Tap Your Troubles Away

It was utterly gorgeous when I awoke this morning. I hadn't seen a day this nice since November. The sky was bright blue and cloudless. It was in the upper 30s-lower 40s, normal (maybe even a tad warm) for mid-February in southern New Jersey. The air was still and more humid, with no wind at all.

A walk was practically required today. However, I did hit the Oaklyn Library first to do this week's volunteering there. I arranged the DVDs, then did the children's books. The Oaklyn Library is now trying to separate the letters to make the shelves look less messy. It's only partially working...because the kids' section is still fairly messy. A through M wasn't too bad, but the other shelves took forever. Someone must have done the first couple of shelves earlier.

Headed out for a stroll after I left the library. I went to WaWa and picked up a pretzel and a fountain Coke Zero with two small squirts of raspberry and chocolate syrup. After I left there, I made my way across the railroad tracks and down to the area on the left side of the school, nearer to Audubon. The snow is almost gone here. There's still some piles left on the curb and a little ice left in shady places, but it's not anywhere near as bad as it was even this time last week.

There was a package waiting for me when I came downstairs. I put it upstairs before my walk and pulled out the contents when I came back. I've been searching eBay for Molly's Miss Victory Tap Outfit for months, but I could never find the more recent version that came with the tap shoes. I decided to just go to the source and buy it from American Girl's online shop. I'm glad I did. It's utterly adorable! It's a one-piece leotard with a silver star and red and silver stripes sewed onto it. The pleated red and sliver skirt flares so nicely! The fabric is good quality and not stiff at all. The shoes have real taps on them and do make a slight tapping sound when they hit hard surfaces.

Two mild complaints. While the cardboard and elastic silver crown is historically accurate (I doubt they would have used expensive metal or plastic for a kid's crown from some local dance show in recycling-happy 1945), it's also flimsy. That's not much of a problem for me, but it likely wouldn't last with much younger kids.

As much as I adore the shoes, I had a hard time getting them on over the socks that came with the outfit. Part of that might be my Molly doll is a pre-Mattel version and has large feet. I'm hoping the vinyl will stretch with time. For now, I may switch Molly to dancing in tights.

I watched the Bowery Boys while having leftover country-fried steak and spinach for lunch. The Boys end up in the Deep South in Feudin' Fools when Sach inherits a farm from a deceased uncle. Turns out the farm is an abandoned wreck. The Jones clan was run off their land by their mortal enemies, the hillbilly Smiths...and the Smiths don't take kindly to strangers! The Boys find themselves having to dodge the trigger-happy Smiths, a group of bank robbers, and try to figure out what to do with the farm.

Headed for work after I finished my meal. The lovely day made for a very nice ride to and from work. It was so warm, I didn't even need my big scarf and was hot in my heavy black coat!

Work was on-and-off during rush hour, but mostly dead. Fine by me. This time last year, we would have been digging out of two and a half feet of snow...and piles of frantic customers worried about said frozen precipitation.

Went grocery shopping after I finally finished. Big trip this week. I needed to refill the fruits and vegetables, including a bag of veggies for stir fries. Needed granola bars, too, and both cake and unbleached white flour, and chocolate chips. The Acme's having a 40% off all Acme or Perdue chicken sale - I found a good price on chicken cutlets. I've needed to restock white cooking wine for ages.

Mixed feelings on next week's schedule. On one hand, I have fewer hours. Not a good thing, given I haven't had that many of them lately. On the other hand, the latest I work is 7 next Saturday, and I have three days off in a row - Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.