Thursday, April 03, 2014

When the Going Gets Tough...

Started today with another Peanuts baseball tale. Charlie Brown's All-Stars have never won a game. Chuck thinks uniforms and playing on a real league might make a difference...until the league tells him they won't accept a team with four girls and a dog. The Peanuts are angry when they don't get the uniforms, until they find out Chuck stood up for them...and for possibly the only time in the entire series, admit they were wrong and try to make him feel better.

I made the bed and stripped the sheets while the Peanuts were on. I only make the bed about once or twice a month. Who's going to see it? I only did it today so I could put on fresh, lighter sheets for spring and dump the older sheets in the laundry to be washed later.

I finally headed out around noon. It was an absolutely glorious day, in the lower-mid 60s and sunny as could be. Newton River Park was bustling with dog-walkers, joggers, parents with strollers, and kids hurrying around the playground. It's looking so much greener than it did even a week or two ago. There's more and more new grass amid the dry yellow straw, buds are just starting to appear on the trees, and dafodils and crocus are popping up everywhere.

The Haddon Township Library was bustling, too. I had a lot to organize and shelve, starting with a very messy children's section. I had some adorable help from a little 4-year-old girl who was looking for Barbie As specials. She ended up with Barbie In the Three Musketeers, along with Big Top Scooby (she said some of Scooby's more recent programming scares her, but she liked the circus theme in that one), and one of the Dora the Explorer sets. There were lots of adult titles to shelve, too.

I took out less than I did last week, but I did still find some movies to watch this weekend. Now You See Me, a caper action movie about a group of magicians who pull heists, was a surprise hit last summer and has a great cast and an intriguing premise. I never did get to Trading Places the last time I had it out. I actually like Easter With Max & Ruby better than the earlier Springtime For Max & Ruby, as the Easter specials there are a bit kinder to both bunnies. And the library just got a new Doc McStuffins disc in that seems to cover the arrival of Doc's mobile medical unit (a purple painted wagon).

Since it was late by that point, I just stopped at WaWa for a 4-inch roast beef hoagie on a wheat roll, skim milk, and money from the ATM machine and headed home. I ate my hoagie while watching Max & Ruby's later Easter tales. Ruby puts together the fanciest Easter bonnet she can for the Bunny Scouts' annual bonnet competition, but Max is more interested in getting his frog to hop in "Ruby's Easter Bonnet." Ruby and Louise are painting beautiful eggs for Grandma, but Ruby's brother would rather be a part of "Max's Easter Parade." Max finds a way to join in when the Bunny Scouts search for eggs in "Max and the Easter Bunny."

I pulled out the glass iced tea jar and put it on the edge of the counter in front of the sink as I went looking for a jar. I must have put it too close to the sink, because....CRASH! The jar tumbled into the sink, breaking into a hundred pieces and slicing two of my fingers so badly they bled everywhere. I'm still really upset! I don't have too many other vessels to hold liquids. I mostly drink iced tea, milk, and water. Not to mention, glass iced tea jars are impossible to find. I got mine at the Acme a couple of years ago and haven't seen glass ones there since. It took me ten minutes to clean up the mess and clean and bandage my fingers before I finally rounded up my laundry and hauled out.

It was past 4 when I finally made it to the laundromat. They were busy with elderly people and family doing their wash before dinner. There was a line for the change machine when I arrived! That was the only thing I had to wait for. I was able to get a washer and a drier quickly, though I needed a little more time on the drier than usual because of the flannel sheets. I was out after 5.

When I got home, instead of separating everything and putting it away, I separated light and heavy clothes and pulled out the plastic bin that holds out-of-season items. I think the warm weather today was a good indication that we're finally done with really cold temperatures during the daytime hours. I'll probably need a sweater or coat at night for a while, but I don't think I'll be wearing turtlenecks or my corduroys again until November. I forgot I replaced a lot of summer blouses last year. I need t-shirts, good skirts for summer and winter, pajamas for both seasons, and a darker pair of jean shorts.

I ran Romancing the Stone while making a quick mushroom and cheese omelet and carrot sticks for dinner, and then while whipping up a Fluffy (Cooked) White Frosting to put on top of and around my Spring Cake. (I used strawberry jam for the filling.) This tale of a shy romance novelist (Kathleen Turner) who goes to Columbia to rescue her sister, only to find treasure and a handsome poacher (Michael Douglas), has been one of my favorite movies since it came out when I was a kid. I'm not normally into romances, but this one has comedy and action to spare - and possibly because it was written by a woman, it's the novelist who gets to defeat the evil dictator in the end. Highly recommended for all lovers of romance, adventure, or strong female characters.

No comments: