Marvel-lous Surprise

I spent most of a sunny, breezy Martin Luther King Jr. Day watching the the disc for the new Avengers Assemble cartoon. Basically, we have the team from the film - Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow with an additional character, the flying newcomer Falcon - going up against various villains from the comics, including the Red Skull. Alas, this was a disappointment after I really liked Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The animation wasn't as good, and the characters weren't as diverse (and I missed Ant-Man and Wasp Girl). I did have fun with the bonus episode "Ghost of a Chance," where all of the Avengers are possessed by spirit-like space creatures from another dimension. Only the Falcon has avoided the beings and finds himself having to rescue his new team-mates.

Moved to more Three Stooges shorts as I ate a quick lunch of leftovers and got ready for work. The Stooges also found themselves dealing with super villains. "Bad Man" is really a little boy, but he turns into an evil guy in a black bat suit whenever someone says the word "bad." Tim Bear briefly returns in a series of snow-themed shorts, notably "Squawk Valley."

Work actually wasn't that bad, given this is not only a holiday, but we're supposed to be getting some rough winter weather starting tomorrow afternoon. I've heard anything from 1 to 8 inches of snow starting around 1 tomorrow; we'll see what happens. The long lines was more from us being short on help than from heavy crowds.

I even got quite a surprise. One of the cashiers dropped an envelope into my lap during my break and said "congratulations, you're the Employee of the Month!" Employees who get cards with compliments from customers drop them into a box in the back lounge area. A name is drawn every month to win a 100 dollar Acme gift card. I guess they drew my name. That gift card will come in very handy. My paychecks for the next few weeks won't be nearly as good as the ones I got over the holidays. This will easily cover food for at least three weeks, including the parchment paper and eggs I needed tonight.