Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Mari LaCroix tagged me with this Seven Things thing, and as is the case with most surveys of this type, I feel compelled to fill it in. (BTW, there is no ragged tiger. The oddball title up there is the title of an old Duran Duran album--in which I don't believe there was a ragged tiger, either--in case you're not a huge groupie like I was. OK, still am. Because puffy hair and eye makeup or not, how hot was Simon in the "Hungry Like A Wolf" video?)

Seven things to do before I die:
1. Go to Africa
2. Scuba dive the Galapagos
3. Write and sell the big suspense and the big women's fiction books I have in my head.
4. See my girls settled and happy.
5. Go back to New Zealand and spend a few weeks there, if not build my summer house there once I find a pile of money.
6. Read all the books in my TBR pile (unless they suck, in which case I'm not reading past page 100).
7. Learn to do a lutz or a salchow, so I can continue to delude myself that I could have been the Best. Figure skater. EVAH. had I only had lessons.

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Ballet dance
2. Jump in the spider tank on Fear Factor without completely losing my mind.
3. The back of my hair. It simply will not cooperate.
4. Quantum physics. Physics frightens me.
5. Understand really complex mathematics. A Beautiful Mind frightened me. My brain is so little and simple.
6. Cook without a recipe. Well I CAN, but you wouldn't want to eat the results.
7. Stop being stubborn.

Seven things that attract me to my spouse:
1. His innate sweetness.
2. Watching him play with Maggie and Marin.
3. Those big brown eyes.
4. Listening to him speak Spanish, even if he gets things wrong from time to time.
5. His sense of humor. Because even when I don't get his jokes, watching him crack himself up is hilarious.
6. His intelligence. Even if we can't really discuss books because he'll only read sci-fi--and only a SPECIFIC type of sci-fi. No space opera, no fantasy elements, no weird aliens that look like animals, no cyberpunk, no humorous sci-fi, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. Must be Very Serious Sci-Fi with believable and intricate scientific explanations for the world that was built, and a storyline that is both edifying, suspenseful, and intriguing. Sigh.
7. Oh, and he's hot.

Seven Things I Say (or Write) Most Often:
1. Dude.
2. You're kidding me.
3. Whatever.
4. Jose, go get the baby.
5. Maggie, don't squash your sister.
6. Maggie! Rose! Fernandez!
7. I'm telling you....

Seven Books (or Series) I love:
1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
2. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. O Pioneers by Willa Cather
4. The Sevenwaters Trilogy by Juliet Marillier
5. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Yeah, Jose made me read it. It rocked.)
6. Garden of Beasts by Jeffrey Deaver
7. The Eight by Katherine Neville

Seven Movies I Would Watch Over and Over Again:
1. The five-hour BBC version of Pride & Prejudice. (And don't tell me to get a life unless you've seen it. I dare you to start watching and not stay up until 3 am to finish it. Keira Knightley, I'm talking to you, you miserable excuse for an Elizabeth Bennett.)
2. Strictly Ballroom. In my next life, I want to be in a Baz Luhrmann film. (Just not Romeo + Juliet.)
3. Casablanca (I know, everyone loves Casablanca. But there's a reason for it.)
4. Rear Window
5. The Lord of the Rings trilogy. All hail the marvelous Peter Jackson.
6. The Saint. Sure it has plot holes and a million endings, but Val Kilmer is hot.
7. The old-school Star Wars trilogy, even if you won't release the final three parts, George, you wanker.

Seven People I Want to Join In (Be Tagged):
1. Oh, heck if I know. If you read this and feel moved to do your own version, consider yourself tagged!