Chilled Spring

I began a cold, blustery day with more Sailor Moon. This time, it's personal when Nephrite targets a little girl named Mika who is a good friend of Usagi's brother Shingo. Mika gave Shingo a doll she made that won a contest, but Shingo accidentally breaks it. While he tries to figure out how to apologize, Mika becomes more and more reclusive, locking herself in her room to work on more dolls. Usagi's worried; the other girls smell a Negaverse plot.

Usagi's in seventh heaven when she gets a letter from Tuxedo Mask. That is, until she finds out every other girl in the entire area did, including Ami and Rei. Usagi goes to meet "Tuxedo Mask" at the mall. So does Naru, who hopes it's the handsome playboy she's had her eye on. Naru's unfortunately right; Nephrite wrote the letters in an attempt to lure Sailor Moon into a trap. Sailor Moon has to work with the real Tuxedo Mask to rescue Naru and escape Nephrite's lion constellation monster.

I spent the rest of the morning continuing to work on my fanfiction. Anyone who's read my other WENN spoof fanfics knows Rupert Holmes isn't the only one who likes playing around with secret identities. As of right now, Betty is the pretty head of an inn in Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh in its early years) and a writer on the side. Victor is the former manager who went to help the new US government prepare for war. Scott is the charming scoundrel who turns up on the inn's doorstep, claiming he's the new manager...but really has a very different reason for wanting to be there. Maple gets a job as a maid, but she has her own reasons for coming. Hilary and Jeff are nobles who left England in a cloud of scandal. The others are either residents of or servants at the inn.

The Acme called me around 10:30 and asked me to come in at noon. No, not noon, but I could pull off 1. I got off a little early so I could have lunch and watch another Sailor Moon episode. This one was another rather sweet filler story that was cut from the original English dub but happily restored here. The girls and Luna go on vacation to the beach. They end up at a spooky mansion that seems to be occupied by some pretty weird people, including monsters, a father, and his daughter who may have some strange powers. When the father pushes his daughter's powers too far, the Soldiers have to help the girl control her abilities to get rid of it.

I did go in at 1...but I could have gone in at the original 2 PM, for all of how busy we were. The lines were a little long when I got in - one of the morning people called out - but they gradually slowed down as the afternoon continued and the afternoon shift arrived. We were never more than mildly steady. It wasn't even that busy during rush hour. My relief, one of the college girls, was right on time.

I'm not entirely thrilled with my schedule next week. In good news, far more hours, more on a par with what I usually get at this time of year, and Tuesday and Wednesday off again. In annoying news, I have an 8 hour day on Monday and a (now) rare late night shift on Thursday, neither of which I'm looking forward to.

I had a huge grocery order this week. The Acme's organic tea was on clearance for $2.59 each. I stocked up on their White Pomegranate and Green Chai to have with breakfast. I also grabbed Skippy Natural peanut butter for $1.67 - I didn't need it that badly, but that's a good price for peanut butter. There was a good Quaker cereal sale this week - went with Cinnamon Life. I restocked baking powder, yogurt, cheese (went with sharp cheddar), canned low-salt tomato sauce, chocolate chips, and brown sugar. My vegetable crisper was practically empty. I picked up apples, bananas, grapefruit, mushrooms, two tangelos, two containers of sliced zucchini and yellow squash on a buy-one-get-one deal, and a bag of romaine hearts for $1.88 with a coupon in the flyer. Took advantage of a great sale on chicken pieces to grab two of the smaller packages of legs and thighs.

My original plan was to eat dinner at home. I just wasn't up to cooking after all that shopping. I ended up trying the new restaurant a few doors down from Tu Se Bella in the mall behind the Acme. Muscle Maker Grill was supposed to specialize in fast health food. Considering their name, I was surprised to see how many pasta dishes they had. Shouldn't they encourage protein, not carbs? To their credit, they did have a long menu of protein shakes, too. I just went with a "Mona Lisa Wrap" off the smaller portions menu. It was a pretty normal grilled chicken wrap with their tangy "special non-carb sauce" on a toasted whole wheat wrap. A little messy, but not bad. I drank most of the Diet Dr. Pepper on the way home.

Watched one last Sailor Moon episode while putting everything away and eating strawberry cake for dessert. One of my favorite "filler" episodes of the first season is (in the original dub) "An Animated Mess." Two girl animators are new on the job and are excited to be working on the new Sailor V movie. One of them thinks the other is getting better assignments. Nephrite curses the special drawing pencils she and her friend bought years ago and split, vowing they'd only use it for really important cartoons, and only with the other's permission. When Usagi, Rei, and Ami visit the animation studio, the young woman's ambition seems to be causing a rift in her relationship with her friend...until the girls figure out what's really wrong.