Mothers, Dolls, and Movies

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all moms, including new moms and those whose children are four-legged and/or feathered.

I slept until 10, then read books and wrote in my journal in bed for a while. It was quarter after 11 before I finally started making breakfast. I tried calling Mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day while my Strawberry-Chocolate Chip Pancakes were cooking, but I got a busy signal.

Finally got through to her around noon. She was in the midst of an intense game of Parcheesi with my stepfather and brother. She said she wasn't doing well. I hope she eventually kicked their rears.

The theme of the Brunch With the Beatles show today was "The Beatles and Other British Revolution Bands of 1964 and 1965." We heard from Dusty Springfield, Gary and the Pacemakers, and the Dave Clark Five, among a few others, along with early Beatles music. I'm not the biggest fan of the Beatles' earlier stuff, but it was nice to hear some of the other bands and put them in context of the time period.

Spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out online. Mom had recommended a TCM collection of four musicals that she'd gotten off of Amazon.com, the TCM Greatest Classic Films: Broadway Musicals set. I may have to get it myself. I have Annie Get Your Gun and Kiss Me Kate on video (the latter has been around since high school and is showing its years) and don't have Seven Brides for Seven Brothers or the 1952 Show Boat with Ava Gardner.

I went to Turner Classic Movies' site next to check out something I'd heard mentioned elsewhere - the Warners Archive Collection. On one hand, this preserves older movies that Warners doesn't deem worthy of a major release (including silents) and some lesser-known recent films. On the other hand, they're cheaply done, despite the $19.99 price tag, just the movie on a DVD-R. I wasn't sure they'd be worth the price...but I discovered on their site that they include many movies I was sure would never see the light of day on DVD, including the Marilyn Miller bio-pic Look For the Silver Lining, the 1944 Kismet with Marlene Dietrich, and dozens of early talkie musicals heavily discussed in one of my favorite books, A Song in the Dark - Sweet Kitty Belairs, Love In the Rough, It's A Great Life, the infamous Golden Dawn ("very offbeat" is putting it mildly), On With the Show!, the 1929 Rio Rita, Show Girl In Hollywood, The Hollywood Revue of 1929, The Show of Shows, and two vehicles for the real-life Miller, Sally and Sunny. Sally, Hollywood Revue, and Rio Rita alone are fun flicks (vintage and all). Besides, everyone should have one really bad, campy cult movie in their collection...and they don't get much worse, or campier, than Golden Dawn. (What's campier than an operetta set in Africa with people in horrible black makeup singing about "My Whip" and "My Bwana?" ;) )

I had leftover asparagus and the last of the chicken sausage patties for lunch, then headed for work. Work was a pain in the rear today. First of all, the drawer for my first register jammed while I had a long line, and we had to move everyone to the next one. Second, there were at least two checks that wouldn't go through the system we use. The first woman threw a fit, but the second took it much better.

I've been wanting to do some work on my American Girls dolls ever since I read about how to clean them up at the American Girls Playthings Message Board. I decided that, to cheer me up, I would lavish attention on the people who have always been there for me - my dolls. I bought fabric softener and a Magic Marker sponge at work (along with buttermilk).

I washed Molly's hair first. I don't know what my stepsister Jessa used on her hair, but it made a huge mess! Red stuff went everywhere. I managed to get as much of it out as I could, but I got her torso soaked. She was dunked in fabric softener for a while. I also cleaned Samantha's hair and conditioned it. I'm going to leave her in the fabric softener overnight. She has more hair than Molly does.

Molly looks much better. Her hair is still a tad reddish, but it's nothing like it was. Unfortunatly, I completely soaked her body. She's going to have to dry for a while. I wiped Little Jessa with the Magic Marker. I'll do Felicity tomorrow.