Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Autumn Was Warm

Slept in for the first time in a while. Did some Backyardigans when I rolled out of bed and had breakfast. "The Action Elves Save Christmas Eve" is the series' second holiday special. Tasha, Uniqua, and Pablo are Santa's most special elves. When his sack is stolen, they become the "Action Elves" and use all the skills at their disposal to get it back from the Abominable Brothers (Tyrone and Austin).

Headed off to the laundromat after the episode ended. I did see a few people, including one of my co-workers, but it was once again mostly dead. Good thing. I had a really big load to get done, including towels. Listened to The View and Action News while working on story notes.

When I got home, I put everything away, then went back out again to run a few errands. The Oaklyn Library was surprisingly busy for such a beautiful late fall day. There were several older people gathered around the computers and table in the main room, talking about their Thanksgiving and what was being blathered about on CNN. I organized DVDs and ignored them. The adult titles were really in bad shape. The back shelves had quite a bit out of order.

Made a couple of quick stops in Oaklyn next. Family Dollar didn't have boxes for cookies, but they did have single toilet paper rolls. I just ran out out this morning. Grabbed a few small things at Dollar General, including Soft Scrub and a red velvet cake mix.

Stopped at Phillies Phatties for lunch. Needless to say, they were dead at past 2 PM. They have a couple of new Mountain Dew flavors to try along with the Holiday Brew. I ended up with the Raspberry Lemonade "Spiked" Mountain Dew; spiked with fancy pear juices, that is. (They also had a regular lemonade.) It was tasty, kind of like a sweeter Raspberry Lemonade Sparkling Ice.

Took that and my slice of cheese and slice of broccoli pizza outside to the picnic tables on the sidewalk for lunch. That may have been a mistake. As lovely as the weather was (I only needed a heavy sweater), it was also back to being very wind. Once the slices started to disappear, my paper plates and napkins blew all over! I had to chase after them instead of finishing my meal.

Went home after I finished to start this year's pre-holiday cleaning. I always give the apartment a thorough cleaning before I put up the Christmas decorations. I would have at least cleaned the bathroom anyway. The tub had been running very slow for the past few days. A dose of Liquid Plumber and a good scrub seemed to solve that problem. Also wiped down the toilet and the tiles and scrubbed the sink.

The kitchen wasn't as bad. I mostly wiped down the counter tops and scrubbed the sink. I did clean the bathroom and kitchen earlier this month, so it could have been a lot worse. (I also had to wipe down the trash can when I discovered that the previous trash bag leaked.)

Ran a couple of Christmas specials while I worked. Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol was the very first animated network holiday special back in 1962. The world's most famous old codger plays Dickens' favorite old codger, with fellow UPA alumnus Gerold McBoing Boing as Tiny Tim. Gorgeous music by real-life Broadway tunesmiths Jules Styne and Robert Merrill is the real selling point, including the rousing "We'll Have the Brightest Christmas" for the Cratchit family and the haunting "Winter Was Warm" for Belle.

Bugs Bunny's Christmas Tales is a Chuck Jones anthology of original Tunes holiday shorts. The first is a condensed Christmas Carol, with Yosemite Sam as Scrooge, Bugs as Nephew Fred and the ghosts, and Porky as Bob Cratchit. We head up to the mountains for the second, as Wil E. Coyote and the Road Runner take their usual antics into the snow. The special ends with the Tazmanian Devil ending up in a Santa suit and Bugs trying to get rid of him.

We return to the world of the Bernstein Bears for The Bernstein Bears' Christmas Tree. Actually, this one mainly focuses on Papa Q. Bear, the prototypical bumbling dad. He's bound and determined to chop down a real Christmas tree in the wilderness this year. Every tree he selects always seem to have some animal or the other living in them...until he finally realizes that they have their own holidays to celebrate. The animals whose homes he and the cubs spared have a nice surprise waiting for them when they get back to their tree house.

Finished at 5, then worked on writing for a while. Poe brings BB to his office and lets her play with his Frogger game and her toys. Bored with the game, she hears people yelling in the next room. She realizes that it's Mrs. Leia Weston-Solo, who co-owns and is president of Skywalker's Department Store. Nasty old Alexander Snoke wants her to sell her stores to his First Order Value Department Store chain...and so does Benjamin Solo, her son and Snoke's vice president. Leia is hesitant to sell. Her family has owned Skywalker's since her father purchased it from the previous owner in the 50's. Poe claims to have a lot of great ideas to get them back in the black, but Snoke won't hear them. They just aren't doing that well.

I was tired and not that hungry when I got off around 7. I just had leftover turkey soup for dinner while running a couple of Hello Kitty Furry Tale Theater shorts. Tuxedo Sam is "Robin Penguin," who must rescue fair Maid Kitty from the evil Sheriff Grinder and bring gum back to the people of Knotty-Pine. "Hello Mother Goose" is the only story to involve almost the entire cast and the only one to not feature a traditional villain. Mother Kitty Goose has to figure out who's been stealing famous objects from various nursery rhymes. Chip the Seal is in the spotlight as the title character of "The Ugly Quackling." He's not as cute as his three sisters (Catnip, Hello Kitty, My Melody). They and their mother Fangora learn never to judge an bird by its feathers when he turns out to be a lot more than just a clumsy duck.

Finshed off the night messing around on YouTube after a shower. Watched a lot of reviews and top 10 lists and another version of Babes In Toyland, this one an animated movie from 1997. Jack and Jill are very reluctantly taken in by their evil uncle Barnaby...until he realizes they have the money for him to buy the toy factory from Mary Had a Little Lamb. She and Tom the Piper's Son have to make all of Santa's toys within three days, or the factory will close! Meanwhile, Barnaby does everything he can to get rid of his new charges, including hiring two bumbling criminals to dump them in the Goblin's Forest.

This is pretty obviously MGM's entry in the Disney animated musical imitation race of the late 90's. It's...just ok. Nice animation and a pretty decent voice cast (including Christopher Plummer as Barnaby, Lacey Chalbert as Jill, Charles Nelson Reilly as Humpty Dumpty, and Bronson Pinchot as one of the criminals) can't make up for a stale plot and dull songs. If you have younger kids or musical or fantasy fans, it's worth seeing once.

Babes In Toyland (1997 Animated)

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