I was never so happy to see sunshine streaming through my windows when I awoke this morning. In honor of the start of my vacation, I read a few stories about vacations. In the last two chapters of Samantha Saves the Day, Samantha and the twins Agnes and Agatha have taken a canoe to Teardrop Island to see the beautiful places Samantha's late mother drew in her sketchbook. Their trip turns treacherous when a storm strands them on the island. The Admiral, a friend of Sam's family, comes after them and gets hurt. It's up to the girls to row their boat through sharp rocks to safety.
Kit Kitteredge has an even scarier adventure in Kit Saves the Day. After visiting a hobo jungle, she, her friend Sterling, and real hobo Will join another hobo riding the rails. They're caught at the first station and end up in jail. Only Kit can escape and go get help...but to do so, she has to walk over the train bridge and avoid a moving train!
Also did a few short stories from the Disney Storybookland anthology. "Donald Duck, Explorer" wants to see the South Pole and catch a penguin. He loses interest pretty fast when the penguins end up catching him! "Pluto Pup Goes to Sea" on a yacht after he hears about a dog who was pampered on a cruise liner. He becomes a hero when he inadvertently stops Peg Leg Pete from stealing jewels in the Captain's cabin.
Did The Backyardigans while eating a quick breakfast. Pablo is "Le Master of Disguise," a quick little fellow who can disguise himself as anything...but he can't disguise his unique laugh. Inspector Austin follows him onto the Orient Express. With suspects like Conductor Uniqua, Cowboy Tyrone, and Circus Performer Tasha on board, it won't be easy to find the little blue penguin!
First thing on the list today was getting the laundry done. Thankfully, while they were a little busier than last week, they still weren't that busy. I still didn't have a huge load, anyway. I worked on story notes and half-listened to the Today show and NBC news.
When I got home, I put everything away, then had a quick smoothie lunch while watching the last episode of Smallville on the disc. Clark is a "Witness" to three young men with incredible strength stealing refined Kryptonite from a LuthorCorp van. One of them is the school's biggest baseball star, Eric Marsh (Zachary Ty Brian). The boys are sniffing liquid kryptonite to give them strength to rival Clark's. He's not sure how to deal with this, until Mr. Kent reminds him that, while the young men are strong, they don't have any of his other powers. Meanwhile, Lionel offers a despondent Chloe a job after someone destroys the Torch offices.
After lunch, did some quick cleaning before Lauren arrives. I swept the porch before I ate, then washed the windows and dusted around anything that showed after lunch. Ran the vintage 80's special Strawberry Shortcake In Big Apple City while I finished. Strawberry is off to the title city to take part in the Big Bake Off. The Peculiar Purple Pie Man is the other contestant, and he'll do anything he can to make sure that Strawberry's shortcake doesn't make it on the air. Good thing she has a lot of new friends helping her out, including eventual series regulars Orange Blossom and Lemon Meringue.
Headed out again after I finished the cleaning. First stop was the Oaklyn Library. Given how nice it was outside, they were totally dead. It was just the librarian, one other woman on the computer, and me. Not to mention, they were close to closing for the afternoon. I went over the DVDs and moved on.
Went straight to the Haddon Township Library next. They weren't much busier. The children's DVDs were overflowing on the return rack...and no wonder. Half of them didn't fit on the shelves. I put away what I could get in, then did the far fewer adult titles. Left the remaining DVDs and audio books to the teen volunteers and headed out after an hour.
Took the long way across Newton Lake Park going back to Oaklyn. It was a gorgeous day for a ride. The sun was out, the breeze was fresh, and it was far warmer, probably into the lower 70's. I wasn't the only one taking advantage of Mother Nature's generosity. I dodged many dog-walkers, families playing at the playground, joggers, fisher folk, and even a pair of Canadian geese leading their adorable trio of goslings to the grass for a snack. I had to go slow through several very deep puddles that were nearly mini-lakes themselves.
Stopped at Dollar General really quick next. Lauren likes Pepsi; their six-pack of bottles is relatively cheap. I picked it up, got in, got out. The line wasn't even long.
Worked on writing for a while after I got home. Vader takes out the veteran leader of Luke's squadron, then Biggs. Shara drops behind to cover them, and Wedge has to land due to a busted fuel line. It's up to Luke to take down the Death Ray...but he might have some unexpected help...
It was the moment of truth. I checked the NJ jury website at 5 PM...and thankfully, I wasn't called. They only wanted 279 and over. I was 47. I'd been on pins and needles all day over possibly being stuck with jury duty tomorrow.
Vacuumed and wiped down the refrigerator quickly while watching One Crazy Summer. Hoops McCann (John Cusack) joins his buddy George (Joel Murray) to spend the summer on Nantucket Island with his grandmother (Billie Bird) and little sister. On the way there, they encounter Cassandra (Demi Moore), a singer who is trying to save her grandfather's boarding house from a nasty developer (Mark Metcalf) and his spoiled son (Matt Mulhern). Hoops his hoping to learn about love in order to illustrate a comic and win an art scholarship....and he gets more than he bargained for when he and his friends the twins Egg (Bobcat Goldthwait) and Clay (Tom Villard) and Ack Ack (Curtis Armstrong) promote her act, then join the local regatta to win the top prize.
Strange but fun "slobs vs snobs" comedy benefits from the fun cast and director Savage Steve Holland's wacky sense of humor. Worth checking out if you're a fan of this or other similar comedies from the time.
Jodie picked me up around 7:25. We got in just in time. Lauren's train was slightly early. She reported that she'd had no problems whatsoever anywhere. We ran into no traffic going home and got in by 8.
After I showed Lauren how the new windows and porch light worked, we spent the next couple of hours playing Angry Birds Star Wars. Turns out you can't start a second game, so we just continued mine to see how well we could do together.
Tomorrow, we're going to sleep in, then go for a nice walk around Oaklyn and Audubon, enjoying all the little shops and big box stores in the area.
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