Treasures at the Library

Began an absolutely glorious morning with Laverne & Shirley as I ate breakfast. After their couch breaks, Laverne and Shirley head to Ramsdale Manor, which is being condemned, to get one cheap. Shirley insists that the property is a "Haunted House." Laverne is just as sure that an old house is an old house, and they need a couch...until they and Squiggy and Lenny see strange things happening, and the boys and the little man who had been showing them the couch disappear.

Got an earlier start today around quarter after 10 with a stop at the Oaklyn Library. I was mainly there to return the two DVDs I took out last week. I looked at the DVDs and organized picture books and novels in the kids' area. A few people tapped away on the computers. Otherwise, they were pretty quiet.

Headed out to catch the bus to Voorhees around 11. It was only slightly late when it arrived at the stop in front of Oaklyn's City Hall on the White Horse Pike, and fairly full. It started emptying out as early as the first stop in Audubon. By the time I pushed the button to indicate that I wanted to get off at the Voorhees Library, I was the only one still riding. There was no traffic at that point, and no major problems.

Twice a year, in June and in October, the Camden County Library System has their county-wide book sale at the Voorhees Library...and I was lucky that they started a day earlier this year. I searched through tables and tables filled with paperbacks, hardbacks, non-fiction, older collectible titles, coffee table books, and boxes of records. Two shelves held DVDs and CDs. Kids' books were in their own special room. It was just before noon when I got there, and they were packed. It took me a while to wedge between people and find anything interesting.

No luck with kids' books this time around or records (those boxes mostly held opera collections), but I did come up with a few gems:

Ex-library copies of Kung Fu Panda 3 and The Peanuts Movie, recent animated films I really enjoyed and have been hoping to pick up somewhere along the line. (I already have the other two Kung Fu Panda movies.)

The last early Amelia Peabody book I didn't have, the second book in the series, Curse of the Pharoahs.

One of the most recent Mercedes Lackey Elemental Wizard Fairy Tale novels, Home From the Sea, a riff on East of the Sun, West of the Moon. I actually saw this at Barnes and Noble on my trip to Market Place in Cherry Hill last month, but held off on buying it...and now I'm glad I did! The copy I found looks like it's brand-new, with only a few pages creased. It's one of the books in the series that the Haddon Township Library doesn't have.

A Celebration of Christmas, edited by Gilliam Cooke - This is a British collection of holiday traditions, recipes, party ideas, games, stories, and music, all illustrated with old-fashioned Victorian prints and cut-outs. It even includes the script for a simple pantomime version of Cinderella for the family to perform. I remember taking this out of some library or the other (maybe my high school library?) in the 90's and being fascinated by the fairy-tale script and by the differences between English and American holiday traditions, not to mention the odd illustrations.

It was such a glorious day, I walked around the Voorhees Town Center mall and headed for the Boulevard, aka their Restaurant Row. Today was the most stunning weather we've had in weeks. The sky was perfectly blue, without a hint of a cloud, and the breeze was soft and cool. By 1:30, it had gotten into a dry and pleasant lower 70's.

I didn't get as lucky with my choice for lunch. My first idea, the bakery and cafe Victorian Savories, and second, the high-end fast food place Burgers 21, had shut down. I ended up at an enormous Friendly's, the biggest I'd ever seen. The goldenrod-yellow wallpaper and matted carpets of the narrow Westmont Friendly's had been replaced by a wide counter and streamlined, art deco-inspired red, black, and silver booths and tables. I wish they'd put more bacon on my Bacon and Swiss Turkey Burger. Otherwise, it was very tasty, nice and juicy for ground turkey. Had Hunka Chunka PB Fudge ice cream with hot fudge sauce, whipped cream, and a cherry for dessert.

Strolled around in the Voorhees Town Center after I ate to walk off my lunch. Despite their Macy's having closed last winter, they were in slightly better shape than they were on my previous visit. The food court was almost full again, and a Verizon store had replaced the shuttered Hallmark. There were still quite a few empty stores, though, including the Macy's, and it remains dark and fairly dreary in there.

The Boscov's, as usual, was busy with bargain shoppers. I was hoping to find a few bargains of my own. Nope, no luck here, either. Didn't see any clothes sales I liked. No dolls I didn't have, either. I'm going to hold off on buying Christmas decor until we get closer to that holiday.

Picked up a right-on-time 3:15 bus back to Oaklyn. They were relatively full, but at least the trip went fast. The rush hour traffic was going in the opposite direction.

Went straight home after the bus dropped me off at the White Horse Pike, across from the Oaklyn 7-11. Put my finds away, then did some writing. Chip, Kris, and Arturro manage to put out the fire before it spreads with a fire extinguisher and a bucket of lemonade. They lure the Imperials to Ed's Funcade, where they reveal that Palpatine intends to destroy the pier and force Maz to sell in the hope that other boardwalk merchants will follow her. When Arturro's extinguisher runs out of foam, Charlie calls out the Ewok kids, who kick the Imperials' shins into submission. As the others help them tie the bikers up with twine, Maz reveals that she and Charlie caught the Imperials' admitting Palpatine's guilt on a tape recorder.

Broke at 7 for dinner. Before I left for my errands run, I threw chicken legs into my Crock Pot with orange juice, chicken stock, soy sauce, and water. Had it with roasted Brussels sprouts and leftover mashed potatoes. Not bad. A little dry. I think I had the chicken in the pot for too long.

Finished the night with Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation while I ate. The Japanese detective (Peter Lorre) is taking a well-deserved rest in San Francisco when he's asked to help guard the recently-discovered crown of Sheba from an infamous thief. Moto soon discovers that there's not one, but several groups of crooks who would love to get their hands on the priceless bauble. Moto and his bumbling British reporter friend Arthur Featherstone (G.P Huntley) have to dodge all three groups, one of whom are gangsters who want Moto out of the way, while helping the archaeologist who found the crown (John King) keep the security system working and the crown out of criminal hands.

Not a bad entry. I thought the archaeological mystery would go along well with my Amelia Peabody find today. I do wish we'd seen more of Moto (this would be Lorre's last film in the series) and less of the very annoying and goofy Featherstone, though.