Snow In Summer

Slept in this morning after chatting late with Lauren. Made Apricot Pancakes for breakfast while listening to the soundtrack from the MGM musical Til the Clouds Roll By. Without the occasionally overblown numbers as a distraction, you're able to appreciate the all-star cast performing some great Jerome Kern tunes. My favorite is still the hilarious version of "I Won't Dance," performed by Van Johnson and Trudi Erwin (who dubbed dancer Lucile Bremer).

Work was crazy busy when I arrived. I think I figured out why it's been nuts this weekend. We're having a big 4-day sale on chicken and bananas, among other things. I did get stuck in the register a few times, but it slowed down enough by the second half of my shift for me to concentrate on gathering carts, doing returns, and vacuuming up all those leaks. (A couple of the college guys found a vacuum in the back area that can handle sucking up water. It beats the heck out of mopping.)

I also came up with another Star Wars story idea. Whenever I manage to get to this one, it'll be my first Star Wars fanfic set in the actual universe. Taking place between New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, Han, Chewie, Leia, and Luke find themselves on a remote snow planet that's a little more hospitable than Hoth, to the point where it is inhabited, at least by criminals, tundra animals, goblins, and the Snow Queen, the ruthless head of the country who commands ice powers. The goblins make mischief by breaking evil ice shards over the trio. They make the person they stab the opposite of their usual personality. Luke gets stabbed with them in his eyes and heart, making him cold, indifferent, and nasty. He runs off from Han and Leia and is found by the Snow Queen, who takes her to her palace at the top of the planet. His friends get help from a band of local thieves as they search for him...and run afoul of the seemingly kind Summer Queen, who has her own plans for Leia...

Yes, this is a take on the original Hans Christian Anderson version of The Snow Queen. I got the idea from the story Lauren and I are working on now in our private two-person writings that involves a snow queen and an invasion. (We've long stopped posting the stuff we write together. It's just too personal.) I might end up doing this one after I finish the 80's summer story, or after I finish the 30's story. We'll see how things go.

I've now updated my Upcoming Stories and Story Ideas page at my writing blog with this idea. 

I did some writing when I got home. Leia strolls into Roseman's Landing, a series of islands that border Ocean View. It's mostly the home of diners, fishing shacks, and marinas, but it also houses a popular seafood restaurant/marina, Ackbar's. Leia stops in to say "hi" to Ezra Bridger, who is working behind the counter at the fish market. She interrupts his music video-watching long enough to ask him where the rest of his friends are. "Around," he says while bopping to the tune of "Hungry Like the Wolf."

I couldn't find a recipe for beans and hot dogs that didn't involve canned baked beans. I don't eat canned baked beans. Most canned baked beans include junk like high fructose corn syrup. I finally made my own. Cooked onions and the beef hot dogs in olive oil before adding tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and molasses. (Wish I could have added barbecue sauce, but I didn't have any of that, either.) I probably shouldn't have used red kidney beans, but the can was almost out of date, and I couldn't find the navy beans.

Listened to the soundtracks to Flashdance and Streets of Fire while I ate. Flashdance would have been out by the time my story is set in the summer of 1983 (according to Wikipedia, it was released in April of that year), and probably would have been wildly popular, especially with girls. Personally, I never got the interest - it's overheated melodrama - but it does have some great music that's very evocative of its era. Though Streets of Fire didn't come out until a year later (and wasn't a hit at the time), the theatrical music is even closer to the feel I'm going for.

Finished the night with more Lego Indiana Jones 2. I didn't get far with either the last Treasure Round or the first bonus round I tried. The last treasure round is a point-and-shoot round...but you have to shoot at barely visible targets on a circus train, and you have to do it fast! I'm just not fast enough. I did manage to get through the hot rod race that lets you win two more characters...including one with a book that can open the door to Marshall College, where Indy works. The book said to shoot a switch to your right with a gun, but I couldn't figure out which switch they meant. There were no switches to the right, and nothing seemed to happen when I shot the two red squares behind Indy. I'll try again tomorrow or later this week.