Pack Up Your Troubles

I awoke to a phone call. Yes, it was the Acme. There was a call-out. Could I come in from 11 to 3? I said yes. I was going to go grocery shopping today anyway, and four hours wasn't that horrible. Besides, the day was cloudy and cool, probably not the best weather for lingering anywhere.

Squeezed a few cartoons in during breakfast and while I got ready for work. Kicked off my Halloween season with It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Most of the Peanuts gang is getting ready to go trick or treating and to Violet's party later. Linus prefers to spend Halloween sitting in a "sincere" pumpkin patch, waiting for the annual (non) arrival of the Great Pumpkin. Swooning over the idea of spending the night with her crush, Sally joins him. Meanwhile, Snoopy dresses as a World War I flying ace and spends his last night of October fighting the Red Baron behind enemy lines.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure is a bit spookier. Garfield and Odie have dressed as pirates and are off to nab some trick-or-treat booty. They bite off a lot more candy than they can chew when they try to cross a river, and find themselves stranded on an island with ghostly pirates!

Did two quick Famous Studios Popeye shorts as I got ready to leave. He and Olive discover a group of "Spooky Swabs," ghosts who don't want to leave their dilapidated ship. Popeye uses a bit of spinach to get them to help take them home. It's a "Fright to the Finish" when Bluto makes Olive think that she's being haunted on Halloween. Popeye doesn't need spinach to turn the tables this time!

Work was as dead as it's been all week when I arrived, to the point where I wondered why they called me in. It did get busy later during the lunch rush hour, with long lines. I really don't like cashiering. I'm not comfortable with it, and to tell the truth, I never really was. I did it to make money. I don't care if people think I'm good at it. I'm not good at dealing with it. I wasn't the only one who ended up doing other stuff today. A stock girl was called to come in for me when I finished.

Got my grocery shopping in after work. Once again bought a small container of shrimp on sale for dinner. I've forgotten to buy white cooking wine for weeks. Restocked chocolate chips, cake mix, diced tomatoes, yogurt, cooking spray, brown sugar, unbleached white flour, cereal (the Acme generic brands were the cheapest - went with Shredded Wheat), breakfast cookies, and honey. Found a Star Wars young adult novel about Han, Luke, and Leia's thoughts during New Hope, The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy, in the Bargain Books bin. (I may go back and get another I saw there on Rey, Finn, and Poe before The Force Awakens begins.)

I'm not happy with my schedule next week at all. In good news, more hours and four days off, including Tuesday for counseling. That does mean that I work 8 1/2 hours on the three days I do work, including early on Sunday and Wednesday. Not only will I get nothing done in those days, but the computer that's now doing our schedules couldn't have spread things out a little?

I'm more and more thinking that, while I do like the new system on the front end, letting a computer do every little thing in the store was a bad idea. Schedules are wonky and no supplies have been ordered in weeks. We're out of everything from toilet paper to large trash bags. There are some things that humans really should do for themselves.

When I got home, I began the Sixth Season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic while I put everything away. "The Crystaling" is Twilight Sparkle's brother Shining Armor and his mate Cadence's foal, an alicorn pony who is the first royal child born in the Crystal Empire in years. Meanwhile, Starlight Glimmer is supposed to be reconnecting with Sunburst, an old friend, but she assumes he's a successful wizard with no time for her. Turns out that the new foal has some powerful magic...enough to shatter the crystal that guards the land from a massive snow storm.

Worked on writing for a while after I finished. Harry and Leia barely manage to dodge a sharp crystal that nearly takes off their head before finding a puzzle set into the wall. Harry feels that he has to get beyond the puzzle and the wall, so he and Leia work on it...discovering a picture of the Temple as it was during the time of the Alderaanian Empire. The top of the Temple in the picture shows a strange device that seems to be drawing energy from the sun...

Broke for dinner at quarter of 7. I was tired of waiting, and after all the trouble today, I thought putting up the Halloween decorations now would make me feel better. I don't go in for anything really scary or gory. The scariest decoration I own is a Beanie Baby wolf with red eyes. All of the Halloween Beanies and the Webkinz Bat are on the DVD shelf with the cartoons, musicals, and TV shows. The McDonaldsland characters, Chicken McNuggets, and Hamtaro figure in costumes are on the TV table, along with my Halloween tin and small plastic jack o' lanterns. The scarecrow-witch, her stuffed cauldron, and the stuffed witch are on top of the dry sink. Taped many vintage Halloween cut-outs that I've found at yard sales and ones from as far back as college on the walls. Draped the orange and black tinsel garland on the two windows in the living room and hung the pumpkin-shaped bell on the front door.

Finished "The Crystaling" and the few remaining 6th season episodes I hadn't seen while I worked. As the snow rages, Shining Armor and the Mane 6 try to get all the ponies waiting to view the Crystaling out of the country, before the train tracks get too frozen, while Cadence and Twilight Sparkle look for a way to repair the broken crystal. Starlight thinks she knows someone who can help - but Sunburst isn't what she thinks he is...

The Mane 6 are worried that "The Saddle Row Review" of Rarity's new boutique in Manehattan isn't going to be terribly flattering. They revealed just how many problems they had to the reporter that interviewed them, from raccoons living there that Fluttershy didn't have the heart to shoo away to a disco upstairs that Pinky enjoyed way too much to try to quiet down. In the end, it turns out that the reporter appreciated all the help they gave Rarity, and so did she.

Pinkie Pie and Rarity are excited to "Spice Up Your Life" when they're called to Canterlot to help a pair of feuding Indian brother-sister chefs. They want to bring new business to their restaurant and impress snooty food critic Zesty Gourmand, but have different opinions on how to do this. Rarity and Pinkie Pie do, too. Pinkie encourages sister Saffron to be original, while Rarity tells big brother Coriander to do what will impress Zesty. Pinkie and Rarity finally decide to drum up business on their own, with or without Zesty's approval.

I especially appreciated "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" after all the fussing I've seen in some of the fandoms I've been involved with. Rainbow Dash really hits it off with fellow Daring Do fan Quibble Pants at a convention, at least until he complains that he finds the later books unrealistic. Rainbow Dash loves the later books best. They argue over how realistic the books are and should be...until they find themselves lost in the jungle in the hands of Daring Do's arch nemesis Dr. Callbareon.

Discord tries to become one of the guys when Fluttershy leaves for a trip in "Dungeons & Discords." Spike and Applejack's brother Big MacIntosh invite him for a quiet night of playing the Pony version of Dungeons and Dragons. It's too sedate for Discord, who opts to make the game real, to the shock of the other two. Now they have to tell him why they invited him, and remind him that it can be nice to try new things and make new friends once in a while.

"The Fault In Our Cutie Marks" introduces us to Gabby, an unusually talkative Griffon who wants a cutie mark of her own. The Cutie Mark Crusaders can't get her a real one, but they can help her find where her talents lay.

Twilight discovers that Starlight's been avoiding her friendship lessons in "Every Little Thing She Does." She leaves her with her friends to teach her how to do the things they like. Starlight tries to cast a spell so she can be with all of them at once and complete her lesson, but she ends up hypnotizing them instead.

Finished out the night with "Top Bolt." Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle are called to Wonderbolt Academy to help two prospective members, partners Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail. It seems that shy Vapor has been encouraging and helping Sky all his life and doesn't know how well she'll do without him. As it happens, she's a pretty darn good flyer on her own, but he refuses to practice and loses confidence. After they fight,  Twilight and Rainbow have to figure out how to patch up their relationship and help them get through the difficult solo test.