John Smulo and Sonja have ganged up and double-tagged me with two different memes.

8 Things About Me
I’ll try to make these different than the 5 things you don’t know about me meme that I was double-tagged with about six months ago, but I’ll try to come up with tidbits I don’t think I’ve mentioned before.

1. I’ve got an 11-year-old Bichon Frise kicking around the house. He’s fairly husky for a Bichon, and doesn’t ever look as dolled-up as some of the Bishon photos you see, but he’s pure-bred. We named after a famous detective when my wife refused to name him “Ilford” after my (at that time) favorite black-and-white film.
2. My birthday is at the end of this week. Last year was a round number, and whilst sitting in a Chinese restaurant with a few friends, they asked me what I wanted to do in the rest of my life. I said “write more,” that I planned to have another career yet, and wanted it to be writing. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I was hoping to ease into it… dang. You can’t always get what you want.
3. I’m not a very fast reader. I’ve got over 2,000 books in my library and really love to read, but when I do, I keep slowing down to absorb concepts and fit them into the rest of the universe, even to write them down as I go. I figure if a book isn’t worth slowing down for, it isn’t worth reading, unless it’s escapist brain-candy fiction (of which I don’t read a steady diet).
4. I just asked my wife what I should write, and she said to say that I like antiques. Maybe because we’re watching an old Lovejoy episode at the moment… but I do enjoy old things. When I was —I don’t know— about 13 or so, I risked life and limb (which I never fail to mention) retrieving an old trunk with a curved top from the attic of a derelict farmhouse. My mother laid claim to it, but says I’ve got dibs on it when she shuffles off this mortal coil.
5. Also courtesy of my wife: raspberries and cream. I think she mentioned this because she simply doesn’t get it and thinks me weird, but there really is nothing like a bowl of fresh-picked raspberries, sprinkled with sugar… over which you pour cream and enjoy. Reminds me of my grandparents, who taught me well how to enjoy a dish of raspberries.
6. My mother is very into quilting, and when I was oh, just pre-teen I guess, I designed a quilt and we made it… it’s got pictures on it that kinda betray my age and the year (“Peace, Man… Groovy”). But I still used on Fathers’ Day afternoon when I had a nap on the couch. ;^)
7. The first telephone I had in my own name was a red desktop rotary set — the kind that had actual bells in it. I’m sorry I ever gave it back to the phone company… my kids have probably never seen a working rotary phone before.
8. I think I first got my now-wife to actually take notice of me by giving her a motorcycle ride. We stopped for dinner halfway through. It wasn’t even my bike, but the con worked. One of these days I’ll get myself something worthy the the open road.
9. My real name is — oh, I’m supposed to stop at eight, right? ;^)

I hereby tag the following with the 8 things meme:

1. Len Hjalmarson
2. John LaGrou
3. Bill Kinnon
4. Cindy Bryan
5. Makeesha Fisher
6. Greg Loughery
7. Nathan Colquhoun
8. Randy McRoberts

5 Things I Dig About Jesus

1. The dude new how to party — he was generally found at table with a glass of wine. If I “lighten up,” I still express his heart.
2. His brood was made up of the least likely candidates, and he just sent them off to change the world. There is hope for me too.
3. He’s so open-handed and non-coercive about everything… favouring always invitation over edict.
4. He is the eternal Word who came down and incarnated the presence of God in our midst, as one of us. It blows my mind.
5. He knows all my sh** and rather than just provide, he became my deliverer therefrom. Yes it’s true, I dig Jesus because he saved me from my sh**.

I hereby tag the following with the 5 things meme:

1. Robbymac
2. Jamie Arpin-Ricci
3. Steve Sensenig
4. Tina Gasperson
5. “Mary”