Todd's Fives (since Konrad asked me to)

Todd's five joys, fears, obsessions/collections, and surprising facts.

Five Joys (besides the obvious family joys):
1. Building things--the challenge of figuring out how to do it and seeing the finished product.
2. Bike rides with my boys.
3. My new bike--I love being able to ride my bike everywhere in Rexburg and am not looking forward to driving again when the snow comes.
4. Rubbing Tiff's belly.
5. Music--it invigorates me, makes me feel young again. I can do any task as long as I can listen to some music while doing it.

Five Fears (again, besides bad things happening to my family):
1. Not becoming who I am supposed to.
2. My bike getting stolen--everynight before bed I check to make sure it is still in the garage.
3. Needles of any kind
4. I am very good at imagining potential scenarios and random actions it might lead to and do my best to try and prevent that outcome.
5. I really can't think of any others not related to my wife and children. Nearly all my fears have to do with the first one.

Five Obsessions:
1. Music--everytime I find something new I like I have to listen to it over and over. Listening to other music during this stage, I find myself wishing it sounded more like what I am obsessed with at the time. Lately it has been the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
2. Finishing school and not being poor anymore.
3. Cleanliness--not to the Matt extreme, but I love it when things are clean.
4. I love American landscape paintings/painters from the 1800s (Moran, Chruch, Bierstadt), modern art (random shapes and geometry), and Japanese wood block art of nature scenes. I would fill up my house with hand-painted reproductions if Tiff would let me.
5. I love to read and collect books, especially biographies of church leaders.

5 Surprising Facts:
1. I want to go to Law School to learn Tax Law but have no desire to practice law at a law firm. (I know, I don't really understand it either.)
2. I hate to buy something I know I can build, especially if it will cost less to build it and I know I can make it better. This really drives Tiff crazy because then there are too many things to get done and not enough time to do them and so nothing ever gets done.
3. I weighed 130 pounds when I got off a mission (and made the mistake of getting a new suit tailored right away that only fit me for a couple of months.)
4. My Scout Leader thought it would be fun to shoot his rifle at me, and did so, while on a week-long hike when I was 16. We were on the Washington coast and I was down on the beach and he was up on the trail about 500-1000 yards away. It wasn't a lot of fun with spits of sand shooting up around me (one actually nicked the toe of my boot.)
5. I have passed out three times: once during deacons quorum (we met in the baptismal font changing room, hard tile floor--I woke up to twelve heads in a circle around me); once in a doctor's office in Japan (they took blood and I was still lightheaded and told them I was not ready to walk back to the lobby. The doctor and nurse made fun of me and forced me out and I passed out halfway to my seat); and once during a birthing class before Quinton was born (they were showing drawings of episiotomy (not sure how to spell that) and I hit the floor. The teacher had never seen that before and Tiff was then very worried that she would have to be alone for the birth.)

Tags:
Sorry, I am not tagging anyone, so here are some bonus surprising facts:
6. I hate video games. I think they are just a huge waste of time.
7. I have had at least ten different hair colors.
8. I love sashimi (raw fish), especially tuna.
9. I would love to live in many different countries.
10. I would like to have a lot of land where I could have a field full of Aspen trees, a Japanese garden, a mountain bike trail, and room and means to build lots of different buildings.

A bonus post about my brother Konrad: I used to put my brother's wet towels in his sheets and then make his bed (we shared a room). He would get a big surprise when he went to bed that night. Amazingly, he quickly learned to put his wet towels back in the bathroom instead of leaving them on the floor.