Olympic Heat

Began a hot, sunny morning with breakfast and cartoons. Austin is ready and raring to go on his first "Race Around the World," from the first season of The Backyardigans. Uniqua, Tyrone, and Pablo have all won medals before. Austin wants to be a winner, too, but he keeps falling behind when he helps the other kids with all of the items in his fanny pack. Ultimately, he and the others learn a lesson in being prepared when only one kid can cross the finish line.

Switched to a sports-themed episode of Tiny Toon Adventures next. "Son of the Wacko World of Sports" begins with a parody of Casey at the Bat with Buster as the infamous "mighty" star player and Sylvester reciting the poem. Buster continues into the next short, which has him buying a bike from a local dealer that turns out to be a lemon. He finally finds a way to get his refund. The final short spoofs the Olympics, as the Toons take part in everything from synchronized swimming to the marathon. Calamity Coyote keeps trying to catch Little Beeper during the marathon. As usual, his attempts have a way of coming back to blow him to smithereens...

Spent most of the morning cleaning. I kept the vacuuming quick. Turning off the air conditioners so I didn't overload circuits gave me the chance to wash the filters. To my delight, it was far easier to wash the filters for both Charlie's small machine and my older one than it was for the one that came with the house. They just slid right out and right back in - Charlie's from the side, mine from the top - with no need to open up the whole air conditioner.

When I was washing the windows, I realized that the cobwebs had gotten really bad. I haven't seen them this bad in years. The window next to my desk was particularly scary. I took a duster to them fast.

It was past 12:30 when I headed out to run errands. The Oaklyn Library was dead when I arrived. Everyone is probably on vacation. The only other person I saw the entire time I was there was the librarian. I spent an hour or so organizing DVDs and a great deal of the children's area while listening to the men's swimming preliminaries on TV.

I like to treat myself to breakfast for lunch when I finish a long story. I went to the Legacy Diner in honor of finally completing Princess Leia and the Merman. They were still pretty busy when I got in, despite it being quarter of 2. I had apple cinnamon crepes with a ton of whipped cream and syrup. They weren't all that great. The crepes were rubbery, and the apple-cinnamon filling was gluey. I was hungry, so I still finished them.

Made a quick stop at the Family Dollar on the way home. I wanted to see if their eggs were cheaper than the Acme's (which are $1.99). Yep - they're $1.25. I also found the most adorable BB-8-themed notebook.

Did writing for the rest of the afternoon. Leia has to drag Luke to talk to their Uncle Ben. Luke would rather be surfing or playing volleyball with Biggs and Wedge and his other buddies. Ben greets them on his porch. He would have gone to their cottage, but he just came from dealing with a plumbing crisis. A very young Poe Dameron tried to see if he could flush his Hot Wheels down the toilet. (Uh, he couldn't.)

Ran Summer Rental while making chicken cutlets with mushroom sauce and finally eating the last of the Cucumber-Tomato Salad for dinner. John Candy is a burnt-out air traffic controller in Atlanta. Told to take a vacation, he packs up the family and heads to Florida. Everything goes well...until he upsets one of the richest men in the area (Richard Crenna) and they discover they're in the wrong house. Their real house is a dilapidated mess in a noisy party area. After an accident lays him up with a bad knee, he ends up taking boating lessons with the crusty owner of a schooner refitted as a seafood restaurant (Rip Torn). When the rich guy tries to throw them out, he makes a bet against their remaining rent that they can't beat him. Now they have to refit the seafood shack into a race-winning yacht...and learn a lot about teamwork, listening to one another, and being a family.

A bit cliched if you've seen other summer or boating comedies like Captain Ron or One Crazy Summer (the boat race has a lot in common with the latter), but has some really fun gags, especially when Candy's stuck at home towards the middle of the movie. Cute enough time-waster if you're a fan of Candy or other 80's slobs vs. snobs comedies.