Wednesday, May 02, 2018

Spring Into Summer

Started off a sunny May morning with breakfast and The Backyardigans. Princess CleoTasha must learn the secret of Sphinx Uniqua if she's to get "The Key to the Nile" and bring the river's water back. She depends on her pages Austin, Tyrone, and Pablo to bring her the presents she needs to see the Sphinx, but she's always demanding and rude to them. Uniqua finally reveals that the big secret to refilling the Nile is saying "please" and "thank you" and appreciating your friends.

Most of work today was really pretty quiet. The weather was hot, sunny, and dry, probably in the mid to upper 80's. It was too nice for most people to be grocery shopping. I got two carts of returns done, cleaned the bathrooms, finished shelving candy, gathered baskets, and did inside trash before it finally got busy around 3:30. After that, I got stuck in the register twice going in for other people, and was late on my break because I was told to gather carts. At least there was more help today, despite the manager's worries.

As soon as I headed home, I took the trash out, then changed and put on an episode of Rick Steves Europe as I had a lobster cake and leftover broccoli for dinner. The warm weather was perfect for a trip to Denmark. I love the Copenhagen jazz festival (including the band playing on the boat), the amusement park Tivoli Gardens (it reminds me of Hershey Park), and the charming and cozy island of Aero.

Did Wii Sports after I ate. I'm getting much better at baseball and at tennis. I won both games; my score on baseball was 8 to 3! The computer doesn't seem to know what to do with my fastball. I struck out quite a few computer-controlled players who didn't even try to hit the ball.

Played some Lego Star Wars after my games. Finished up most of the bounty hunter bonus rounds. Took me a while to find Lando and Han; Luke was slightly easier. Need to do the droids, one of the Jedi from the prequels and Clone Wars, and Chewbacca.

Finished off the night with the 1952 musical Hans Christian Andersen. I'd had the song "Wonderful Copenhagen" stuck in my head since the Rick Steves episode. Hans the cobbler (Danny Kaye) heads for the bright lights of Denmark's capitol with his apprentice Peter (Joey Walsh) after the schoolmaster in their small town become upset with the kids preferring Hans' stories to his classroom. Hans falls for a beautiful ballerina (Jeanmarie) and even writes the tragic "The Little Mermaid" for her....but she's happily married to the manager of the ballet (Farley Granger). Hans may not have won his mermaid's love, but he'll always have his stories...and the admiration of children like Peter everywhere.

I've loved this movie ever since it showed up frequently on cable and some local independent broadcast stations in the 80's and early 90's. It made me a fan of Kaye, songwriter Frank Loesser, the real Hans Christian Andersen's stories, and ballet. "Anywhere I Wander" is my favorite number from this; along with "Copenhagen," other standards include "Inchworm," "Thumbelina," and "No Two People." If you're a fan of Kaye, Loesser, or ballet, or have kids who love ballet or Hans Christian Andersen's stories, this is highly recommended.

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