A Day at the Library

Started out a gorgeous late summer day with a run to the Haddon Township Library. My sore foot wasn't crazy about it, but I had books that were overdue and needed to square myself with the librarians. I did shelve DVDs and some children's books. Also took out Bambi II and one of two new Sesame Street discs covering the show's many classic spoofs over the years.

Made a few quick stops next. I was in and out of Super Fresh. I couldn't find their bandage wraps. I did find them at the Rite Aid across the street, though. I had to stand in line there for longer than I would have preferred. A customer was giving the cashier a really hard time. Something about her coupon not coming off right or as much as she wanted. Then she turned around to me and whined about how nasty the cashier was being. Please. She was the one who was being nasty to the cashier. The cashier seemed to take it in stride - apparently, she's a frequent customer and always give them a hard time.

(And I gave myself a nice treat. The classic Russell Stover's Coconut Nest is back again for the holidays. I don't find this in too many stores in this area, so it's a rare bit of pleasure when I do encounter it.)

Had a quick, late lunch at Capitol Pizza. Thankfully, the TV wasn't on, and it was fairly quiet other than some customers discussing the disastrous Eagles-Falcons game last night. I munched on Broccoli-Spinach Pizza and hoped that Michael Vick would recover from his concussion quickly.

Headed home and remained there for the rest of the day. I put my sore foot on the frozen water bottle. For once, one of my customers was completely right. Boy, did that feel good. I'm going to do it tomorrow, too. It really did help.

I did get a few things done. I baked a low-fat Chocolate Buttermilk Cake from one of the Prevention recipes I clipped out of the magazine in 2009. Yum! It came out wonderfully. It's very fudgy and moist. I really enjoyed it.

Got a lot of Perfect Strangers episodes dubbed to DVD. I wanted to put the short 8th season episodes on their own disc to avoid confusion, along with the two segments from Mark Linn-Baker's appearances in the charming 2005 Broadway kids' musical A Year With Frog & Toad that were broadcast on the Today Show and the Tony Awards.

I thought it would help to have the holiday-related episodes on their own disc for easy retrieval during the fall and winter season. Also threw a Christmas episode of the Dan Ackroyd vehicle Soul Man that featured Baker onto the end of the holiday disc as an "extra."

Between episodes, I ran some other items. A Night In Casablanca has a bad rap with Marx Brothers fans, but it's one of their funniest later movies. This time, the boys find themselves in post-World War II Morocco, where Groucho is the new manager of the Hotel Casablanca. The last three managers have all been murdered. Can the boys keep Groucho from sharing their fate...and keep Nazi spy Sig Ruman from retrieving a cache of Nazi treasure?

I found this be hilarious. While their ages are showing, Groucho is still full of one-liners, and the scene where they wreck havoc on Ruman's hotel room is a riot. Love Groucho and Harpo in the elevator, too. Those who aren't crazy about the Brothers' MGM movies will be happy to know that the young lovers here don't sing and have limited screen time. In fact, the only music heard are Chico's piano and Harpo's harp solos and a German version of "Who's Sorry Now?"

The Sesame Street spoofs were even funnier. I rented the first volume with older segments that date as far back as the 70s. My favorites included the Bruce Springsteen-esque "Born to Count" and Cookie Monster's delightful take on the early 90s mystery Twin Peaks, "Twin Beaks."