It was an absolutely gorgeous, sunny morning when I awoke to this week's American Top 40 re-run. We jumped back in the 80s four years to 1983. Country, New Wave, pop, soul, duets, and dance songs were the rage when I was 4 years old. Hits that late October included "True" by Spandau Ballet, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler, "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie, "Say, Say, Say" by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel, and "Making Love Out of Nothing At All" by Air Supply. That week's number one song was the biggest hit duet in a year filled with them, "Islands In the Stream" by Dolly Pardon and Kenny Rogers.
Ran a couple of horror-themed shorts from Hello Kitty Furry Tale Theater as I got organized for my errands. "The Phantom of the Theater" isn't whom Hello Kitty and her friends think it is when they find themselves dealing with scary pranks behind and under the stage. Catnip isn't happy to be playing the non-too-glamorous "Frankencat," a mad scientist who is bent on creating the perfect robotic monster (Grinder the Bulldog). She gets more into "Catula," a milk-obsessed vampire who meets her match in Hello Kitty and her buddies.
I checked out two yard sales in Oaklyn and Collingswood but found nothing of interest. Went right to the Collingswood Farm Market after that. The Farm Market is on its last month. Several booths are gone, and others were replaced by craft booths. There's still quite a bit of produce to be had, though. Green beans and eggplants are done, replaced by the first celery of the season. I ended up with apples (tiny Golden Delicious), cranberries, mushrooms, a tomato, and a red and a green pepper.
I spent the next hour riding around Collingswood, looking for three yard sales I just could not find. I never saw any other yard sales today. At least it was a lovely day for a ride. It was very windy, but the sun was shining, and it felt warm, but not hot. The air had the slightly smoky, leaf-crackly musty smell of fall. Almost everyone has their Halloween decorations out. Most of Collingswood doesn't get too heavy into the darker side of Halloween, but I did see some pumpkins and cobwebs on bushes.
Speaking of Halloween, I gave myself an extra special seasonal treat on the way home. Matt at Dinosaur Dracula did a blog post on the Ghostbusters-themed doughnut Krispy Kreme has out this month. I was willing to try a Stay Puff Marshmallow doughnut. There's also a doughnut with a gummy version of the Ghostbusters symbol on the front, but when will I ever again be able to say again that I ate the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man? The doughnuts are appropriately marshmallow-filled (it tastes vaguely of maple). Still too sweet for my blood, but not horrible.
I made a quick stop at CVS on the way home for a sparkling pineapple-coconut drink and Pantene curl formula conditioner (they seem to be the only ones with a curl formula) before heading for the Oaklyn Library. Probably due to the beautiful weather, there wasn't much going on there. I organized the adult DVD section and a few kids' DVDs, but was otherwise in and out in 20 minutes.
When I got home, I had the last of the bean-vegetable soup with the other half of my baked acorn squash while watching some slightly spooky New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh episodes. Pooh finds himself caught in the middle when Piglet's "not so scary story" turns into the tale of "The Monster Frankenpooh," thanks to a horror-loving Tigger. "Things That Go Piglet In the Night" frighten the little fellow so, he runs out of his home in a pillow case that makes him look like a ghost. The others think the Hundred Acre Woods is haunted and search for the "spookables." Pooh and Piglet think they're on "Pooh Moon," but they're really just at the other side of the Hundred Acre woods, lost after Tigger's camp-out ghost story gets out of hand.
Switched to Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost as I did some chores around the apartment. The second Scooby direct-to-home-media movie has the gang in Massachusetts, visiting the home town of popular horror author Ben Ravenscroft (Tim Curry). The town is gearing up for their huge fall festival. This year, they're especially excited about the concert by local goth-rock group The Hex Girls and the tourists coming to the puritan village they built over the ruins of their old town. The appearances of the ghost of Ben's ancestor, who was burned at the stake for witchcraft, is bringing even more excitement. Is the ghost really a witch like the stories say, or was she merely a misunderstood healing women, as Ben keeps insisting? And what do the Hex Girls have to do with it all?
One of the best Scooby movies, especially for older kids. The Hex Girls proved so popular here, they would turn up again in episodes of What's New Scooby Doo? and Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated.
I worked on organizing all the junk I'd piled up in the back room to be donated during the movie. To my surprise, it was mainly clothes, books, and videos. Clothes go into the donation bins in the back of the Acme or in the Westmont Plaza's parking lot. The media will go to the libraries I volunteer for. The very few things that fall into neither of those categories (including all those DVD cases I cleared out this summer) will go to the church thrift shop.
Went right into the bath after the movie ended. Ahhh. That was nice. I listened to one of my Lost In Boston CDs of music cut from Broadway musicals (including four dropped from I Do! I Do!) and looked over The Happiness Project while I relaxed.
Switched to Mad Monster Party as I started dinner. One of the few full-length features done by Rankin-Bass is one of the strangest horror cartoons I've ever seen. Baron Von Frankenstein (Boris Karloff) calls together all of the great monsters of the world to attend a huge party and meet his heir, his nerdy nephew Felix (Allen Swift). His assistant Francesca (Gale Garnett) isn't too keen on the idea. The monsters are even less so, especially the Bride of Frankenstein (Phyllis Diller) and her mate. Felix really doesn't want the job, but the monsters would rather get rid of him than listen. Jealous Francesca really causes a mess when she invites the last monster on the planet who should be on the island!
Very, very weird. So weird, it makes even Phyllis Diller look fairly normal. It's too bizarre for little kids expecting Rudolph, but for older kids and teens who are willing to try something a little different, it's worth a look.
And I'm proud of how my dinner came out. I made a delicious meal of the turkey tenderloin in cracked pepper sauce I bought yesterday, roasted Brussels sprouts, mashed cauliflower, and baked sweet potato. Oh, yum, yum. Other than there was too much pepper in the turkey sauce, everything came out just perfectly.
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