Adventures on Manor Avenue

I'm so bushed from all the work I've done over the past few days, I didn't get up until 9:30, and didn't get rolling until almost 11. Had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Yum! They didn't come out too badly. I remembered to add baking powder this time, which did help.

Listened to a couple of Disney records while I ate. Kevin at Defunctland just did an episode on the Disney Channel 80's series Mousercise last week, which prompted me to pull out the record version. We had the Mousercise record as kids and listened to it all the time, and we loved the show. Mom didn't love the show. She thought the lady who worked with the kids was too perky and perfect, the exercises were too hard, and the diet tips were unrealistic. I thought Miss Kellyn was a ball of energy and the exercises were a lot of fun, even if some of them passed too quickly to really get them right.

We didn't have Mickey Mouse Disco (which Kevin mentions in the beginning), but I found it at a yard sale several years ago. The Disney Channel used the energetic cover of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" as part of their DTV music video series, and there's a couple of other songs I like as well. "Welcome to Rio" is a peppy Latin-flavored spoof featuring Jose Carioca, the title song is a great dance number redolent of the era, and "Macho Duck" is a hilarious Donald Duck take on Village People numbers.

Did some writing after I finished the dishes. Gene has begun to round everyone up to flee, including some familiar faces in the audience. Charles is ready to go with him, but despite being drained of her magic and possibly dead, Brett seems to have disappeared...

It was 2:30 before I broke for a quick yogurt lunch. Watched an episode of Match Game from earlier in the week as I ate the new French yogurt in the fancy glass. Richard and Gene made quite a few Humphrey Bogart jokes as they helped a gentle woman from Casablanca make it to the Audience Match.

Headed out before the show even ended. There's still a lot I want to get done in the Manor Avenue apartment. For one thing, the carpet in the kitchen hasn't dried yet. I spread the now-dry towels over the spot and left the windows open to get rid of the mildew-y smell. Scrubbed as much of the mildew stains off the tile in the shower as I could. It still doesn't look perfect, but it's mostly better.

Dusted the ceilings and around the baseboards, then vacuumed around them. Lord, are they dusty! I didn't realize how bad it got in there. I had to empty the vacuum cleaner twice. I'm still not done, either. I need to get into the back room when it's empty and go under the bed after Craig and Rose take that apart. (It's too big to carry down all together.)

Between vacuuming sessions, I went through all the bins I could carry out of the back room. Some of the junk admittedly did go in trash bags. Found another Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer I got from Amanda for Christmas I wanted to keep, along with a record, two cookbooks, and a stuffed black cat. Others I may see if Rose wants for her tribe. There's a bag I need to go through, though most of the bins contain books and records and will probably stay as they are.

By the time I finished there, I was too tired to cook. Strolled to WaWa to pick up a turkey hoagie and a Pineapple Perrier for dinner. Treated myself to a Bananas Foster Cream Smoothie for the ride home. This time, it wasn't busy at WaWa, and I had no trouble there or walking back to Hillcrest. It's still sunny, breezy, hot, and humid here. I'm surprised I saw as many people out and about as I did, taking walks or riding with their friends.

Flopped into the futon with dinner, my Perrier, and Supermarket Sweep after I got in. I was so tired, I just about passed out, even as one couple couldn't figure out the first question on the 5,000 dollar bonus round, and the other in the next episode found the money in record time.

Called Rose as I sat down at the laptop. No wonder I haven't heard from her since Friday. She's sick again. Craig will help me take apart the bed and take everything to Goodwill or the trash later in the week.

Managed to drag myself into the bedroom long enough to finish up with a couple of Disney Plus offerings. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse made one of their occasional forays into fairy tales during the first season with "Sleeping Minnie." Minnie sniffed a sleeping rose at Clarabelle's garden, and now she'll sleep for a hundred years...unless Mickey and the guys can figure out how to find the Golden Harp that'll awaken her.

Phineas and Ferb is a show for older kids that revolves around two creative brothers who create wild devices to make their summer cooler. Their teen sister Candace constantly tries to tattle on them, but their mother usually just misses whatever it is they were doing. Meanwhile, the boys' pet platypus Perry is somehow a secret agent who has to contend with decidedly not-very-super villain Doofensmirtz and his wacky schemes.

"Run Away Runway" has the boys creating their own line of summer-related clothes while Candace tries to become a model and Doofensmirtz makes clones of himself to stand in line for him. The guys want to make a giant sundae for their friend Isabella in "I Scream, You Scream," but somehow, the plans for their ice cream machine get mixed up with the ones for Doofensmirtz's space laser.

The Adventures of the Gummi Bears was one of my favorite cartoons when I was little. Lauren loved it too, and she inspired me to check it out again. I had no idea it ran for six seasons! Decided to start at the beginning with the first episode "A New Beginning." Cavin, a page at Castle Dunmore, is delighted to discover Gummi Bears living in a gnarled tree in the woods. Gummi Bears are supposed to be mythical. They're scared of him, until they see his Gummi medallion and he agrees to keep their secret. He eventually convinces them to help him get rid of Duke Igthorn, a former knight who wants to take over the kingdom, and his nasty trolls, with the help of their Gummiberry Juice that grants strength to humans and bouncing power to the bears.