26-50

26) One of my biggest pet peeves in this world are shopping carts that pull to one side. Seriously - how hard can it be to design a shopping cart where all 4 wheels touch the ground? I can spend 5 minutes when we enter the store just picking out the shopping cart I will go with. The best shopping carts are at Ikea - all wheel drive.
27) I have to take a Prilosec every day because of heartburn. The first time you get full on heartburn, it can make you think that you are dying. I am happier without it, but being on a pill every day makes me feel old.
28) Two things that people in the cubes next to me do that annoys the piss out of me: clipping their fingernails and clicking their mouse very loudly when they get frustrated. The former makes me think that one of the nails will fly over and land in my drink. The latter wouldn't be so bad if it weren't 15-20 times a day, every day. Dude - chill out.
29) I can't fathom ever being a dog person. They smell bad, shed a lot, and are very high maintenance. I have Carrie for those things. (Just kidding somewhat! :) )
30) Northern Exposure is and will always be my favorite TV show of all time. Back in the early 90s, I would watch it every Monday night with Mom and eat some Ben and Jerry's. Then, in repeats, I would sleep in with Carrie and wake up to watch it on A&E at 1:00. Those were the days - we would set the alarm to be up by 1:00 pm.
31) Currently, my favorite TV show is Lost. It just is. When everyone was bitching about it last year, it still had me. Friday Night Lights is the best written and acted show on TV, but I don't go to the message boards immediately after watching it the same night it airs.
32) I do not have an addictive personality, but at one point in my life I was addicted to Coke. The soft drink, not the good kind. I would get 3 12-packs, and go through that every week.
33) I lived in Michigan for a year before I realized that you paid an extra 10 cents for every can you bought, because you were expected to recycle and get back your 10 cents per can. All those coke cans - money down the drain.
34) I miss taking classes. I think I got burned out after 9 years of college, but I am ready to go back. I work with a guy taking a medieval history class, and I want to attend the lectures with him.
35) I have a weird thing about collecting - when I was into CDs, I bought them all the time. Same with baseball cards, DVDs, books, fantasy leagues, and now I am all about wine collecting. Note - only 2 of these things have any real resale value.
36) My favorite movie of all time is Field of Dreams. If you mock this movie, then we aren't friends.
37) I honestly feel like I have gotten better looking as I have gotten older. I am not bragging here, I am basing this on other peoples' reactions to me. Then again, I think it is partially in the confidence that goes along with being secure in my relationship.
38) I am in touch with my sexuality enough to admit when another guy is good looking.
39) Everyone has a famous movie that everyone else has seen, but they haven't. And when you mention it to anyone, they reply with, "You haven't seen so and so? Really?" For me, that movie is Scarface. Or maybe Pretty in Pink.
40) I really can't wait to spend Christmas with Carrie - alone. I love you all, but Christmas isn't the relaxing lovefest it was when I was growing up - I spend the majority of my favorite day of the year shuffling between at least 4 different houses. I am not saying I don't want to see you guys on this day, and I do love all the time I get to spend with everyone. The time I get to see Mom on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ranks among my most treasured moments, year in year out. But, the thought of waking up with Carrie, snow on the ground (or even possibly falling), spending all day in my PJs, making a nice meal, nowhere to go - it just seems romantic. We would come home the next day and all - I promise! It will never happen though - this is because we would both spend half the day crying and the other half on the phone. But, if we ever spend two Christmases alone, the second one would rock.
41) My weekend routine involves about 5-15 grocery/wine stores: Whole Foods, Bella Vino, the Produce Station, Village Corner, Tippins, Meijer, Costco, and occasionally Busch's, Zingerman's, the shops at Kerrytown, Kroger, Main Street, the Liquor Lotto Deli, Hillers, Morgan and York (formerly Big 10) and in the summer, the Farmers Market.
42) One of the things I look forward to most every week is going to Caribou Coffee and getting my Northern Lights Chocolate cooler with a shot of raspberry (only 5 points!), and chatting it up with Carrie's coffee boyfriend. We think his name is Logan. Carrie has a crush.
43) My dream job involves actively investing the money I won in the Lottery.
44) Out of nowhere, one of my favorite parts of summer is the heirloom tomato. Sorry Steph and Tiff. (Oh wait - Tiffany tried one and like it when she was up here!)
45) I love cured meats. That's what she said. My favorite was always prosciutto, but recently it has been surpassed by something called Soprosetta Peppata. There will be a plate of cured meats as one of the choices at the wedding. Please save me some. You can have the olives.
46) I love to cook - it is my only creative outlet.
47) Frankenstein is my favorite book of all time. Not because I like monsters or anything. It is about a man who gives birth, no help from a female, and then the creation develops an oedipal complex for his father. As much as To Kill a Mockingbird was the first book that taught me about symbolism, Frankenstein was the first to teach my how to read true subtext and use things such as Freudian analysis to describe the characters and action of a novel.
48) The three bits of knowledge about me that people I meet find out about me if we develop any kind of relationship beyond casual acquaintances are that I am the son of a preacher man, I have a master's degree, and that I moved here from Memphis.
49) I wish all of you would come and visit. The wedding doesn't count. I want to take Connor to his first college football game. (Real college football - Rhodes doesn't count.)
50) I would never ever live in Memphis again unless one of you is dying. I am just not a fan of the city anymore - I don't know if I ever was.

PS - it is 1 degree outside with a -10 wind chill. But that is for another post.