First Day of Fall

I awoke to a glorious, sunny day. Spent most of the morning working on my fanfiction. Scott tells Mr. Eldridge about their encounter with the boars in armor as they eat dinner and explains his curse to Mackie. Mackie's scared silly, especially of Betty's healing magic. He doesn't like or trust magic. Mr. Eldridge explains that light magic won't hurt you unless you attack it. He tells Mackie, Scott, and Betty about how the Shadow Realm had taken over Wennaria almost 40 years before, until the Comstock family was able to drive them off. The Guardians had represented a facet of nature - light and dark, water and fire, air and Earth - each keeping the other, and their magic, in check. When the Shadow Realm and its evil magic takes over, they eliminate or corrupt the other elements and destroy the balance.

It was too nice to stay inside the entire morning. I headed out around quarter of 12 for a walk. I was going to volunteer at Studio LuLoo, but with the kids in school, they were closing early. I opted for a short stroll down to the end of Goff Avenue instead. The day was warm and sunny, with a brilliant blue sky overhead, but there was a stout, chilly wind that reminded one that this is the first day of fall. It was so clear, I could see all the way to the Ben Franklin Bridge when I arrived at the boat landing.

I did Alice at the Palace as I ate leftovers for lunch. This unusual musical version of Alice In Wonderland from the early 80's turns the story of Alice traveling across her dreams into a wacky music hall, with a showgirl Queen of Hearts, a Cheshire Cat who brings on a dance routine, a waltzing Russian Mock Turtle, a mime White Knight, and a mad tea party magic act. Meryl Streep is Alice; Debbie Allen and Mark-Lynn Baker are among Wonderland's citizens.

Work was on-and-off busy, not as bad as Sunday but more than it has been lately. We had some long lines and not enough people to deal with them. Otherwise, there were no really major problems, and my relief was right on time. I picked up skim milk (ran out this morning) and headed home.

Had steamed shrimp and zucchini as I finished Alice and watched an episode of The Backyardigans. Tyrone is determined to "Follow the Feather" when he, Tasha, and Pablo go on an adventure in the mountains of Tibet to find the fabled Polka-Dot Pony. He's guided on his journey by the Mysterious Lady (Uniqua), who seems to know more about the feather and the Pony than she'll let on.