Friday, November 04, 2016

Something Strange In the Neighborhood

Started off a late morning with breakfast and more Jack of All Trades. "One, Two, Three, Give Me Lady Liberty" has Jack hoping to introduce Emilia to the traditional American Thanksgiving celebration. Meanwhile, Napoleon is again on the island, preparing a huge statue of a woman carrying at torch he's preparing to send to the US. Jack and Emilia discover there's more to this lady and her torch than meets the eye. They hope their Thanksgiving feast - including a wild football game - will distract the French from their attempt to eliminate what the statue is carrying.

Spent the next few hours finishing my story. Just as Snoke is about to push buttons and put Han and Leia under his control, the lights go out again. As he sends his men to check the fuses, a "ghost" suddenly appears...one who knows about Andrew Waller being controlled by Palpatine and Snoke's involvement with the former police chief.

The "ghost" is Luke, who looks enough like his father to pass for a spectral version of him. He spooks the others in the room, but not Snoke. The insane scientist is about to attack him with a chisel when Charles and the remaining Resistance Kids arrive. Ben helps them out. He's upset that Snoke attacked his mother, whom he still loves somewhat. Leia knocks her brother onto the gurneys for running out for so long the moment she's released. Jess' right hook to Poe literally knocks some sense into him...and brings him out of the trance.

Kaydel brings Statura and the other local cops in. Snoke escapes, but the First Order Gang is arrested for, among other things, murder, kidnapping, and theft. Ben tries to convince his mother to get him out, but she says he'll go to jail with the others. Yes, she loves him. He's her son. He also needs to learn what his grandfather never did - that his actions have consequences, and he has to face them.

Luke gets Threepio to serve the group cider in the living room of Skywalker Manor later, after the cops and the remaining party guests have left. He was here to scout out the house to use for a new School for Wayward Children. He didn't want to reveal himself after the old one was burned down, killing his students and destroying his reputation. His parents had taken in kids off the street, given them a home. He's hoping to do the same.

Leia admits that she's known for at least a day that he's been there. She intended to find him and confront him after the party. She did some research and made calls between leaving Han and the Kids and her arrival at Artie Baker's apartment. It all pointed to him being there, even before Baker's revelation. She partially agreed to go to the party to talk to him...but she also wanted to spend time with Hank.

Rey's just happy all's well that ends well. Han and Leia are on their way to being reconciled. Luke is out in the open. She might almost have a crush on Finn. Poe's recovering from his kidnapping and is hoping to help Leia search for Snoke. As she sips her cider, she thinks she sees a grey, bony face in a window...but it vanishes almost as soon as it appeared...

I'm just glad I was able to finish this one a few days after Halloween, considering how long it took me to get last year's Christmas story done. I enjoyed doing it so much, I'd like to turn it into a series. I have a shorter Resistance Kids story planned for later next month or early next year, The Resistance Kids Go Camping. At any rate, The Resistance Kids and the Haunted House is now available at my writing blog, Archive of Our Own, and Fanfiction.net.

The Resistance Kids and the Haunted House at Fanfiction.Net
The Resistance Kids and the Haunted House at Archive of Our Own
The Resistance Kids and the Haunted House at My Writing Blog

Next up will likely be another Star Wars/Han & Leia fairy tale, either Jack and the Beanstalk or the lesser-known Grimm's Fairy Tale Jorinda and Joringel. Whichever one I don't do now will be done after I finish the next long story I have planned, a Force Awakens version of The Nutcracker.

I got so into finishing my story, I didn't break for lunch until past 3. I quickly ate and got ready to head out while watching another Jack of All Trades episode. Emilia gets "Hamnesia" when a bump on her head leaves her with no memory of who she is. Jack takes advantage of this and convinces her that she's an uninhibited party animal. His desire to loosen up his partner backfires when she's so wild and crazy, she refuses to remember where she hid an important land grant and almost gives away the identity of the Daring Dragoon.

I'm glad I at least got a little time outside. The weather was stunning today, all bright blue and gold autumn skies. The temperatures had dropped into the upper 50's-lower 60's, where it really belongs at this time of year. Newton Lake Park is full-on fall now. The trees are bursting with reds, golds, and lime greens. The brush by the lake is laden with fruit and seeds. The grass is still green, far more than it was over the summer. Needless to say on such a fine afternoon, I dodged many people out for a stroll, walking dogs, or pushing their children in strollers, as well as two flocks of Canadian geese taking a walk of their own.

Didn't get to the Haddon Township Library until quarter of 4. They were quite busy by then with kids out of school, playing with the toys along the wall in the kids' area or on the computers. Since they had plenty of teen help, I stuck to shelving the kids' DVDs and audio books and CDs. Did take out a few things today. They had the newest Doc McStuffins set and another Shirley Temple movie, the musical Just Around the Corner. This fall's Barbie fantasy movie, Barbie: A Star Light Adventure, has a sci-fi theme - thought it sounded like fun.

Decided to grab a small treat at WaWa on the way home in honor of finishing my story. (I only do this for novella or novel-length stories, not for shorts.) The milkshakes you mix yourself in the machine in the corner is cheaper than the hand-spun ones behind the counter. I tried Peanut Butter Cup. Not bad. A bit more frozen than the last counter one I had. I just wish the peanut butter cup pieces were bigger. I think they got pulverized in the mixing.

As soon as I got home and put everything away, I went right into baking. The Acme is having a cookie party in the back room tomorrow. I decided on pumpkin cookies from my Pillsbury cookie cook book. They're a one-bowl recipe that isn't hard to make, and I have plenty of canned pumpkin. Besides, pumpkin is still in season. They're perfect for November.

Finished out Jack of All Trades as I mixed. Emilia finds herself among "Seventy Brides for One Brother" when she's abducted by a sultan who wants her as part of his harem. Jack's determined to get her out. Meanwhile, Emilia teaches the other women about their rights as humans, including the sultan's first wife, who still loves him.

This was absolutely five dollars worth spent. I had a great time. Don't come here expecting straight history or action. This is a campy historical spoof, filled with wacky (and occasionally scatological) humor, historical inaccuracies galore, and such obvious innuendo, I'm surprised some of it got past the censors, even in syndication. If you're a fan of Bruce Campbell, genre spoofs, or swashbucklers, this steampunk action farce is well worth looking for online or in the Complete Series set at Amazon or FYE.

Moved to Ghostbusters as I got the cookies in the oven and had Progresso Chicken Dumpling soup for dinner. This is the original, all-male story of three paranormal scientists who go into business as professional ghost hunters. Ray (Dan Ackroyd) really believes in the ghosts. Egon (Harold Ramis) would rather study them. Peter (Bill Murray) just wants to make money and chase women. Their first client is Dana (Sigourney Weaver), a classical musician  who insists she saw a monster in her refrigerator. While the trio investigates her claims, New York suddenly becomes inundated with spectral sightings. They're so busy, they hire another guy (Ernie Wilson) to help. But there's a reason they've suddenly got ghosts coming out of their ears, and it all centers around Dana's apartment building and that monster in her kitchen...

While I do want to see this year's female version, I still enjoy the original, too. My sisters and I loved this movie when we were kids. It was one of the first videos we ever rented. We used to run around our house, pretending our backpacks were proton packs and we were chasing after the many ghosts who supposedly resided in Cape May. Highly recommended for fans of horror comedy or the cast.

Ended the night with Remember WENN while the cookies were cooling. "The Ghost of WENN" has Hilary on edge when the cast is performing a spooky horror story on a stormy night. But who is really behind the scary goings-on at the station?

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