Getting to know me.

Okay, since my blog is new and you may not know anything about me, I feel like I should tell you about myself. To that end, let me give you 15 random facts about me. All of the following items are true. I promise. (And, to those of you who are Facebook friends with me, yes, I did crib most of these from my Facebook page).

1. My wife and I purposely had our first date on February 15, 2006 even though neither of us had plans on Februrary 14. Our superior planning now allows us to skip the whole Valentine's Day thing.


2. We got married in June 2007 in Telluride, Colorado. We married ourselves on June 14 under Bridal Veil Falls (Colorado allows you to officiate your own wedding and still has common law marriage) and then had our "official" ceremony with our families and a few friends on June 16 on the back deck of the Hotel Columbia. Our parents don't know that the ceremony was just for their benefit. Please don't tell them (or let them that I have a blog on the internets). It would likely upset them.

3. My wife and I hiked the Grand Canyon during our honeymoon. It was an incredible, albeit not very romantic, experience. It was 133 degrees when we got to Phantom Ranch, where we camped at the bottom of the Canyon, and it was still over 100 degrees at 11 p.m. that night.

4. Our first child is due in mid-January 2010. We have tentatively named him "Bojangles." If you have any better suggestions, especially girl names, please feel free to share them.

5. I "auditioned" for the Chippendales with 5 other American college students on The Big Breakfast Show, a British morning television program that was sort of like a humorous Today Show, in the spring of 1993. We started drinking about a half hour before the show's van arrived to take us from our university down to the old mansion where the show was filmed in North London. The van picked us up at 5:30 a.m. Thankfully, the video of my audition is not yet one of the 300 or so clips from The Big Breakfast Show that is currently on You Tube. I will, of course, let you know if the video ever makes it to You Tube.

6. I shared a song book with Paula Yates, Bob Geldolf's (Boom Town Rats; Live Aid founder) now deceased ex-wife, during The Big Breakfast's closing sing-a-long that morning. I don't think I was the cause of their subsequent marital problems or the unfortunate heroin habit that she developed while dating Michael Hutchence (INXS), but I will never know for sure.

7. I have run 3 marathons- Chicago Marathon in 2002 and 2006 and the Marine Corps Marathon in 2008. I ran the first half of the 2006 Chicago Marathon and all of the Marine Corps Marathon with my wife. The Marine Corps Marathon is now one of my favorite memories with her.


8. My wife and I moved back to Fort Wayne live closer to our parents in March of last year and now live 10 minutes from both sets. We have actually enjoyed living this close to them and for reasons which I won't discuss here, it has been a been a blessing to be near them.

9. We have a dog named Chloe, who we think is part golden lab and part beagle, and a cat named Baxter, who is a Maine Coon. They actually came with my wife, and Baxter was not a fan of me for the first couple of years. I once woke up to Baxter chewing on my fingers. When I took them away, he shot me the look of death.


10. Our house is in the woods. We have a family of deer that goes through the yard every day. It is very peaceful unless Chloe notices them, in which case it becomes a half-hour bark fest.

11. I have skied since I was 6 years old, and my favorite place for skiing is Telluride. My family first skied in Telluride during the Christmas 1979 holiday when I was in second grade. On Christmas day that year, Telluride had 125 skiers. At the time, Telluride did not yet have any flushing toilets on the mountain, and I did not like their outhouses. I will let you guess how my day typically ended.

12. When I was 15, I got to ski for a day in Telluride with Franz Klammer, who won the gold medal in Downhill at the 1976 Winter Olympics. He was very cool and had the biggest thighs of anyone I have ever met.

13. My parents had my older sister Kim in 1967, me in 1971, and my little sister Lauren in 1986. When Lauren graduated from Florida State this past spring, my parents finally had their last child out of the house after 42 years. I am amazed by this fact, especially since my wife and I won't even celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary until I am 78.

14. I went deer hunting for the first time this last fall with my father-in-law. I had a clean shot at a buck, but since he was standing where I had last seen my father-in-law, I didn't take the shot (I figured accidentally shooting my father-in-law with a 12 gauge shot gun would make family gatherings very awkward). By the time I had another clean shot at the buck, he was running full speed towards the woods, and I missed. Hopefully, my hunting will be a little more successful next fall.

15. I think that last year's election proved South Park correct- every election comes down to a giant douche and a turd sandwich. (This is a reference to an episode from 2004, in which Stan refuses to vote for a new school mascot because its options are a giant douche and a turd sandwich. In attempting to get Stan to vote, Stan's father says, "Son, every election comes down to a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich, but you still have a civic obligation to vote.") To avoid offending anyone more than I already have, I won't say who I thought was the giant douche and the turd sandwich, nor will I announce who got my vote.