Watched Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood while I ate breakfast and got ready. "Mr. Malik Comes Back to School" and the kids couldn't be more excited to see their substitute teacher again. They do learn a lesson in listening when he reminds me that there's a time for dancing, and a time to do something else. Daniel and Katerina have fun on "Daniel's Wintry Walk." They don't want to go in, until Mrs. Tiger coaxes them home for hot chocolate and to play with Margaret.
I had more trouble getting to work. It took me ten minutes just to find a driver this morning, and another 13 for him to arrive. Thanks to all that, I was 15 minutes late. Thank heavens, the road cleared enough by quarter after 3 for it only to take the driver 11 minutes to arrive. No trouble getting to or from work.
I hadn't been there more than five minutes before the floral manager and I headed out again. She scraped the ice off her car, then drove us down to Pennsville, near the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The Pennsville Acme was holding a workshop for floral department workers to exchange ideas and those interested in floral work to learn how to make bouquets and tie balloons. I was the only one who joined her. A manager and one of the girls who fill online orders were supposed to come, but they got scared of the weather and called out. Fortunately, the bad weather had likely scared off the traffic, and she stuck to the heavily-salted main highways. We arrived within 45 minutes.
The workshop took place in their cavernous warehouse room, twice the size of the Audubon Acme's. We were ten minutes late and rushed to the last table after signing in. There were already a ton of people gathered around tables, with colorful roses and lilies in buckets next to them, mylar balloons waiting against the wall, a container of latex balloons on one side, and vases of water waiting to be filled.
We spent most of the two hours learning to do specific arrangements. I have to admit, most of what I did came out rather well. I was especially proud of a dark red "posie" nosegay in a small squat vase, cut short and with one rose pushing up among the others. I added two tiny pieces of gypsum that had been leftover from larger bouquets, and it looked rather sweet.
The last half-hour was devoted to tying latex balloons to the bottom of the larger mylar ones to make them a bit more "extra." I had a much harder time with this. I took forever to tie the darn balloons, and then I couldn't tie them together. Couldn't figure out how to get two longer balloons together, too. The floral manager says I'll get better with practice.
After we left the Acme, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel about ten minutes from the Acme for lunch. They were surprisingly busy, considering the freezing mist was only just starting to subside at 1 PM. I suspect they may have had a lot of call-outs. It took us almost fifteen minutes just to get a waitress. Things went much faster after that. She had coffee and a massive grilled chicken salad on a plate bigger than a flying saucer. I had berry iced tea and "pancake tacos," eggs, cheese, and bacon in a pancake folded like a taco, with fried apples on the side. (It was supposed to come with syrup for dipping, but I didn't see any and didn't make a fuss. The waitress was harried enough as it was.) It was delicious, warm and filling on a cold, gray day.
Headed straight back to the store after that. There was slightly more traffic, but nothing overwhelming. Even so, we still arrived ten minutes after 3. Considering I was late arriving, it might actually be a good thing.
Watched Super Password while I changed after I got home. Tom Poston and Vicki Lawrence continued with their week. This was never Tom's game. He moved a tad slow on the Super Password bonus round. No one had much luck on the main game, especially trying to figure out the puzzle revolving around a certain southern host who was in charge of then-fellow NBC show Scrabble and had a long-running hit with Love Connection...
Settled down with Road to Utopia after the show ended. I go further into this wacky trip to the Yukon with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Did some writing for a while next. Avery's scared to death, but he does manage to get everyone across. Joyce hugs him and tells him she's proud of him, but he's about ready to faint!
Broke for dinner and Match Game '79 at 7. We start off with "Afternoon __" on the Audience Match...and Gene and Brett not getting the obvious answer that was a big hit song a few years before. Elaine Joyce has far more luck with "New Orleans __" in a later Head-to-Head.
Finished the night with something unique on YouTube. I found a dubbed live-action version of the German fairy tale Mother Holle from Russia, if the Eastern European-sounding names in the credits are any indication. A young boy manages to cheat Mother Death and ends up living with her cousin Mother Holle, who shakes the feathers from her bed and makes it snow all over the world. The mischievous boy falls for sweet human girl Elizabeth, and keeps sneaking out to see her. He finally leaves Holle's domain and grows into a man in order to be with her. Unfortunately, she's under the thumb of her obnoxious stepmother, who keeps trying to push her equally nasty daughter on him.
He rejects her in favor of Elizabeth, leading the stepmother to seek revenge. She kills Elizabeth's prize peacocks and blames him, then insists he killed Elizabeth when she and her daughter were the ones who pushed down his new well. Mother Holle wants Elizabeth to stay with her and help her with her work. However, if Elizabeth doesn't return, the young man will either have to accept the stepdaughter's proposal, or be hanged.
Honestly, this doesn't have that much in common with the German Mother Holle. Originally, both daughters ended up in her domain. One would work and was industrious, and one was lazy and refused to help her or anything in the well. The boy was an actual prince, and there was no Mother Death. It's still a lot of fun to watch him lead Death with her scythe around by the nose and see his and Elizabeth's charming courtship. Worth seeking on YouTube if you love European fairy tales like me.
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