Golden Summer

I awoke to a cold apartment. Not cool, cold! I celebrated the beautiful weather with the Backardigans. It's a baking war in old Japan as Master Pie Maker Tyrone teaches apprentice Austin to make awesome pastry in "Samurai Pie." Empress Tasha has demanded "The Great Pie" for her royal dessert. Nothing else will do! Now the two have to make a pie that'll please a picky hippo empress, and keep it out of the hands and flippers of pie-snitching ninjas Uniqua and Pablo!

I spent most of the morning continuing with my story. Scott is finishing his time among the (fictional) Indian tribe. He likes them but doesn't want to stay. He wants to go back to Betty and figure out what's going on with Pruitt, the land purchases, and his mother's death. He's worried about what Pruitt will do to him when he returns, though. It's the tribe's chief who suggests he join a traveling acting troupe that does shows in the area. Not only is a perfect way to hide, but it'll give him more protection from Pruitt's people...and a way back into town.

Work was, once again, dead for most of the afternoon. It got a little bit busy around noon, but otherwise, I stood around a lot. It was too beautiful of a day for people to want to be inside shopping! Other than some cranky customers who wouldn't help bag and one couple who threw a fit when they couldn't get what they wanted on the WIC checks (and didn't end up getting them), there were no major problems. My relief, one of the newly-hired college girls, was on time.

I took the long way home down Nicholson Road. It was too nice outside to rush. What a perfect day! Sunshine, brilliant blue skies, no humidity or haze, barely in the 80's. No wonder there was so much traffic on Nicholson. I dodged quite a few cars going home. (The fact that it was smack in the middle of rush hour probably didn't help.)

When I got in, I had leftovers for dinner, then made those Coconut Macaroon Brownies I bought from Bed Bath & Beyond on Monday. Actually, they're more like "Lemon Squares with a Chocolate crust and a coconut topping." As such, they're very rich....but ooh, soo good. Buttery and just sweet enough, and very chocolate-y!

While the brownies were in the oven, I made a collage. I make a collage from old catalogs once every couple of months, after I've gotten enough catalogs together. It's kind of my way of seeing where I am now and where I want to go...and to recycle a pile of old catalogs.

Ran the original 1939 Stagecoach throughout the evening. This variation on the all-star movie throws together a group of very different people on the title vehicle heading through unfriendly Indian territory. John Wayne, after a decade of B-movies, became a star playing The Ringo Kid, a bandit under arrest who is hoping to avenge the death of his father and brother. Claire Trevor is the former "lady of the night" who falls for him. Thomas Mitchell won an Oscar as a perpetually sozzled doctor. A must-see for fans of Wayne, westerns, or all-star films.