Between the Storms

BANG!

I shot up in bed as the loudest thunderclap I'd ever heard shook my apartment. The noise seemed more like a sonic boom than thunder. More heavy rain like what we got on Saturday followed. It was 5 AM. I was tired. Rain or no rain, I finally fell back asleep.

Finally got up around 9 and finished out The Finder's Keeper's Rule. The Haddon Township Library finally got in the newest American Girl mysteries. I went with Maryellen's and Josefina's. Maryellen Larkin finds a barnacle-crusted ring on the shore at her native Daytona Beach. She's excited, until she realizes that there's a lot of people out there who want her ring, and not all of them are trustworthy. I really enjoyed this one. I grew up by the beach, hearing tales of pirates and sunken treasure, just like Maryellen. My sisters and I used to go treasure hunting on the beach, too. We never found anything resembling Maryellen's treasure, but that didn't stop us from trying.

Ran another Sailor Moon summer-themed episode while I had breakfast. This one was from the fourth season. The girls are all enjoying a relaxing day ogling boys at the beach and watching out for Chibi-Usa and Usagi's little brother Shingo. Shingo has a bit of a crush on smart Ami, which becomes awkward when aggressive Tiger's Eye goes after her. Ami's not really his type...which he discovers when he attacks Shingo, and Ami teaches him about friendship.

Spent the rest of the morning working on fanfiction. Leia and Han dream about dancing at the ball in the start of the story together. Han and Maz are both hopeful that Leia will finally kiss Han...for if she confesses her love to him and kisses him, it will restore his merman form. Jabba, however, has no desire for this to happen and sends magic that turns their dream into a nightmare. Water pours into the ballroom, turning Han first into a merman...then into something very different. Leia is surrounded by the seaweed-and-barnacle-covered slaves, including Luke. They're about to attack her when she wakes up...

Finally broke for a quick lunch around quarter after 1 and to get ready for work. Another summer-themed episode in Sailor Moon's season four is a riff on the Audrey Hepburn movie Roman Holiday. A princess has escaped her confining world tour for some fun in Tokyo. Usagi and Chibi-Usa think she may be a prime candidate for the Dead Moon Circus - she's naive about how the real world works - and they're right. When Hawk's Eye goes after her, the girls and Mamoru come after him to make sure the princess gets home safely.

It was still insanely hot, hazy, and humid when I went to work. While I did get to spend the first hour or so doing returns, and I gathered baskets a couple of times, I was once again mostly doing carts. (There was another bagger, but she was busy mopping up the mess from the freezer leaks.) This time, the excitement was inside. I came in just as a frozen food stock person and two managers were helping the self-checkout cashier get ice on her arm. Apparently, she'd tripped over her feet and landed on her head. She'd tried to stop it with her wrists, and may have ended up breaking them. I have no idea what happened to her later. I hope she's ok.

Dark clouds had been gathering for nearly two hours when I finally got home. I'm glad I got in when I did. I had finished dinner and was just putting on Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures when it started pouring again. There was thunder, too, though not anything near as loud as this morning.

Finished out Raiders this evening with "Opening the Ark." The first two rooms were fairly complicated, with a lot of build-and-jump that I couldn't get the timing right for. I did manage to find two "artifacts" that hadn't been mentioned in the YouTube videos I watched for this, both in extra rooms opened by passing Indy off as a Nazi officer. Chasing the villain was only a little more troublesome - it involved a LOT of jumping and back-and-forth. (And unlike the second Lego Indy, this one does keep the original "melting faces" ending.)

Lauren wasn't coming online until later. I had plenty of time to move onto Temple of Doom. "Shanghai Showdown" took a little while. You have to toss diamonds to Lao Che's goons, like you toss bananas to the monkeys, to get an antidote for the poisoned Indy. Things went quicker after that, especially once I picked up Short Round. He's the only character in the game small enough to crawl through the little swinging squares in the walls that lead to hard-to-find pieces or treasures.

"Pangkok Secrets" started out tough. I actually messed up at one point and had to start over. Thankfully, I didn't get very far. You have to use elephants and a lot of jumping and whip-swinging to get past several spiky obstacles (and crush the bugs and snakes Willie and Indy fear). The palace itself was much easier and just required taking out a few guards and bugs and a little book-reading.

Next time I play video games, we'll be in the infamous Temple of Kali, rescuing Willie and Short Round.