Golden Days

Spent most of the morning and early afternoon writing and avoiding both Charlie and his men working on the porch/roof and a hot, sunny day. After their kiss under the hood, Leia and Harry are feeling a little more kindly to each other. Harry tells Leia that he and his navigator Charel have a friend who knows the black market for artifacts inside and out. Laurence "Larry" Carlyle now runs a hotel and nightclub in Bespin on the French Riviera. No one knows more about the comings and goings of antiques than he does. Leia is a little wary, but with the Falcon stalling and Vader on their trail, they don't really have much of a choice.

They don't see Roberto Fettara, in his garbage-covered truck, hiding in the trees under them. He calls his "boss" - Vader - and tells him that the Silver Falcon is on its way to France...and he has a pretty good idea of where in France it's heading...

Broke for a quick lunch at 1. Writing Harry and Leia's kiss yesterday put me in the mood for something romantic. The Student Prince is an operetta about the unhappy romance of a bar maid and a prince in disguise in Heidleburg in the early 1900's. He falls for her as a college student, but they're unable to marry because she's a commoner. They end up marrying people from their own social classes...but they'll never forget the "golden days" of their romance.

It was sunny when I went to work, hot, hazy, and humid. It's probably a good thing that I only did the carts twice, and not for longer than 20 minutes either time. By quarter of 4, dark clouds had begun to move in. It showered lightly on and off while I was doing carts. The monsoon didn't start until I was on break in the back room. I spent the rest of the afternoon inside. Got stuck in the register a few times. Someone called out, leaving us short on help. Between the weather and the time of year, we were mostly quiet anyway.

Luckily for me, the rain was long gone by the time I got out at 6, though it remained cloudy and humid. I went straight home. There was a message on my machine from Charlie when I got in. Something about the electrician coming tomorrow morning. Great. I'll never get any writing done.

Cheered up with leftovers for dinner and more Lego Clone Wars. Completed "Liberty at Ryloth" and got three more pieces on "Weapons Factory" and one more on "Defenders of the Peace." Completing "Liberty" gave me a standard Original Trilogy Stormtrooper.

Ended the night with Sherlock Gnomes. Garden gnomes across London have gone missing, including all of the gnomes from the garden where Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt) live. Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp) and his assistant Watson (Chiwetel Ejofor) arrive and bring the feuding lovers along with them. Their trail takes them from a Chinese shop filled with hostile cat figurines to the park to a toy shop that's the home of Sherlock's resentful ex-lover Irene (Mary J. Bilge). While Juliet chats with Irene about the importance of love over duty, Sherlock mourns the loss of Watson, whom he believes was smashed, and Gnomeo finds the missing gnomes at the Tower Bridge. Sinster pie mascot Moriarty (Jamie Demetriou) has evil plans for the gnomes, if Sherlock, Watson, and the lovers can't get to them in time...

This is pretty much the same deal as the original film. It's not bad. The animation is colorful and cute, and there's occasionally some good lines or an interesting idea. But the "appreciate your partner" aesop is cliched and overdone, the mystery is telescoped from miles off, and some of the characters are annoying as heck (like Moriarty - and his design is ugly, too). Blunt comes off best as determined Juliet; Ejofor is also decent as Watson, who just wants his friend to give him his due.

If you have kids who may enjoy the colorful characters or really, really love the cast or the first film, this is worth seeing once. Everyone else can probably in all good faith skip it.