25 Random Things about Me

Creating a list of 25 random things about yourself is popular on Facebook right now. I created a list, so I'll share it here with the non-facebookers.

1. Throughout middle school I had braces, 2 expanders, face gear, and 2 retainers. The roof of my mouth got infected for one of the expanders so they had to take it out (expanders are cemented on to your teeth) and put it back in an additional time.
2. I am over-the-top competitive. I am able to somewhat hide it in certain circumstances but I still hate losing and do dirty things to ensure victory.
3. My wife is also overly competitive. We cannot play each other in simple games because we both just get mad. We tried to play war once, and had to quit because of a heated disagreement on a technicality. Our children are going to have problems.
4. At one point I knew the first 200 digits of pi by memory. I now only know (I think) 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884.
5. I got a D- on my first college paper. My mom proof read nearly all of my college papers after that.
6. My favorite candy is M&Ms. Peanut, regular, or peanut butter. I could eat them all day.
7. I dislike wallets. I carry a money clip and regularly purge any unnecessary cards or receipts.
8. Since college I have run 4 marathons, 4 riverbanks (25k), 3 half marathons, and a half ironman.
9. My goal is to always be in good enough running shape to run 10 miles. I do a 10 mile run in any new big city I travel to so that I can aimlessly wander around the downtown. I have completed 10 mile runs on 3 continents (Asia, SA, NA), in 3 countries (Thailand, Brazil, US) , and in 12 states (AZ, CA, HI, IL, IN, MA, MI, MO, NY, NV, OR, WY).
10. My best minesweeper scores are 62 (expert), 18 (intermediate), and 2 (beginner).
11. My best free cell streak is 112 wins in a row without losing or restarting.
12. I am very cheap. At the beginning of the summer of 2001 I had $56 in my wallet. I decided to buy gas with my credit card and spend no more than $56 on everything else for the entire summer. I succeeded, and $30 of my spending was on a single date. Fortunately (for my cheap budget), that girl broke up with me in June.
13. I lost 50 lbs during the summer of 1999. I dropped from 265 to 215 in about 4 months. Several classmates did not recognize me when I went back to school in the fall.
14. I struggle with eating. If I'm not careful I'll gain weight no matter what I'm doing. I consistently gain weight even when running 35 miles a week. Once, I gained 10 lbs in a week when I let myself go wild and eat as much as I wanted (on a cruise). I can't stand people that are "trying to gain weight" but can't.
15. In the summer of 2001 I worked two consecutive days of 20 hours. After a 13 hour day on Monday I worked 8:00 am to 3:30 am on Tuesday, slept for 2.5 hours, worked 8:00 am to 4:30 am on Wednesday, slept for 3.5 hours, and then worked 11 hours on Thursday. I capped the week off with 16 hours on Friday for an 80-hour week in 5 days. I fell asleep driving a loaded truck at the end of the night Wednesday.
16. I would rather learn how to fix something by quickly attempting it and screwing up than methodically researching it and doing it right the first time.
17. I can't stand country music, but I really enjoy bluegrass.
18. I played the string bass for 11 years, including 3 years of college orchestra. I was first chair most of those years. However, I routinely faked the difficult and fast sections. Also, I was usually first chair by default (the only bass player).
19. Before college I was told that cafeteria food was terrible and that I would survive on cereal. I was confident I would love cafeteria food and decided not to eat cereal at all to prove whoever said that wrong. I did not eat a single bowl of cereal for the 3 years I lived on Calvin's campus.
20. I can juggle 4 balls.
21. I've never had a headache.
22. I've never had coffee.
23. I've completed the 30 hour famine (originally to raise money in youth group for hunger awareness) 6 times. After telling a roommate about it in 2001, I made a $1 bet that I could go the next 30 hours without eating or drinking anything except water. No problem.
24. The first time I got in a varsity basketball game in high school I launched a 1/2 court shot with 10 seconds left in the 3rd quarter. I was dribbling down the sideline and a fan said "ten." In my excitement I thought I heard "two" and let it fly. I missed.
25. I can't whistle.