Rebecca hopes the salt mines aren't so salty tomorrow.
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.