Halloween and Library Adventures

Today was the first of my two days off in a row. I finished watching Top Hat, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' first starring vehicle, during breakfast this morning. I do love Top Hat. The story is pure piffle, more than most of their vehicles, but the cast is a blast. I adore Helen Broderick, Queen of the Wisecracks. She and Ginger Rogers were a scream together, especially where the subject of marriage was concerned. The costumes and art direction (save Ginger's crazy feathered dress that kept moulting during the "Cheek To Cheek" dance sequence) are awesome, too. Irving Berlin wrote some of his most popular songs for this one; in addition to "Cheek To Cheek," we also have "Isn't It A Lovely Day," "No Strings," and "Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails" (in what would amount to a signature song for Astaire). RKO may not have been Hollywood's most glamorous studio, but they spared no expense for two of their biggest attractions.

After breakfast and Fred and Ginger and company, I headed over to the library for today's volunteering session. Did the sports section today. Thankfully not QUITE as bad as the diet and exercise books last week, but plenty bad enough; the baseball books in particular were a mess. (Not terribly surprising, seeing how the main baseball season just ended and the Phillies made it - briefly - to the playoffs.)

I made quick stops at Dollar Tree and the seasonal Halloween Adventure costume store in the Westmont Plaza shopping center across from the library after I finished. The Dollar Tree didn't have much interesting for Halloween or much in the way of costume stuff. Halloween Adventure is one of those costume stores that open in random abandoned storefronts across America from early September to early November. Everything in there is always cool to look at but way too expensive, including the cat's ears I had my eye on. (Yes, I'm going to be a cat for Halloween. It's something simple I can wear to work.) I'll see if Wal-Mart has them tomorrow. I also made a quick stop at Super Fresh for milk and picked up butter spread and the Thomas Light Multi-Grain English Muffins I like on sale.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my long Monkees fantasy fanfic The Monkee Knight and doing yoga. I watched spooky-themed cartoons from various DVD sets while making Chicken and Green Bean Stir Fry and wheat noodles for dinner.