Taxing Afternoon

I slept in, then did a quick Three Stooges short while eating breakfast. Shemp, Moe, and Larry are "Income Tax Sappy" when their sister suggests taking a ton of loopholes on their tax forms. This nets them millions...until the IRS starts to catch wise and sends guys after them.

Managed to get some writing in before work. Pelleaon, a pale yellow fieldmouse, has taken Leia in. He provides companionship for her; she helps keep his house tidy in exchange for food. One day, he introduces her to his head officer and dear friend, Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn is a wealthy mole with exceptionally sleek blue-black fur and an air of sophistication. He's a retired commander living underground, still studying strategy,  history, and the arts. He's hoping to find a good companion in Leia...but he she has that temper...

Broke at 1 for lunch. Ran an episode of The Backyardigans to cheer me up after the trouble yesterday. What could chase your blues away more quickly than a good-natured clown? Anything, if you ask Ringmaster Tyrone in "The Best Clowns In Town." Clowns Uniqua, Pablo, and Austin have made him miss his train. They do everything they can to help him get to the city in time for the circus to start, including shoving him in a tiny car and shooting him out of a cannon!

It was just gloomy and gray when I headed out to work. Work was actually pretty busy. Though we're mainly supposed to get rain tomorrow, there's also a tiny bit of snow in the forecast. I doubt it'll do anything. Beyond most people saying it's only going to be an inch or less, it's once again too warm for it to stick to the main roads. Most people were still panicking. Today was also the end of a pretty big 4-day sale. While I did some bagging and returns, I was mostly outside doing carts. (Thankfully, with none of the problems I ran into yesterday.)

Walked to work, then walked home. (I'll mess with the bike tomorrow.) I had a good idea for dinner on the way down Manor. Instead of using the leftover taco meat in tortillas again, I decided to do my own version of Mark and Vanessa's taco salad. Replaced the bag of iceberg lettuce salad they likely used with spinach, chopped broccoli and cauliflower, shredded cheese, and cherry tomatoes. Made my own dressing by adding taco sauce, olive oil, and a tiny bit of molasses to the remaining liquid from heating up the taco meat. Oh, yum. It came out so nicely, just the perfect blend of flavors.

Did more Three Stooges while I ate. It's "A Stitch In Time" when they're furniture-makers who deliver their wares to a pretty client. They get the chance to be heroes when they discover that her house has been invaded by thieves. "Merry Mavericks" has them as vagrants who take a job guarding their boss' money. Local outlaws are determined to get that money...even if they have to dress as Native American ghosts and scare it out of the guys.

Played two more rounds of Lego Star Wars after dinner. "Dagobah" is another one of those really complicated rounds that take forever to play. I even got stuck at one point and started over. "Duel at Bespin" went even less well. Got three pieces from that one, but I kept jumping or falling off ledges as I followed Darth Vader and came up with no studs.

Finished the night online doing my taxes. Normally, this takes me about an hour. I work one job, own no property, and have no dependents. For some reason, it kept taking forever for the last e-mail with the code to send it out from TurboTax to arrive. I'd wait 20 minutes, get fed up, and get them to send another one. It did finally go out; while it was a little more than last year, it still wasn't anywhere near as much as previous years. Hopefully, it'll show up within the next two to three weeks.

Ran Forever Female while I worked. Beatrice Page (Ginger Rogers) is a popular Broadway actress whose stardom is on the wane, even as she keeps insisting she's 29. She and her producer ex-husband E.Harry Phillips (Paul Douglas) discover Stanley Crown (William Holden), a former fruit packer who writes in the wee hours, at a bar. They think his intimate play about a mother and her young adult daughter will be perfect for their next project...if he re-writes the daughter to be an older woman. He agrees to it to get it produced. Not everyone is happy with his decision. A young aspiring actress who keeps changing her name (Pat Crowley) has decided that she's perfect for the part of the daughter as it was originally written, and she won't take no for an answer. Meanwhile, she's developing a crush on Phillips, while it's quite obvious that Beatrice may have feelings for Stanley.

Basically All About Eve with a lighter, less biting tone. I like how well Holden, Douglas, and Rogers play off each other as the star who refuses to admit she's no longer an ingenue, her ex-husband who might actually still love her, and the wanna-be playwright who wants to figure out how to hold to both his vision and get the show onstage. Crawley, best known for her TV and stage work, does less well as the young woman desperate for stardom. (She would do far better on TV, where she was a mainstay in the 50's and 60's, and continues to pop up even today.)

Nothing you really need to go out of your way for, but if you're a fan of the cast, All About Eve, or stories about the theater, this is worth checking out on TCM or from made-to-order company Olive Films.