Monday, February 17, 2014

Return of the Edwardian Beauty and Other President's Day Tales

First, and most excitingly, I just heard some really cool news at American Girl's Facebook page. Evidently, this fall, along with completely revamping the historical line, they're going to be bringing Samantha out of retirement! It'll probably just be a brief limited edition thing, but even that's cool. I would love to buy her even one outfit new from AG. I didn't really start collecting for her until after she was retired. And if they re-release some of her old things (I still don't have her "Meet" accessories or her ice skates), that would be even cooler.

Other than that, this was actually a rather frustrating day. I was up late with Lauren (who works at a bank and won't have another weekend off until May) and didn't get out of bed until 9:30. I watched more Red Skelton, finishing out the Best of DVDs. Some of these were a little weird, and the only celebrities I recognized were Gene Barry (in a skit that had Skelton's Clem as a census-taker who gets between a husband having an affair and his very angry wife) and "Mama" Cass Elliot (a woman who is so desperate for a husband, she begs Red's "San Fernando Red" to marry her to a nonplussed firefighter).

I didn't have much luck with the bike tire. Even coating the bolts with W-40 couldn't make them move. I couldn't get the tire off to change it! I just pumped it and hoped it would get me there. It did...but it was deflating again, even as I arrived at the Acme.

Work was steady for most of the afternoon, actually a little quiet for the last major holiday for over two months. It didn't pick up until rush hour and people started seeing the weather reports. We're supposed to get snow again tonight. As of right now, they're saying an inch or two again...but after the last few storms, no one wants to believe it. Thankfully, my relief showed up on time, and I was in and out.

Walking home was a pain. For one thing, I was going after dark. I tried walking on the sidewalk down the Black Horse Pike, but the snow was still high there, and it was so cold. It took me almost an hour to get home, longer than it usually does walking.

I ran more Red as I made a quick dinner of leftover chili. In addition to the Best of sets, Lauren sent me five DVDs with clips of Red from YouTube. Among the ones on the first disc I enjoyed were the skit from the 50s that had George Appleby discover a murderer hiding bodies in the car he's fixing...then saving his wife from him. It also included the famous "Guzzler's Gin" skit from the movie Ziegfield Follies. Red plays a pitchman for the aforementioned liquor who proceeds to get very, very drunk on the product he's selling. It's a riot, one of the better acts in the movie.

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