Saturday, September 17, 2016

Yard Sale Adventures

Began the morning with some Max & Ruby. "Ruby's Safari" has Ruby and Louise looking for "exotic" animals in the backyard to photograph. Max would rather they took pictures of his toys. Ruby and Louise have created their own line of fruit-based beauty products. Ruby's brother prefers "Max's Mud Bath." "Ruby's Lost Lizard" is a chameleon who takes off while Ruby and Louise are working on his terrarium. Max tries to tell the girls, but they can't see it as it blends into its environment.

Started out to run errands around 10. After stopping at WaWa for money, I rode to the Collingswood Farm Market for this week's produce shopping. Man, were they packed! It was elbow-to-elbow. No wonder. The fall produce continues to slowly roll out. I saw winter squash, string beans, and pie pumpkins for the first time today. The peaches were way too large (and expensive), so I bought green grapes instead. Also grabbed bok choy, baby carrots, an heirloom tomato, a cucumber, gala apples, a zucchini, and two ears of yellow corn.

Spent the next couple of hours riding around Collingswood, Westmont, and Oaklyn, checking out yard sales. I didn't find a lot...but I did manage to uncover a few things I've considered getting. Found a brand-new copy of Robin McKinley's first "Beauty and the Beast" novel, Beauty (she would apparently return to the story years later) and an adorable, fluffy little Russ teddy bear at one porch-and-yard sale in Collingswood. (I named the teddy Butterscotch, Scotchie for short.) Picked up a Peanuts comic book at one in Westmont. Three others in Collingswood and were mostly knick-knacks. A huge sale on Cuthbert Road, a few blocks from Rite Aid, was all overpriced collectibles, but I did pick up a copy of a Killers CD next-door. (I do like their "Dustland Fairy Tale.")  Did better back in Oaklyn - a sale near WaWa yielded a really nice journal with a velvet spine.

I rode to Crystal Lake Road at Haddon Township around noon. I thought their town fair was today. It's apparently next Saturday. I was disappointed, but at least it was a nice day for a ride. At that point, it was still sunny, blue, and breezy, if a tad hotter and more humid than yesterday.

Ended up at Phillies Phatties in Oaklyn for lunch. They were busy with families coming in from various fall sports. One mother said she and her kids were celebrating the girl getting her first soccer goal today. I opted to take my slice of cheese pizza, slice of mushroom pizza, and can of Mountain Dew Pitch Black outside and enjoy the quiet. Phillies Yummies had just opened as I finished. (I saw the girl in charge pick up the keys from one of the boys at Phillies Phatties as I got my pizza.) I ended up with a cool, sweet cotton candy Yum Yum (grittier, creamier water ice).

When I got home, I put everything away, then went right into writing. Hank and Leia end up arguing as they leave the boardwalk. Hank wants Leia to start paying more attention to him. Leia wants Hank to join the fight to save the cottages. He still wants to run off to Mexico to avoid Jasper Hutt. Leia finally kisses Hank's best friend Charlie (as well as she can, given their differences in height) to make Hank jealous.

The next day, Leia is back at the library, doing more research. Luke and Ben are on the beach, practicing surfing. They're both worried about Leia. Ben appreciates her help, but he doesn't want her to get hurt.

It was past 6:30 when I ran out to do some quick errands I forgot about earlier. Somewhere between 2 and 6, it had gotten cloudier and much, much windier. The clouds were heavy enough that I couldn't see the oncoming twilight as I made my way across the White Horse Pike. I just grabbed eggs at Family Dollar (they're only $1.10 there). Got skim milk and a Black Cherry Sparkling Ice across the street at WaWa.

(And the renovations on the Oaklyn WaWa came out really nice, too. It's all rounded edges and light wooden panels. The food counter is twice the size it used to be. It took over the area where the drink machines were. Those were moved across the store to the back end where the packaged baked goods used to be.)

Ran Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search For Christopher Robin while eating leftovers for dinner, and then while making Zucchini-Carrot-Honey Muffins. Pooh is looking forward to spending the late summer/early fall with his best human buddy...but the boy can't be found anywhere. The only clue is a honey-covered note. Owl interprets that letter to mean that the boy is in "skull" and is being held prisoner. Pooh and the rest of the Hundred Acres Woods crew set out to find him. In the process, they learn a lot about their close friendship and themselves.

This is surprisingly dark for a Pooh tale, with several scary moments with them searching for the "skullasaurus" and some quite sad ones. (Pooh singing "Wherever You Are" is probably one of the most heartbreaking musical numbers in any Disney movie, period.) It's basically a darker version of the Pooh movie that was released theatrically in 2011.

I do recommend this for fans of Pooh and his pals, but you might want to have a hand for the little ones to hold during the sad or scary scenes...and grab a tissue for yourself.

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