100 Boring Facts

Well, lots of people have done this so I guess I am a follower...

1. I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
2. I am 35 years old.
3. I am happily married to my high school sweetheart.
4. I have 3 sons ages 9, 5, and 3.
5. The only sport I played in high school was baseball.
6. When I graduate from high school, I was 6’ and weighed about 145 lbs.
7. I am a sports fanatic and love football and baseball.
8. I got my undergraduate degree in Accounting from University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
9. I played rugby my freshman year in college. Yes, I still weighed 145 lbs. I was a fullback. I like to drink and did a lot in college.
10. I don’t weigh 145 anymore. I weigh 195 lbs now. I am still 6’ tall though.
11. My parents couldn’t afford to pay for college after my freshman year.
12. I chose the college I went to because my parents told me that was the school they could afford.
13. The summer after my freshman year I went in the Air National Guard to pay for school myself.
14. I can be hard-headed and rash at times.
15. I went to basic training August through October in San Antonio Texas in 1990. It was hot as hell.
16. I went to technical school in Denver Colorado from October through December of 1990.
17. The job I did in the Air Force was a munitions systems specialist where I put together missiles used by F-15 fighter jets.
18. I am a risk averse person.
19. I was in the Air National Guard for 8 years but left after finishing college and finishing my obligation.
20. I still graduated from college with the same class that I started with by taking some summer classes to catch up.
21. After skipping the year for basic training and technical school, I returned to school and lived with the same roommates.
22. My wife and I went to separate colleges.
23. My wife wrote me a letter every day I was away at basic training and technical school. That is a lot of letters that I still have.
24. My first job was an accounting clerk at a small bank where I made $18k per year.
25. I only stayed in that job for about 11 months then made a whopping $22.5k per year in my next job as a portfolio accountant.
26. I work for the same company that I went to after my first job. I left for 2 years because I was underpaid. I make more money now.
27. They paid for me to go to graduate school where I got my MBA with a concentration in CIS.
28. It took me 4 years of night school to get my MBA. I started when my first son was born and finished when my second was born.
29. I don’t think I am overly smart, but I am above average in common sense.
30. I do well on tests, although I never have studied too hard. I got a 630 on my GMATs and the school I went to gave me a grant for my first class. I didn’t really care either way since I wasn’t paying for it anyway.
31. I think I “get the joke” of life. I know how to get by and succeed in most things I set out to do.
32. I now manage a group of business analysts that work on our financial services online reporting product. We are part of IT.
33. I am not a techie. Techies confuse me. I am a business guy in the IT world.
34. I would rather have a client service/relationship management role within my organization.
35. I am working on it.
36. My wife has been at home with our kids since they were born. It has been a struggle at times, but well worth it.
37. My wife was a teacher for 3 years before we had our first son.
38. I don’t have much of a Boston accent because my wife used to correct the way I spoke. I got used to it and stopped fighting it.
39. I live in the same town that I grew up in and have lived there my whole life with the exception of college and the military.
40. I don’t have a ton of high school friends, but I have a great group of friends that I enjoy hanging out with.
41. My neighborhood is a fun place to live because we have a lot of parties. Through the years, we have all had kids but continue to have fun together.
42. I have 2 younger sisters. The youngest is a nurse and lives in the same town as me. The other is a multi-hat wearer at a growing voice over IP company in NYC. She will be filthy rich soon. I can feel it.
43. I have never been overseas.
44. I am going overseas next week for the first time for work.
45. I am going to Munich and Luxembourg. Know any good poker joints?
46. I started playing live NL poker last September in a free bar league.
47. That got me back to the online poker scene and reading poker blogs to try and get better at this game.
48. I decided to start my own in December after reading about all the fun everyone had in Vegas at the gathering.
49. I am going to Vegas May 31- June 3 so I will be missing both the blogger Vegas trip as well as Okie-Vegas.
50. I plan to meet up with Carmen Sin City and Miami Don while I am in Vegas.
51. I am playing in the National Championship for the bar league I joined. It is this Saturday, April 29th in St. Louis, MO.
52. There will be 190 people in that tourney and the only prize I know of is a seat in the main event at this year’s WSOP.
53. I am hoping there are additional prizes because I don’t think I will win, and I don’t think I could do 2 weeks in Vegas even if I did win.
54. Chris Moneymaker is going to be at the tourney. I am reading his book now so I have something interesting to say to him. Have you read it? I never knew his story. It is a great, quick read. Amazing really.
55. I have never been arrested.
56. I have never done any drugs. None. Never had the desire.
57. I am a pretty confident person but not an egomaniac. I believe there is nothing that I am better than everyone at.
58. People generally like me. I can get along with anyone.
59. I do like to drink but it is unusual for me to drink during the week unless I am going out.
60. When I won the Mookie tourney 2 weeks ago, at the break, I wanted a beer but couldn’t find one so I drank a Mike’s hard berry drink. I felt like a girly man, but I wanted a drink.
61. I usually drink Jack Daniels but not when I need to keep sharp like in that tourney.
62. The girly drink worked so well, I had another one last Thursday night at the first break during the 180 SNG I played.
63. I think I might buy stock in the company that makes Mike’s hard liquors.
64. On my 27th birthday, I almost got run over by the Sunday paper delivery guy at 3am. I was crawling in my driveway after a night of shot after shot. It was ugly.
65. I own a timeshare on Cape Cod. I paid $2500 dollars for it about 7 years ago. We have never stayed there for the week because it is only 30 minutes from our house.
66. We have swapped the timeshare for a week in Disney world every year. We once stayed in a one bedroom suite at the Beach club for $200 for the week. If we booked it through Disney, it would have been $3700 for the week. Booya.
67. My 9 year old has been to Disney 10 times.
68. All of my boys have been to Disney once before they had their first birthday. They are spoiled.
69. My favorite vacation ever was my honeymoon to Hawaii. I guess that is the way it should be. If we do every make it back, it will never be the same.
70. I have a dog, Zoe. I am not much of a pet person, but my wife and kids are.
71. My grandfather was a big influence in my life. He taught me about sports, gambling and boozing. He died when I was 23 when he was only 72 years old.
72. My father was never a sports fan. He was a blue collar guy that never made too much money, loved to work in the yard, and has an explosive temper.
73. I got the temper, but I control mine better than him.
74. My father always favored my sisters growing up, but I know he is very proud of me now and I think that is why I tend to be tough on my oldest son. It is probably unfair, but I am really nothing like my father at all.
75. I have a good relationship with my father now.
76. I was the first person to graduate from college in my extended family.
77. I have never broken any bones (knock wood) and have had stitches just once in my life. I cut my leg on a can taking the trash out when I was about 12.
78. I am not trying too hard to build my bankroll online. My motivation in playing is to improve, meet people that have the same interest and are interesting, and at least break even. I am succeeding on all goals.
79. I bought an iPod video with some of the cash I won in the 180 SNG for myself.
80. I am buying my wife a pair of earrings with some the cash too. That’s what she wants and she does put up with my addiction pretty well.
81. I feel like a dork on yahoo voicechat but I love it. I have met a lot of cool people that way and I know I will continue to.
82. I have been to 11 major league stadiums to watch games. I used to travel more for work and would go a game whenever I could.
83. My favorite stadium, besides Fenway Park, is Pac Bell in San Francisco.
84. While I was in Colorado at a Sox vs. Rockies game, I caught a foul ball on a wicked carom off the façade of the upper deck. There was a little kid sitting in front of me with a Yankee shirt. I kept the ball.
85. If the little kid had anything else on, I may have given him the ball.
86. I have one tattoo and it is of the Red Sox logo. The one with the 2 overlapping socks. I wish I have gotten it outlined with blue because it is all red and everyone always asked if it is real or not.
87. I got the tattoo after they won the World Series in 2004.
88. I don’t understand NASCAR racing. Is it really a sport? That isn’t a dig, I just don’t get the draw.
89. The 5 places I want to visit in the US, that I haven’t yet are: San Diego, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Hilton Head, and Myrtle Beach. The first 3 to see a game. The last 2 to play golf, obviously.
90. I would have loved to attend Okie Vegas this year, but with my Nevada Vegas trip the week before, not gonna happen. Maybe next year.
91. My mother has a house on a lake in Maine. She just bought it 2 years ago and we love to get up there. It is a 4 hour drive but now that my kids are getting older, I hope to make it up more this year.
92. My favorite picture, which just about everyone in my family has blown up and framed was taken at her lake house.
93. This 100 list thing is tough without getting a little crazy.
94. I am speaking at a conference in Orlando in November. I still have to write the session brief. This will be the first time I have done anything like that, but I am looking forward to it.
95. I attended the conference last year and ending up skipping quite a bit of it. Business Analysis and Project Management conference can get boring. Orlando in November is too nice of weather to pass up.
96. Yes, it was at Disney world. I had a company paid room but my family didn’t come with me because we were already planning on going in January for a week and didn’t want my oldest to miss too much school.
97. I have held 3 large poker tournaments at my house since December. The next one is going to be a 32 person heads up tourney. If anyone is interested, let me know.
98. I bought custom made stickers that I put on the poker chips to make sure everything was on the up and up. I am a trusting person, but my buddies who are cops, and played, are not.
99. I didn’t have to worry about my game getting busted since there were no less than 8 local cops in the tourney.
100. I am not the Poker Champ.