Tagged!

I just realized that I've been ensnared in Shelley's holiday tag... for two weeks! Sorry Shelley!
1. Favorite Holiday Memory:

Colorado ski vacations with my entire extended family.

2. Favorite Holiday Cookie or Treat:

Those little round, white-frosted Christmas cookies. I can never remember the name.

3. Where I'll Be Over The Holidays:

Skiing at Vail, CO, Visiting Mom in Grand Junction, CO, hanging out with the Tri-Daughters in southwest Michigan, and connecting with friends in the Great Suburban Outback.

4. Lotsa Things You Didn't Know About Me (and Probably Didn't Care to Know):

1. Heights are the only thing I'm even remotely afraid of.
2. An hour of fitness boxing is the hardest workout I've ever done.
3. I have no tattoos. Yet.
4. I hate shopping. That I'm ever able to go out of the house not looking like a bum is due to (a) 4 daughters, (b) a personal shopper at Nordstrom and (c) certain female friends, all with great taste.
5. I played violin for 15 years. I had to; my father taught violin (and made them in his basement workshop.)
6. Now I play drums and take inordinate pride in the fact that, in our house, it's the kids complaining that the parents make too much noise.
7. Though it's an arguable point, I believe I played in the WORST garage rock band in history. We didn't even know the requisite minimum of three chords. We'd have gotten filthy rich in today's music world.
8. I'm gonna skydive in 2006. See #1 for why this is a relatively big deal.
9. Sensuality in movies: good. Violence in movies: bad. Violence directed at women and children: loathsome.
10. I've always told my kids that they're in less trouble if I find pot in their room than they are if I find a gun.
11. Dehydration almost killed me before I was a year old.
12. I nearly flunked out of high school. I did lots of work, just not the work the teachers assigned. Ernest Hemingway is WAY cooler than the Bronte sisters and I don't give a flying fig what the teacher says.
13. I got revenge, though. I tested out of almost my entire freshman year of college.
14. I still view high school as little more than a fraternity hazing for adulthood.
15. Somewhat to my chagrin, I always told my kids that grades, not school attendance, are what matters. Darned if the little buggers didn't take me seriously.
16. My high school graduation present was a month long tour of Europe with my two best friends. I was 17. Yes, if you can imagine it, we probably did it. I've gotta get back to Amsterdam someday.
17. I love math. I suck at it but still appreciate the beauty and precision.
18. I always wanted to be an astronomer. See #17 for the reason I'm not.
19. Now, for fun, I read books about astronomy and cosmology.
20. I love hockey, 'specially the fights.
21. Crashes are the only reason to watch car races.
22. I played high school hockey. I sucked.
23. I've winter camped in a raging blizzard and -15 temperatures. That 2 A.M. bathroom call was no fun.
24. I still have all the expedition-quality gear to go winter camping again. No freakin' way.
25. I'm getting divorced.
26. Cats rule. Dogs drool.
27. Meyers-Briggs types me as an INTJ.
28. Late nights are WAY better than early mornings.
29. I run around the yard cheering and yelling during thunderstorms.
30. When I was 5, the plane taking me from San Francisco to Medford, OR lost an engine on takeoff and nearly crashed into the bay. I thought it was cool. My mom didn't.
31. I want to live long enough to be a nuisance to my kids, spend my last $5,000 on a gorgeous woman and die in her arms.
32. Then I want to be cremated and have my ashes sprinkled on Diane Lane.
33. I've overcome a bad childhood stammer to become a pretty good public speaker.
34. I'd rather face an audience of 5,000 people than make small talk with 10 at a cocktail party.
35. I hate "verbed" words. "Impact" is a noun, not a damn verb.
36. I'm an expert skier who prefers intermediate runs these days. Survival skiing on Vail's "Tourist Trap" really hurts.
37. I'd pay to watch Salma Hayek do pretty much anything.
38. I don't want to hear how tough hunters are until the deer start shooting back.
39. I love Alfred Hitchcock movies, 'specially "Dial 'M' for Murder."
40. Most beautiful woman of all time: Grace Kelly. A modern woman who comes close: Nicole Kidman.
41. Muhammad Ali lived for years in my home town. I thought he was a jerk until I met him.
42. I absolutely LOATHE golf. I don't even like golfers very much. I got kicked off of a golf course once for driving a golf cart in a reckless manner, i.e through a sand trap. Hey, what can I say? I was having a bad round and started treating the game with all the respect it deserves. And golf carts make pretty damn good dune buggies.
43. My extended family used to own a ranch in South Dakota's Black Hills. It's where I learned to fly fish and where I spent summer afternoons hunting for Indian artifacts. It was also another casualty of the decades-long farm "crisis."
44. The summer after IMWI (i.e. 2007) I'm gonna rent a villa in Tuscany and just...sit. I may do some other things too, but this is a family blog. Oh, by the way, y'all are invited.
45. I need to take dancing lessons. Tango, anyone?
46. I own a tuxedo. Thanks to a triathlon-induced weight loss it doesn't fit any more, but I still have it.
47. I'd like to use said tuxedo for something besides 4 Tri-Daughter weddings. Tango, anyone?
48. I watch "Andy Griffith" reruns when I'm sick. I also watch "Everybody Loves Raymond." I wanna punch Ray right in the mouth. There's nobody I wanna punch in the old Dick Van Dyke show.
49. I remember looking at a map one day and remarking, "I'd HATE to live in Kansas!" Guess where my first job out of college was? I survived. Rumors are that Kansas didn't.
50. I once got fired from a furniture factory job when the cretin running the place confused the "Deep Purple" poster above our work area with "Deep Throat" the movie. Hmmm. There are so many things I could do with that, but...nah. They closed the factory soon after, demolished the building and tossed the cretin out on his ass. I like to think that poster was partly responsible.
51. I love M*A*S*H's Hawkeye Pierce. I dislike Alan Alda quite intensely.
52. I attended graduate school at University of Wisconsin - Madison. For two years, the Badgers' star running back and I shared a name. I was listed in the phone book; he wasn't. Man, I got invited to more parties. I would've gone except that he was a 6'2", 225 lb African-American male and, well, I'm bald, emaciated, nearsighted, slow and just a wee bit Caucasian. Someone would've ratted me out eventually.