Trying to Balance Again

Started off a late morning with more New Three Stooges and a short snow shower as I baked bread for breakfast. It was supposed to be Banana-Chocolate Chip Bread, but I only had one banana, so I added a carrot, cut the sugar to 1/3 cup (I'm running low on sugar, too), and put in orange juice. The next round of Stooges shorts move them to different time periods. While they strike out as knights trying to save a princess whose father is trying to marry off, they do better playing a baseball game against hungry lions during the Roman Empire.

Switched to Broadway's Lost Treasures I as I ate a quick lunch of leftovers. This collection of performances from various Tony Awards broadcasts makes for nice background music as I get ready for one thing or another. Favorites here include the late Bonnie Franklin's amazing performance of the title number from Applause, Barbara Harris' sweet "Movie Star Gorgeous" from The Apple Tree, and the cast of the Tommy Tune/Twiggy 80s vehicle My One and Only's incredible tap number to the Gershwin tune "Kicking the Clouds Away."

Finally headed out around 1:30-2PM. Made a quick stop at Dollar Tree for sponges, then headed to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteering session there. I had slightly better luck organizing the kids' DVDs than I did last week. I did manage to get all of them on, even the endless versions of SpongeBob and Scooby Doo. Ironically, I ended up with a Scooby Doo set, in this case the newest 13 episode set based around Shaggy and Scooby's enormous appetites. I also grabbed three Disney/Marvel superhero riffs: a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse superhero spoof, the first release for the newest Avengers cartoon Avengers Assemble, and a bizarre-looking Phineas & Ferb/Avengers crossover I've been trying to rent for weeks.

I also took out a pile of books on boosting your self-confidence. I've been looking over Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, which I bought a couple of years ago. I found the follow-up, Walking In This World. Found another book from Don't Sweat the Small Stuff creator Richard Carlson on making small, gradual changes, rather than big ones all at once. Found a book on stress intended for teenagers that I thought might be helpful for me too, Soul Searching. I also took out a book on yoga for women.

It took me so long to do the research, I didn't leave the library until past 4:30. It was almost worth the sunset at Newton River Park. It was surprisingly quiet for a day that had turned from cloudy to nice. This morning's snow showers did nothing but look pretty. The orange sunset reflected beautifully off the sparkling half-frozen river.

My original plan for today was to try a yoga class at Yogawood, with or without Rose. Not only did I stay at the library later than I was originally going to, but I forgot my cash. (I paid for those sponges with a debit card.) I just did the yoga moves at home instead, listening to the soft rock CD I bought at a yard sale last spring and looking over the yoga book I found at the library. I'm actually glad I did. Much to my surprise, I discovered could still do all the yoga moves I learned at Yogawood as well as I ever could, and I'm even better at some of them. I still can't do a full wheel and still can't get on my head, but I can now do a tree pose almost perfectly.

Ran Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as I sauteed asparagus, carrots, and pasta in a sauce made from leftover orange juice and baked spiced chicken legs in the oven. The first, double-length episode is simply titled "Super Adventure," and it's just what it implies. Mickey and the gang temporarily gain super powers from Professor Ludwig Von Drake when it seems like Pete is going around shrinking Clubhouse landmarks. Not only do they fail to stop Pete when they can't work together, but they discover there's an even nastier villain (for this series) behind the plump cat. When "Megamort" gets not only Pete but Mickey too, can the others work together to rescue them?

Some of the remaining episodes are cute, too. Pete's also prominent in "Mickey's Mouskercize." He's not the world's biggest fan of exercise and can't do what the other characters can do. Once again, they have to work together to prove to Pete how important and fun exercise can be.