'Nother meme.

This is 20 random things about me.

1. I like the colors pink and yellow together, but even I have enough fashion sense not to actually WEAR them together.

2. Just like the nerdy scientists in that movie "Weird Science," I breathe a sigh of relief when I come home and see that I have no phone messages to deal with.

3. I can't stand green pepper; it makes me sort of sick to my stomach.

4. I like really dark, bitter chocolate. My current favorite is the 70% cocoa Lindt bars that I can even get at the Wal-Mart now.

5. But better than chocolate are Aplets and Cotlets candy.

6. I hate putting dishes away after they've been washed in the dishwasher. I think that's because that was my main "chore" when I was a little kid.

7. I still have teddy bears (plural) sitting on my bed.

8. I was attacked by a spruce grouse on a trip through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It ran up to the car and the car's driver said to me, "Erica, get out and scare that bird away so I don't hit it." It didn't actually injure me, the main thing it did was come up and sit on my foot and grab my pants leg in its beak.

9. I'm a little bit scared of large birds though, especially ones with talons. I'm not too happy if I'm walking along and see a turkey vulture flying overhead.

10. If someone lights a match or a bunsen burner anywhere in the building, I can smell it while sitting in my office. I am kind of like a first-line-of-defense fire alarm. I am just generally super-olfactorily-sensitive.

11. I'm a pencil snob; I will only use Ticonderoga pencils because I think they use a better grade of graphite than cheaper pencils.

12. I'm the same way about paper towels. Brawny is my brand-of-choice but I will use the extrathick Bounty if I only have access to a store that doesn't sell Brawny.

13. My favorite household chore is doing the laundry; it's easy, it makes me feel taken-care-of.

14. I can usually accurately guess the composer of an unfamiliar piece of music (if it's a composer I know and if it's not someone who is deliberately mimicking someone else's style). I also have an excellent memory for music - I can remember the odd bits of pop songs that are used on commercials (and sometimes notice that they're wildly inappropriate: Target's back-to-school commercial this year used a slightly modified version of "Baby Got Back.")

15. If I've been somewhere once (as long as it's not dark out) I can find my way around in the place again. I have an excellent "landmark" memory. I'm not so good at drawing maps for other people or at remembering street names. I also find books on my bookshelves and things in my office in the same way - I guess I have a good kinesthetic or spatial memory.

16. I don't see well in the dark and generally dislike driving after dark, especially in traffic.

17. I have a food intolerance to carrots and to celery. (It's like lactose intolerance but with those vegetables instead of milk). I'm also allergic to mangoes.

18. It takes me a long time to fall asleep at night even when I'm tired.

19. I'm generally better at remembering the scientific (binomial Latin) name of plants than I am at remembering the common names.

20. I hate shredded lettuce on sandwiches; it makes me gag. If I'm served a sandwich with shredded lettuce on it, I will pick it off. Leaf lettuce on sandwiches does not bother me although I'm generally not crazy about it (I'd rather have a whole salad on the side than some Styrofoam-y piece of iceberg sitting on top of my chicken).