Saturday, June 03, 2017

Party Time In the Sun

Began the day with an episode of Sailor Moon as I ate a quick breakfast and listened to a heavy spring shower. The guardians get up close and personal with the glamorous world of modeling in "Usagi Is a Model: The Flash of the Monster Camera." Usagi thinks her dream has come true when a young local photographer who attends Rei's school puts out an audition for young women for his photos. It turns out he's taking a lot more than nice pictures of pretty faces. Nephrite implanted a monster in his camera whose photos absorb the person whose picture is being taken! Now Sailor Moon has to use all her wits to deal with this shutter-bugged creature without the others' help.

The rain was winding down by the time I headed to work. I did do some returns and ended up cashiering during the first hour, but I spent most of the day outside. The first time I went out, around quarter of 11, it was starting to shower again, this time heavily. It didn't last. When I went back out after an early break, the clouds and the rain were long gone, leaving a gorgeous, breezy spring day in its wake.

Went straight home, dodging Charlie dragging the door and wood for the repairs on Tuesday upstairs. Changed into regular clothes, read a few chapters of Supergirl at Super Hero High, then headed back out. Today was another big party at Dad and Jodie's house, this time to celebrate the college graduation of Jodie's son Jesse's fiancee Dana.

The party was even bigger than Rose's baby shower was. There were so many people around, most people sat at tables under blue and white event tents set up on the driveway. There was another tent on the grass at the back of the pool area, and that's where I parked myself for most of the next two hours or so. A lot of the kids, including my nephew Khai, hit the pool, despite the fact that it was only in the 70's and not really that hot. I had a lovely chat with Chloe, Emily, and a friend of a cousin, Asia. Asia was apparently from the Dominican Republic and was unaccustomed to chilly water or chilly spring weather. While she warmed up, the girls and I discussed our families, their end-of-the-school-year Field Day, and the movies and cartoons we like. I spent most of my time talking to the girls or to Dad. I didn't know Dana's family or most of Dad and Jodie's friends who weren't from the neighborhood.

There was tons and tons of food! The dining room table groaned with two kinds of chicken (breaded and Marsala), meatballs in sauce, hot and sweet sausage, ribs, hot dogs for the kids, potato salad, two kinds of pasta salad (mayo-based and the oil-based vegetable one I had), green salad, baked ziti, a tasty baked macaroni and broccoli dish, cucumber salad, green beans, and crusty rolls. Rose provided a bowl of cut-up fruit and berries and another one of watermelon. For dessert, there was a massive sheet cake from the Acme, tarts and petit fours from Desserts By Design, a plate of candy-covered pretzels, and giant sugar and chocolate-chocolate chip cookies and an apple pie from Shop Rite. I had the baked ziti, macaroni, vegetable pasta salad, green salad, two chicken sandwiches, two slices of cake (one vanilla, one chocolate), two cookies, and a chocolate-covered pretzel.

I rode off around 5 with a very full stomach. There was one other thing I wanted to do before I made my way home. Sugar is cheaper at Dollar General and Family Dollar than it is at the Acme. Since Dollar General was closer, I went there. Went in, grabbed the sugar, went out.

Finished out the night before a shower with a little bit of writing. Leia, Charles, and Cedric make their way through a hedge tunnel (as best huge Charles can) and towards Chalindria Court. The mansion is swarming with Coruscant soldiers. They're all about to get a surprise, though...

And I got a notice from Camden County. My appointment is between 8:30 and noon on Monday. That, I can pull off. I don't work until 3 on Monday. I'll need a ride from Dad, though. That part of Camden is no place to be riding.

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