Busy at Home

I spent most of the day at home, doing a lot of spring cleaning before Lauren visits next week. Started with two Rick Steves episodes that visit parts of France scarred by the World Wars of the 20th Century. In Alsace, Steves visits Verdun, the site of one of the biggest and most costly battles of World War I. The episode on Normandy and the D-Day beach invasion turned out to be especially timely, as today is the anniversary of that history-making World War II Allied battle.

After I left Rick and France, I started the cleaning. Made the bed first. I don't often make the bed. Besides the mountain of stuffed animals I have on it, who's gonna see it? It's really a habit leftover from when I slept on a mattress and most of the stuffed animals ended up on the floor.

Andrew finally mowed the lawn sometime between yesterday afternoon and this morning. He didn't do that good of a job - I could see places where it was still fairly high - but it does look much better than it did before he mowed. While the mower seemed to have mulched most of the leaves, I did rake the ivy bed in front of the main house and the path leading to my apartment. Got really bitten up by mosquitoes doing so. I felt like one big bite.

Scrubbed the bike and the porch furniture next. While the bike was more dusty and pollen-coated than anything, the porch furniture was a mess. It's old to begin with. I've had the two plastic chairs since Wildwood, and they've seen every kind of weather possible. I'm surprised they aren't cracked and broken yet - I only bought them from Family Dollar! They were coated with dirt, spider webbing, leaves, and dust. I did most of the chairs, but I finally gave up on the blue milk-crate table.

Ran two episodes of Get Smart during a quick peanut-butter lunch. Max and 99 find themselves "Aboard the Orient Express" when they have to get a briefcase filled with pay money for undercover agents behind enemy lines and get around a KAOS assassin. In "Stakeout on Blue Mist Mountain," the trio are joined by the Chief and head invention expert Parker when they discover that a series of KAOS agents have been bringing the parts to an atomic bomb that could destroy the east coast to a cabin on the mountains of the title.

I stuck to goofy law enforcement officials as I scrubbed the refrigerator and cleaned the kitchen. The Naked Gun is a spin-off of the series Police Squad! and the first in a series of three movies about the ongoing adventures of very dedicated LA cop Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielson). In this first movie, he finds himself having to clear the name of his partner Nordberg (O.J Simpson) after he's accused of being involved with narcotics, while proving that the seemingly above suspicion Ludwig (Ricardo Montalban) is really an evil mastermind who wants to assassinate Queen Elizabeth on a trip to the US.

Nonsensical? Oh yeah. Funny as heck? Absolutely. All three films are recommended, but please start here, as Drebin meets the love of his life (Priscilla Prestley) and we see how badly Nordberg can get used for a chew toy.

After Drebin finished, I did a quick vacuuming session. I really need to do around the walls, but it was past 5 at that point. I had neither the time, nor the energy. I'll do it next week. At least I got it done. I really want to get rid of the pollen in particular.

Went straight into a much-needed bath after I finished. Boy, did that feel goooooood. I wish I could have spent more time in there, but I did need to eat. After I got out, I made Pan-Seared Turkey Cutlets, Italian zucchini, and a farm market-fresh salad for dinner while watching Recess: School's Out! T.J Detwiler is ready for a fun-filled summer vacation, until he learns that all of his friends are going to camp. While they're away, he discovers a plot being hatched in the school that involves a laser and their principal disappearing before his eyes. The others think he's crazy when he brings them back, until they see the laser. Now it'll take all their smarts and know-how, and that of the other kids at the Third Street School, to save vacation time for the whole country.

One of my favorite unsung Disney animated films. You don't have to know anything about Recess to enjoy this hilarious ode to how important summer is to kids...and those who remember being kids. Classic rock fans will get a kick out of the 60s soundtrack, including the psychedelic video in the credits to "Green Tambourine."

Oh, and it was cloudy off and on all day here, but never really  humid or warm. In fact, it was probably in the mid-to-lower 70s, pleasantly cool for this time of year here. Thankfully, the deluge we're supposed to get held off until I was long online chatting with Lauren.