While roaming through several blogs a few weeks back, I noticed some had posted lists of random things about themselves. What a fun idea for a column, I thought. Surely I could come up with a few strange and random things about me. I figured it might take a while-maybe even a few years-before I’d have enough odd things collected to fill up this space, but I started jotting down those random tidbits and quite to my surprise, I learned that

Random Thing No. 1.

I’m much stranger than I thought. In no time at all, I had my list.

2. I saved my dog’s baby teeth.

3. My favorite part about a bag of pretzels is the leftover salt at the bottom
of the bag.

4. I have a friend whose son had been collecting his toenail clippings for years.

5. For some reason, I find the above tremendously funny.

6. When I was a kid, I was so traumatized from watching “The Blob” that I used to shove towels in the crack under my bedroom door at night to keep it out.

7. When Geoff (who is now my husband) and I first started dating, I noticed his bookshelves held many of the same serial killer titles as I had at home. Instead of making me nervous, I was excited since I had many of the same titles at home.

8. On the wall in my home office, I have a growing collection of mucus man from the Mucinex ads. (”Mucus rules!” “Save the mucus!.” “Mucus happens.”)

9. On a speed-typing test once, I once clocked in at 125 words a minute without a single mistake.

10. It never happened again.

11. My favorite picture is one my daughter made when she was seven. It’s titled, “Bathtub sharks in love.”

12. On our first Valentines Day together, Geoff and I somehow managed to buy each other the exact same present. (The first two seasons of “24″ on DVD.)

13. I have a freckle on the bottom of my left foot.

14. When I’m alone in the house, I sing to my animals.

15. Sometimes, they join me.

16. More often, they hide.

17. I don’t particularly like perfume or jewelry.

18. My car is easily distinguishable from others just like it because of the dog nose art that covers the insides of the windows.

19. I was once robbed at gunpoint and handcuffed to a pole by a man wearing a fake mustache.

20. Every woman in my family has ugly feet.

21. I can’t fold fitted sheets.

22. I’ve never been able to watch the ending of the “Little Mermaid,” where Arial is saying goodbye to her father, without getting teary-eyed.

23. Many have sworn they could teach me how to (a) play tennis, or (b) drive a stick shift, but none have succeeded.

24. I wear bangs because I have a second set of eyebrows on my forehead.

25. I occasionally can’t resist attempting to pass off outrageous lies as the truth.