Seven things

Many of my blog buddies took time recently to give some info on things we readers may not have known about them, and they took turns tagging fellow bloggers. Sadly, I was not tagged.

Give me a second to wipe my crocodile tears.

Anyway, I figured I'd jump into the fray uninvited, what with me being the party crasher that I am. So here are seven things you trusty readers may not have known about me.

1. My wife did not take my last name. We were both journalists when we met and she had been trying to establish herself and her byline was important to her. But really, she just didn't want to change her name and I think she used that as a way to justify it to others. She didn't need to because I didn't care then and I don't care now. Her not having my last name doesn't make her less of a wife or anything. My daughters both have my last name, so we're three Buenos and one non-Bueno.

2. Sweet Potato Bread turned me on to cooking/baking. Seriously. It was the fall of '07 (waaaaaay back then) and I wanted something with some sweet potato in it. My wife was a good baker so I asked her to make something but she was cool to the idea. I found this recipe for Sweet Potato Bread on AllRecipes.com and it came out great. So that led to more recipes which led to more and eventually I realized I had a love of cooking/baking. I have since relieved my wife of her cooking/baking duties.

3. I tried (unsuccessfully) once to take a poop in corn field. I went to Mexico for a month in 1992 (between my junior and senior years of high school) and fell in love with the place (stayed with grandparents in my mom and dad's hometown). While there, I went on a trip to a city some six hours away with a large group of people from the town (probably 50 total) as part of some Mexican independence day festivities. On our way back, we stopped off for lunch and I ate too much. I knew bathrooms were going to be an issue so I hadn't eaten much on the three-day trip but I indulged. We made another brief stop, near a patch of six houses that passed for a teeny tiny town. I went to a house with my uncle to ask to use the bathroom and an old man laughed, pointed to a cornfield and told us that was the bathroom. I had to go really bad so what was I going to do? Well, I won't go into detail but let's just say there was some stage fright involved, and suddenly the urge went away.

4. I have a severe dislike of "white" food, white as in they have the same color. I don't like Alfredo sauce, mayonaisse, sour cream, Ranch dressing, cream cheese. I made this Alfredo sauce a few times actually and my wife loved it. I could not have disliked it more. Now, I do like some other "white" food, like milk, Monterey Jack cheese, mozzarella cheese, white chocolate... it's just some of the major ones that are really popular that I don't like for some reason. I know, it's strange.

5. I don't have a middle name. My parents didn't give me one. I always thought it was weird to have a middle name growing up, but I gave my girls middle names. The oldest has my grandmother's name (Esperanza) and the youngest has my mom's name (Raquel), although I really wanted to name my first girl Esperanza. Sadly, I lost that battle.

6. I speak German... a little. I took three years of it in high school and two semesters of it in college. I haven't ever really used it but if I were to be dropped in Munich or Hamburg for six months I know I'd be speaking it well shortly. Why German? When I registered for my high school freshmen classes, Spanish was all full and I didn't want to take French so I went for German. I like the language actually and I try to say things every now and then German. I have used it before. The first time was actually in France. I went with my wife's family to Kaiserslautern to visit my brother-in-law. We went into France for a day and stopped to eat but nobody in the place we went to spoke English. They all spoke German though so I ordered us some pizza. I also used it in Munich to help navigate through the city. I would have made my respective teachers proud.

7. I have two tattoos. I got my first one when I was 22, a sun on my left leg. I got the other one in 2000, a sun on my back. This is what my first one looks like (sans the group's name around the circle) and my second one is also a sun (except I put a "T" in the middle for my wife, her name begins with a T). I really want to get two more tattoos but I've been met with resistance. See, I wanted to get something to symbolize my weight loss, something I could see every day. I want to get Japanese symbols on my forearms. I want to get one on each arm. It would be great motivation for me. When I'm struggling or feeling tempted to do something I shouldn't, I'd only have to look down at my arms to remind myself of the trouble I went to, the work I put in just to reach my goals. I want to get the symbol, or Kanji, for discipline on one arm and on the other... not sure. One of the following probably: focus, commitment, strength, determination. Those are some of ones I've kicked around. I really want to do it but I don't know if I can get everyone on board with my decision.

Okay, well if I haven't driven you off by now, I guess you know a little bit more about yours truly than you probably bargained for. I'll get back to fitness-related stuff shortly.