Ran a couple of episodes of The Backyardigans while I did my chores. "Samurai Pie" is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. You won't see a moose teach his purple kangaroo assistant how to make The Great Pie for a hippo Empress using moves of warriors of ancient Japan, scored to spaghetti western music, anywhere else.
"Whodunnit?" is less creative but still pretty cute. Sherlock Pablo has to find out who stole Lady Tasha's jewels at Mystery Manor. Was it Tyrone the Butler? Austin Frothingslosh, who leaves suddenly for what seems like no reason? Or Uniqua Underhood, who knows about the robbery before it happens?
Headed out to run today's errands around 10:30. Started at the Oaklyn Library. Not surprisingly, given the nice day, it was just the librarians and me for the entire half-hour I was there. I looked over the DVDs, but mostly reorganized the picture books. Took out Batman Begins and The Matrix Revolutions (which I had out last week, but didn't get to watch before the DVD recorder died).
Went home, put the DVDs upstairs, grabbed my iPod and coupons, and rested briefly before heading back out again. I picked up the bus at the White Horse Pike across from Merryfields Bar and Grill. It was touch and go around some road repairs in Westmont. Otherwise, there was no traffic and no problems. I was at the Market Place in Cherry Hill by 12:30.
Pei Wei is the first restaurant you see when you get off a block from the Holiday Inn. I just went right in and was grateful that, despite the busy main room, the line wasn't too long. Had crab wontons in sweet chili sauce. The chili sauce was a little spicy, but not too horrible. The crab wontons were filled with an odd cream cheese-crab mixture. I did taste the crab, but not too much else. Washed them down with chai (lukewarm) tea.
First stop was Bed Bath and Beyond. I wanted to finally put a dent in that stack of coupons for them I've had laying around for over a year. It wasn't too hard to find a nice, plump brick red cushion for my dining area chair. (I like the kind that tie - the ones that stick on are harder to get off and make a mess when you try.) It took me a little while longer to dig up the magnetic curtain rod (which were on a rack near the back of the curtain area) or a curtain that would work and wasn't too expensive. Found a simple light brown weave on clearance that'll do for now. I noticed Miss Willa uses a suction cup hanger for her wreath; thought I'd try that. Also grabbed conditioner. With the coupons, all of this cost $35.
Had no luck anywhere else. The only tire the had at Dick's that was close to the right size was way too expensive. I checked twice and didn't see anything. Couldn't find a box to plug in my Wii and my VCR with my TV at Best Buy, either. I may order both online. Saw a few interesting Mercedes Lackey novels at Barnes and Noble that the library doesn't have, but held off on buying them. Christmas is coming (and so's a lot of used book sales). (And they didn't have anything new on the Star Wars front besides some toys.) I did get rolls at a busy Wegman's for dinner, along with flavored water and money for the bus. Browsed briefly through Hallmark's just to kill time (and check out their Star Wars Itty Bittys).
The bus showed up literally a second after I stepped up to the bus stop sign. Once again, there were no problems, not even around the road repair. I got to the White Horse Pike 15 minutes later, then rode straight home.
Hung the curtain and tied the pillow on the chair as soon as I got home. The curtain's a little long, but not as much as I expected. I can always crochet a rope to tie it back. Maybe I could buy lengths of fabric to make some seasonal curtains from yard sales and craft stores, or even crochet them.
Spent the next few hours writing. Leia awakens with a fuzzy head and the realization that she was drugged the night before. The maids put her shoes on and do her hair. They try to get her into frilly teddies before she vetoes that idea. When Jasper arrives, he insists on dressing her and choosing her clothes and accessories like his own private Barbie doll, including a gold and diamond choker as proof of "ownership."
Arturro is among the waiters serving breakfast. After catching Jasper drugging her tea this time, she manages to hand it to Arturro to get rid of and hands off a note for Luke and Lance to him.
I got so into writing, it was 7:30 before I broke for dinner! The rolls became turkey meatball sandwiches. Ate them with Ratatouille made from the last of a lot of vegetables that were starting to get too soft in the fridge.
Did The Matrix Revolutions while I ate, and later as I went online. We pick up where we left off, with Neo (Keanu Reeves) stuck in The Matrix. Or, more specifically, he's at a train station that's some kind of limbo, chatting with a strange Indian family and The Oracle (Mary Alice). The others, including his lady friend Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss), rescue him and bring him back to their ship. But Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) is making clones of himself right and left, including one of the rebels. Neo and Trinity have to get back to the Machine City and stop Smith before he completely takes over both the Matrix and the "real world." Meanwhile, Morpheous and his crew hold back the metal squids in an attempt to save their own ships and bring peace to the Matrix for good.
And I...had no idea what was going on here. What the heck was this? The first half, with the Indian family and the others trying to get Neo back, was odd but not too far off from the other films. In the second half, all bets are off. Neo's barely in the second half of the movie! Did they want to make a movie about a war, or the journey of a god-like character, or what? The ending made absolutely no sense whatsoever and was both anticlimactic and boring.
I wouldn't come within a hundred miles of this one unless you've seen the other movies and/or are a huge fan of this series.
(And now that we've come to the end of this series, I can safely say that, even more than Pirates of the Caribbean, this should not have been a series. The first movie is so much of its time, there's no way they could have replicated it in subsequent films. The original film is highly recommended for action fans, kung fu nuts, sci-fi enthusiasts, and those who just want to know what was cool in the late 90's. The other two are only if you really, really loved the first movie and can't live without more.)
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