since. We didn't get married right out of school, mostly to save money, but we knew we would. I never regret it for a minute.

OK, that was pretty normal. I'm not going to tag, but if anyone wants to do it let me know. I hope this one made me seem more normal.

It's picture day at school

So what happens this morning? My son smacks his head on the edge of the end table 15 minutes before we leave for school. First comes crying, then the bleeding. It looked bad since there was so much blood, but we got it stopped and it is only a small cut. No stitches needed. I can't wait to see the pictures. He should look cool sporting a Scooby Doo bandage on his forehead. Maybe he'll start a new trend.

Ten on Tuesday: Quirks, superstitions, traditions

Back to the Ten on Tuesday thing. I miss last week due to work duties, but I think I'll be able to do it today.

This week we are supposed to list 10 superstitions, traditions, ad/or personality quirks. Hmm...let's see what I can come up with.

1. I'm very afraid of eating "bad" food. I always check the dates on food in the house; one day past "freshest" date and it is out of there. If something smells just a little off, I don't eat it. The package isn't quite closed all the way, it's tossed out. I think part of this comes from working in restaurants for many years before my current job. Some of it might be rebellion since my mom always said, "Oh, that doesn't go bad." Everything goes bad.  Most of it comes from fear of getting sick. That's not so strange. Right?

2. Related to above, I do not like to eat outside. No picnics for me. I don't like my food near bugs, or other varmits. What do you do when you see bugs in the house? You kill them, you don't share your meal with them. I will eat on the patio, but when bugs start flying around the food I go back in the house.

3. I don't like feet. Weird, I know. I don't care.

4. I need to listen to music to do anything. I can't clean the house, mow the lawn, or do any laundry without music playing. I used to bring a radio in the shower when I was growing up, but now with kids running around or sleeping, I don't do that anymore.

5. I need my own blanket when I sleep. I can't share. It just doesn't work. My wife and I used to share when we were first married, but now we each use our own. I get hot when I sleep so this way I can take off, and put back on my blanket without disturbing her.

6. I have very little patience. (Is that a quirk?) Especially with myself. If I am trying to fix or build something, which I am not good at, I get very irritated when I can't get pieces to go together or I drop something at the most crucial moment. This happens frequently. Kids toys are very hard to put together!

7. No matter what material a sweater is made out of, I must wear a t-shirt underneath. All sweaters are itchy in my book. Wool, cotton, polyester (is there such a thing?), it doesn't matter.

8. Speaking of T-shirts. I don't generally wear the regular white T-shirts that are supposed to go under clothes. They are too binding. I like close to feel loose. So I wear regular short sleeve shirts under clothes that need them. Concert shirts, shirts from the zoo, running shirts, shirts with sayings on them that I need to cover up at work. I do wear the regular white T's under a dress shirt. Luckily I don't wear those often.

9. Since our garage is full of junk, our cars stay on the driveway all night. So, I obsess about the doors being locked. I've gotten out of the bed in the middle of the night to check if they are locked. Since we live in the age of keyless entry, it is much easier to check.

10. Not that I will ever see one here, except in a zoo, but alligators and crocodiles freak me out. I like to play golf, but I'm afraid to ever go to Florida to play because of them.

So, there is the list. It was harder to make up than I thought.

It's miserable outside

Only three or four weeks ago we were praying for 40 degree weather. Now, since we had a couple days in the 70's, this same weather is so cold. The continuous rain isn't helping. It leeches all the heat out of your body. I think work should have been called of today.

Quick question

Has anyone else seen Mission to Mars ? I didn't think so. That's not the question. Why is Gary Sinse wearing eyeliner in this movie? He's an astronaut not a musician.

Update: deleted comment about a movie that Gary Sonese was not in. Thanks to Jenn for correcting me.

I'm really not paranoid

But why do I keep seeing the same guy wandering the hallways at work? I just saw him a few minutes ago and I saw him when I went to the cafeteria, but he was always in front of me in various areas of the building. Maybe he's following me while being in front of me. More covert that way. Weird or crazy? Just keep the answer to yourself. That's all I ask.

Nobody tell me what happened on The Office

Somehow we screwed up and forgot to record The Office and 30 Rock. The problem is our TiVo is across the room from the telephone jack. Instead of having the cord stretched across the room for the kids to trip on, we only plug it in whenever it tells us. The TiVo is very smart you know. The problem is that it warns you early.
 
"Hey, I only have 3 days of programming left."

So I ignore it. I have three days. Why do it now?

Then it starts to nag me like it's my mom

"I only have two days left, you better do it."

I'll do it tomorrow.

"Tomorrow never comes for you."

Then, just to spite the machine I let it run out of info. You know, teach it who's boss. Turns out the only thing TiVo can learn from you is you might like MacGyver since you watch The A-team. It's not as smart as you think. Oh, and once it knows you have a kid in the house, forget it. For a long time we would never have space for our TV shows because it was filled up with Doodlebops, Hi-5, Mickey Mouse Playhouse...you get the idea.

As you may have guessed, the programming info ran out and we had to manually set it to record anything. Manually record things? Bah, we live 2008 now, not 1999! We remembered to record (I almost wrote "tape") Lost, but neither of us remembered The Office until the next day. We weren't happy. We could watch it online, but that's not very relaxing. We don't have a big TV so we can watch TV shows on a 15" monitor.

But, we got lucky. We have a older TiVo in our bedroom that we record shows that overlap in time; turns out that still had The Office programmed in it, and that one is plugged in at all times. We haven't watched it yet. We've been to busy. So don't ruin anything. I've been staying away from the online recaps on purpose.

I'm thinking I should have posted this on Friday before I knew we had the show on the other TiVo. It would have had more impact.