Best $5 I've Ever Spent

I got a few more steps towards finishing the cooking and movies tasks this week. We got new neighbors last Monday. They seemed friendly, a couple with a young son, so I decided I was going to make them cookies. I found a recipe for World Peace Cookies and decided to give them a try. After all, who doesn't like double chocolate cookies?

Well, I learned something valuable in the kitchen. While 10oz of liquid is equal to a cup and a quarter, that doesn't mean that 10 oz of everything is equal to a cup and a quarter. Especially not flour. 10oz of flour is equal to cookie disaster that even Cookie Monster would say "hey now, what are you trying to pull over me?" to. Hubby insists they're edible with milk. He's welcome to them. Lesson learned, take 2 ended up much better and much more cookie-ish. Would I say they're "world peace" good? No, the s'mores cookies are much, much better. But they're still nice. Edible at least, versus floury hockey pucks. We took the edible ones over to the neighbors and spent about an hour chatting with them. Hopefully they like them. If not, I'm sure the 2 year old will happily give himself a sugar rush.

S and I went to see Green Lantern yesterday (making it my G movie). We love our summer superhero blockbusters, and going to see them started with Iron Man 2 last year. We got lunch at our Thai place, then headed to the mall. After we bought our tickets, we realized we still had about half an hour to spend, so why not go into the mall? We were at a different one from our usual trips, so we weren't too familiar with the stores. As we went in, we got drawn into a used bookstore. At the front of the store were boxes full of harlequin romance novels for 25c each, and we spent a few minutes trying to find the most ridiculous title and cover we could before seeking out the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section. We found it in the furthest corner of the store, and right before we got there, I caught a glimpse of a section fo Star Trek books, with one in particular: George Takei's autobiography, To The Stars. I love George Takei. Hubby and I have boundless respect for him as an actor in all forms of media (tv, movie, voice, and video game), for his prominent role in activism for gay rights, and for his amazing sense of humor (Youtube George Takei should be Spiderman). Considering all this and my own history as a child Trekkie, I figured the $5 the store wanted was worth it.

S and I saw the movie (and loved it), then went our seapare ways. I showed Hubby my purchase, then plopped down to read it. I giggled through the description of him and the other cast members putting their signatures and prints in a cement block in front of the Chinese theater, then decided to flip back and look over the table of contents. As I turned to the very first page, I saw writing. I've bought my share of used books before where someone had written a note to the person receiving the book and it usually disappoints me. Might as well see what it said.

"To Anthony,
Best of Luck.
George Takei"

....Oh. My. God. I had to look at it again to make sure I wasn't misreading the signature. It was clear as day, "George Takei". Yesterday, I not only bought a book, I bought an AUTOGRAPHED book signed by one of my favorite and most respected stars. I'm still on cloud 9 and telling everyone. Without a doubt, it's the best $5 I've ever spent. I've always heard about people getting good finds like that at yard sales or thrift stores, but I never expected it would happen to me and in such an awesome way. I don't know who Anthony is or why he'd let such a treasure slip through his hands, but I'm grateful. It's definitely going to spent the rest of my life as one of my more treasured possessions.