Five Things

I was tagged by Bud for the five things meme. Basically, in its current form, I'm supposed to list five things about myself that most readers of this blog wouldn't know. (Although I tried to trace the meme back and - at least one path - led to a writer in England that wanted people to list items about themselves so that other writers could use them as a resource.)

I'm not sure what I think about this game of tag. I can see where knowing more about each other can help us connect, which helps further the conversations. But it also feels a little bit like we're just looking for a reason to link to others' blogs (and have them link to us). But, I've decided to focus on the former and not the latter, so here goes.

1. I loved playing sports growing up, even though I was "athletically challenged." My favorite sport was probably baseball, and my nickname was "Fischnet" because I was a pretty good fielder. But, as my coach actually said at one of our end of the year banquets, "Karl is the best fielder we've ever had. But he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a bat." I'm still in therapy.
   
   
2. I earned a high school letter in table tennis. I'm not making this up. My high school was grades 10-12, and I played my sophomore year. Our coach was also the soccer coach, so I'm pretty sure we were the only high school table tennis team that actually ran in practice. We ran forward, backward, and sideways through the halls of our high school (this did wonders for my already tremendous social life). I played #6 and we were state runners up (lost to Wolfe County). My mom still has my letter jacket.
   
   
3. We bought a new 2006 Toyota Prius in April (replacing a 1991 Honda CRX - because it didn't have a back seat so my daughter couldn't ride in it). We love it. We averaged over 50 mpg until the weather turned colder, and are getting about 46 mpg in the colder weather. My guess is that we'll average 48-49 mpg year round (not bad given our weather, altitude, and oxygenated fuels). It's also just a nice car to drive.
   
   
4. My wife and I met in 7th grade, became good friends in 10th grade (despite my being on the table tennis team), and started dating senior year. We continued dating even though I went away to college and she went to our hometown university. We've been married for just over 21 years. (Coincidentally, tomorrow - Christmas day - is the day when I will pass the mark where I've been married for more of my life than not - my wife already passed it about two months ago).
   
   
5. Our daughter Abby was born in China and is adopted. If you're interested, you can read our travel story.

Now I have to tag five others. I thought about tagging teachers in my own building, but that seems to go somewhat against the spirit of this (plus it's safer to tag folks who can't confront you face-to-face). So, Carolyn, Nancy,Chris, Jim and Kelly - you're it!

Tags:

• personal
• meme