🤣Another 85 Things About Me

The response to my self-introductory post 85 Things About Me! was such a hit, that I decided I’d give you another 85 to think about. I probably won’t do another one of these for a while…but honestly 170 tidbits like this should keep you pretty occupied!

1. I often crack eggs simultaneously with both hands and rarely get any shell in the bowl.
2. I watched Hank Aaron hit his record breaking home run and will always consider him the leader. I’m not a fan of the hitters who’ve used performance enhancing drugs to get to the same level.
3. I think it’s important that a family eats meals together whenever possible. To the point, we used to eat dinner after 9pm, even when the kids were younger, because that was the only time when everybody was done with their after school activities. I think it made us a stronger family for it…and the kids learned to do their homework before dinner whenever possible. They gained some great time management skills that way
4. I have yet to taste a beer that I like.
5. While I don’t drink wine often, I’m not a huge fan of reds. Rosé and Whites are fine. They don’t have to be overly sweet, unlike the wines that Hectic Mom prefers.
6. I like Polka music.
7. We currently have one pet, a cat named Socks. Hectic Mom doesn’t allow pets in the house, so he lives in the garage unless the weather is really terrible. Then he hangs out inside in a closed room.
8. Eggs are one of my favorite breakfast foods.
9. I’m a true lover of cheese and have tried thousands of varieties. There have only been one or two that I don’t like. I’ve been known to put cheese on almost anything!
10. I own a reMarkable Tablet that replaced the stack of notebooks that I used to use for all my notes. I love this device, although the pen nubs wear out too fast for my liking.
11. Tomatoes are my favorite garden produce, followed by peppers.
12. I love to cook with alcohol, since I think it really helps make meat tender.
13. I have several thousand books in my personal library, and I’ve read nearly every one of them. I currently have nearly 300 for sale on Amazon and eBay that I no longer need, but I’ve read every one of them cover to cover. Currently I’m on an Isaac Asimov science fiction kick.
14. My favorite social media is Instagram, although Twitter is better for interaction. I’m not that much of a fan of Facebook anymore, although I’m on every once in a while.
15. After my diabetes diagnosis the nutritionist explained to me what changes I would need to make to my cooking and eating habits. Despite not realizing that I had diabetes, I’d made 11 of the 12 cooking habit changes and a majority of the eating changes. My biggest battle is with portion size…I simply eat too much.
16. I have an undergraduate degree in Economics with a secondary degree in Computer Applications.
17. Evernote is probably my most used organizational app.
18. It’s a tossup between Trello and Todoist for which app is the most helpful in my productivity.
19. I record my Energy, Focus, and Motivationon a scale of 1-10 every hour during the work week (I call it my E-F-M spreadsheet). I don’t track on weekends anymore, although I did for 32 weeks. I’ve been doing this for 83 weeks. I use the data to see what changes I can make. I’ve even created animated graphs to show the changes over time. Those are pretty cool!
20. I prefer a one-time sales model to the subscription model for apps…although I don’t think the former is sustainable for the app makers.
21. I’ve written eight cookbooks at the time of this writing, with another dozen in the works. I love creating the recipes and meal plans that are in the cookbooks. Creating the shopping lists is a pain in the backside, but I think it’s necessary for the books, so I get it done at the last minute before publishing.
22. I really want to be somebody who preps meals on the weekends and doesn’t have to do much work on the prep steps during the week. I go hot and cold on it though, so it always seems like a struggle.
23. I’m great at keeping the laundry washed for the Hectic Family. I’m terrible at getting it folded and hung. So we have mounds of sorted laundry all over.
24. I love having a dishwasher. At one point, when we were remodeling our kitchen we considered putting in two dishwashers…one for dirty dishes and one for clean. We figured the tradeoff in cabinet space was worth it. Unfortunately, we didn’t actually put the second one in.
25. I have never worked in a restaurant, although I’ve considered it many times.
26. I own vastly more spices than anyone else I know. I also know what they are for (except for Cream of Tartar…I always have to look up what you use it for!). I’m also the guy that people call when they have a question about what spices to use or how to bump up the flavor in a dish.
27. I’ve been blogging at Hectic-Dad and Hectic-Kitchen since 2013. I run the both blogs myself, although at some point I’d love to add a team.
28. I keep my money in my wallet in a particular order, with the largest bills in the front, with the tops of the bills upwards. I can always tell when one of the kids has either borrowed money (frequently) or put money back (hahaha…as if) because they don’t use my same system.
29. I love the smell of freshly mown grass.
30. I’m the kind of person who will look up a word to make sure I’m using it properly. You know, mowed vs. mown, further vs. farther, etc.
31. I love to learn about the history of words. My poor kids hear about word etymology all the time. I love how words entered the English language, although I will never forgive the French for screwing up our spelling and pronunciation.
32. I love the idea of self-driving cars
33. I have a system for grocery shopping that is continually screwed up by the stores rearranging their shelves and aisles. I’m the guy who regularly tells the assistant manager about this. Some of them know be my name now, but none has ever run from me as I approached (although one did try to dodge me).
34. I think Han Solo shot first.
35. I’m fascinated by cooking competition shows, but don’t ever imagine that I could compete on one. Everybody I know says that I could, but I just don’t think I have as much knowledge as the competitors.
36. I absolutely do not understand the fascination with Reality TV.
37. I keep a record of the TV shows and episodes that I watch (I use the iShows TV app). I try to limit my watching to times when I’m exercising, so I don’t really binge watch, since that would mean binge exercise!
38. I despise the mess pistachio shells make, but I’m too cheap to just by the kernels.
39. I watched the entire Apollo 11 moon mission while at my grandmother (Nonnie’s) house. While it wasn’t 24-hour TV back in those days, we rose early and watched from sun-up to sundown. We even ate our meals in the living room. I can still hear Walter Cronkite’s voice reporting the events. I constantly regale my kids with tales of the Apollo missions…and I firmly believe that the reason one of my daughters works at the Kansas Cosmosphere is because of those stories.
40. For several years I drank all soda without ice. I simply preferred it at room temperature. So did my Dad. Everyone thought we were crazy!
41. I spent over ten years working with medical software for electronic records (called variously CPR, EMR, EHR, etc.). I finally got out when the US Government got in. I still believe that electronic records are the right solution, but the interference of government and the ridiculous demands of payers (especially insurance companies) has made the current set of solutions virtually worthless for actual patient care.
42. My favorite two kinds of bread are Rye and Black. I have several recipes for both and honestly like the ones from my bread maker the best.
43. I love couscous but can’t get the Hectic Family onboard with it.
44. I have been trying, valiantly, for the past 11 months to reorganize my entire kitchen. What I really need to do is shut it down for a week, haul everything out and then put it back in an organized manner. If I tried to do that though, Hectic Mom would likely kill me. I have yet to figure out how to do it in a staged manner.
45. I did the entire catering for the first two Hectic weddings within the span of 8 months. In the first we expected 300 guests, the second was smaller at roughly 150. Both times I did all the cooking and prep. I had a blast! I did most of the work alone, so ‘yes’, I was exhausted after.
46. My current favorite kitchen gadget is my Instant Pot. You know how some people have bumper stickers that say “Ask me about my grandkids”? I want one that says “Ask me about my Instant Pot”. I love it that much (although I also tell everybody about my grandson too).
47. I know something like 20 programming languages, but don’t do much programming anymore.
48. I have several possible dream jobs. One would be as a professional kitchen blogger/cookbook writer. I would love to have a test kitchen with all the equipment to do proper food photography. The other would be to engage in professional research for people…searching out whatever they needed to learn about.
49. I love photography and have been taking photographs since I was a little kid. I learned how to develop film and create my own prints, although digital photography has made that something of an unnecessary skillset.
50. I was paid to photograph the first football under lights at the University of Notre Dame. One of my photos of the winning field goal against Michigan netted me enough to pay for all my equipment that I bought that year…which was cool.
51. I don’t understand how people can wear their watch with the face on the inside of their wrist.
52. I’m a really good story teller. I love to tell stories to anybody who will listen.
53. I have jokes that can adapt in length based on the audience. These story jokes were mostly learned from my Dad, although I taught a couple to him.
54. I strongly believe in the concept of “Set the standard, then raise the bar”. I strive to be a little bit better than yesterday…everyday.
55. My favorite candy is Almond Snickers, although a traditional Snickers is a close second.
56. I’ve made Green Eggs and Ham because of the book. I then had to eat all of them because my kids wouldn’t touch them. They were delicious!
57. My second favorite holiday (after Christmas) is St. Patrick’s Day.
58. I’m terrified of being average.
59. I often wonder what people will say about me after I’m dead.
60. I’m a huge Harry Potter nerd. I’ve read all the books a huge number of times. I’ve even read the books in weird orders to get a new take on the story. For instance, I’ve read the books in two forms of reverse order…one time reading book 7 front-to-back, then 6, and so on. The other time I read book 7’s last chapter, then the prior chapter, then so on all the way back to “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.” I’ve also read the books in “paired order” (1 then 7, 2 then 6, etc.) as well as reverse paired order (7 then 1, 6 then 2, etc.). It’s fascinating what details you discover that crisscross between the books.
61. I didn’t really have a problem with Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars. I thought he was a fun character.
62. I loved Mr. Spock, I don’t like Dr. Spock.
63. I’m a huge fan of Ginny Weasley despite having essentially married a Hermione clone.
64. I’ve been variously sorted as a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw. I’m more likely a Ravenclaw if you have to pick one, although I’m a pretty good meld of the two (RavenPuff).
65. I love the idea of ordering groceries and having them delivered. I’m really excited about the unmanned vehicles doing this, although that feature isn’t going to come to Kansas anytime in the near future.
66. I’ve published 167 blog posts to date on Hectic-Kitchen. I’m very happy with about 90% of them. I’m always planning on going back and editing/fixing the other 10%, but never get around to it.
67. My grandmother gave me a granite worry stone just before she died. It’s literally a piece of granite that you rub with your thumb when you’re worried. She had rubbed away near 1/8” of the stone over time (we measured the depth of the thumbprint when she got and and then I measured it the day she died. I’ve now rubbed away almost a 1/4” of that same stone. She did her part in 6 years, I’ve had over 30.
68. I’ve published 345 blog posts on Hectic-Dad. Every once in a while I go back and read some of the older ones. I’m making plans to revisit some of the topics because the editing in the earliest posts left an awful lot to be desired…but I don’t want to erase history.
69. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of my favorite books. Catch-22 and A Separate Peace are two more.
70. I’ve read or listened to Getting Things Done by David Allen a number of times. The first time I listened to the audio book I did so while mowing. I didn’t realize the player was set on shuffle so I was really confused!
71. I have an MBA from the University of Dallas.
72. I loved watching Michael Jordan play basketball and he will forever symbolize what’s great in sports to me.
73. I was devastated when Lance Armstrong was found guilty of doping.
74. I’ve met Jim Ryun and had the opportunity to talk to him at KU Relays with my oldest son. He was one of the most genuine people I ever met.
75. I sat next to Walter Payton at a grade school concert and had a really great time talking to him. It wasn’t until about halfway through the performance that I realized who he was. When I said, “Geez, I didn’t realize you were Walter Payton”, he responded by saying “You know what, I didn’t realize you were Jeff Page”. The next year at another school concert he remembered my name. Fortunately I recognized him the second time.
76. I believe that the 2-hour marathon record will be set in the next few years (likely in a contrived Nike or similar attempt) but then will be set in “normal” race conditions a few years after that.
77. I still believe that we should go to Mars and set up a permanent colony.
78. QBQ! by John G. Miller has had the greatest impact on my daily life. I’m always asking my kids “What’s the QBQ” when they ask me a question out of the blue. QBQ stands for “Question behind the question”
79. I like Yodeling (listening to it…God knows I can’t actually do it)
80. I grew up in Illinois, in the “super-boonie” suburbs of Chicago.
81. I’m constantly frustrated by the Hectic Family who doesn’t see the benefit of an organized kitchen. I freely admit that I’ve got a lot of stuff, but everything has a place and a purpose in my kitchen. When they put things away in random spots (not where they got them from) it drives me crazy. Like stomping my feet and yelling crazy.
82. I think the entire concept of Black Friday is stupid. I staunchly stay at home whilst the rest of my family participates.
83. I’ve been using the mise en place kitchen technique since long before I knew what it was called.
84. I really hate Thanos and can’t wait to see how’s he’s brought down in the next Marvel Infinity War movie.
85. I love all forms of sausages and am constantly buying new ones I see.