A Blog Q & A That's Making the Rounds

Cross posted to Pandyland.

Ten Years Ago: I was working in downtown Minneapolis at a law firm on the 40th floor of the then, First Bank building and buying a duplex near Minnehaha Creek with my girlfriend, my best friend, and his wife. I won't jump forward in time, but I think the Feng Shui was goofy in that place.

Five Years Ago: I was working as a Sales Associate at the company where I still work. And (here comes the awwwwwwww moment. Ready?) Three days away from my wedding to Mrs. Duf. Because the post below does not answer it, I'll tell you why we got married. It was not because of love, although we love each other very much; it was not because of financial gains, although, sadly there are financial benefits to being married that are not available to all couples; it was not to have a child - although we did. I think it was symbolic. We wanted to merge our histories and our families and create a new family representative of where we'd come from. We both changed our last names to a hyphenated name as an extension of that philosophy. Mrs. Duf may have a different reason. I'll ask her.

One Year Ago: We were getting settled into our current home, and I was a Vikings fan and a Twins fan. But no more!

Yesterday: I was getting settled in our current home. I found out at work that I lost a political battle. I was opposed on a reporting structure issue by a VP and an SVP. I felt a new resource should report to me, they felt the new resource should report to the VP. As part of all this, the SVP said to my boss (the COO) that the new resource would get more/better guidance from the VP - which really hurt my pride. My boss told me that he was looking to me to "be the bigger person." Which is the same thing he told me the last time I got screwed.

Five Songs I Know All the Words To: "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill gang; "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead (okay 90% of the Radiohead catalogue); "Can't Get There from Here" by R.E.M. (okay 100% of the pre-1990 R.E.M. catalogue); "New Years Day" by U2 (okay, 90% of the U2 catalogue); "Poor Places" by Wilco (okay, 1000% of the Wilco catalogue).

Five Snacks: Dry roasted peanuts, dry roasted sunflower seeds, Sun Chips (the cheesey ones), french fries, vanilla ice cream.

Five Things I'd Do With $100 Million: Build a greenhouse for my wife, finance my brother's movies, build an architecturally significant house on my current property, start a foundation called Full Ride which would send 100 kids to college every year, and start a non-profit called the DPDP or DP2 (the death penalty defense project).

Five Places I'd Run Away To: Lawrence, Kansas; NYC; San Fran; Seward, Alaska; Vancouver, British Columbia.

Five Things I'd Never Wear: A Bush/Cheney shirt, leather, striped pants, hip shoes, well-ironed clothes.

Five Favorite TV Shows: CBS Sunday Morning; The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; Big Break IV: USA v. Europe; Wifeswap; and Rock Star INXS (I know what you're thinking HAL and SHUT IT!)

Five Greatest Joys: Dinner with friends, golfing with my wife or with friends, quiet nights at home, a great read, and a certain unmentionable something that will go unstated here (this is a family blog).

Five Favorite Toys: My Callaway Big Bertha II driver; my daughter's remote control race car; my iPod (sorry HAL); my clock collection; and my bicycle.