Seven things you didn't know about me

I am not that interesting, but here are 7 things:

1.  I have a twin sister (I am 12 minutes older)

2.  I have not missed a Detroit Tigers' home opener since I was 15

3.  I have seen Phish in concert over 35 times

4.  I have never seen a movie I didn't like

5.  In college, my wife worked for me, but that is not how we met

6.  I wrote a term paper on Ted Bundy and The Beatles for the same class in college

7.  I haven't shaved my beard since my Junior year in college (my wife has never seen me clean shaven)

No one 'tagged' me, but I had to jump in here. VERY INTERESTING! Posting my 7!

1)  I am an absolute Music Nut! I have been playing various musical instruments and singing since I was 7. I have been recorded on 2 CD's, and am currently working on a 3rd and possibly 4th. I also have a music collection of approximately 300 Cassettes, 500 vinyls, 500 CD's and 7,000 MP3's.

2)  I played in the Michigan State Table Tennis Champions Tournament when I was 12. My first match was against the guy that ended up winning the Tournament...OUCH!

3)  I was a Contestant on the Wheel of Fortune. The show aired March 11th, 1999. I won 3 out of 5 rounds, but didn't make it to the "Bonus Round".

4)  I am also a Sports Fanatic, and played several sports in school and beyond. My favorite sport to play was baseball, and I was scouted by the Baltimore Orioles as a pitcher. Made the trip to Maryland, but didn't make the team.

5)  I have been playing POKER since I was 6. My goal is to play in either the World Series of Poker or The World Poker Tour.

6)  I left home when I was 17, and between the ages of 17 and 30, had 30 different 'addresses'. I married at 30, and 18 years later I am living in my 2nd house since.

7)  I have one brother and 5 half brothers. I have 3 step sisters, 2 of which I have never met. The 3rd one I didn't meet until I was 39. I talk to her regularly, and also am now great friends with, and employed by, her husband!

Pat,

What is really strange is I was to parachute before I croak.

Greg

1) I love going to the gym to unwind at the end of the day.  My favorite is yoga and lifting weights.  

2) I spend most of my time at home in sweat pants.  

3) I was hooked on phonics as a child! 

4) I eat on average four meals a day, plus snacking in between.  

5) I converted from skiing to snowboarding.  Although the ski hills in Michigan don't quite compare to Colorado! 

6) I go to bed around ten every night.  Except on the weekends:)

7) I'm saving money to go to Italy.  The one place I have to see before I die.  

I know I'm just giving ammunition to some of my friends out there, but here goes:

1.  Was a very gangly, "ugly-duckling" as a kid and a nerd to boot.  Used to avoid the playground as it just meant getting picked on.  Almost got beat up once for ruining the grade curve on a test in junior high.

2.  First job was @ 12 working in a bait shop 6am to 4pm for $10/day.  Second job was working at anfrozen custard shop that also had hamburgers, hotdogs, burritos & tacos.  Got paid $2.55/hour, but also all I could eat.  Silly owners - I had two "hollow legs" and ate way more than that!

3.  Grew up on Anchor Bay of Lake St. Clair, so I love the water.  Spent a lot of time fixing boats & motors so I could use them.  Built an 11' hydroplane out of wood & fiberglass.  Started water skiing when I was 8.

4.  Got in trouble for building a mini cannon and bombs when I was 12.  Also got in trouble with three friends when I was 16 for siphoning gas so we could go water skiing.

5.  Snow Ski'd in Austria on a glacier in Zell em See.  No boundary skiing!  Wife had a fit when she found out I was skiing in an avalanche area.

6.  Talk about a 180 - fell into modeling in my late 20's.  Did a Ford commercial that aired in Texas, couple local print ads.  Even got paid to spend a summer in England. 

7.  Love to travel.  Spent 5 weeks backpacking around Mexico when I was 25. Spent New Years in Panama in 1991.  Three week honeymoon to Hawaii, Australia & Fiji.  18 days in Italy & Sicily over Christmas & New Years with wife's family in 2004.

I'm a little late to the party, but I like to think its fashionably late:

1) I have bicycled from Fairbanks to Anchorage, Alaska to raise money for an AIDS vaccine (seems I might need to do it again!)

2) I built a bicycle (that I still ride quite often) entirely sourced from parts sitting at the curb waiting for the trash.  It is the fifth bicycle I own, including one unicycle, that I still haven't quite licked.

3) I take groups of kids from the inner-city camping every summer since 2005 (this is from Sleeping Bear Dunes).  For most of them, its their first time ever sleeping outside in a tent.

4) My grandparents old farmhouse in Iowa is haunted and I've "seen" the ghost.  Before everyone starts thinking I'm a nutjob, here's how it went down:  When I was about 10 or 11, my brother and I heard someone climbing the stairs at my grandparents home.  We went to the top of the stairs, my grandparents were at the bottom, but we all definitely heard someone climbing the stairs between us.  After the footsteps stopped, the glide rocker in our bedroom rocked a few times as though someone had bumped it.  After that, my brother and I refused to sleep in that bedroom.  I don't really know what to make of this since I still don't believe in ghosts, but there it is.

5) I'm teaching myself to play the banjo.  I played the sousaphone in marching band and trombone in jazz band and orchestra in high school and college. I still play the trombone every year in a friend of mine's polka band for Oktoberfest in the fall. We are not good.  Not at all.

6) I brew my own beer, roast my own coffee, and I'm attempting to make my cheese for the first time.

7) I've seen Charlie Wollborg perform live, twice (once in Salt Lake City, Utah).  I have a cd with a Christmas tune with Charlie singing with a good friend of mine under the name "Christmicity".  It's not a particularly merry tune - but then, the synthpop genre isn't really known for its merriment.

Dave!

www.hurst-associates.com

You saw the Beatles twice! I am so envious! I envied my cousin for years because she got to see them in Indianapolis.  And my brother won tickets to see Paul McCartney and asked SOMEONE ELSE to go with him-not his adorable big sister who loved Paul McCartney. 

Hi Debra - yes, I saw the Beatles twice '64 and '66, (I think), and it was awesome. Not that you could hear them, of course -

I was with my best friend Kris Bernard. In '64, Her dad drove us to Olympia Stadium. Our seats were behind the stage (there were no big screens then, either), so we only saw their backs except for one moment when Paul McCartney turned and waved to us backside babies. I was in love with George Harrison.

There is a short (silent) video of that concert posted on You Tube (but I'm not in it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNhayiHGtEI

Have you paid your brother back for his lack of good taste?

I also saw Sonny & Cher (they were at the Masonic) somewhere in the same timeframe.. and hung out every weekend at the Grande Ballroom, where I saw Eric Clapton (when he was a guitar player for the John Mayall Blues Band), The Mothers of Invention, The Fuggs, Eric Burden and the Animals, Jefferson Airplane (before they became the starship), Steve Windwood & Traffic (before their first record was released - they were the warm up band for Mayall), Vanilla Fudge, Tim Hardin, and a host of other big-name groups, as well as The MC5, and many more local groups.

Also used to hear Bob Seger play keyboards in someone else's band, at a ratty bowling alley - this was before he started Bob Seger & the Last Heard...

Gosh, I'm amazed I can remember all of that - -

1.  I lived in France in the 70s and climbed to the top of Chartres Cathedral. On the outside.

2.  I worked stage crew for the Indiana University Opera Theater in college.

and I still work backstage at Stagecrafters in Royal Oak.

3.  I 've taken groups of teens to Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia to do home repair for low income families...and to go white water rafting. If you've ever been thrown out of the boat....it gets pretty exciting, take my word for it.

4.  I used to own a pink car named Rosebud.

5.  I went to Woodstock. But with my parents. It was the only way they would let me go.  And only for a couple of hours. My older cousin got to go with her friends, which was way cooler.  (My grandparents lived nearby).

6. I drove to West Virginia to adopt a dog that I met while doing home-repair there.  Then she adopted a stray cat.  They were inseparable until Queenie (the dog) passed away in December. Now JJ the cat has to hang with other cats.

7.  I stood in line at Midnight for the Harry Potter books and can't wait until the theme park opens at Universal in 2010.

Hey Drew, Re #4.  You must be related to some of the kids that went on my mission trips.  I used to sweat if I didn't have a fire extinguisher close by at all times.

Hey Linda, I once saw Johnny Ginger live.

cool, Duane!

Hey Linda,

I also saw the Stone's at Cobo Arena in the early seventies. The funny smoke floating in the air was so thick you could have cut it with a knife.

How was it being on the Wheel of Fortune. That's been a dream of mine for a long time. I seem to do pretty well at home but wonder if I'd "freeze up" on tv.  Even so, it seems like it would be fun.