Questions courtesy of Friday Five:

1. Hey, baby, what’s your sign? Do you think it fits you pretty well?
Gemeni. I don’t believe in all that, but yeah – I think it fits me. I have (at least!) two sides to my personality.

2. What’s the worst birthday gift you’ve ever received?
I don’t recall any terrible gifts. Sometimes I get things that I can’t (or won’t) use, but I can generally return them. No one ever seems to get too upset about it. I guess I’m lucky.

3. What’s the best birthday gift you’ve ever received?
Again, I don’t know. Merrin gives great gifts. My mom & both mother-in-laws actually are good gift givers too. Merrin got me concert tickets one year, and that was awesome. I think we got one another Buffett tickets one year, too.

4. What’s the best way you’ve celebrated your birthday thus far?
I’m a homebody. I like just having everybody together. Merrin & I celebrate our birthdays together since they’re one day apart. I think just being with everyone is the best way to celebrate. And drinking, lot’s of drinking.

5. What are your plans for this weekend?
I’m gonna scour the internet and try to find out the correct time to plant some bushes in our back yard. I also plan on doing some home repairs and working on a couple of internet sites for clients. And, if now is the right time to plant, I guess I’ll be digging some holes this weekend. Hope your weekend turns out great, too!

Brought to your by the fine folks @ Friday Five:

1. What was the first thing you ever cooked?
I can remember being in Boy Scouts and learning to cook only two things (other than hot dogs): scrambled eggs w/ bacon pieces and hobo dinners. I think I mastered the hobo dinner first. Take meat, potatoes, carrots, & onions and wrap them in foil. Place in the warm embers of the fire. Cook ’till foil is burnt.

2. What’s your signature dish?
I’m personally better at naming the dish than cooking it. Cooking is Merrin’s thing. I guess my best dish is a Chicken with Basil, Garlic, Onions and Zucchini served on a bed of mozzarella rice.

3. Ever had a cooking disaster? (tasted like crap, didn’t work, etc.) Describe.
I have repressed memories of some terrible cooking fiascos. Most of the time, I just order pizza and try to get the smoke out of the house.

4. If skill and money were no object, what would make for your dream meal?
I think it’s more who I’m with and where we are that makes a dream meal. I’d take my wife to Rome and order Spaghetti Os.

5. What are you doing this weekend?
I think golf will be a big player. Merrin is off today but has to work overnight Saturday. Maybe we’ll go out tonight and try to relax. I hear there’s a Britney Spears movie. Maybe if they leave the sound off….

This week’s Friday Five is Valentine’s/Love themed. While I don’t mine spilling the ‘days of my life’ for all to see, I do have some limits. As Mom always said, “Don’t say it unless you’d want your mother to hear it.” Same holds on the internet. So, forgive my shyness.

1. What’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever done for someone else?
I don’t know if I’m qualified to answer that. I might have thought a “surprise oil change” was romantic, but…. I think Merrin would be better inclined to answer. Perhaps surprising Merrin with a *very* nice dinner and gifts before we went to Bass Hall a ccouple of years ago. I don’t know. I wish she’d tell me, maybe I’d do it more often.

2. What are your erogenous zones?
I have to say all of them. Seriously. Yes, I know what it means. And I’m serious: All of them.

3. How old were you the first time you had sex? Care to expound?
I don’t know. My whole life before Merrin seems like a blur. I do remember that I didn’t wear white to my own wedding, but –in the words of Forrest Gump– that’s all I have to say about that.

4. What’s the most unusual place you’ve ever had sex?
Most people find Texas peculiar, but I kinda like it.

5. Do you have plans for Valentine’s Day or is it just another Thursday?
Yes, but if I tell you what they are, it won’t be a surprise!!

Questions courtesy of Friday Five – answers courtesy of my life!

1. Have you ever had braces? Any other teeth trauma?
I had braces through most of high school. Doesn’t everyone want to be wearing braces during their senior pictures?! After that, I had a retainer with two metal spikes. They looked like snakes fangs, actually. These “fangs” were to help control my tounge thrust. (Obligatory childish comments omitted).

2. Ever broken any bones?
No. I always wanted to so everyone could sign my cast. I thought I might have two years ago when I fell off the ladder installing the satellite dish!

3. Ever had stitches?
Stiches? Yeah, I got those! I got a few in my lip (inside my mouth!) when I get hit in the mouth during a little league game. I got a few more stitches when I had my appendix removed as a kid.

4. What are the stories behind some of your [physical] scars?
I really don’t have too many scars. Maybe I’m unbreakable.

5. How do you plan to spend your weekend?
I have a date tonight with my wife. That’s really a treat because we don’t get to just relax and have a date too often anymore. Golf tomorrow morning and who knows what tomorrow night. Sunday is the Mavericks vs. Lakers game. We have Cheryl over to watch Six Feet Under and have dinner. We might catch some Super Bowl commercials on Tivo.