April 4, 2005

1. My favorite cereal as a child was Cocoa Crispies and the best part was the chocolate milk at the end.
2. It annoys me when drivers go past the stop line when stopping at a traffic light.
3. I’ve had varying degrees of hay fever since I was an adolescent.
4. My least desirable way of dying would be any form of suffocation.
5. I’m not in the least bit germ phobic.
6. I feel deprived to know that there are products like Kraft Extra Creamy Peanut Butter available in Canada, but not in the U.S.
7. I stay primarily in Marriott hotels when I travel because I am the highest level you can get in their frequent stay program.
8. I wear watches on my left hand because I used to have to wind watches and I’m right handed.
9. I’d some day like to own livestock, like chickens, sheep and milking cows.
10. I get calmer and more take-charge during a crisis.
11. Carnival rides make me nauseous now, but they never did when I was younger.
12. Given the choice, I much prefer keeping busy.
13. The sight of maggots will reflexively make me gag.
14. I’ve participated in 12 Step groups, but I won’t tell you which ones to maintain some level of anonymity.
15. My birthday makes me a numerological five.
16. The only plastic surgery I would currently consider would be an eyelid lift.
17. I find a man’s exposed underarm to be extremely sexy.
18. Dairy products taste much better in France than in the United States.
19. I have a lot of difficulty not answering the phone, afraid that I might miss something of interest.
20. I think speed reading is a useless skill and that reading should be an enjoyable, leisurely activity.
21. In my original list of 100 Things About Me, I purposely lied once.
22. I believe on average, women are smarter than men.
23. It pisses me off when people acknowledge an e-mail with a one or two word response like “thanks”.
24. My two front teeth are capped due to getting hit in the mouth by a baseball bat at the age of 12.
25. I don’t often wear sunglasses.
26. There has never been a food that I have not at least tried when it was offered.
27. Grizzly bits and large chunks of fat in meat can make me gag.
28. My favorite cake is angel food with whipped cream. My mother made it each year for my birthday when I was growing up.
29. The first dinner party I ever hosted was at the age of 17 and I made homemade French bread, shrimp scampi and a cheese soufflé.
30. Based on a very faulty memory, I’ve often though I was going senile already.
31. I can’t understand how the United States still hasn’t converted to the metric system.
32. It took me a long time to convert from a DOS environment on my PC to a Windows environment, and I still prefer keyboard navigation to mouse.
33. I can sleep virtually anywhere and fall asleep very quickly.
34. I crack my knuckles.
35. I wish it were customary for men to wear makeup.
36. My passion for speaking French started in fifth grade because the French teacher had the same last name as me.
37. I wear a U.S. size 9 shoe with a “D” width.
38. I believe that the danger of inserting a Q-Tip in your ear is extremely over exaggerated.
39. My favorite fruit is the nectarine.
40. I’ve always wanted to be able to do a Russian split or a back handspring.
41. I was arrested only once for stealing pumpkins as a college prank, although no charges were filed.
42. Eating nutmeg will often give me a headache.
43. Despite knowing how to swim very well, I have never been able to master the butterfly stroke.
44. I always loved the sound of the French word, fauteuil.
45. While I can be extremely ticklish on my legs and sides, my feet aren’t at all ticklish.
46. I have virtually no understanding of how electricity works.
47. I have never shot a real firearm.
48. I’ve only had Valium once (for an operation) but I can clearly understand how folks could become addicted to it.
49. I smoked cigarettes for about 10 years between the ages of 16 and 26.
50. The first car I ever owned was a white 1981 Toyota Corolla that went anywhere, regardless of the weather.
51. The first movie I ever remember seeing in a movie theater was “Mary Poppins”.
52. I used to pull out my eyelashes as a teenager because I thought they made me look too feminine.
53. My favorite kind of bagel is poppy seed.
54. Even though I don’t drink wine, I can usually identify a Cabernet and a Merlot by smelling them.
55. I use way too much salt on my food.
56. I wore braces on my teeth during my early teens to correct an overbite.
57. I broke my right leg when I was about 4 years old by jumping off a counter while holding a bag over my head like a parachute.
58. I can juggle three balls at once.
59. The first time I ever kissed with passion was with a guy named Gregg when I was 17 years old.
60. I believer the fly on men’s underwear is a useless feature.
61. I look awful in hats.
62. For years, streetlights would frequently go out when I would walk past them. It stopped when I was about 25 years old.
63. I’ve always loved acting and singing, even though I’m not very good at either.
64. I think Godiva chocolate is waxy and tasteless. I would take Hershey’s milk chocolate any day over Godiva.
65. Given the choice, I would sit in a steam room over a sauna.
66. I once tried cheating on a swimming test for beginner’s swimming by pretending to swim while walking on the bottom of the pond. It didn’t work.
67. I am not at all squeamish about blood or needles or anything gory.
68. The one exception is seeing someone cut the palm of his or her hand on a knife or other sharp object. That makes me cringe.
69. My favorite standard candy is a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup.
70. Having left the Catholic church over 20 years ago, I still miss many of the rituals, including the mass, Communion and saying the rosary.
71. I hate the fact that they renamed Washington National Airport to the name of a president who I despised.
72. Over the course of my life, I have worn boxers, briefs and boxer-briefs and I prefer boxer briefs.
73. I am a very impatient person.
74. I have seen lightning strike within 100 feet of me twice. The first time, a woman was hit and knocked down, but she was fine.
75. I love the smell of rain when it first hits hot tarmac.
76. I can bend all of my fingers at the first joint without bending them at second joint.
77. I tend to have dry, chapped lips. I blame it on my Irish background.
78. I balance my checkbook each month and make sure it balances to the penny.
79. While I’m not a big fan of shopping, I can meander through a Staples or Office Max store for hours.
80. From a practical perspective, I’m not a big fan of cut flowers. Isn’t a potted plant much more sensible?
81. I took music lessons for years, first on piano, and then on trumpet, followed by clarinet and finally tenor saxophone. I was awful on all of them.
82. I had my tonsils (and adenoids) removed when I was 20 years old.
83. I use a brush to arrange my hair each day, and I’ve rarely ever used a comb.
84. I don’t enjoy brushing my teeth and dislike flossing even more.
85. My brothers and sisters nicknamed be “buck” when I was young because I had buckteeth.
86. I’ve had pretty much the same haircut for almost 20 years now.
87. I have difficulty sitting in a movie theater without something to eat or drink
88. I got to go to the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
89. The first family vacation I can remember was on Cape Cod, near Dennis, Massachusetts.
90. Thaddeus and I have a barber’s chair in our house that he uses to give me haircuts.
91. I am a very visual learner and learned to spell by picturing the word in my mind.
92. My favorite smell is butterscotch pudding.
93. I prefer more light than less and open curtains over closed.
94. Living in a house with only one other man, I never put the seat down.
95. I take my coffee light, no sugar/sweetener (unless you consider 3 Dunkin’ Donuts sugar/sweetener).
96. I have never appeared on broadcast television.
97. I was fired from one of my first jobs as a lab assistant responsible for feeding lab animals.
98. I have been to only 24 of the 50 U.S. States.
99. I have always wished that men could wear strings of pearls because I love the feel of nice pearls.
100. My confirmation name is Isador.