In the Autumn Sunshine

It was another beautiful day in the neighborhood when I finally pulled out of bed this morning. I ate oatmeal for breakfast while watching some swashbuckling Backyardigans. Pablo and Tyrone are "The Two Musketeers," but who is that yellow hippo lass who is determined to join them? Uniqua plays Zorro in "The Masked Retriever." She's a librarian who dons a mask and cape to catch Very Important Backyardigan Don Austin before he takes his overdue book over the border!

Cleaned for most of the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. I wanted to get the dusting and windows done, so I could put up the Halloween decorations. Halloween's grown on me over the past few years. As I mentioned, it's one of the few genuinely singles-friendly holidays. You don't need a crowd to dress in a costume, watch a horror movie, or prance in a parade. It's still not my favorite holiday - I'm just not a big horror fan - but I enjoy it more now than I did as a kid. (Not having to go around begging for candy helps, too. I can just buy a bag of Yorks and toss it in the freezer the day after Halloween.)

Unlike Matt at Dinosaur Dracula, most of my decorations are more cute or funny than scary. The black and orange tinsel garland from Rite Aid went over the two windows in the dining area. Put Mom's hand-made raffia-and-cloth bat and moon garland in the kitchen. Moved the leaf garlands to the big windows in my bedroom and replaced one with my fold-out Halloween banner. A little porcelain bear and a larger resin bear dressed as witches went in the bedroom, on the kids' paperbacks and comic books shelf and the wardrobes, respectively.

The Ever After High and Sailor Moon dolls get their own plastic jack-o-lanterns. The witch "scarecrow" and stuffed cauldron Beanie-type toy went on top of the dry sink in the music area, along with a wooden witch cut-out. The jack-o-lantern cut-out is on the dresser I use to hold miscellaneous tools, wires, batteries, and art items. Set up my Halloween Beanie Babies on the DVD shelves. The McDonaldland character, Hamtaro, and Chicken McNugget character Halloween dress-up toys went on the TV table. The Halloween tin is on top of a record crate. The bat table runner Mom made years ago is now the centerpiece of my dining area table.

Ran more Jack of All Trades as I worked. Jack dresses as Governor Croque in order to prove he's a competent leader and keep him from getting replaced with someone far tougher...but a group of girls who have taken to dressing as the Dragoon and writing anti-French graffiti keep getting into trouble.

To find out who has been desecrating cemeteries in the name of the Dragoon, Emilia takes a potion that puts her into a deep coma. She and Jack are hoping to get into the vault and find out who's really behind the damage, but they almost get burned to a crisp instead.

Speaking of Croque, he's not happy when his young wife takes a liking to the Dragoon. Jack tries to teach him how to be dashing to win her back, while Emilia creates a very potent love drug.

This is the only show I've ever seen play Lewis and Clark as a pair of goofy hippies who show up on a deserted island and claim it to be Oregon, then insult Emilia because they think the Revolutionary War is still on. They're still friends with Jack, so he tries to keep the peace between them...and then stop them from assaulting the French. Emilia knows a certain Native woman who can get them on the right track...

I wanted to get to the Oaklyn Library before it closed, so I hurried out around quarter after 1, even before I finished with the Halloween decorations. It was a glorious day for a walk. The sky was blue. The wind was soft. The air was warm, but not at all humid, probably in the lower-mid 70's. A lot of people in the neighborhood seem to have taken advantage of the nice weather we've had these last couple of days to put up their outdoor Halloween decorations. I saw trees hung with ghosts and pumpkin goblins, bright mums in jack-o-lantern pots on steps, and cottony "cobwebs" on bushes. Mums, marigolds, and roses bring fall color to gardens. Certainly more than the trees, which haven't yet turned colors here. They've just been falling.

The Oaklyn Library was quiet when I arrived. It was just me, the librarian, one other older woman on the computer, and CNN. I half-listened to the breaking news about Hurricane Matthew in Florida while organizing the DVDs and shelving children's books.

Picked up lunch at WaWa. I needed skim milk. Also grabbed a roast beef hoagie and a Pumpkin Caramel Smoothie. Yum. I tasted more pumpkin than caramel, but it was still really good. The day was so lovely, I ate lunch at the picnic tables on West Clinton Avenue.

Finished up the Halloween decorations while watching Max & Ruby. "Max & Ruby's Perfect Pumpkin" will be the best one at the grocery store, if she can pick one and keep from getting distracted by Max going after candy! "Max's Jack-O-Lantern" will be funny and happy, or so Ruby keeps insisting. Her brother has other ideas. Max wants to scare Ruby, but his sister may have a few scares of her own for him in "Max's Big Boo."

Worked on writing for a few hours after that. Poe shows up at the Garage, dressed in a natty new suit. He just landed a job with Leia's private detective agency. His first assignment - helping her find out what happened to her brother Luke after his School for Wayward Boys burned to the ground. Poe mentions that Leia wants to see Hank, her estranged husband. He thinks she doesn't want to talk to him...but as the kids remind him, she's still his wife.

It was too nice to stay inside all day. I broke around 5 to run to the grocery store. They're having another one of those buy 6, get 3 dollars off deals. I got two Progresso soups, two Lipton tea boxes (had a buy one, get one free coupon), Palmolive dish washing liquid (I just ran out), and Cheerios (had a coupon for that, too). Restocked honey, peanut butter, ground chicken, bubble bath, canned chicken (another coupon), navy beans, and oat bran. Grabbed the oat bran and two packs of mechanical pencils off the clearance shelves.

My schedule next week is a bit odd. In good news, three days off (Tuesday, Thursday, and next Friday) and no really early days. In strange news, longer hours than I have been getting lately. And I still need more hours.

When I got home, I had leftover soup for dinner, Ran Garfield's Halloween Adventure while I ate. Garfield and Odie dress as pirates for trick or treat, hoping to plunder some nautical candy booty. They get in way over their heads when they find themselves stranded on an island with no candy and ghostly pirates set to arrive at midnight.

Made Old School Chocolate Chip Muffins while watching a couple of spooky Three Stooges shorts. The boys are "Shivering Sherlocks" when they try to help a lady friend claim the old house she's inheriting and end up having to out-run the hideous associate of a group of bank robbers. They're "Hot Scots" when a Scotland Yard case lands them in an ancient castle in the Highlands. But it's no Highland Fling when they find themselves being chased by antique-snitching ghouls and paintings that move. "A Bird In the Hand" brings an ailing Curly back in. A trio of wall paperers out-run their angry boss, only to land in the laboratory of a mad scientist who wants to transfer Curly's brain into a gorilla's body.