Sunny Spring Days

Awoke to an absolutely amazing spring morning, blue, sunny, and breezy. I opened the windows and let my apartment air out, then had breakfast. Ran more Sailor Moon as I ate. Usagi is upset when she's not invited to a ball and her best friend Naru is. She's hoping for "Romance Under the Moon: Usagi's First Kiss." Luna wants to find out if the princess holding the ball and her treasure are the Moon Princess and Silver Crystal they've been looking for. They're not the only ones after the princess. Nephrite wants her and the crystal, and will do anything to get them, including use a besotted Naru to attack the princess.

Devoted the rest of the morning and early afternoon to writing. Lando is the perfect host for Leia, Han, and when he's human, Luke, showing them around La Ville Du Nueve (City of the Clouds) and giving them the finest suites in his sprawling estate Chateau Bon Chance. Leia and Luke both suspect there's something not quite right under Lando's smiling facade, and they discover that they may be right when Luke and Artello find Cyril, who had been beaten to a pulp and left for dead in a scrap pile, near the pig pen.

Broke for lunch around noon. Rei and Usagi are hoping to enter a wedding dress sewing contest in "A Girl's Dream: Usagi Becomes a Bride," but neither are especially good at sewing. Their home economics teacher Ms. Furikawa is - she's hoping to win a lavish wedding reception for her own ceremony. When Nephrite attacks her via a piece of silk she uses to make her dress, Usagi uses the Luna Pen to enter the contest.

Work was an absolute pain today. It wasn't too bad when I arrived at 1...but by 3:30, we had long lines and no one to work them. We're painfully short on help up front right now. There's at least five cashiers and managers on leave, two more on vacation, and another man called out sick. I tried to shelve loose items and work on the gift card mall; didn't get far on either. They kept throwing me into cashiering, and I kept panicking. I wasn't prepared to deal with dozens of people at one time!

Maybe it's just as well that I spent the last hour and a half outside doing carts. It was too nice to be inside anyway. It was in the upper-60's, closer to what it should be this time of year. A stiff breeze kept the heat from getting too bad.

And of course, after I finished, I headed out...only to turn back around again. I badly needed toilet paper. I just ran out this morning.

Had dinner as soon as I got home and changed. Switched to Jack of All Trades in honor of midget actor Verne Troyer, who died yesterday. He played one of the funniest Napoleons on record in several episodes of the swashbuckler satire. He's a "Raging Bully" who swindles James Madison out of Louisiana. The Daring Dragoon challenges him to a card game to get it back. It's "One Wedding and an Execution" when British spy Emilia agrees to marry him to keep France from invading England. Jack and Napoleon's brother Governor Croque come up with a plan to sabotage the wedding.

Did some quick Wii Sports after dinner. I was worn out from all the trouble at work and didn't do as well as usual. Tennis in particular was a problem. I just couldn't get the balls going. Did a little bit better with golf and bowling.

Finished the night after a shower with the 1935 operetta Naughty Marietta. Princess Marie (Jeanette MacDonald) flees France masquerading as a bride for the homesteaders in the New World. She's trying to avoid a dull suitor from Spain and is in the hunt for someone more manly...someone like Captain Dick Warrington (Nelson Eddy), the head of the squadron that rescues her and the other brides from pirates. Warrington isn't interested in a permanent relationship, until she reveals to the Govenor (Frank Morgan) and his wife (Elsa Lanchester) that she's not as innocent as she looks. Now Warrington's ready to pursue her...until her uncle (Douglass Dumbrille) comes to take her back to France...

The first of the MacDonald-Eddy vehicles is also my favorite of theirs along with Maytime. Eddy's stiff as a board in his first major role; MacDonald comes off much better as the spirited princess who is determined to find love her way. If you love operettas, the cast, or swashbuckling romances, this isn't nearly as corny as you might have heard and is worth checking out.