South of the Border Duck

Started out a sunny, windy day with the two "Donald Duck In Latin America" movies in honor of Cinco Del Mayo. Saludos Amigos is a collection of shorts set in four different Latin American countries. The Three Caballeros starts out with shorts, but ends with Donald's surreal free-for-all when, having spent the movie chasing girls, he starts seeing them everywhere...even in the South American animation all around him. If you love Donald Duck, Jose Carioca, or animation that steps outside the box, you might have fun with these. Caballeros in particular is one of the most creative things Disney ever did. If you have younger kids or are more of a casual fan, try Saludos Amigos first - it's more straightforward and a little less surreal. Older kids and animation fans who think they've seen everything may want to start with the faster-paced and more original Caballeros.

I spent most of the morning cleaning the bathroom. My hip and side are still a little sore for leaning over and scrubbing the bathroom and hall floor. I'll do that later in the month. I think I forgot to do the windows, too. Otherwise, I scrubbed everything that needed to be scrubbed. I also used the plunger on the kitchen and bathroom sinks. The kitchen sink was really bad. It's been backed up for ages.

Ran a few Speedy Gonzolas cartoons as I put everything away and got ready for work. While many Americans have problems with the stereotypes in Speedy's cartoons, I've heard just as many Mexicans consider Speedy to be a hero, or at worst, a positive stereotype. I opted for some of his more interesting shorts. "Tobasco Road" and "Tortilla Flaps" pits him against a big, ugly cat and a crow who wants a mouse meal, respectively. He goes up against Sylvester in two of my favorites of his, "The Pied Piper of Guadeloupe" and "Mexican Boarders." His slow-moving cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez, joins him in the latter.

Work wasn't too bad when I got in, but it picked up even before rush hour and didn't let up until an hour before I got off of work. We're still getting a lot of beginning-of-the-month people. It did slow down enough by 9 for me to leave without a relief.