Monday Meme: 100 Things

The 100 Things meme was going around a few weeks ago and I started working on it. When I've had a minute or two, I've been answering a question or two. Finally finished it today. Here it is.

I have lived
1. in the same house on the same farm for the first 18 years of my life, a mile away from where my great-grandfather was raised.
2. with a pre-med major who flunked out of college in six weeks. (Pre-med? Really?)
3. in four states: Nebraska, Minnesota, Florida and California.
4. in a canvas tipi for two summers.
5. in a farmhouse, three different dorm rooms, various tents and cabins at church camp, a second story apartment, a brick duplex, two studio apartments and my present house just off Barrett Lake.
6. in Minnesota for almost eight years.
7. within sight of Kennedy Space Center.
8. without a dishwasher for ten years.
9. within walking distance of Monterey Bay.
10. in a house with electric hurricane shutters that came down like the window armor on the Urban Assault Vehicle in "Stripes."

I have witnessed
1. my wife's intestines being moved aside so our baby could be born.
2. three Nebraska NCAA national championship game victories (well, they only gave us the two - Free Shoes University "won" the 1994 Oranga Bowl).
3. the birth of puppies, calves and pigs (not all at the same time)
4. Larry Meyer, my late mentor, smash a table tennis forehand so hard it bounce off the table for the point, off the wall, back on the table, over the net & off Larry's side of the table into his hand.
5. beautiful sunsets on two continents.
6. an attempted bank robbery (in Dublin, while trying to cash some travelers' checks with my roommate).
7. our local high school quarterback pump-fake, drop the ball, catch it on the bounce and throw a 55 yard touchdown pass.
8. an 80 year-old woman finish a marathon.
9. Scott Frost winning the all-class shot put and 110 high hurdles at the same Nebraska State Track Meet.
10. an entire band bus breaking into four-part harmony while singing the "alternate" lyrics to the Colorado fight song (said lyrics not to be printed here due to pervasive obscenity).

I have heard
1. my favorite seminary professor compare the death of a beloved colleague to an eschatological premature ejaculation - causing most of his students to simultaneously think, "what the f$%@?"
2. Storyhill in concert three times, which is not nearly enough.
3. my daughter laugh for the first time (just yesterday!)
4. "Hail, Varsity!," the fight song for the University of Nebraska, so many times I think it's now hardwired into my DNA and my daughter will likely be able to hum it from memory once she develops the ability to hear music.
5. Garrison Keillor in person - the only man alive who actually LOOKS like he SOUNDS on the radio.
6. the sound of nothing but wind blowing through prairie grass.
7. the church bells of Munchen, Germany (Munich) come alive on a Sunday morning.
8. the roaring water of Niagara Falls.
9. the Minnesota Orchestra play Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection." It brought me to tears.
10. the beautiful sound of my daughter's first cries - I listened for an hour and fell completely in love.

I have lost
1. my one and only opportunity to score a touchdown because I couldn't hang on to the screen pass I intercepted.
2. lots of sleep lately.
3. my patience with a three month-old child.
4. a lot of respect for Senator John McCain.
5. any respect whatsoever for Pat Robertson (YOU SUCK, PAT!!!)
6. a 48-disc CD case on an airplane in Amsterdam.
7. pairs of sunglasses beyond number.
8. about seventy pounds from my heaviest weight.
9. some of my hair (but still less than my younger brothers - insert Nelson laugh from the Simpsons here: HA-HA!)
10. my Caribou Coffee card, only to find it again and rejoice.

I have found
1. a perfectly good filing cabinet offered for free in Bockman Hall at Luther Seminary.
2. that good pizza and good beer makes Scott a happy man.
3. that no TV and no beer makes Homer go crazy...
4. that running can help me solve a lot of problems.
5. that nagging injuries from not running properly can cause a lot of problems.
6. that life is really NEVER black and white, but always comes in shades of grey.
7. that European traffic engineers kick the collective asses of their American counterparts and we're just too stupid and stubborn to admit it and do what works (hello, roundabouts work WAY better than four-way stops and the rest of the world uses kilometers - why don't we?).
8. that if it weren't for the distance from my family and friends I'd be perfectly happy living in Europe.
9. that simple treasures like my daughter's smile, holding my wife's hand and enjoying time as a family give me far more joy than 'stuff.'
10. that music makes life far more bearable and if I had to sacrifice my senses, my hearing would be the last to go.

I love
1. my wife.
2. my child.
3. the Cornhuskers and, slightly behind, the Ducks.
4. my iPod.
5. my Jetta.
6. my guitar.
7. cooking.
8. running.
9. reading.
10. BEER! (as Franklin said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.")

I can
1. sing the "Fifty Nifty United States"song.
2. find a movie quote to fit nearly any occasion or occurrence (example: "You gonna do somethin' or just sit there and bleed." Name the movie, character who spoke and object of the insult. Bonus points if you can identify the actor playing the character who receives the insult).
3. affect a fairly decent British accent.
4. crack all the knuckles on both hands in less than three seconds.
5. "tell you her favorite stores and where she likes to park / and why to this very day she's scared of the dark...I'm the official historian on Shirley Jean Burrell."
6. Tell you just about anything you'd like to know about the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbitt, the Silmarillion and many other Tolkien-related tidbits.
7. run a mile in less than seven minutes (possibly six - I haven't done a mile time trial lately).
8. change a diaper faster than my daughter can spit up (sometimes).
9. cook all sorts of fun, interesting foods.
10. bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan... :-)

I loathe
1. sanctimonious, holier-than-God Christians.
2. Terrell Owens, Joe Horn, Chad Johnson, Randy Moss and all other overpaid, egomaniacal jocks.
3. Donald Trump. There is no "the" Donald - just another sad egomaniac multi-millionaire.
4. dropping definite articles from Twin Cities sports venues. What the hell is "Metrodome" or "Target Center?"
5. the grammatical gerrymandering that comes with singular team names in sports, as in: "the Wild is on their way to Vancouver for a series this weekend." It just sounds stupid. Stop it, please.
6. Pat Robertson (YOU SUCK, PAT!)
7. pretty much EVERYTHING on MTV and VH1 at the present. I can't remember the last time I actually watched anything on either network.
8. gore-nography flicks like "Saw" or "Hostel." At least "Reservoir Dogs" had a plot of sorts, though Tarantino is not what he used to be. Yeah, building suspense like Hitchcock is way harder, but it's also less soul-deadening than watching this crap. Seriously, you people are messed up.
9. the sheer amount of crap I get in the mail, at home and at church. Don't matter if you sign up for "no solicitation" lists or not; somehow it still gets through. Frankly, I'm more offended at the waste of resources than I am swayed by the whopping thirty cents I can get off fabric softener at your store. STOP SENDING ME CRAP.
10. people who drop the f-bomb at least once in ever sentence they utter. Folks, you're sapping the strength out of a wonderful profanity - stop stealing from those of us who still use the f-bomb for emphasis!

I hope
1. my daughter loves me as much when she's 32 as I do today.
2. my wife and I enjoy a long, life-giving marriage sharing the burdens and blessings of life.
3. that I can finish this meme before the two previous items take place.
4. that my beloved Huskers win a fifth national championship in the next ten years.
5. that said national championship comes at the end of a Division 1-A playoff (this might more properly fit under "I'm dreaming for...)
6. that the Chicago Cubs win one World Series in my lifetime (but only one - we need the Bums to keep hope alive!).
7. that my dream call becomes a reality someday (and no, I'm not telling you what it is).
8. to run in the Boston Marathon by the time I'm 40.
9. I get to travel in Ireland, Scotland and Germany someday, and also to backpack the John Muir Trail in California.
10. my next car is either a Mini Cooper or something even cooler that hasn't been developed yet.

I am trying
1. TO FINISH THIS FREAKING MEME!
2. to get my daughter to sleep through the night.
3. to watch a movie with my wife without interruptions.
4. not to worry too much about being a parent.
5. to rein in spending money on stuff I don't need.
6. to lose 20 pounds.
7. to sleep more and watch TV less.
8. to plan a summer of outdoor activities that our whole family can enjoy.
9. to keep my sanity when things don't go as I think they should.
10. to remember that until Jesus comes back, I will always be simul iustus et peccator, but also that I am baptized and God's child forever.