Wonder-Ful Balance

The morning did not begin pleasantly. I heard the mouse trap go off around 3AM, but I waited until quarter of 8 to take it out. When I leaned over to get the trap, I discovered the mouse was in the trap...but still moving! Ugh! I got it out of the house and into the outdoor trash can as quickly as possible. (Good thing I was taking the trash out and leaving it by the curb tonight anyway.)

Things mostly went uphill from there. Yoga class was full, but not as jammed as the Friday classes have been. (In fact, I intentionally avoided the Friday class this week after barely making it into the last two.) There were 12 people, including the teacher Jill. We worked on the shoulders, opening the hips, and on balance. I'm getting better at balancing, but focusing is just so hard, and I still can't do shoulder stands.

I rode home through Newton River Park, enjoying a gorgeous 85-degree day and the lovely breeze. Spent the rest of the afternoon taking advantage of the relatively (for this time of year) cooler temperatures to bake Peach Spice Muffins, getting rid of a very ripe peach and the last tiny bit of sweet potato left in my fridge.

I also enjoyed The Backyardigans and the first couple of episodes on the Wonder Woman: Season 2 set. "Literary Heroes" was the theme for this Backyardigans set. The titular episode, Robin Hood the Clean, was a bit odd. Mayor Stinkypants (Austin) won't allow the citizens of Filthingham to take a bath or even keep soap around! Tyrone finally goes to Purewood Forest to convince Robin Hood the Clean (Pablo) to come to Filthington to save the villagers from the Mayor's rigged Festival of Dirt. I found the emphasis on cleanliness in this episode to be well-meaning but a bit bizarre. Kids who are more into grossness will probably get a bigger kick out of it.

The rest of the episodes were better. Tyrone and Pablo are "The Two Musketeers"...but who's that masked hippo girl who wants to join them? I loved the emphasis on politeness, the balloon swords, and the lesson that you shouldn't judge a person (or hippo) before you've even met them. "To the Center of the Earth" took Professors Uniqua and Pablo to the title location to find Tyrone's missing lucky penny. The two inventors are eager to use their inventions, but Tyrone proves that sometimes the simplest way of doing something just might be the best way.

My favorite episode on this set by far was the Zorro spoof "The Masked Returner." Uniqua is a librarian in Veijo, California who becomes "The Masked Returner" when a book is overdue. When Don Austin (Austin's third villain in this set) refuses to return a library book that's due, it's The Masked Returner to the rescue...and to teach Don Austin a lesson in renewing library books and the importance of libraries.

The second season of Wonder Woman is a vast improvement over the first. As much as I love mid-20th-century history, moving the show to 1977 allowed for a better range of villains and more interesting characters. The Nazi-of-the-week formula in the first season got old fast. Something else I like is this show's fine line between camp and seriousness. It's neither as over-the-top as the (in)famous 60s Batman series nor as dark or brooding as something like Smallville. In fact, the only real cheesy elements, other than some odd plots, came from the updating - bad 70s fashion, dated computers and other technology, and obvious special effects.

Work was dead as a doornail. It got busy-ish during the usual 4-6 rush hour, but was otherwise quiet...except for my last customers. Some guy obviously didn't know a darn thing about doing WIC checks. He handed me a whole bunch and had relied on some stock guy who didn't know what he was talking about instead of reading the pamphlet and got half the stuff wrong. It took me forever to get rid of that guy.