Spring Is Running Hot and Cold

It wasn't that cold when I woke up this morning. I heard rain on the roof and decided to sleep in, hoping that the clouds would be gone when I got up for breakfast. Well, the rain had stopped by the time I was getting dressed, but the clouds remained.

Alas, as I was finishing breakfast, it started raining again. Hard. It was crazy-windy, too. I've had enough of running around in bad weather. I spent the rest of the morning organizing the back room instead. When I re-packed my winter clothes, I got them all into one bin...which meant I no longer needed the other bin I was using for clothes. That bin now holds the winter decorations, including things for Valentine's Day. The small container that held the winter items now holds doll clothes and the shoe boxes. Separates remain in the plastic dresser, but I moved pajamas, accessories, and any outfit I don't have a hanger for to the bin.

I didn't get out to the Haddon Township Library until past noon. Turns out there wasn't much to do there anyway. The majority of the DVDs that needed to be shelved today were non-fiction, so I worked on organizing those.

It took me longer to find fiction books to read than it did to shelve DVDs! I've always had problems searching the regular fiction stacks. Nothing seems to jump out at me. That's why I started reading mysteries in the first place. They seemed a lot more fun than all the dull romances, silly bodice-rippers, blood-filled political suspense stories, and ridiculous tales of women who don't want to do anything but shop, whine to their families, and get married. I want action...but nothing political. I want Zorro, The Prisoner of Zenda, Rafael Sabatini. I want comic action like 7,000 Clams, or fun action, like Carter Beats the Devil, or even something as profound as one of my favorite books, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Kay. I want strong women and men who DO something, not just complain or swoon. And when I do non-action, I want stories about smart people, quiet people.

I do read fantasy from time to time, but most of the series novels tend to be too complex. One exception is the world of Oz. I like the musical Wicked and thought I'd try the novel it was based on. That ended up being the only non-fiction book I took out today. I also took out a book on creativity by Julia Cameron and four DVDs - The Care Bears To the Rescue Movie, Mickey's Round Up, Date Night, and The Sting.

It was so late when I got out of the library, I rushed the rest of my chores. I hurried through Super Fresh for maple syrup and plum tomatoes for tonight's dinner. I rushed to Dollar Tree for sponges, a container for brown sugar to replace the one that got cracked in the refrigerator, and cards for my sister's and her son's birthdays in the next few weeks. I raced through my two slices of pizza at Nick and Joe's for lunch.

Finally got home around 4:30. I made chocolate chip meringue cookies, then dusted the living area. I didn't have the time to get to dusting the bedroom or putting up the Easter decorations. Maybe Friday.

Ran cartoons for the rest of the afternoon. Mickey's Round Up is a collection of numbers and/or puzzle-related episodes from the Disney Channel little kids' series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I usually avoid renting the toddler cartoons that involve the audience. Fond though I am of Dora, Diego, and similar shows, the "interactivity" can get annoying if you're just watching them.

I do, however, love the classic Disney characters. I've seen Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel a few times, and it's really cute. The basic idea - Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Daisy, and Pluto hang out in Mickey's really nifty clubhouse (that just happens to be shaped like him). They're sometimes joined by other famous Disney characters, including Big Pete, Professor Ludwig Von Drake, Clarabelle Cow, and Chip and Dale.

The Professor was involved in the disc's first and title episode, "Mickey's Numbers Round-Up." Goofy's supposed to be delivering a box of "wild" numbers to the Clubhouse so Mickey can watch them while the Professor's out. Goofy drops the box, and the numbers all run off! Mickey and the gang count down each number as they catch them.

"Daisy Bo Peep" was a variation on "Numbers Round-Up." Here, we're counting down Daisy's lost sheep instead of numbers. The next two episodes, "Mickey's Big Surprise" and "Super Goof's Super Puzzle", involved critical thinking and puzzle-solving. (And marked a rare animated appearance of Goofy's comic-book superhero alter-ego.)

The bonus episode, "Mickey's Show and Tell," took us back to rounding up objects. Martian Mickey (yes, an alien who looks like Mickey with green skin and feelers), loses his "pets" - moving 3-D shapes like cubes, spheres, and cylinders. Once again, the others have to corral them. Probably my favorite of the five episodes on the disc - I liked searching for the shapes among different objects.

As with The Giving Festival Movie, Care Bears to the Rescue was a collection of what I assume to be episodes of Care Powers Team. The wrap-around wasn't even interesting this time around. The Care Bears are holding their own Oscars for the best caring rescues. Oopsy is upset that he probably won't win anything, but he might get his chance for the most spectacular rescue of all when Grumpy gets stuck under the stage as he's about to win an award.

I'm still not sold on the Care Power Team concept. Thankfully, there was a lot more involvement from the other Care Bears this time. Cheer Bear had a mildly sweet story involving her taking care of a baby Gobblebug, and the first story with Funshine and the two walking Clouds was kind of fun. Otherwise, this was a bit dull, and the awards ceremony story was lame. I still say American Greetings need to do what it did with Strawberry Shortcake and completely revamp the Care Bears concept and design again.

The rain and cold continued for most of the day...and started breaking up around the time I got home at 4:30, of course.