Tagged Again

I was tagged by Karen over at Working it out....  I have to admit, I kind of like this random fact stuff.   If you want to read the rules for this tagging event, you can read them at the beginning of my last post or Karen's post.

Lets see if I can think of 11 more random things. Being an engineer and all, I am pretty boring :-).

1. I like the challenge of thinking of 11 random things about me and reading the random things about others.
2. I'm usually pretty quiet and keep to myself, so this blogging thing has been a stretch for me.
3. I'm reasonably good at foosball thanks to having a table on our dorm floor in college. The table did meet it's demise when after a few drinks we poured rubbing alcohol on it and played flaming foosball :-).
4. I don't have a Facebook account.
5. I would stay up really late and sleep really late like a teenager if I could get away with it (and sometimes do on the weekend).
6. I recently downloaded words with friends for my phone. Yet another fun time waster :-). My username is my twitter name if you want to play.  My playing time is limited and sporadic due to work, training, and life.
7. I resisted getting a gas fire place for years because I like real fires.  Now I love the gas fireplace and probably use it the most in our family.
8. I make or receive two regular phone calls every week.  One is to my parents every Sunday and the other is to my best friend from college.
9. I have a couple of clothes racks in our spare bedroom with all my active workout clothes in various states of smelliness.  I wear most of them until I can't stand the smell (or I would need 16 of everything, see later answer).  I don't think any of it smells like bad deli meat :-).

10.My computer crashed this summer and I can't find my cd with the backup of my Turbo Tax data for the last couple years.  Crap!
11. My procrastination is often caused by my perfectionism.  If I can't do a project perfect, I would rather not start it.

Now to answer Karen's questions:
1. What was your favorite vacation of all time?
I have so many it's hard to choose.  Some of my kids favorites are taking the train to Colorado to ski so I'll pick that one (or two).

2. Snacks: Sweet or Salty?
Both but lean toward sweet.  At work, my current snacks are craisins, pitted dates, almonds, and atomic fireballs :-). At home, they are those valentines hearts with sayings on them this time of year, love the marshmellow chicks for Easter, Necco wafers and licorice are right up there.  Sometimes salty and sweet is good too, like candy corn and peanuts or trail mix.

on my desk in my office for guests, just got a new container

3. What were you doing around this time ten years ago?
Working crazy hours (70+) at a start up company looking to be the next .com , missing important things with my children, trying to hold it all together. Whenever I worked past 2 am or so, I would just spend the night on the couch and have the first guy in wake me up. At least we had a shower (and a couch) there. Oh, we had a foosball table too, I think I won the company tournament but I was sleep deprived so maybe I dreamed it.  I know I made it to the finals.

4. Hit play on your Ipod. What is the first song to come up?
Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins.  The world is a vampire.

5. What is your favorite memory of 2011?
Crossing the finish line at New Orleans 70.3 (which became a 69.1).  That was my first HIM and I obsessed over the training.

6. Google "(Your first name) needs". What comes up?
A job.

7. Favorite running or triathlon product?
I would say my Balega socks.  On a semi-related note, I did a Balega sock experiment when I first started buying them.  How many pairs do I need to have a clean pair for every run and ride (without doing laundry myself)?  The answer is 16 pair!

8. If you could only do one race, which one would it be?
Kona

9. Do you prefer to train alone or in groups?
I've never trained in a group, but should try it some time.

10. What is one race you wouldn't mind doing over and over again?
New Orleans 70.3 if they move the finish back to the French Quarter.  Great food in New Orleans and running through the French Quarter to Jackson Square is really cool.

11. What accomplishment makes you the most proud?
That I didn't give up on swimming on my second attempt at becoming a triathlete.  I tried swimming for the first time about five years ago and after two or three swims, gave up on my tri dream.  I tried again three years ago and persevered through it. It was embarrassing and humiliating, kind of like wearing spandex around fit people and doing this extreme fitness class at the Y I'm in now but I didn't give up.


That's it for this session of Mike sharing :-).