Twenty Five Things About Me

My friend Lori tagged me on Facebook to write twenty five things about myself and pass on the tag. It's a rather tall order, but pick up the tag if you like the challenge.

1. I've been blogging for almost three years, and there are still new material every day.
2. When I joined Facebook last year I thought I wouldn't spend much time on it since I already have a blog. Famous last words.
3. Our first house on Bufkin was my longest residence. We brought up three kids there, two of them walk on all fours, and at one point had four dogs. I miss living in a ranch house.
4. We now live in an imitation Arts and Crafts style home. After four years I still think of it as "our new house".
5. Walking down West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, which curves along the Pacific Ocean, is one of my most cherished enjoyments.
6. One of my friends at work introduced me to Buttery in Santa Cruz, which is now my favorite bakery.
7. I belong to a book club that has been running for seven years. Lately people are bailing out. Don't!
8. I met my husband through a dating service, when he was getting ready to sue them and ask me to be the witness.
9. We got married instead. The full story is here.
10. We got married on my husband's birthday and now we celebrate the anniversary a month later.
11. I've been doing this online social networking thing since 1995. We adopted Trinket in April 1995 and Bill joined a dog group at work, and they referred him to an online terrier group, Terrier-L. I'm still part of Terrier-L.
12. Bucky and I are spiritually connected.
13. For years I only drank coffee from Columbia. Now I almost don't drink coffee at all.
14. I like almost all chocolate, especially hand crafted truffles.
15. I'm far more comfortable writing than talking, in any language.
16. Although my formal Chinese language education ended in high school, I'd like to think that my Chinese is on par with grad students.
17. I baked cookies from scratch for the first time during the holidays.
18. I came to America with one suit case and a carry-on bag. Most of my belongings were lost when I left China.
19. I ran away from home when I was fourteen, only for a day, but successfully scared everyone.
20. Bill and I have been watching Boston Legal reruns. I want to grow old like Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen), not afraid of my age, with grace and dignity.
21. I learned to knit, crochet, embroider, type on a Spanish typewriter, read and write in Chinese, both in characters and in Pin Yin (Chinese spelling system) between the age of five to seven. I was very ill and had to be kept at home. My parents home schooled me on all these subjects instead of letting me "sit around and do nothing".
22. The only vegetable I don't like is eggplant.
23. I force feed all of my children, including the crab. For a few nights I put the crab in his food dish instead of leaving him alone to hide next to the heater; now he appears in the food dish at midnight looking for food.
24. I never knew I was a dog person until we got Trinket, now I can't imagine ever living without a dog.
25. In the summer of 2006 Henry and I flew to Indiana to meet up with our Feb99 friends. It was our first and only venture out by ourselves and I'm so glad we went. I have known the ladies in Feb99 group for over ten years. This is an amazing group of women.