Island Girls and Pups

Started a cloudy morning with the first of two early days in a row. Once again, work wasn't terribly busy. I gathered carts for the first 40 minutes, then returned loose items and brought empty candy display boxes to the big baler in the back. Swept the area around the entrance for the last 20 minutes. No problems whatsoever. It never got more than mildly steady later in the day.

Went straight home...and I'm glad I did. My first birthday present of the year was in the mailbox. Lauren sent me a cookie cookbook written by a woman in her area, Cookie Classics Made Easy. It was filled with simple, colorful one-bowl cookie recipes, for everything from Chocolate Chip to Key Lime. I'm out of chocolate chips, so I decided to give the latter a shot after I changed and had lunch.

Ran Barbie and Her Sisters in A Puppy Chase while I baked and ate. The girls and their favorite canine cuties are visiting a tropical island where little Chelsea is competing in a big dance show. Chelsea's worried sick that she won't get the steps right. Stacy wants to take part in island sports like snorkeling and surfing. Skipper just wants to relax and mess around with her smart phone. Barbie takes the girls to see a dancing horse festival that's appearing in a local wildlife park. While the girls enjoy the prancing ponies, the puppies wander off and get trapped in a camper with a snooty but good-hearted poodle. The girls have to wander across the island, zip-lining down ravines and dodging heavy storms, to find their pets. Chelsea keeps seeing the worst of every situation, but Barbie reminds her little sister that, even when life is at it's worst, there's always a solution to every problem.

I loved the last adventure of Barbie and her sisters and their pups, and I had just as much fun with this one. While it lacks the edge of Great Puppy Adventure, with its failing small town setting, it made up for it with some colorful and fun animation. Not only do the puppies have a slightly bigger role this time, but they don't feel annoying or overused.

If you loved the previous tales of Barbie and her family, it's safe to say that you'll probably like this one just as much.

And the Key Lime Cookies came out splendidly. I was a little wary of using a recipe that required butter and cooking oil, but they were delicious and tart and not greasy at all. I had to replace the lime extract with lime juice. The cookies were a little wetter than they looked in the picture and spread more, but they tasted just as good.

Did some writing for a few hours after Barbie ended. Luke asks Han why he had to argue with Leia, then says he wishes he could stick around. He wonders why Han only took enough money to pay for Ben's funeral. Han mutters something about the old man deserving a nice funeral, but Luke suspects he just can't bilk the woman he's fallen in love with.

Hera and her crew meet Leia and her family by the docks. They explain how Mon Mothma and Leia's aunt and uncle came to her for a ride. She gladly agreed to help. She and her crew are members of the Rebel Society, too.

Leia turns to thank the Crimson Hawk and Golden Eagle for their aid...but the Falcon has already taken off. The young duchess can only wave good-bye to her gallant rescuers. She already suspects that she knows who they are, someone quite close-by, like Mon Mothma's two mysterious businessman neighbors.

Broke for leftovers for dinner around 6. Put on a Three Stooges short while I ate. They're "Three Sappy People" when they pose as psychiatrists who have been called to cure a spoiled rich woman of her outrageous behavior. The woman is really just bored out of her mind and is acting out. The Stooges don't help, especially when they start a massive food fight at her birthday dinner.

Finished the night with Kirby's Epic Yarn. Some of the space rounds were really cute. I liked walking on the turning stars, and the flaming meteorites that could be rendered a lot more useful with the right patch. The boss was Meta Knight from the original games, who like Dedede, had been brought to Yarn World and brainwashed. Meta Knight was tough! He was so hard, I tried at least six times, and while I did defeat him, I never did get enough for the extra patches. I'll try again another time.

The last world is Kirby's home, Dream Land, which has also been turned into yarn. Whispy Woods didn't pose much of a problem. I loved turning into a round tank-thing and smashing blocks to bits. The tower room took forever, thanks to high winds that never deposited you in the place you wanted to be, or would knock you off a block suddenly.