Mists of Afternoon

The weather continued to be dark and dreary, even as I finally rolled out of bed late this morning. Brightened the day with breakfast and another Wonder Woman second season episode, "The Pied Piper." Here, the Piper is a popular crooner (Martin Mull) who is luring his female groupies into stealing money from his venues. Diana ends up on the case when her boss' estranged college-age daughter gets involved. She has to rescue the girl from his manipulation, and point out to him that, no matter what his reasons, what he's doing is still wrong.

It was past 1 when I finally made it out to run errands. Yesterday's showers were down to a fine mist that continued in some capacity for most of the day. It may be part of the reason I saw a few people at the Oaklyn Library when I arrived. I looked at the DVDs and organized picture and board books.

Headed down Atlantic and Nicholson to the Acme around 2. I didn't have a huge order, but there were a few things I really needed. My throat has been sore and I've had a headache and a dry throat for days. I bought some generic cold and flu medicine that I hope will help. Restocked chicken (there were a couple of good sales, and I found two packs with manager's coupons), mandarin oranges, grapefruit, yogurt, bananas, cooking oil, apricot preserves, and nuts (cashews this time). Found a bag of pearl onions for 99 cents. I love my mother's pearl onions with white sauce that she makes for Thanksgiving and thought I'd try my own version.

My schedule for next week is a bit busier than it has been for a while. In good news, more hours and still three days off, Tuesday for counseling and next Saturday for the toy convention in Cherry Hill. In annoying news, I seem to be back to 8 and 1/2 hour days on Wednesday. I hope it goes fast. We weren't that busy last Wednesday, and given it's the day before the beginning of the month, we'll probably be even less so this week.

Went straight home after I finished. The mist wasn't abating. It was just too chilly and blahh to do any more running around. Watched an episode of She-Ra while putting my groceries away and eating a quick lunch. "The Red Knight" is a mysterious man in red armor who appears suddenly just before a local fair and running race. Bow usually wins the race, and is humiliated when he loses to this new opponent. He runs off, but She-Ra points out that losing isn't always a bad thing...and that no one else but him could help her save Queen Angela from Hordak.

Worked a little bit on writing for a while after that. Luke tells Poe he can keep the sword and bread. The bread can feed whole countries. The sword will slay anything it touches, including armies. Poe and Rey go for a walk in the garden...but he's so enamored with her, he doesn't realize the gate is about to close. He's so close getting out, the gate takes off a small piece of his heel as he leaves.

Had dinner around quarter of 7. It was too late to make chili by that point. I opted for Progresso light beef and barely soup and video games. Returned to Return of the Jedi on Lego Star Wars for the Free Play versions of "The Battle of Endor" and "Jedi Destiny." "Destiny" took longer than I thought. I did manage to get a few more pieces, but no True Jedi. (Got the red brick on the first run.) "Battle of Endor" took so long, I cut off before I could finish, though I did find the red brick and got True Jedi.

Ended the night with the original 1987 Adventures In Babysitting. Kris Parker (Elizabeth Shue) is not having a good night. Her boyfriend (Bradley Whitford) canceled their big date, leaving her to babysit obsessive Marvel fan Sarah (Maia Brewton) and her brother Brad (Keith Coogan), who has a huge crush on her. She thinks it'll just be a simple run into Chicago with the kids when her best friend (Penelope Ann Miller) calls from the bus station, begging to be picked up and taken home. Things go downhill from there. They're joined by Brad's annoying friend Darryl (Anthony Rapp), who chases every girl he sees and drools over Playboy magazines. Her mother's car breaks down. The guy who picks them up (John Ford Noonan) is nice enough, but gets off the track when he hears about his wife cheating. They end up in a stolen car, then have to literally sing the blues when they escape. The men who run the car theft ring go after them when they accidentally steal their notes.  Not to mention, there's the fact that Kris' boyfriend wasn't entirely telling the truth about why he had to cancel their date in the first place...

I haven't seen the Disney Channel remake, but the original is an old favorite of mine. I'm especially fond of the outstanding soundtrack of oldies, blues, and R&B tunes, including some nice use of the Rolling Stones and the infamous "Babysitting Blues." (I read on Wikipedia that a soundtrack album was finally put out in 2015. I might have to look for that.)

Some bad language and mild violence make this iffy for young kids; for young teens on up, this is still a really fun look at just how crazy babysitting can get.