Ten Things I've Done that You Probably Haven't

Looks like it's meme time in the blogosphere again. *g* Consider yourself tagged if you see this.

Gah, I live a fairly normal, boring life really. Some of these will probably be pretty lame. I haven't eaten grubs or gone undercover or anything like that... *w*

1. I've been invited to audition for Jeopardy! (Never got called, though - and last week a woman from my city was on and failed miserably. I couldn't help thinking "She took my spot!" *sigh*)

2. I've broken/snuck into an archaeological site in Israel (that takes care of you, Claire *w*) after hours. (Full disclosure: I was with a group, and our guide was an IAA archaeologist with clearance to the site, and we were just running late so he took us around and we all climbed the fence and went up the back side of the tel.) It was Tel Megiddo, the supposed site of Armageddon (from har Megiddo - mount/hill of Megiddo) if anyone's interested.

3. I've played the part of Satan in the wordless (okay, I'll say it - mime) drama entitled "A Tale of Two Kingdoms" while on a missions trip to Mexico.

4. On that same trip, I was on a bus with a woman possessed by a demon (or several). Seriously.

5. I've...ah...well...you know what up on a service ledge in the tube room of a very large research Van de Graaff accelerator. Beam wasn't on, though; it was after midnight and the lab was shut down for the night. And at least one person reading this can say the same thing.

6. I have, in fact, started beam, tuned, and done research on the gamma spectrum of Te-118 (an isotope of the element tellurium) with the aforementioned Van de Graaff accelerator. That also involved filling the HPGe detectors with liquid nitrogen. You can have lots of fun with liquid nitrogen. *g*

7. I've broken a $50,000 piece of physics beam scanning equipment by rotating a multi-ton linac (LINear ACcelerator) gantry into it while I was in grad school. They didn't kick me out or make me pay for the repairs, thankfully.

8. I have a literal right to the moniker "Bahama Mama", considering my son was conceived in a cabin on the cruise ship Carnival Fascination, somewhere in the waters off Nassau.

9. I've solved a mathematically-impossible puzzle. Honestly. But I was 12 or 13 at the time, and the puzzle was presented to me as merely "hard." I spent the better part of a day on it, found a solution, had this confirmed by quite a few people, and promptly lost it. Some years later, I was presented the same puzzle and dismissed it with "oh, I've solved that one." Presenter: "No, you haven't." Me: "Yes, I have!" Him: "You can't've - it's impossible." Me (obstinately): "Well, I did." (I've never been able to solve it again.)

10. I offered to elope, immediately, with my high school boyfriend if he could solve same puzzle. I was serious, and would have followed through if he'd done it. (He didn't, but it all worked out for us in the end. See #5 and #8...)

Wow, I can't believe I'm about to hit publish with some of the stuff I included here. Let the Reader Beware. *w*