Laughter On a Chilly Day

The day began quite well with the arrival of two eBay orders. I finally found a 2000 Sailor Moon Tuxedo Mask doll for a decent price. He came in his original box and had his hat and glasses and stand.

The set also came with a Japanese Sailor Mars and a 1997 Sailor Moon. I already have Sailor Mars, and this one was a bit odd. Her hair was a rich chestnut color instead of black, like Sailor Mars in the cartoon and comics. She was missing her tiara but came with everything else, including her box, wand, and stand. I'm going to give her to my cousin Faith.

There's a reason I collect the Sailor Moon dolls from 2000 and not 1997. The Irwin Sailor Moon dolls that came out in 1997 are just plain ugly - tall, thin, and with no noses to speak of. The one I got was made even less attractive by tangled hair that no brush could get through and a shredded ribbon on her suit. I'm going to give her to Goodwill.

I also ordered the three Sailor Moon movies on DVD. All of the Sailor Moon DVDs are wildly out of print and can only be found for decent prices on eBay now. I think this might be a bootleg, but that's ok. I'm just trying to clear out any videos I can to make some room in my entertainment area. I'll probably give the Movies videos to Faith as well.

Headed out to run this week's Audubon errands after I put the DVD set away. I first made a quick stop at Acme for my paycheck, then rode to FYE. I didn't find the movies I was looking for...but I did find the first Airplane, the first Naked Gun, and Top Secret! packaged as the "Laugh Or I'll Shoot!" set on sale for $9.99. I've been really hot with DVD sales lately. That set originally retailed for $23! With my membership card, it came out to more like $9.60. That's a little over $3 for each movie. Sweet!

My next stops were faster. I couldn't find good work pants at Fashion Bug. I didn't see any Halloween decorations I liked at the Halloween store. I grabbed empty two-disc DVD cases for the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys movies Lauren sent me a few months ago at Staples. I ordered contacts from America's Best.

I decided to try something a little different for lunch. The Golden Corral Buffet is behind the building with the Audubon Post Office, PepBoys, and America's Best. I always forget it's there. Unless you're coming up the Black Horse Pike from the direction of Mt. Ephram and are really looking, it's kind of hidden. In fact, it already closed once and was reopened under different management, though it's seemed to have done fine since then.

I had a very enjoyable lunch. Other than you have to pay for your drink (unlike Old Country Buffet), the price was reasonable (about $8 for lunch) and everything was quite tasty. I had chicken with peppers and onions, steamed Brussels sprouts (and any place that serves Brussels sprouts automatically gains my seal of approval), a salad, a slice of peanut butter tart, and two little peanut butter and chocolate bar cookies.

Went back over to the Acme after lunch to do this week's grocery shopping. Most of what I needed was meat. The Acme's having a pretty good sale on bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks for $1.49 for the small packs. I grabbed thighs for $2.34 and drumsticks for $2.44. Buttermilk was finally in, too. I also picked up oatmeal, yogurt (Yoplait was on sale this week - yay, Light Red Velvet Cake!), ground chicken, tea, and kidney beans.

Oh, and they were having a good sale on the McCormick extracts. I got Peppermint. I had Peppermint Extract a few years ago, after the Wildwood Acme closed to be rebuilt. I made some great mint cookies with that little bottle, but it was so expensive here, I never bought it again until now.

I rode home and put everything away. When I finished, I wrapped a box of things to send my friend Amanda Stites. Her birthday was a few weeks ago...and I have Christmas presents I never sent her! I lost her address and couldn't find it until recently. I walked to the bank, then to the post office and sent off her box. After that, I went to Uncle Ken's to pick up the cake pan from the football party last week (and the last of the spice cake) and to give him the Sailor Moon things for Faith and tell him that I won't be at the football party this week. Turns out he and Dolores are babysitting Sam and David's kids tomorrow while they enjoy their anniversary and will be able to bring the doll and videos with them.

It was past 4 by the time I got home. I picked up some sticks and pulled some more grape vines from around the yard, but it was getting late. The wind, which had been heavy all day, was picking up and getting colder to boot. I just went inside after I finished with the sticks.

Watched Mad Monster Party? and a couple of cartoons while having carrots and salmon for dinner. The most famous Silly Symphony horror-themed cartoon is probably the first in the series, "The Skeleton Dance"...but Disney did a couple of others during the black-and-white era. "Hell's Bells" is Disney's idea of Satan, circa 1931. Some of the imagery here is so freaky, I'm surprised this one didn't land in the "From the Vault" section.

"Autumn" is a more benign depiction of October. It's another in the long series of "characters sing and dance as they depict a season" black and white Silly Symphonies Disney did in the early 30s. In this case, we see various animals gather food for the winter...then see them flee when an early winter storm takes them by surprise.

"The Cat's Out" (apparently also known as "The Cat's Nightmare") returns us to spookier territory. It's a cat's eye-view of "Pluto's Judgement Day," which came out several years later. A cat is tormented in his nightmare by several of the creatures he'd earlier picked on, including a black bird, two trees, and several oversized spiders. Not as strange as "Hell's Bells," but still pretty creepy.