You may call me Mr. Reflexes

Yesterday, at Doug's graduation party (which went well but was very tiring, especially for a Sabbath), I put a Styrofoam bowl on the coffee table with a fork balanced on it. Doug was sitting on the couch. He put his feet against the coffee table, and the fork fell off the bowl and plummeted toward the floor one foot below. Well, in that split second, a thousand thoughts raced through my head. "Should I catch the fork in midair? Or would it give my identity as a superhero away? Is anyone looking? Does Doug realize that he knocked the fork over in the first place? If the fork hits the ground, everyone will look this way, so would it be more attention-grabbing to let it drop than to catch it?" In the end I decided to catch the fork. I snatched it out of the air after it had fallen about four inches. Douglas was the only one who saw me, and I think he appreciated that—being a superhero—I would want to remain anonymous, so he said nothing.

Superhero though I may be, however, I am still having a hard time catching on to the whole starting thing with our manual transmission Camry. Daddy had me practice a bit today backing up a hill without rolling forward. I did it, but not without jerks and bumps. But then later, after cleaning out and gassing up the vans at the office (rejoice, Derrick!) I had to drive the Camry home—by myself!!!—because there was no other car up there (except, of course, the vans and the pathfinder, which is itself a manual). I am finally starting to get better at shifting smoothly, and the ride down was almost bumpless!

I finished off the first roll of film in Daddy's new SLR camera. I hope the pictures come out, but I'm not sure they will: most of the pics were taken in dim light without a flash, necessitating a slow exposure. I used a tripod, but I have never used a SLR camera before, which doubles the anxiety. The most annoying thing is that the last picture is of....the carpet. Sigh. At least I didn't leave the lens cap on for any pictures....