Perfect Day for a Farm Market

Began today with breakfast and more cartoons I've dubbed. The Muppet Babies Video Storybooks were cheap half-hour anthologies of Kermit the Frog reading 80's Muppet Babies books released direct to the kids' video market. Kermit reads three stories to Robin, who refuses to go to sleep. "Gonzo's Treasure Hunt" has a bored Gonzo joining a group of pirates for an imaginary search for gold.

"Baby Piggy Goes to the Ball" teaches Piggy a lesson in tolerance when she turns Gonzo down to come to the ball....and then her goofy clown doll Oliver makes a mess at the dance. When her other dolls try to throw Oliver out, she realizes that he's her friend, and so's Gonzo, no matter how strange they may seem.

Baby Kermit (and Robin) learn about the importance of a good night's rest in "Good Night, Sir Kermit." Kermit would rather be reading about knights and castles than going to bed. He dreams he's at a castle where the resident knight is too tired from dancing all night to stop the dragon and save fair Princess Pigdlyn. A very much awake Kermit takes the knight's place.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a farm market and yard sale run. It was sunny and warm, but not humid at all, with a wonderful breeze. Between the wonderful weather and the holiday weekend, the Collingswood Farm Market was packed when I made it there around quarter after 10. Grapes, Jersey potatoes, and regular plums were all out for the first time today; the Chinese beans were back out. I ended up with sweet little green grapes, yellow peaches, Gala apples, a tomato, and the Chinese beans. Treated myself to one of Springfield Farm's famous apple cider donuts, too.

There was one sale advertised in Oaklyn, on Harding Avenue a few blocks from Kendall and the Oaklyn School. Most of it was knick-knacks and kids' stuff, but they had a semi-decent DVD collection. While I do have almost all of the cartoons on Disc 1 of the first Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collection, I have none of the ones on Disc 2. I paid a dollar for it and headed home.

Made myself a simple but tasty lunch of breaded chicken with sauteed tomatoes and mushrooms while watching Tom & Jerry cartoons. "Jerry and the Goldfish" and "Jerry and the Lion" are similar stories, with Jerry protecting a goldfish from Tom in the former and helping a zoo lion return to Africa in the latter. "Texas Tom" somewhat resembles a western-oriented "Solid Serenade," with Jerry being the one messing around with Tom's music this time. "Cue Ball Cat" has the two fighting in a billiard's hall. (What the heck was Jerry doing sleeping in a pool table anyway?) Spike's adorable son is a "Slicked-Up Pup" when Spike tells Tom not to get the puppy dirty and Jerry finds ways for it to happen anyway. The Oscar-nominated "Jerry's Cousin" brings the tough title character in to get Tom off Jerry's back.

I ended up going into work an hour early. Someone had to leave early; their son had gotten sick and was in the hospital. Work was on-and-off busy, with some annoying customers. One lady gave me a hard time about bagging her 7 packs of toilet paper. I asked her if she wanted the remaining three, but she kept misunderstanding me and whining that she wanted to pay and holding up the line. I just wanted to know if I could put them aside. Thankfully, my relief was on time, and it had slowed down considerably by then, anyway.

I had a surprise call from Rose waiting for me when I got in. Did I want to join her and Khai next-door at the park for an outdoor screening of The Goonies? Sure, why not? I've always liked that movie. I thought I'd heard noise in the park when I got home.

As soon as I changed into regular clothes, I grabbed the blanket I use for on the 4th of July to watch the fireworks and a bottle of water and headed next-door. There were already quite a few kids running around by 7:30. A movie screen and projector had been set up near the front of the park. Rose and Khai didn't arrive until just a few minutes before the movie started at 8. A neighbor and her son, who are friends of Rose's and Khai's, were with them.

The Goonies is an old favorite of mine. A group of young teens find a pirate treasure map in an attic. The map leads them to an old restaurant by the beach and a family of criminals who are hiding out after robbing a bank. While most of the kids search caves under the beach and the town for the treasure, one of them inadvertently befriends the criminals' deformed son.

While the swearing (from kids and adults) and violence (including a faked suicide and several corpses and skeletons) makes this a little heavy for young kids today, older kids will probably love this action-packed chase adventure as much as Rose and our friends and I did when it came out in 1985.

Rose and Khai ended up leaving early, a little more than half-way through. Khai was just too tired from his first two days of school this week. I ended up going with them. Not only have I seen this movie many times before, but I could clearly hear it from my apartment. (Though the trees between my apartment and the park obscured the screen too much to watch it from there.)