Jungle Legends

Began a slightly cloudy morning with breakfast and The Backyardigans. Pablo is "Le Master of Disguise," a crafty little fellow who can appear to be anyone or anything. Inspector Austin of the Paris Police follows him onto the Orient Express. With suspects like circus acrobat Tasha, conductor Uniqua, and cowboy Tyrone on board, it's going to be hard for Austin to catch that penguin!

Worked on writing for a little bit after that. Sir Wedge and his men lead Ahsoka, Leia, and the others into the musty, damp wine cellar of Mon Mothma's private estate. Turns out the wine cellar is a meeting place for the Rebel underground. Mothma is one of its leaders; Ahsoka is another. Jyn and her guy friends are there, too.

Broke for lunch and to get ready for work at noon. Uniqua is looking forward to "Pirate Camp," where Captain Austin teaches eager young sailors the ins and outs of being a buccaneer. Pablo would rather be anywhere else. They don't do very well on their tests...but they need to learn in a hurry when Austin accidentally ends up the footwear of Captain Red Boots (Tasha)! If she tickles you, you'll turn into a ghost!

Work wasn't too busy when I got in. I spent most of the first half of my shift doing returns. It picked up during rush hour. I got stuck in the register again and panicked again. We're still short on help, especially up front. I did returns for a little while again after my break, but mostly spent the rest of the afternoon outside doing carts. It was too nice to be inside all day, anyway. The clouds were long gone by quarter of 5, and it was sunny, warm, and breezy, probably in the mid-70's.

Wrote down my schedule when I got in. I work Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and then...vacation! Lauren will be arriving around 7:40 on Wednesday, giving me plenty of time for a counseling appointment and to get ready for her arrival. We'll be together from Wednesday through next Thursday, and I'm very much looking forward to it. Not only do we always have a great time when we're together, but I haven't had more than two or three days off in a row since early December.

I was starving when I got off! I'm probably going to be eating at Sonic and Chick Fil' A with Lauren next week, so I opted for Arby's. Besides, they're the cheapest of the three and the closest to the Acme building. Despite it being 6 PM when I got off, they were dead when I ordered my turkey club, Coke, and curly fries. The only other people in the dining area was a man and his toddler daughter and another fellow eating alone. I enjoyed my meal while watching the heavy traffic going towards the Shore for Mother's Day weekend.

Returned to the Acme to do my grocery shopping. They're having a ton of really good sales this weekend. I picked up thin cutlets and chicken legs at 40 percent off, eggs and butter with coupons from the flyer, buy-one-get-one-free strawberries and raspberries, and Ivory soap, breakfast cookies, and cereal with online coupons. Restocked white flour, buttermilk, regular milk, yogurt, cheese, toilet paper, olive oil, grapefruit, bananas, taco sauce, and chick peas.

Did one more episode of The Backyardigans after I got home and started putting everything away. "What's Bugging You?" asks Uniqua and Tyrone, who run a pest control business. Seems Tasha has a wormen, the colorful worm-like critters who appear on the show from time to time, in her house! She's about to show it to Mr. Spiffy (Pablo) to get in his Spiffy Club. Tyrone and Uniqua do everything they can to clear out the little fellow without making too much of a mess.

Ended the night after a shower with The Legend of Tarzan. John Clayton III, aka Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard) is now living in England with Jane (Margot Robbie) as the rightful ruler of Greystoke. He's called back to the Congo when George Williams, the American envoy to Africa (Samuel L Jackson) reveals that the Belgian king is enslaving the natives to try to refill his coffers. Spirited Jane says there's no way he's going without her. They end up in a hostile native village that believes Tarzan to be an evil spirit. Jane and the natives are kidnapped by the ruthless Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz), a envoy of the Belgian king who is searching for diamonds. George manages to get John before he's carried off. The duo pursue Lom and Jane further into the wilderness. They encounter John's old gorilla tribe, who aren't too happy about him taking off. He has to learn why the natives hate him and figure out how to rescue Jane, before Lom and the king force the natives to mine the diamonds and strip the Congo clean of wealth.

This is pretty much what I thought it would be. It's standard B movie fodder, despite an excellent cast and a fairly interesting story. I wish someone had turned on the lights! The cinematography is murky and dark throughout much of the film, making it hard to see pretty much anybody. I'm not the only one who wasn't impressed - this wound up being one of the bigger flops of the summer of 2016.

If you're a really big fan of the cast or Tarzan tales, you can do far worse than this action-packed jungle adventure.