It's all about meme

I really feel like posting something today, but I really don't have much to say, what with staying home and changing sheets and doing laundry and washing dishes and making lunch and translating something for Alex and answering his E-mails (and a couple of my own) and starting to put photos in his album and stuff.

I've done plenty, but I've got nothing.

Of course, that's what memes are for.

Although I have to warn you that I was up to something like number 35 in my "100 Things About Me" meme post, and when I pulled the most interesting items for this meme, it suffered well-neigh fatal setbacks. Just so you will appreciate that this comes at a cost.

So. I've seen this in several places, most recently at Charlotte's Web and The Looney Bin and now I bring you my own list of

Five Things You Didn't Know About Me

[Unless you know me in real life, in which case little of this will come as news.]

1. I am neither musically nor horticulturally inclined. I like pretty plants and a good tune as much as the next guy, but I have no interest in pursuing the creation of either one.
   
   I'm fortunate to live in a climate where lots of nice things grow themselves and, as for music, the radio is fine with me. If I even remember to turn it on.
   
   
2. When my sister and I get together, we often pick out a 1000-piece puzzle after dinner and finish it before going to bed (admittedly, pretty late).
   
   If we have two puzzles with similar pictures, we sometimes mix them together before doing them.
   
   As a logical next step, I got her a 5000-piece puzzle for Christmas. It's nearly 5 feet long and part of the deal was that I'll have my 4-by-8-foot sewing table cleared off and ready when she gets here in two weeks. We can't wait.
   
   
3. I got my first passport for a middle-school trip to France.
   
   I got my second one in 1988, when I started traveling for college.
   
   During the 10 years that that passport was valid, it became so full that I had to take it in to the US Embassy to have extra pages inserted. Twice.
   
   When I got my third passport in 1999, they went ahead and gave me a double-wide (40 pages instead of the standard 20) right off the bat. That one will expire in two years, and over 90% of its pages remain untouched.
   
   
4. I have lived in Latin America for the better part of 20 years; essentially my entire adult life, and yet I could not tell you the difference between salsa and merengue music if you paid me.
   
   I can often identify a cumbia, but that is largely because, at some point during most cumbia songs, the singer will get so excited that he (in my experience, it's always a he) will let loose and just yell out "Cumbia!"
   
   Unsurprisingly, I wouldn't have clue one about what to do with any of this music in a popular dance situation. I can, however, quickly learn any choreography that Carlos the aerobics instructor makes up for the salsa, merengue and cumbia music he uses in his dance classes, and I am one of the people the other students will watch and follow if they lose their place.
   
   
5. I applied to be a contestant on the second season of Survivor - that was the Australian Outback one.
   
   If I had been accepted, or even made it into the very earliest interviews of potential contestants, we would have put off trying to have a second child until it was over. Considering that we got pregnant almost immediately (so very unlike the first time around), there would have been no Julia.
   
   Whew!

(This non-indented line inserted to make it clear that the word "Whew!" refers to relief at not having missed out on Julia, and not relief at having finished this list.)