Tuesday, September 08, 2020

Cleaning Up at Home

Slept in a bit this morning. Began the day after reading and writing in my journal with breakfast and Blockbusters. The solo male contestant just keeps rolling, this time over a pair of sisters. He didn't do nearly as well in the Gold Rush round, only getting a few questions right. He was just starting on another sister pair when the show ended.

Swept the patio outside between my front door and the porch after the show. Dried leaves already gathered in great piles around the entrance and were starting to get into the house. I ended up sweeping them into one side of the garden near the porch. Didn't really know where to put most of them! The garden needs watering, too. Need to ask Jodie where the hose is.

Switched to the musical Bathing Beauty on DVD while making the bed, and then as I ran the vacuum and dust-mop. I go further into this 1944 musical with Red Skelton pursing Esther Williams in a girl's school at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Back to School Again - Bathing Beauty

I was taking the trash out to the garage when I ran into Jodie. She finally decided to start going through Dad's things in the main house, including all his photos. She handed me a bag of photos and told me to go through them and keep some and give the rest to Rose and Jessa.

Decided to go through them later. Cleaned the kitchen while watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. "Daniel's Lunch" is Excellent Egg Salad, made by his dad. He's upset when Miss Elaina claims she doesn't like egg salad. Teacher Harriet reminds her that it's ok to not like what your friends like, but to try to be nice about it. "Daniel's Toy" is his favorite wooden pull duck. Prince Wednesday doesn't like that, either, which also upsets Daniel...until Wednesday discovers that a pull-duck can be very useful for carrying rocks!

Moved to Tubi for Jem while having yogurt and blueberries for lunch, and then while sorting through the photos. Jem's a "Renaissance Woman" in a second season episode when she and the Holograms attend a Renaissance fair in England. The obnoxious young man who is about to be declared lord of the county is enamored with the girls' friend Danse...but so is Robin Goodfellow, a Robin Hood-like figure who robs from the lord and his father to give to the poor booth owners. The girls are against this, until they discover that the lord isn't the real ruler of the county. They have to avoid the lord and his greedy father to rescue Robin and find the real lord, before the impostor is crowned.

I called Rose earlier; she called back as Tattletales began. She said not to do anything with the photos. She wants to make digital copies of them, so we can all have our own copies and not have to separate them. She was still annoyed with Mom for not making digital copies of her photos before sending them to us last year. Hoo boy, and I'd already organized some into my photo boxes. I'd pull them out later.

Cleaned the bathroom while Press Your Luck was on. This time, everyone got some money in the first round; the Whammies didn't really hit until the second. One of the guys got slammed with Whammies in both rounds and eventually got knocked out. The only woman just barely beat the champ, hitting no Whammies and winning vacations to London and Las Vegas.

Rose came around as I was finishing the bathroom. Khai's still on a Garfield kick. She made a big lasagna, per his request...then he wouldn't eat it. She gave slices to me and to Jodie, and slices of chocolate cake, too. I tried to give her the photos, but she said she needed to talk to Jessa and look up digitalizing them. She did suggest checking out the hair salon she attends regularly in Audubon. Research later reveals that Splitting Hairs is expensive, but Rose says the lady who runs the place is nice, and it's not like I get my hair done a lot anyway.

Started writing after Rose left. Brett, Richard, and Lee finally get demon Malade through the door of the ballroom and out into the garden, with Betty protesting not to destroy her new fountains. Charles and Donald are trying to help mermaid Patti, while the two remaining wizards want to protect Betty and the still-unconscious frog.

Heard Rose and Jodie talking in the den while I worked on writing. In addition to clearing photos, Jodie's trying to figure out what to do with most everything else in the house, including the furniture. She gave me a lovely small dark-wood table and chairs intended for dolls. It's too big for the 12-inch Star Wars dolls and too small for the 18-inch American Girls...but it proved to be perfect for my floppy old stuffed bear Mint and the knitted Baby Yoda Lauren sent me shortly after Christmas last year. I put it in front of the shelf with my Christmas books and across from the bed - there aren't too many other places in my apartment where it can go.

Broke for dinner at 6:30. Jo Ann Pflug, Kaye Stevens (whose noisy laugh annoys many fans), and character actor Richard Long joined Gene and the regulars on Match Game '74 to make jokes about Snow White and figure out the many answers to "It's a ____" in the Audience Match. The contestant on Sale of the Century continues to buzz in way ahead of the end of many answers. It came pretty close to backfiring on him, as he missed quite a few. It was still enough to get him through the Speed Round and win a pair of lovely men and women's fur coats.

Finished the night online after a shower with the spooky early talkie horror film Svengali on TCM's on demand app. Svengali (John Barrymore) takes control of the mind of a beautiful young model (Marian Marsh) in Paris in the late 19th century after she has a fight with her lover Billee (Bramwell Fletcher) over her posing for artists in the nude. He molds her into the most beloved singing star of the day. Billee sees her five years later in concert and follows her performances. Svengali cancels shows in a vain attempt to retain his control over her, but she may still have feelings for Billee..and he knows he'll never really get her love.

Shadowy Gothic horror-romance benefits from Barrymore's magnetic performance as the hypnotist preying upon women who can feed him and become a vessel he can mold. Surprisingly atmospheric for an early talkie film; worth checking out if you love Barrymore or early horror.

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