I do my best to avoid these blog-meme thingummies, but if Ryan, King Curmudgeon and Captain Crankypants, has accepted the tag and passed it on, it must be a powerful tag. I absolutely refuse to perpetuate the cycle by tagging people though. I have some scruples. Also, I am not sure there are seven bloggers I wouldn’t feel mean tagging who haven’t done this months ago.

I do, however, blabber a great deal. So you may very well know all of these already.

Seven Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me, yada yada

1. I had a speech impediment for a while as a child. It’s hard to describe. It was rather like a stammer, but not quite, and seemed to be caused by overexcitement.

2. I am allergic to cats, but Qubit has largely cured me. I type this with Her Majesty in my lap (and, ooph, over my right arm.) For most of my life, having a cat in this proximity to my mucus membranes would have made life an unbearable torment. Now I can pet her, scritch her, and give her nose-kisses. Qubit has built up in my system like allergy shots. Or she’s magic, take your pick.

3. As a youngster, I believed Ewoks really lived in the Redwood Forest. When your parents tell you the Endor scenes were filmed there, what are you supposed to think?

4. I have a hard time remembering easy names. Especially simple female names. I think it’s a side effect of growing up in a family with extremely unusual names for all the women.

5. One of my legs is slightly longer than the other. I think it’s genetic, as my dad has the same leg shorter by the same amount.

6. I played the violin and the clarinet for a year each before starting the oboe. After I quit the violin, my parents wanted me to prove I could commit to something before they shelled out for an oboe rental, and the family had a wooden clarinet I could borrow. I also played the piano for five years, but I’m sure more of ye know that.

7. I don’t like touching rough brown kraft paper. It often gives me a flinch, like hearing nails on a blackboard might. Huzzah for cloth grocery bags!

There. Go forth, and be untagged if ye will, and tagged if ye’d rather! And blame Ryan for all this blather.

Official Rules, which I shamelessly disregard:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post — some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.