My internet friend Joelle tagged me with this:

Write a blog containing 12 weird, random facts, habits or goals about yourself.  Then, at the end, choose 10 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them.  Don't forget to leave a comment (tag, you're it!) to come read your blog.  You can't tag the person who tagged you, so make sure you leave me a comment after you play so I can check yours out.

I won't tag anyone else, but I'll participate half-way (just ask the people I work with...I frequently do just part of tasks).  I’ll be interested to see if Jim participates, because he got tagged too.

1.  I always hated kids when I was growing up, which is weird because I'm really into being Mr. Mom now that I have a bunch of my own.  I try to talk my wife into having more babies on a weekly basis.  She always says no, and the joke that "my next wife will want to have some babies" is always funny, no matter how many times I say it.

2.  When I was younger, I dated a girl who had kind of a wandering eye.  It was weird kissing her, because if you opened your eyes, she'd be looking somewhere over your shoulder with one of her eyes. She was really nice.

3. I have rules about how to drink things.  Coke, for example, has to be drunk from a plastic cup.  Milk has to be in a glass.  Water can be in either, unless you have ice with it, in which case it has to be in a glass.  There are also assigned seats for dinner, and if anyone sits in the ‘wrong’ place, it makes me nervous.

4. When I was in college, I drank a lot.  A WHOLE lot.  I quit drinking in 1990 and haven't had any alcohol since then.

5. I smoked too.  I quit smoking in 1998 when my first kid was born.  When I'm 80, I'm going to start again, because I REALLY miss it.

6. I was in the Army from 1983 to 1992.  It was (mostly) great.  After 9/11, I found out that I could join the National Guard and get my old rank back, as long as I would finish my 20 years service before I am 60; so I could theoretically go back.  Sometimes I think about doing it.

7. I haven't voted for a winning presidential candidate since 1988.

8. I majored in History, and I buy lots of books.  Amazon.com loves me.  I would love to be a librarian, but I would hate having to talk to people.

9.  My wife is an extrovert, and I’m not. 

10. I talk to my father more on IM than I do in real life.   He was really smart until I was about 11, then he got really dumb for a while, but then he got smart again when I was about 23.  I fear that will happen to me too.

11.  I used to call my mother every day, but then she started traveling a lot, so I stopped.  I'm going to start again, because if I don't call her every so often, she thinks that I've gone insane or left the country or something.

12. I am deathly afraid of talking to groups of people.  I will go to almost any lengths to avoid doing it.