May the Schwartz Be With You!

Started off the day with a couple of Thanksgiving specials. Ruby wants the table to look perfect for dinner in Max's Thanksgiving, but her brother would rather snitch Grandma's stuffing. In Garfield's Thanksgiving, Liz the veterinarian puts Garfield on a diet the day before the biggest food holiday of the year, much to his annoyance. He battles a sarcastic talking scale and brings in a special helper to try to fix Jon's disastrous Thanksgiving date with Liz.

I spent most of the day in front of the computer. In the morning, I did some internet research and worked on finishing the cookbook inventory. I have 10 of the magazine-like Wilton Cake Decorating Yearbooks. Mom sent me her copies of 1977 and 1980 through 1983, along with four hardback Wilton books, when she was going through her house in North Cape May prior to the move to Erma. I found the 1992 edition at the Friends In Deed Thrift Shop shortly after I moved here, picked up 1976 and 1978 at a yard sale, and grabbed this year's from JoAnn's when I found it on clearance a few months ago. The one from 1983 has always been my favorite, especially in my childhood, when I thought the poems that accompanied many pages were really cute. I have fond memories of Mom making some of the cakes from these, including the elaborate clowns-at-the-circus sheet cake and the sweet and simple Christmas wreath from 1979, a panda bear cake for me from 1980, and the "Santa's bag" cake from 1981 for a neighbor.

Rose came by briefly late in the morning to drop off milk from WaWa, the only thing I can't live without before I go to the grocery store. I wish she could have stayed longer, but she had a meeting with some clients. (She's a part-time lawyer at a local firm.)

Spent the afternoon finishing two items for Helium. One was a very short flash fiction story with the subject "big girls." I had a teenage girl reassure her friend that she doesn't have to look like a magazine cover to be popular. The short story subject "The Last Train" inspired a tale of a 12-year-old girl who goes to the train station with her mother and teenage sister to pick up their father in December 1945, shortly after the end of World War II.

After I posted the stories, I decided to stretch my legs and run Spaceballs while looking over Christmas craft books and eating leftovers for dinner. One of my favorite Mel Brooks movies makes fun of the Star Wars series and other sci-fi epics of the 70s and 80s. Mercenary Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his co-pilot Barf (John Candy) are hired to rescue the wayward Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuninga) from the evil Darth Helmet (Rick Moranis) and the President of the airless planet Spaceballs (Brooks). What the villains really want is the planet Druida's endless supply of fresh air. Lone Starr jumps into the fray to save the girl and the planet, annoy the heck out of Helmet, and dodge every merchandising joke known to man.

If you're a fan of Brooks, Pullman, spoof comedy, or sci-fi, you'll get a big kick out of this non stop-assault on everything from Alien to Star Wars to the merchandising that was really running Hollywood by the late 80s.

Finished up the night with the Christmas special The Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree. Ever-eager Papa Bear is determined that he and the cubs should find the perfect tree in the mountains on Christmas Eve. Every tree, however, seems to be already occupied. When Papa finally discovers the real reason for the season, the animals he and the cubs spared have a special surprise waiting for them when they get home.