Spring Is Just Around the Corner

I slept in longer than I planned and didn't get to laundry until around 10:30-11AM. Good thing I didn't really have much laundry to do today and about three quarters of the train tracks are clear. There wasn't really anyone home, either. Dad was the only one, and he was in and out.

While the laundry was in the dryer, I ran to CVS, then headed down to Newton Avenue to do this week's Oaklyn Library volunteering. However, when I got there, I noted that the main room was filled with elderly people watching a video. I didn't want to be in the way, so I just went back to Dad and Uncle Ken's after that.

I did, however, get a rather nice little walk in. Saw many signs of spring, including the first green grass poking out of people's yards and the very first crocus popping out of the ground in front of the house across the street from the Oaklyn Library.

Sandy, my uncle's neighbor, met me when I was there. She likes to do creative things with the huge pinecones in the strip of land in front of the pool. When I arrived at home, she was stuffing pinecones in a chain link fence to make a shamrock design. We had a nice chat about my family, the area, and my sister Rose's upcoming baby shower. I also met another neighbor and discovered that yes, there are single people around here...I just don't see them much.

She ended up giving me a metal towel rack that she couldn't use. I discovered when I finally got home that it's the perfect size to hang my American Girls' doll dresses on. After I finished with the organizing, I put my clothes away, had a quick lunch, and headed back out, this time to the Haddon Township Library.

I wasn't at Haddon Township for too long. It was around 3:30 when I arrived, much later than I'm usually out and about. I just put away the large pile of DVDs. I ended up taking out two books (a book of slow cooker recipes and a book on womanhood) and three DVDs, another Barbie as special (this time one of the earliest ones, Rapunzel) and two classic movies, It Happened One Night and An Affair In Trinidad.

Made a quick stop at Super Fresh on the way home for two things I'd forgotten yesterday, tomato paste and low-sodium canned tomato sauce. I think both will come in very handy for slow-cooker stew recipes. Super Fresh was surprisingly quiet, given that it was five - rush hour time - when I arrived there.

I had originally planned on eating dinner out somewhere. The late hour and the threat of light rain (after it being blah and cloudy all day long) convinced me I was better off having dinner at home. I enjoyed a cheddar cheese omelet and steamed broccoli while watching Barbie As Rapunzel.

While an improvement over it's so-so predecessor The Nutcracker and the too-sugary Diamond Castle , it still isn't quite as good as the recent literary adaptations. First and foremost, like The Nutcracker, the CGI animation is AWFUL. Everything has a waxy look, even the animals. Yes, I know this is supposed to sell wax dolls, but that's still not an excuse. Second, this has very little to do with the actual fairy tale, even less-so than Nutcracker.

On the other hand, the plot, like Diamond Castle, revolved around the importance of art in our daily lives...in this case, painting and the worlds one creates with one's imagination. It also involves learning to forgive, something you don't often see in an animated cartoon. And while Barbie/Rapunzel herself was a little bland, the secondary characters were a blast. I loved the hilarious, sweet-natured Penelope the Purple Dragon. Someone at Artisan must have loved her, too. She had her own little subplot involving her much larger dragon father who expects her to be big and scary, when she's really rather small and doesn't like scaring anything besides dry logs.

(Also, unlike some of the recent Barbie specials, including Diamond Castle, this isn't a musical. The one full vocal song is kept to the credits. Considering Diamond's dull music, this is probably a plus.)