Spring Is Here for Good

Started off an amazingly sunny, breezy morning with breakfast and a birthday-themed episode of Max & Ruby. Ruby's waiting for her friends to give her a surprise birthday party in "Surprise Ruby." Max grabs her birthday tiara and leads her on a merry chase to a real surprise. "Ruby's Birthday Party" is full of laughter and typical party games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Max just wants to eat cake. He has no idea what to give his sister in "Ruby's Birthday Present," but her wrapping paper gives him a very creative idea.

Spent the next few hours writing. Leia quickly joins Luke as the two try to fight off the demons abusing Han. The cloaked man attacks them with familiar purple lightning, claiming that they can't release Han's memories. Only he can do that. Finally angry enough to stand up for the duo who had been so kind to him. Han breaks free of the rack he was bound to and goes after the demons himself.

Got off at 10:20 to get ready for work. Ran one more short as I packed my lunch and changed into work clothes. "Mickey's Birthday Party" is the first of three birthday cartoons Disney did for their top mouse, and the only one in black and white. Mickey's delighted with his big party, even when his new xylophone takes on a life of it's own. (If you ever catch this one, it's worth seeing for Mickey and Minnie's adorable rendition of "I Can't Give You Anything but Love.")

Work wasn't really much of a problem. In fact, I spent a lot of it bored. We once again were only busy during rush hours. I mopped the bathrooms (twice), shelved items, did inside and outside trash, gathered baskets, and bagged a lot. We had plenty of help inside and out and no need for me to do carts. (And one of my co-workers gave me a wonderful compliment when she said I looked like I'd lost some weight. All the walking and Wii Sports is paying off.)

My schedule next week is really strange. While there's no 8 and 1/2 hour days this time, I work two 7 hour days in a row and one that's 6 and 1/2. Not to mention, my first day off isn't until Thursday, though I do have Thursday, Friday, and next Saturday off. That may be just as well. I have a telephone appointment with Camden County to check up on my food stamps on Thursday morning, and Audubon's spring town-wide yard sale is next Saturday.

Once again, I didn't have a really huge grocery load. I was mostly picking up produce. Grapefruit were fairly expensive, and they were still cheaper than the bags of oranges. Also got broccoli, a red potato, and bananas. Restocked cereal (Acme generic brand was on sale - got their generic Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds), whole-wheat pancake mix, eggs (the regular Acme eggs were so expensive, I just ended up buying good cage-free eggs for the same price), skim milk, mandarin oranges, honey, cheddar cheese, peanut butter, and tissues. Grabbed a slice of ham for dinner.

As soon as I got home, I changed into regular clothes, then put everything away. Returned to Yogi Bear while I got organized and made Bourbon BBQ ham with sauteed red potatoes and boiled cabbage for dinner. The series finale of The Yogi Bear Show was a special that revolved around Yogi's birthday. Kellogg's (the show's real-life sponsor) tells Ranger Smith that they want Yogi to have a surprise birthday party on TV. To keep it a surprise, Smith tells Yogi he's going to be on a variety show. Yogi tries to avoid it when it turns out he has no musical talents...but it's really a reunion of him with all the Hanna-Barbara funny animals that had been created at that point.

It was such a nice day, I went outside for a walk after dinner. I was originally going to get dessert at Common Grounds Coffee House down the street from me. They were so packed when I arrived, I could barely get in the door! Turns out they had a local folk trio playing tonight. I strolled further down Manor to a less-busy WaWa instead for a tasty Peach Cream Smoothie.

The weather was absolutely amazing for it. It's hard to believe now that it was sleeting and in the 40's the day after Easter. We were in the lower 80's, even with the stiff breeze, and dry as a bone. And even when it drops into the 50's next week, it doesn't sound like it's going to stay there. Spring is here for good.

As soon as I got home, I jumped in the shower, then finished off the night with some spooky Bowery Boys in honor of Friday the 13th. They're Spook Busters when they're called to exterminate a scary old mansion that used to belong to a magician. Not only did he leave many of his tricks behind, but the house is now occupied by a mad scientist. He wants to exchange a human brain for that of a gorilla...and decides that Sach is the perfect vessel for his experiments! While Slip makes sure his buddy doesn't lose what little brainpower he has, the others try to help a newly-arrived Gabe find his French bride, who has also vanished.