[ from facebook -- gives me an excuse to post after a log absence ]

Lorrie Cranor has inspired (tagged) me to do this, so here goes.....

1) I don't like to bother people too much so I won't tag others to do this. But I would gladly read what you post.

2) Like Lorrie, I am the first-born child of two first-born children, and so is my wife.

3) I like corollaries. My first-born daughter is also the first-born child of two first-born children.

4) I once met a grandmother I didn't know I had.

5) I lost a beard-growing contest to a friend of mine from New York. Since then, I have not been allowed to grow a beard.

6) I don't like shaving very much, and I'm not particularly good at it. I am better at growing a beard than the record would indicate.

7) I was standing not very far from someone who fell to his death on the Eiffel tower. I was unable to talk for a while after that and had to go to sleep.

8) In second grade, I won a mail-in contest on the Mr. Peppermint show in Dallas, but I didn't know that because they mispronounced my name. A friend (Darr Oney) told me I won at school, but I didn't believe it until the prize came. The prize was a red vinyl record recorded by Pebbles and Bam Bam of "Let the Sun Shine in, make it with a grin".

9) The vinyl records I had as a kid were sold by my well intentioned father in a garage sale. I still miss them.

10) I sometimes wish my hair would part on the other side, so that when I look in a mirror, I could see what I really look like.

11) I like writing sonnets and have written six so far. One of them won a contest when I was in high school.

12) My family never moved houses as I grew up. My parents still live in that house.

13) I play the pipe organ and at one time played it decently.

14) At one point in grad school, I had 3 organist jobs: one at the Chanute Air Force base (Sundays), one at the Christian Scientist church (Wednesdays), and one at the Seventh-Day Adventist church (Saturdays).

15) I am Jewish and never saw a pipe organ until I was 17.

16) I met my wife (though she wasn't my wife at the time) because I play organ, even though she, being Jewish, had also not seen a pipe organ growing up. My wife is a percussionist and played drums at our wedding.

17) I now mostly play guitar, and took it up in fifth grade after having to practice piano more than I wanted.

18) I now own a Rainsong guitar, and I don't let many people play it. (Or even point at it). It definitely goes to 11.

19) I have a blog and have written an essay about grading theory papers at high altitude. The URL is http://rkc.negative273.com. I don't post much anymore.

20) I saved many things growing up, hoping to give them to children I might have some day. One of those things is a hook rug I made in art class in 7th grade. It's now hanging in my son's bedroom. Another is a set of Hardy Boy books, which none of my kids wants to read.

21) I talked frequently to a coat hanger from my closet when I was a kid. It never spoke back, but my middle child collected hangers when she was very young.

22) My favorite shape is the rhombus.

23) I wanted to be a superhero when I grew up. I am now a computer scientist. Those professions are not as dissimilar as you might think.

24) When I was in Las Vegas, I bet on roulette because a friend Mike asked me to put $5 on the wheel for him, using his football jersey number divided by 2. That number also happened to be my hockey jersey number, so I matched his $5, and we won. I have never bet on the wheel again.

25) I now play adult no-checking ice hockey but didn't start skating until I was 43 years old. Several times a week, I wish I had started that a lot younger. Several times a day, I wish I could play a lot better.

26) I am a Texan by birth, a New Yorker by choice, and a St. Louisan by marriage.

27) I don't believe in regrets, but I sometimes wish I did.

28) I wanted to make it to 28 things because 28 is a perfect number. I like math, and like solving for the unknown.