Seven Things...again....

Futilely resisting the siren song of another little quiz-thing, here's a...well, a quiz-thing! Via Belladonna, who's been on a blogging explosion of late (for her, anyway):

7 things I've done before

ONE: Done a "rock drop" in a kayak. This is where you balance your boat on top of a giant boulder at the side of a river, climb in, and then push off so the boat slides forward and drops off the side of the rock to drop, nose first, into the river. Mine was about a ten-foot drop. Scared the living crap out of me.

TWO: Driven a scissor-lift with the lift raised to more than half its height, over uneven pavement.

THREE: Set the backyard on fire at my parents' house. (In my defense, my father's done this a lot more. It happens when burning garbage in late spring. Nothing got damaged; we always kept a hose run out there for this purpose.)

FOUR: Stood on the spot where Abraham Zapruder recorded the most famous home video in history. (OK, it was a home movie, since it used film and not videotape. So what!)

FIVE: Accepted the favor of a future convicted felon. This happened when I was invited to see a Bills game at the luxury suite owned at the time by Adelphia Cable's John Rigas, who would later go to prison for various financial legerdemain.

SIX: Played "Taps" for an American Legion funeral. I was supremely proud to do this.

SEVEN: Written an unproduced screenplay. (Hey, who hasn't?)

7 things I do now

ONE: Work with power tools. My most recent acquisitions at work include a circular saw, an angle grinder, a finish sander, and two nail guns.

TWO: I blog, again.

THREE: Drink green tea several days a week in place of coffee.

FOUR: I make a lot of great things from scratch, including the following: macaroni and cheese, Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, pastitsio, chocolate chip cookies, chili, beef stew.

FIVE: I still watch too much football. This might be my last season of this, and it's not just that the Bills aren't very good. I find myself looking forward more and more to those Sundays in February when I don't feel like I have to watch football.

SIX: I'm watching more movies than new crap on teevee. This is much more satisfying.

SEVEN: Write unproduced screenplays. (Hey, who isn't?)

7 things I want to do

ONE: Continue to lose weight. I've regressed a wee bit after hitting my best weight in years (which was exactly 40 pounds less than when I started my return to health), putting five pounds back on, but that will go away. Oh yes.

TWO: Get many long-standing writing projects done, and get some that have been bouncing around my head started at last.

THREE: Listen to the entirety of Wagner's Ring Cycle, in sequential fashion, which I haven't done in so long that I almost can't say I've done it at all anymore.

FOUR: Make my own pizza more often.

FIVE: Shake the hands of George Lucas, Guy Gavriel Kay, William Shatner, Harrison Ford, Sela Ward, Carrie Fisher, Gillian Anderson, and Barack Obama.

SIX: Re-organize my CD collection. It is out of control, and I don't even buy music very often anymore.

SEVEN: Write more screenplays. Maybe even see one of 'em get produced. Also see some other stuff of mine appear in print.

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex

ONE: Hair. Long, and preferably red.

TWO: A great smile.

THREE: A willingness to laugh at my humor, which sometimes I admit isn't that funny.

FOUR: Beautiful eyes.

FIVE: Knowing who Han Solo, Aragorn, or Captain Kirk are. Bonus if they're familiar with all three.

SIX: Curiosity about the world.

SEVEN: Empathy.

7 Favorite Foods

Pizza, chicken wings, blueberries, apples, sandwiches on quality bread, ice cream, coconut or chocolate cream pie.

7 things I Say Most Often:

ONE: "We can only hope."

TWO: "Gwaaah?!"

THREE: How the hell am I supposed to know that?

FOUR: I suppose there's some hypothetical world where that actually was a good idea.

FIVE: Huh. Well, there's something you don't see every day.

SIX: Yeah, I could eat.

SEVEN: Shut up!

No tagging on this one. Grab and go, folks. Exeunt.