While it was cloudy and humid when I awoke late this morning, it was also much cooler, in the mid-60's. Celebrated an October Friday the 13th with more Scooby Doo, Where are You? Ran "Which Witch is Which?" from the first season during breakfast. This time, Mystery Inc is lost in a spooky swamp after a fishing trip. An encounter with a zombie and a frog hunter who claims a witch is casting voodoo spells makes them think there's more to this than old bayou legends.
Headed out around quarter of 12 for this week's grocery run. They weren't too busy when I arrived, which was a good thing. I had a fairly big order. Found shrimp and breaded crab cakes with managers coupons. Fished a small pack of really nice mechanical pencils out of the bins of leftover back-to-school supplies on the clearance racks. Took advantage of sales to restock soup (cream of chicken and two Progresso), chocolate chips, cereal (got Multi-Grain Cheerios for $1.88), yogurt, cooking oil (I like Crisco's Blend), eggs (the 18-count pack was on a good four-day sale), canned chicken, skim milk, powdered sugar, pads, another Last Jedi bag (this one representing BB-8), and more of those biscuit sandwiches (this time in Cocoa Almond Butter).
Since I was there, I picked my schedule. It's the best I've had in weeks, if not months. More hours, and good ones, with two morning days this time. Having Tuesday and Wednesday off will allow me to get to the Voorhees Library Book Sale, which is starting on Wednesday this year.
Rushed home, put everything away, grabbed the DVDs that needed to be returned to the Oaklyn Library, and rushed back out. The Oaklyn Library was closing at 2, and I got in there at around 1:20. While the librarians cooed over the very cute baby daughter of a regular patron, I took a quick look at the DVDs. Checked out Mission: Impossible 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
As I road up Atlantic, I discovered that yes, the train bridge was now closed. Turned off to the White Horse Pike and went around it, crossing a now-empty entrance to Nicholson Road. The traffic wasn't too bad at this point, a little busy but nothing out of line with quarter of 2 on a Friday.
Since I was going past it on the White Horse Pike anyway, I stopped at the Legacy Diner for lunch. Their counter was still filled with people getting a slice of cheesecake or a second cup of coffee, but the main room wasn't bad. I had a tasty "Hercules" omelet with feta cheese, tomatoes, spinach, and shaved beef made for gyros, dry hash browns, and whole wheat toast that was charred around the edges while half-listening to The Chew and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Took the back way out of the Legacy's parking lot and onto Audubon's side roads. Atlantic Avenue goes under the difficult-to-cross King's Highway and right to Barrington. There were a few collectibles stores I wanted to check out there, starting with that movie book and posters store I ran into at the Collingswood Book Festival last week. They were, of course, across the busy Chews Landing Road from where most everything else in town is. I had to park my bike at a rack and hurry over. Turns out that while they were filled to the brim with bric-a-brac, there were far more posters than anything else. I did see a few shelves of books and three boxes of records, but I decided to wait on the Library Book Sale for those and moved on.
I hadn't visited the Barrington Antique Center in ages. This is a barn of a collectibles store that functions as a warehouse for many small, local antique sellers. Along with the usual piles of records, vintage magazines, clothes, books, and toys, there were tons of vintage holiday items on display, from delicate 50's and 60's-era ornaments to giant plastic snowmen and witches.
Along with the usual array of Fisher Price toys and older cookbooks and magazines, I found several American Girls. A naked Kirsten and Kit lay in a pile in one room with a dressed Samantha and Addy. I think the doll was Kit, anyway. At any rate, she was a recent doll. Her pale blond hair was silky and smooth, but chopped unevenly. Kirsten's dark-blond hair actually looked rather cute shoulder-length and was less uneven than Kit's. However, it was also very dry, and she had wobbly legs. It's likely she's one of the older Pleasant Company dolls.
Unfortunately, at 48 dollars each, they were still too expensive for me to consider, especially with the hair cuts. I may go back and get Kirsten in a few months if I have the money and she's still there. Ended up getting some cute vintage Halloween cardboard decorations for a dollar each instead.
Took the same way home that I did going to Barrington, stopping at the WaWa on the White Horse Pike for a French Vanilla Cappuccino and a White Chocolate Reeces Pumpkin for brief snack. It was a little more difficult this time. Rush hour was in full swing by the time I started back. I turned off to Oaklyn as soon as I could to dodge the traffic.
Went into writing shortly after I got in. Though Luke appreciates winning the contest and earning the money for the Cottages, what he really wants is to bring Vader home. He follows him to Palpatine's yacht at Brentwood Marina, where one of the Imperials turns him in. The young surfer tries to convince his older sibling that he can change. Vader says he's too much under his boss' thumb...but privately, he's making his own plans...
Finished the night with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them during my shrimp and ratatouille dinner. Newt Scarmander (Eddie Redmayne) is wizard who specializes in the study of magical creatures. He arrives in New York in 1926 on his way to Arizona in the hopes of writing a book on magic animals and proving that they aren't dangerous if you know how to handle them. While listening to an anti-magic crusader (Samantha Morton) talk about how terrible wizards are, one of his critters gets loose. While chasing it into a bank, he accidentally switches his suitcase filled with critters with the case of normal guy Jacob Kowalowski (Dan Fogler). Jacob has no idea what in the case and accidentally releases the animals. Newt and Jacob pair off with determined government worker (Katherine Waterson) and her Bohemian sister (Alison Sudol) to find all the animals, before the nasty Director of Magical Security (Colin Farrell) can get his hands on it. But there's something even darker lurking in the tenements of the Big Apple...and it may take all of Newt's knowledge and abilities to handle it.
Oooh, I really loved this, more than the regular Harry Potter series in some ways. First of all, the basic plot of four characters chasing magical creatures across New York is far more creative and mature than hijinks at a middle/high school. Second, the period detail here was amazing, right down to the digital recreations of the Big Apple in the Roaring 20's. The movie was deservedly Oscar-nominated for production design and won for the spot-on costuming. J.K Rowling's first shot at a screenplay wasn't bad, either. I loved learning more about how different the wizard world was in the US than in England.
My favorite character actually ended up being the sweet, befuddled Jacob. Poor guy was an ordinary slob who just wanted to bake pastries and get out of bad job. For all that, and considering he's the one who caused the trouble in the first place, he actually handled the whole magic thing pretty well. Fogler gave him the right note of wide-eyed confusion. Wish the villains had been handled as well. Farrell was a tad bland as the head bad guy.
This will mean more if you're a Harry Potter fan, but even if you're not, it still works very well as a stand-alone story. If you love period fantasy or tales of the mid-20th century, you'll find a lot to enjoy here.
And after it was cloudy, windy, and humid all day, it did finally rain tonight. We may be getting a little more this weekend, then it's supposed to clear out and cool off even more. We'll see what happens.
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