So going around Facebook lately are these 25 random things posts. So here is mine. I thought I’d put it on my blog and wait for it to import over to Facebook
Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.
In MY rules, you can tag as many or as few people as you feel like and if you are tagged you don’t have to do anything.
1. I have resisted doing one of these things for very long but have finally given in. Kind of like Facebook itself….
2. In my high school graduating class of about 400, I was voted “Most likely to be a millionaire”. Hasn’t happened (yet)
3. I am a giant cheapskate. Though I prefer “frugal”. In 2005, I bought $15,519.82 of groceries for $763.10
4. I once sat in every seat of the entire Row W of the Richfield Coliseum (where the Cleveland Cavaliers used to play)
5. Continuing the stadium / arena theme, I once fell down about 10 rows of metal bleachers at Nippert Stadium (where the University of Cincinnati football team plays). Looking back at it, I really could have died but managed to survive with only a cut above my ear and a dislocated shoulder (which popped back in at the hospital before a doctor even got around to seeing me)
6. Back in the early 90s my friend and I used to dial into text-based bulletin boards on our 300 baud modem and register accounts under the name “John Jaha”
7. There was also a phone number that we used to call pretty much non-stop (777-4513 I think?). Nobody ever answered but it had an answering machine where we used to leave messages all about John Jaha. Hey it wasn’t our fault that he’s the man who can bring it (and he’ll never get sent to the minors). All this John Jaha talk started when we noticed that he had hit .344-30-134 for a minor league team in 1991 (back when those numbers meant something). We talked about how he was “the man” who “could bring it”. We talked about him for years, including the creation of a song detailing his many exploits (kind of like the Chuck Norris facts I guess). The punchline of each stanza of the song was “And he’ll never get sent to the minors”. Example – “He’ll hit .400 lifetime, he’ll slug 1000 homers, he’ll drive in 5000 RBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS…. and he’ll never get sent to the minors”.  Good times!
8. I have pooped off the side of a pickup truck that was moving at about 50 mph
9. I have pooped my pants while simultaneously throwing up
10. It’s not my fault that many of my interesting stories involve poop and other bodily fluids
11. I got a 1400 on my SAT (back when it was out of 1600) and a 33 on my ACT
12. I was born in Germany and was in many countries in Europe when I was a baby that I don’t remember, but I have been to Canada and lived in the Dominican Republic (for 2 years) that I do remember. In the US, I have been to 40 states and 807 counties (including every county in OH, IL, DC and RI, DE, and hope to visit all 3142 counties before I die
13. Speaking of counties, I once drove through all 88 counties in Ohio in under 24 hours (23 hours, 34 minutes and 34 seconds to be precise). On another occasion, I drove 34 hours from Chicago to Cincinnati by way of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, entirely to pickup new counties
14. The first music cassette tape that I owned was Young MC’s “Stone Cold Rhymin’”. In college, I created the first (and probably only) Young MC fan homepage. I still think that Young MC is awesome
15. Since June 2008, I have found over $39 in coins on the ground and such – that’s not counting the $1.14 that a 10 year old girl gave me, quite possibly thinking that I was a homeless person trying to find money to feed my starving kids
16. In high school, I was once at a friends house where one of my other friends was opening up some mail that had gotten sent to the wrong address. As my friend was trying to figure out ways that he could cash this $100 check made out to someone else (while we all tried to convince him what a horrible idea that was), someone commented “Isn’t opening up someone else’s mail a federal offense?” Literally no more than 15 seconds later, the doorbell rang and it was the police
17. Like my wife said in her 25 things note, we did initially bond over Beavis and Butthead jokes.
18. I also really did not want to go to the dance where I initially met my wife but my friend Jim convinced me to go
19. With 5, I have more children than probably 98% of the people I know.  But I still don’t think I have a huge family
20. I own 3 rental properties
21. Starting in about 11th grade and up until about 2 years ago when I decided I was old, I wore shorts year-round. In those 15 years or so, there were only 2 times that I was ever cold. #1, when my friends and I went out at night and walked on the ice at Lake Erie during a week where it was so cold (like 20 or 30 below windchills) that they closed the school for “cold”. So cold that as I struggled to walk back up the ice covered stairs from the lake, my (non-gloved of course) hands were sticking to the metal bannisters and pulling skin off. #2, when we came down to UC for an official visit. We sat at Nippert Stadium and watched a football game in a blizzard. This caused us to create a new temperature scale to compete with Celsius and Fahrenheit called “Stadium” where all temperatures are measured in the number of degrees that they were warmer than that day
22. In high school, I was a National Merit Finalist but (in my opinion because one of my teachers didn’t like me) was not invited to be in National Honor Society
23. I have a daughter who has Asperger’s Syndrome / mild autism.
24. I really want to hike the entire Appalachian Trail before I die. I’m not sure I have my wife convinced that we should all hike the AT in 2016 as a family
25. I can type 100 words per minute which explains (part of the reason) why I am so good at games like Word Challenge