Began a rainy, killer humid morning with breakfast and an episode of The Monkees. I thought "Monkee See, Monkee Die" was appropriate with the weather. The boys are called to the mansion of a late millionaire, who left his organ to them. He left his home to his pretty niece, who must stay there overnight if she wants to keep it. The boys end up staying, too, along with the butler and two former companions of the millionaire. The companions and butler disappear one by one, leaving the quartet to solve this very peculiar mystery.
Switched to Xanadu while making Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cookies (cookies made from the strawberry Pillsbury mix, with dark chocolate chips). They came out all right, really soft...maybe a bit too much. I probably should have added either more flour or less butter. I also finally got around to doing a quick dusting job on the apartment. As for Xanadu, I go further into that at my Musical Dreams Reviews blog.
Xanadu
Did a Backyardigans episode while having a quick lunch and getting organized. The kids have a mystery of their own in "Whodunnit?" Pablo plays Sherlock Holmes as he tries to figure out who stole Lady Tasha's jewels. Why did her neighbor Austin Frothingslosh leave so suddenly? Why did Miss Uniqua Underhood know that the jewels were going to be stolen before they were? Who is the mysterious figures the kids keep seeing all around the manor house?
The rain had slowed down enough by quarter of 1 for me to run errands. Started out at the Oaklyn Library. It was just the librarians and me as I took a look at the DVDs. Took out Avengers: Infinity War and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, two brand-new and very popular releases that will probably be out or on hold at the Haddon Township Library for the foreseeable future. It's a lot easier for me to take new releases out of the Oaklyn Library, where there's fewer people renting them.
I walked out of the library and into the beginnings of a downpour. I waited for about 10 minutes under the library's roof with another woman who was talking on her cell phone. Finally gave up waiting when the rain slowed down enough and just got wet riding to Westmont.
The Haddon Township Library wasn't much busier than the Oaklyn Library had been. The kids were still in school, and most everyone else was avoiding the weather. I did have fun with one utterly adorable toddler, who was fascinated by my shelving the kids' DVDs. He kept trying to reach for them; his mother said he seemed to want my job. I also shelved and organized audio CDs, TV show sets, and adult DVD titles.
Found a bunch of new releases here as well. Grabbed Early Man, Game Night, and Scooby Doo and the Gourmet Ghost. Also picked up the Halloween special for The Cat In the Hat Knows a Lot About That, along with the Disney sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea and the obscure Frank Sinatra vehicle The Kissing Bandit to review for my Musical Dreams Blog.
The rain was already slowing down as I arrived at the library. By the time I finished around 3:30, it was long gone, though it remained windy, warm, and humid. It held off long enough for me to make a quick stop on the way home. I needed birthday cards for Amanda (whose birthday was last week) and Lauren (whose birthday is next week) at Dollar Tree. Thankfully, for once they weren't busy at rush hour, allowing me to get in and out.
Went straight into writing as soon as I got in. Vader and his goons arrive just minutes after Harry finds the Sword of Strength. He and Leia use their new powers and weapons to cut down Vader's men, but there's too many of them. Harry sends Leia to get help. He tries to hold off Vader, but the evil industrialist is too strong for him and manages to knock him out. He thinks the roguish pilot is unworthy of both the Sword and his daughter, but he does know how he can use him to lure his children into a trap...
Broke for dinner at 6. Made chicken stir-fry with some of the baked chicken from the other night and various vegetables I had in my refrigerator. Ran Avengers: Infinity War while eating and as I went online. We start more-or-less where we left off after Thor: Ragnorok. Thanos (Josh Brolin) is an ultra-powerful alien who is determined to use the six stones of the Infinity Gauntlet to destroy half the life in the universe in order to cleanse the other half. He calls it merciful, but Thor (Chris Helmsworth) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) would probably call it a lot of other things (most not very nice) after he kills Thor's brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and slams Banner down to Earth. While Banner warns Tony "Iron Man" Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbach), Thor is rescued by the Guardians of the Galaxy, who have their own reasons for going after Thanos. Meanwhile, Thanos has already retrieved the remaining Reality and Soul Stones, and now wants the Mind and Time Stones. Strange will willingly give up the Time Stones, but Wanda "Scarlet Witch" Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) would rather not see her lover Vision (Paul Bettany) lose the source of his life. It may not matter much if Thanos gets that gauntlet, and the ability to end all life as we know it.
Whoa. While I did run into some spoilers in the last few months and probably wasn't as traumatized as many audience members were when Infinity War debuted in late April, this was still a tough watch. The special effects were absolutely amazing, though, and it was nice to see characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor interact. Some decent performances, too, especially from Cumberbach, Bettany, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, and Tom Holland as a very confused Peter "Spider Man" Parker.
But oh, that ending! Talk about your downers. This is about as obvious of a cliffhanger as you can get. Not to mention, while some characters get a lot of screen time, others are barely there or (like Hawkeye and Ant-Man) are barely mentioned. Hopefully, we'll see more of them when the second half of this comes out next May.
And...I'm going to say that if you are any kind of a Marvel fan at all, this is an absolute must-see. If you're new to the Marvel Universe or have only watched the solo films, back up and catch at least the first two Avengers films, Captain America: Civil War, and the Guardians of the Galaxy movies before coming here.
Finished the night listening to the Eagles-Giants game. Now this is more like it. The Eagles dominated the night full-stop, from the first quarter to the fourth. Eli Manning was sacked several times, and they only got a touchdown once. The Eagles went on to hand them their rears at the Meadowlands, 31-14.
Good thing the Eagles did play at the Meadowlands. They probably wouldn't have played at all - or at least have been delayed forever - if they played at home tonight. It started raining hard again while I was writing and has rained off and on ever since, including several massive and house-rattling thunder storms.
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