Five Questions Meme

I've been tagged for a meme by Qtpies7 at Our Seven Qtpies.
I'm not crazy about tagging people with memes, so I won't, but here's the rules: You get tagged with 5 random questions, you answer them, and then make up five of your own to tag someone with.

I'll just answer the questions, and if one of them inspires something in you, you can answer it in the comments, or you can simply use these questions for a blog subject on your blog and even tag some other folks if you feel like it.

1. What was it about your spouse that made you decide he/she was the one? The absolute honest truth, and easiest answer is that with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, God put us in one another's path. If you don't believe in God, well, I have no answer for you then. I met her at a company Christmas party in December of 1981. We both worked for the same restaurant chain, but at different units. She was there with a friend that worked with me at the restaurant I worked at, and I had gone to the party with a good friend, Wes. As we saw my coworker at the party, and Wes and I headed over to talk to her, we saw that she was with a friend that eventually came to be Lovely Wife. As we walked over to the two women standing there, I elbowed my friend Wes and told him, "I think I'm in love." I was smitten from the very first moment I laid eyes on her. The night of our first date, we sat in my car in her driveway and talked until 4am. We just hit it off from the start. It took me a few months to convince her that I was the one for her though. (That's a photo of her with me in front of her family's Christmas tree within a couple of weeks of us meeting. December of 1981. This was our second or third date. Now you see what I saw across the room at that Christmas party.)

2. What was your favorite pet in your entire life? And why? One? Wow. We have four poodles, a cat, and a fish right now. But the first poodle we bought, Angel, is my little buddy. She's a 6 pound white toy poodle. I love them all to distraction, but she claimed me as her own. She's sweet with everyone, but she follows me around and is the one who senses when I'm sick or my back hurts and stays where she can touch me. Wherever I sit, she wants to sit on one of my shoulders. Six pound dog and 300 pound man. It must look funny. She truly lifts my spirits, though that can also be said about all the others. (That's Angel in her sweater this past Thanksgiving. She stood there through the whole meal trying to guilt trip me into giving her food.)

3. What one thing should you give up? (coke, cookies, computer?)Bread. I'm a bread junkie. I could SO live off sandwiches, honey buns, cinnamon rolls, donuts, etc. I told Lovely Wife just last week that if white iced honey buns were good for you, I'd be the healthiest man alive.

4. What is your most embarrassing moment? Ok, at least name an embarrassing moment! One night about seven years ago, I was driving a van full of family, and I mean full, and we pulled through McDonald's and each ordered a value meal. I paid for, and was handed our order, we pulled away, and they looked into the bags and there were no fries. What! Jeesh, that's the only thing McDonald's does decent is fries and they gave us none with all of those value meals. I circled around, stormed into the place and threw a world-class fit (no cussin' though). I was some kind of fired up. It's sort of a family legend now that gets brought out for all to hear about on special occasions.

5. What is your favorite/most interesting/weirdest job you've ever held? I haven't had a weird job. I've done all manner of restaurant work from busing tables, cleaning up vomit and bathrooms to being the manager of a couple of them. I've done all manner of airline work, baggage and freight handling, to cleaning the insides of planes when they were parked overnight. (Which, like restaurant work, entailed cleaning up vomit.) I've been a phone prayer counselor for the 700 Club, and that was pretty wild.

But my work as an engineer has been the hardest, yet most rewarding work. You may have noticed I don't talk specifically about my work on here. I'm not allowed to. We do work that I am so proud to be a part of, and much of it has been working on and with devices that have never existed before, anywhere, and that help to protect and make America stronger. It can be difficult and demanding, as can my fellow engineers, but when we design, build, test, and deliver items that are completely new and unique in the world, it all becomes worth it. If you're curious, here's a link to the company web site. You'll have to be satisfied with what you see there. I work specifically in this division.