Mission: Laundry

After yesterday's beautiful fall weather, I was disappointed to awaken to gloomy, hazy gray skies. Cheered up a dark day with a leftover horror episode of Tiny Toon Adventures during breakfast. "Stuff That Goes Bump In the Night" was the show's first attempt at a spooky theme. Montana Max drops his new summer home on Buster Bunny, but that doesn't stop his adversary from coming back to wreck havoc in "Home Wrecker."  Elmyra gets what she thinks is a cute new pet bat in "Fang You Very Much." It's really a vampire who believes she'll be the perfect snack...at least until she drives him crazy with her smothering. The last one drops the scares for pure comedy. Hampton goes one-on-one with a mosquito who won't let him sleep in "Easy Biter."

Hurried off to the laundromat as soon as I finished breakfast. I would have saved it until I'm off work on Friday, but I really needed to get my work clothes done. They were a little busy, but there were still plenty of washers and driers open. This was a very good thing. I had a big load, including towels. I worked on story notes and half-listened to Rachel Ray and The View.

Did a little writing after I put everything away. Leia asks Finn about his "master" and why he didn't show up to greet them. Finn explains that the Master is shy and angry; he blames himself for their transformation. He'll be down at dinner. At least, so Finn hopes when he knocks on the door of the Master's room. Han says he'll be at dinner, but he won't greet anybody.

Had lunch a little after 1. Moved to the second season of Night Court for "The Gypsy." Harry doesn't believe that the woman who claims to be a psychic actually is one. She puts a curse on the courtroom that leaves Bull unable to move and kills off Dan's accountant in mid-audit. Harry puts on a show of his own to convince Bull that it's all in his head. (Dan never does get his money back, though.)

Work was only slightly busier than yesterday, despite being the beginning of the month. It did pick up a bit later in the evening, but even that could have been worse. I was alone for most of the afternoon after the morning baggers left; the other afternoon bagger called out. Probably just as well. I was able to get what little trash there was done and round up the carts and baskets more easily on my own.

After I got home, I made my favorite Tex-Mex Black Bean Dip with blue corn chips for dinner. (I originally planned on making it yesterday, but I ran out of time before the parade.) Ran two episodes of Rick Steves' Europe while I ate. With the book I'm currently reading, Blood Red, being set in Bavaria and one of the stories I'm basing my fanfiction on coming from Germany, I thought it was the perfect time for the episodes on Munich, Cologne, and the surrounding countryside. When you think of Germany, you probably have these areas in mind, from the beer gardens and ruined castles of Munich, to Cologne's massive Gothic Cathedral and the picturesque fairy tale rural world of the Black Forest. (And black forest cake is a favorite dessert of mine that I really need to try to make myself.)

Finished the night after a shower with Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is in big trouble after the CIA disbands the Impossible Missions unit. He finds himself on the run from "The Syndicate," an international criminal organization. Hunt pursues the man in glasses, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) who killed another agent on his previous assignment. Meanwhile, he's framed for the death of the Austrian chancellor in a car bombing, despite bringing his team member Benji (Simon Pegg) along to stop another former agent, Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) from killing him. When The Syndicate kidnap Benji and Ilsa and use them to copy data belonging the director of the CIA (Alec Baldwin), Hunt and his remaining crew have to snap into action and stop them, before that data falls into the wrong hands.

This was the biggest hit since the second movie, and I can certainly see why. It's an exciting, action-packed tale, with Pegg and Ferguson in especially good form as the agents in distress.

This gets the award for the most consistently entertaining of all the series I've checked out for the first time this year. This is also not the type of series where you need to see one to understand the others. They're all pretty much the same deal - slick secret agent gets involved in a convoluted plot that's a bit less campy than James Bond, with the help of comic relief characters and a smart lady, fighting against evil agents and terrorists. I don't think I can pick a specific one I liked best. They're all fun.

If you're a fan of Tom Cruise or want to try a popcorn action series that's somewhere between James Bond and Indiana Jones, give these movies a whirl. They're a lot better than you might think from their shoot-'em-up reputation and TV pedigree.

Oh, and two notes. First of all, from now on, unless Halloween is on a weekend, I'm going to take that day off of work. They're just not busy enough to justify me going in. I'd be more useful helping Dad and Jodie with trick-or-treaters.

Second, next year, I'm going to try to choose a Halloween costume idea much earlier, at least by two weeks before Halloween, and stick to it this time. I went through at least two or three ideas before settling on "cowgirl" four days before Halloween. I need to give myself more time to get something really nifty together.