I’ve been tagged. Usually I don’t participate in these chain-letter type things, but it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything so I figure this is as good an excuse as any to get my butt in gear. So I’m supposed to post 8 facts/habits, eh? Well, here goes.1. I spend much too much time on the computer these days. Not only do I do it for my job, but I’m hooked on anything with an RSS/Atom feed. I initially thought Bloglines was the best thing to come along since sliced bread… I no longer had to keep going back to my favorite web sites to check for updates. Now I’ve got a bazillion feeds in my blogroll… friends’ blogs, techie news sites, photo streams, comics, deals, saved Craigslist searches, you name it. It’s hard to keep up, yet I feel obligated because I might miss some kind of gem. It’s a bit overwhelming. I think I might need to put a few feeds on probation.2. Sara, the person who tagged me, is the wife of the brother of an ex-girlfriend from high-school/college and to whom I unfortunately haven’t spoken face to face in probably a decade… but we have similar taste in music (see #3) and they’re good people. So I have their blog in my blogroll. See #1.3. Back in highschool/college, I listened to Toad the Wet Sprocket a lot with said ex-girlfriend and a number of her friends and close family, including Sara. So when I saw a post on her blog about a band whose music she really enjoyed called The Weepies, I decided to check them out. After a few listens to the samples on the iTunes Store, I bought their latest album Say I Am You and had it on heavy rotation from late summer of 2006 through the winter of 2007.4. This album was on heavy rotation during this time much because, well, lets just say I was in a… melancholy… mood, to put it lightly. Between the stresses of adjusting to a second child, dealing with knee pains that prevented me from running (after getting hooked on it while training for a marathon) and dealing with SAD symptoms brought on by the dull gray Michigan winter (yes, I’ve checked in to the Hotel California) among other things, it was not the best of times.5. On a lighter note, I’m a mango nut. It all started many years ago with dried mango fillets that I sampled at my aunt’s house in Nevada over the holidays. For the longest time, that’s pretty much all I had a craving for (not the sugar coated spears… bleh), even to the point of putting 5 lb. bags on my birthday/holiday wish lists. However, earlier this spring I tried a few varieties of fresh mangoes. Based on what I tried, I believe Champaign mangoes are the ones used for the dried fillets. What brought this all to mind was the fact that I came home from Trader Joe’s this evening with Mango Lemonade, Pomegranate Mango juice, and Mango black tea.6. Speaking of tea, I’m a big drinker of said beverage, though I’m fairly picky. Some of my favorites:

• Bodum’s Best Black Tea: a mild black/green tea blend, yummy with a bit of sugar. I originally came across this as a sample in a Bodum loose leaf tea press we received as a wedding gift. I ordered more from their web site once upon a time, but they no longer sell any tea online. It can still be ordered by calling their New York store (which I have done).
• Irish or English Breakfast/Teatime: pretty much any brand will do. With whole milk and sugar… one of my favorites. I was turned on to this by some Irish friends who would serve it when we paid them a visit to chill out to their latest music finds.
• Tazo Honeybush: naturally sweet, caffeine-free. Needs no sweetener since it is not bitter like a black tea. It’s a good late evening tea that doesn’t run the risk of keeping me awake late.
• Stash Licorice Spice: another naturally sweet, caffeine-free tea that requires no sweetener. Also good in the evening, though I prefer it in the cooler autumn or winter months after a good meal, with or without desert. My mom introduced this one to me.

I enjoy green tea with a Chinese meal, though I rarely fix it at home. I dislike Darjeeling. I’m not a big fan of most fruity or herbal teas, either.Even though I’ll drink one to three cups of tea a day, we have managed to stock pile enough to last us the next 12 months. And yet, I just brought another box home with me tonight (see #5). *sigh*7. As long as I’m on the topic of food, I also eat two fried eggs almost every morning. Last winter I started sprinkling dried oregano and basil on them, then started using fresh home grown oregano and basil in the summer. I’ve always thought it would be cool, though perhaps a bit vane, to have something named after me. So I thought I’d call the creation “Brahman Eggs”. It looks like I’m a little late in stepping up to the plate, so to speak.8. In general, I’m not a big fan of chain letters or pyramid schemes, so I’m not going to explicitly “tag” anyone. However, if you’re reading this and decide to participate voluntarily, leave a comment to let me know. I’m only going to leave the comments open for a short while, though. I forgot to close the comments on a single post on the infrequently-used extended family blog I put together and, due to a bug in Movable Type, was not notified of approximately 13,000 spam comments (now removed) that had accumulated over a 8 month period. Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson.