Finally Fall

Celebrated a glorious morning that actually felt like fall with breakfast and baking Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins. Used the recipe from the Sunset bread cookbook I picked up two weeks ago. It came out pretty well, a little bland but not too bad. (Maybe I'll add more sugar next time. Or some cinnamon to perk things up a bit.)

Ran a couple of spooky episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh while I baked to kick off my Halloween season. Piglet is "A Knight to Remember" when the others are playing chess and can't find the pieces. He imagines he's a very small knight who has to fight a very big dragon...or is it? Piglet's also having trouble with dreams in "Rock-a-Bye Pooh." After he has a nightmare about his friends disappearing, Piglet won't go to sleep at all. Pooh and the gang try to convince him that dreams are nothing to be afraid of. "The Monster Frankenpooh" is the not-so-scary horror spoof Piglet's concocted...but Tigger would rather make it a little spookier. "Things That Go Piglet In the Night" has the gang chasing ghosts that turn out to be not at all what they expect. Piglet and Pooh think they're on the "Pooh Moon" during a camping trip. Their friends think they've been snatched by the Grab-me Gotcha and have to rescue them.

Started writing around 10:30. Finished out the Jasper Hutt segment. Hank and Charlie have agreed to state evidence in return for not being tossed in the slammer for drug running. They also suggest hocking Leia's expensive diamond collar and gown to get the money for Luke and Ben's hospital bills. Hank deals with Lance's betrayal by knocking him into the fountain, telling him not to try anything like that again. It ends with them finding Chip and Arturro stuck on the trapeze, where they hid to get away from the mess in the club.

Broke at ten of 1 for lunch and to get ready for work. Did another mildly horror-themed kid's show episode while I ate. "It's Great to Be a Ghost" is the first of several horror-oriented Backyardigans shows. Uniqua, Tyrone, and Pablo play ghosts who try to scare Tasha. Tyrone's not too sure about it. This who scaring business makes him nervous. Tasha claims she can't be scared...but it's the least-likely kid who finally does frighten her.

Work was a tiny bit busy when I arrived. After that early spurt ended, it was dead for the entire night. In fact, it was really boring. After I gathered all the trash and mopped the bathroom floors, there really wasn't much for me to do. I bagged, then took over for another bagger doing carts for the last hour. They didn't really need to be done that badly...but neither did anything else. Besides, it was too nice to be inside all day. While it is a tad humid, a fresh wind and cooler temperatures keep things far more fall-like than earlier in the week.

Got my schedule right before I started. It's really weird this week. On one hand, I have three days off, from Wednesday to Friday. I'll be able to get a LOT done, including starting the fall cleaning. On the other hand, I have slightly fewer hours and a long day next Saturday.

Had a quick leftovers dinner when I got home, then thought I'd try something. I was originally going to make Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I already put chocolate chips in muffins this morning. That cookie cook book Lauren sent me for my birthday had a recipe for "Apples Rolled In Autumn" - basically, Apple-Oatmeal Cookies. Oh, yum. I was a little paranoid about keeping an eye on them after my last cookies burned badly, but these came out really nice. They were chewy and just sweet enough, and they smelled amazing coming out of the oven.

Finished out the evening while the cookies were in the oven with Insurgent. Tris (Shalene Woodley) and her boyfriend Four (Theo James) are on the run, all Divergents having been declared outlaws by Jeannie (Kate Winslet), the leader of a post-apocalyptic Chicago. They first stay with Amity, the farming faction, but Johanna (Octavia Spenser), the head of the group, feels they cause too much friction. After one of their group gives them away, they flee headlong into the Factionless- the underground system of homeless toughs who belong to no group. Four's not happy to discover their leader (Naomi Watts) is a little too close to him for his liking. They next head to Candor, faction of lawyers, judges, and truth-tellers, before they, too, are attacked by Jeannie's Dauntless soldiers. Meanwhile, Jeannie has been given a strange box, one with five sides that only a Divergent can open, by the Faction's founders. Tris, with her potent humanity, may be the perfect person to open the box...if she can pass a series of increasingly damaging tests.

I have to admit, I actually enjoyed this one a bit more than the previous film. Woodley's performance is better, the cast is just as good, and we see more of the Factions and how the system operates (including how it tosses out those who don't fit in it).

Nothing, however, can overcome that twice-told feeling. Even with the better performances and effects, this is still, at its core, an imitation Hunger Games. If you loved that series or tales of dark futures, you may enjoy this...but you'll need to catch Divergent first to find out more about this world and its citizens.