High School Musicals

First of all, it got really hot here today, probably for the first time since last August. It was sunny and into the upper 80s throughout the morning and early afternoon. I finally cleaned out and turned on the air conditioner and brought out my fan. This may be the latest I've had to turn it on in years, possibly since I moved to Oaklyn. It usually jumps into the 80s here at least once in April.

There were a few things I wanted to get done today. Heat or no heat, the porch needed to be swept badly. We're in the midst of spring pollen season here. The seed pods are making a mess, gathering in tumbleweed-like puffs everywhere. None of it is helping my allergies, either.

Spent the rest of the day inside, watching both Grease movies and washing the windows, inside and out. As I mentioned in yesterday's entry, I'm very fond of both movies, for different reasons. The first one has a terrific score, lots of energy, and a nice cast that includes, in addition to John Travolta as uber-cool Danny and Olivia Newton-John as sweet Sandy, Stockard Channing as smart-mouthed tough girl Rizzo and Didi Conn as beauty school hopeful Frenchy. The second one has some excellent ensemble numbers (including the fabulous opening number "Back to School Again") and more realistically depicts how Michael changes for Stephanie throughout the movie, rather than just having the whole thing tacked onto the end. (Not to mention, while John Travolta isn't hard on the eyes, Maxwell Caulifield is just hot in that movie.) Coming from a family where the men really do ride motorcycles, I've always loved Stephanie's song "Cool Rider." Mom used to sing it around the house in the 80s.

While Grease 2 was on, I tried something with one of the recipes in the Vintage Cakes book. The Champagne Cake sounded delicious, but I don't drink and have no liquor in the house. I replaced the white wine with the last of the tangerine-lime sparkling water, cut down the sugar, and replaced it with crushed pineapple and coconut. Champagne Cake became Hawaiian Pineapple Cake, which is equally vintage. Hawaii and all things tropical and Tiki were very popular in the late 50s and early 60s after Hawaii became a state. Other than I probably should have left the sugar content, it came out quite nicely, moist and just rich enough.

Work was pretty much the same as yesterday - on-and-off busy, but mostly not that bad. It was so quiet by the time I finished at 9, I was able to get off a few minutes early with no relief.