on your journey, i will bless you...

Friday at work was a No-Good Very Bad Day... but to make up for it, Rebecca had an awesome weekend! After temple services, I finally buckled down and made pecan pie muffins for my Torah study group. I watched X-Men 2 while they were baking, in celebration of the awesome trailer for X-Men: First Class that was just released. My cousin Matthew sent me a link to it on Facebook on Thursday night, and I must have watched it a hundred times since then! I used to love those movies. I saw both X-Men and X2 in theater, and they were probably the first fanfiction I ever read. (But of course the first fanfiction I ever wrote goes to NCIS.) But after the crap that was X3 and Origins: Wolverine, I thought the franchise could never redeem itself. But this new movie might just prove me wrong! The trailer looks so amazing. Cross your fingers that it'll live up.

Link: Trailer for X-Men: First Class.

Saturday got off to a rough start. I woke up very early after a disturbing dream in which me and all my friends from the temple were being rounded up by Nazis. It left me quite shaken, so I went into the living room and watched TV until I dozed off again. Then I got up at nine to head to Torah study. One man there, Si, has a deep gravelly voice like Johnny Cash, and I just love listening to him read. I think if he ever recorded an audiobook of reading the Torah, he could scare straight a lot of people. My muffins were a hit. I think either 1) the batch I made for Thanksgiving 2009 (the ones nobody ate) were just freak duds, 2) everyone except my relatives likes my muffins, or 3) they really do suck, and the folks at temple were just too polite to say anything. Or maybe I'm overthinking these muffins.

Link: Recipe for pecan pie muffins.

After Torah study, I went on a long, glorious bike ride all over the neighborhood. The weather was cool and sunny, the sun was shining, and Rebecca loved every minute of it. (It's hard to believe that there were icicles hanging off my car just two weeks ago!) It was the best sort of bike ride, ambling all over, listening to the same song over and over again -- this time it was "We Belong Together," from Toy Story 3. When I came home, I actually said to Sara, "I feel so fresh and alive!" (Even though I was probably all sweaty and smelly.) She had gotten a gift card to Chili's, so we went there for dinner that night. I usually always get the same dish there, but this time I tried something new, and it wasn't half-bad.

Link: "We Belong Together."

Today we all went over to Grandma's for spaghetti and birthday cake for Aunt Celeste. We stuffed our faces and talked about Stephen King books, and I took a few pictures. I've been fiddling with my camera a lot lately, trying to figure out how to keep the subject focused while blurring the background. I eventually realized that the trick to it is the zoom. It's difficult, because you have to adjust the zoom depending on how far the subject is from your lens, and how far the background is behind the subject. If I ever have kids (a mighty big if, I know), maybe I'll have gotten the hang of it by then. I just hope I'll have moved on from this old camera!


This was the best shot I could get today. Yes, I did edit it on the computer, and the contrast is too severe, but I still like it. Notice how the background behind Eva is slightly less focused than she is? Maybe one day I'll know how to make this happen without having to edit it. I still can't believe she's a teenager now!

After Grandma's, I went swinging in the park with Josh. We talked about NCIS, and he was confused when I told him I let my sister name my car Muse Watson, after the guy who plays Mike Franks.

I had a dream the other night that I was watching a movie with Shirley Temple and Peggy Ann Garner, when they were both about twelve. Shirley played a girl whose family moves into a haunted house, and Peggy Ann played the ghost of a murdered girl. (What an odd combination – two of the last young actresses you'd ever expect to do horror.) That summary makes it sound awful, I know, but in my dream, it was incredibly creepy and gothic movie, and now I'm damn disappointed it doesn't actually exist. This is not the first time I've had this problem.

After years of using Aim toothpaste exclusively, I recently bought a tube of Colgate, and now Aim doesn't make my mouth feel clean anymore. I've tried to go back to it, but lately whenever I use Aim, I have to brush my teeth a second time with Colgate because my mouth still feels dirty. For some reason, I am rather annoyed by this. Wow, Rebecca is posting about toothpaste. When did this LJ get so boring?

At the request of relatives, I have made a list of things I want for my upcoming birthday. This is all I could come up with for now, but I'll add on to it if more comes to mind.

• Black socks. To wear to work.
• A dust-buster. A good one. And if you can, please also buy me the will to use it reguarly once I've got it.
• 2G SD Cards. Nothing bigger than 2G, please – my camera can't support that. These start at $8 at my store and can probably be found cheaper elsewhere.
• Movies: The Secret Garden (1949). I've never seen it – although I did do a comparison video as part of my Secret Garden series – but I love the 1993 version to death, so I can't imagine I won't like this one too.
• Books: Plain Beautiful: The Life of Peggy Ann Garner, by Sandra Grabman; Little Girl Lost: A Child Star's Descent into Addiction and Out Again, by Drew Barrymore; Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for Converting to Judaism, by Anita Diamant.
• Donations of any amount are welcome to a very charitable cause, The Change Rebecca's Name Fund.
• Note: If you would like to buy Rebecca Mockingjay, please check with Sara first to make sure she has not already bought a copy. Both of us having our own would be pointless.

Holy Long John Silver, Batman! As of today, only ONE ... WEEK ... LEFT until Season 8 of NCIS! Of course, with my luck, I'll probably have to work that evening, since I foolishly didn't request off for it.

On Thursday night, I finally got around to doing laundry and slightly rearranging our living room. I got rid of the printer that we almost never used and the end table that served no purpose. (I'm planning to put a little table and chair in its place.) Also baked brownies, because Sara'd been nagging me to, but didn't eat any; went to Chick-a-Fil for dinner, which I rarely do because it's pretty far from our apartment; and watched The Goonies on TV. It's so weird watching that movie on TV, not only because they edit the hell out of it -- the penis-on-the-statue scene is gone, of course -- but also because it's very weird for me to watch it without the commentary track. I fell asleep to that countless nights in France.

On Friday morning, I woke up around six to stomach cramps so bad that I almost passed out on the bathroom floor. Sara told me later that I looked as pathetic as Sable. My Chick-a-Fil dinner made its reappearance soon after, and what disturbed me the most was that it had turned a very ugly, sleet gray color during its stay in my stomach. I've been through more than my share of barfing, but I'm pretty sure it's never been gray before. I called in sick to work and spent the rest of the day sleeping and moaning. That afternoon I roused myself enough to drive in a painkiller-induced haze to Office Depot and Goodwill, where I found a copy of the "Poems & Rhymes" volume of Childcraft that's almost identical to the one we used to have! I read this book constantly as a kid and have been missing it for so long. Sara and I spent the evening reading poetry, which was awesome. I love shouting out, "Or does it explode?" and "Invictus!" "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din" is also fun to say.

Adam's birthday was today, and we spent it with the Mormons. He had a cookie cake with Cotton on it, and I gave him a hollow book that he actually seemed to like. I ate their food, swung on their swing, and played with their puppy, but had to leave suddenly when they all ganged up on me and tried to hug me.

I'm planning to go to the cemetery (and possibly to Mom's house) on Memorial Day and can't wait. The local chapter of Sons of the American Revolution will be putting up an Avenue of Flags!