Forever Young

I awoke to a blue sky and lovely 70-degree temperatures, with a blustery wind that made the weather seem almost normal for this time of year. I celebrated the change in temperature with sweet potato pancakes (Aunt Jemima's wheat pancake mix with low-fat evaporated milk and leftover sweet potatoes from last night), peach tea, and a pear in front of some Saturday morning cartoons.

CBS is making me feel like I'm 6 years old again. I don't know if it was intentional, but two of the most popular 80s girls' franchises, Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake, are on in a row, 10 and 10:30 EST respectively. You only need to look at the seven stuffed Care Bears sitting on the shelves next to my computer to know I remain a fan of those sherbet-colored ursine do-gooders who delight young children and even some older women and annoy any man over the age of 5. The new show falls somewhere between the poorly-animated early 80s version and the later, spoofier Care Bears Family - bright and fun, and not as annoying as you non-Bear people might think. And poor Oopsy, the newest addition to the Care Bear collection, is such a doll. As a fellow klutz, I can certainly relate to his constantly tripping over his own feet...er, paws, though he means well.

I mentioned the Strawberry Shortcake revival in a blog entry about four years ago. I've seen a couple of the DVDs, and they're actually quite good. Unlike the overly-modernized Holly Hobbie, the Strawberry cartoons manage to capture the flavor of the original 80s creations without going too far from the concept - little kids living in fruit have cute, mildly frightening adventures. Strawberry may sport jeans instead of a swiss-dotted dress, but she and her ever-expanding group of friends (some from the original cartoons, some new) are as charming as ever.

I went to work shortly before Strawberry began. Work was on-and-off busy, no major problems beyond getting off slightly late because my replacement's car broke down. (And everyone wonders why I ride my bike everywhere?) Might have been just as well, since I had to do some grocery shopping after work anyway. I started work too early to hit the farm market, so I bought apples, pears, and bananas, in addition to yogurt (Yoplait Light Key Lime Pie...yum!), light butter (for holiday baking), and Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen meals that were 50% off. (The Smart Ones meals are delicious but are rarely on sale.)

Didn't do much tonight, just yoga and a simple dinner of chicken thighs baked in white cooking wine, lemon juice, and water (the broth may end up as a soup), baked sweet potato, and steamed green beans.