Valentine's Match

Considering what the weather this week's been like, it was wonderful to wake up to sunshine and blue skies. Watched the Peanuts Valentine's Day specials while eating breakfast and cleaning up afterwards. Linus is in love with his teacher Miss Othmar in Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. Sally thinks the candy he buys is for her. Lucy would love it if Schroeder would leave the piano long enough to give her a kiss, while Charlie Brown is desperately hoping to get some kind of valentine from his peers. Meanwhile, Snoopy's staging elaborate and rather messy puppet shows.

The kids don't have much better luck in the later A Charlie Brown Valentine. Snoopy's recruited to write love poem's for Sally's valentine, which Linus refuses to touch. Charlie Brown keeps trying to figure out how to ask the Little Red Haired Girl to the Valentine's Day dance, but ends up going with Peppermint Patty and Marcie. Lucy continues to hangs around Schroeder's piano in the hope he'll actually give her a Valentine's gift.

The Pink Panther has even worse luck in Pink at First Sight. He's so lonely, he imagines everything around him to be a lady panther, including a child's teddy bear. He finally takes a job as a bike messenger to make money, using cassette tapes as his "specialty." Most people don't seem to appreciate his efforts, whether it's a wife whose husband mistakes his crooning recording for an attempt to seduce her or gangsters who are sent a bomb and blame him for it.

Headed out shortly after the end of the cartoon. Things started out pretty well. I spent the first hour doing carts and sweeping. It didn't start to get crazy until later, when people got off of work and headed out to pick up flowers and steak and seafood for their surf and turf dinners. I ended up in a register at least twice, but mainly swept the store and shelved candy. Picked up pads (the generic Acme brand was buy one-get one) and a bag of heart-shaped York Peppermint Patties on the way out.

Worked on writing when I got home. Marcia uses her magic to pry the witch - Malade, the evil queen in disguise - off Brett. Richard threatens her with his arrows to get her to reveal how to revive Brett and lift the curse on Bill, but she's not talking. Charles attends to his fallen friend...and he's the one who realizes what's going on, and how to bring her out of her faint...

Broke for dinner at 6:30. Watched Match Game while I ate breaded fish fillet, roasted potatoes, and the last of the Brussels sprouts. Joan Collins joined Brett, Charles, Gene, Richard, tough Scoey Mitchlll, and Patti Deustch of the oddly creative answers for her only appearance on the show in mid-1975. The champion had stiff competition in Sale of the Century from a young woman and another man, both of whom jumped past him at a few points...but in the end, he bought both Instant Bargains and the Instant Cash and managed to win in the speed round. Did even worse with the bonus round, though, missing one question and messing up another at the last second.

Switched to Sailor Moon Super S: Black Dream Hole while attempting to make chocolate donuts for the Acme's dessert party tomorrow, despite being out of eggs and milk. It's a few days before Valentine's Day, and the Sailor Guardians are all very excited to be able to give away their own chocolate chip cookies. Usagi's hoping her boyfriend Mamoru will enjoy hers far more than their daughter Chibi-Usa's. As it turns out, she has worse problems than whose baking Mamoru likes better. An evil witch has kidnapped children from around the globe and is draining their sweet dreams to energize her Black Dream Hole. If it becomes large enough, it'll swallow the globe whole! Usagi and the other Guardians join up with a gentle dream elf who befriended Chibi-Usa in order to rescue her and stop the witch.

Finished the night with a special Match Game Valentine's Day marathon of my own. Match Game was even more fun when two married people played on one panel. From married dancers Bobby Van and Elaine Joyce to Password king and queen Allen Ludden and Betty White and grumpy Jack Klugman and his salty wife Brett Somers (they later divorced or separated - no one seems entirely sure which), it's definitely more fun to match with a loved one!

Match Game '73 - Bobby & Elaine: This was Elaine's first appearance on the show...and we get a rather interesting question about another famous duo, Batman and Robin, early-on.
Match Game '73 - Jack & Brett: Jack's not happy about one of the questions, to the point where his wife has to keep him from walking out. A blissed-out Mama "Cass" Elliot becomes one of the few rock stars to appear on the show, and does rather well, too.
Match Game '74 - Bobby & Elaine: Elaine is most definitely her husband's "#1 fan," at least according to her t-shirt.
Match Game '74 - Donald & Patti: Comedy writer Donald Ross proves to be a perfect match for his equally kooky wife Patti Deustch as they and Charles help a lady become the all-time show champion at that point.
Match Game '75 - Allen & Betty: Allen comes down to defend his wife's honor after Gene makes a remark about "having Betty"; Brett, meanwhile, is having more fun doing her own idea of belly dancing to the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner."
Match Game '78 - Gene & Helen: Richard jokes that his fiancee is in the audience...to Gene's annoyance, as he's pointing to his beloved wife Helen.
Match Game '78 - Jack & Brett: Check out the end of this one, where the rest of the cast dress the two for their second "wedding"...despite them having already been permanently apart by this point.
Match Game '79 - Dick & Dolly: Married stars of Laugh In Dick & Dolly Martin join in on the fun as Gene avoids an especially excited contestant that Nipsey Russell has no problems embracing!

Here's hoping you had a wonderful Valentine's Day with your own perfect match!