One Little Maid From the Library

It was sunny and beautiful when I awoke this morning. The wind had died down, and while it was chilly (maybe still a little too much for the time of year), it wasn't nearly as bad as over the weekend.

It was a lovely day to run errands. I never did get to the bank, thanks to the weekend's wild weather and Halloween yesterday, so that was my first stop. After I left there, I rode across Newton River Park to the Haddon Township Library. The park was just gorgeous today. The trees took a while to turn colors here, but they're finally reveling in their fall cloaks of red, gold, pale green, and rust. There were quite a few joggers enjoying the cool weather. I saw the first family of Canadian geese in ages, too.

Most people must still be recovering from yesterday's festivities. The Library wasn't busy at all, and there wasn't much to do. I organized the children's DVDs, put kids' books away, and shelved a few adult DVDs. I took out a fall-oriented Max & Ruby Treehouse collection, the last of the three new Scooby Doo collections of random episodes, the second Sesame Street spoofs set, the movies Avatar and the British The Mikado, and three books that I thought might be helpful for me now - The Happiness Project, a book on finding jobs that suit your personality type, and a book on health and nutrition for women, The Dish On Eating Health and Looking Fabulous!, that was really useful a while back.

Made a quick stop at Dollar Tree next. I needed a gift bag and card for my cousin Faith's birthday. Also picked up sponges and magic erasers. Dollar Tree already has their Christmas stuff out. That's the fastest conversion between holidays I've ever seen. Last time I checked, there was only one small wall of Christmas items.

Spent the rest of the afternoon at home. I ran Max & Ruby and the Scooby Doo episodes while I vacuumed and cleaned up those vintage My Little Ponies I found for Faith at a yard sale a few weeks ago. Max & Ruby wasn't anything new, but I hadn't seen the two What's New, Scooby Doo? episodes at all, and haven't seen the one from the original show in years.

The last of the three new Scooby collections revolves around ghosts. The What's New episodes are ok, not great. The second, "Lights, Camera, Mayhem!" takes a few mild shots at the state of Hollywood in the late 90s-early 2000s, as well as the films The Matrix and Agent Cody Banks. It's also notable as one of the very few episodes from any Scooby franchise where no one does any real harm, goes to jail, or even really commits a crime.

The classic "Jeepers, It's the Creeper!" from the 1969 series is probably one of the best-known episodes of the entire series, and certain one of the ones to solidify the form. The kids chase down a ghost who seems to be robbing bank cars from the inside, without doing any damage to the exterior. This is one of the very few times in any series you see the kids interacting with young people their own age in a normal way that doesn't involve mysteries. In fact, the whole thing revolves around the gang heading for a dance at an old barn, then at a malt shop when the lights in the barn break down.

I ran records while I took down the Halloween decorations and put up what little I have for Thanksgiving. This was not the best Halloween I ever had, but it wasn't the worst, either. Most of my current problems have nothing to do with the holiday, and it really did help to celebrate and get my mind off my problems for a while. My Little Red Riding Hood costume went over really well yesterday, too. I just hope I can do more with trick-or-treating next year.

Switched to the Sesame Street Spoofs disc while making chicken meatballs, whole-wheat pasta, steamed green beans, and spaghetti sauce for dinner. I thought this was even funnier than the first one. My favorites were the satires of Columbo (as "Colambo" - the sheep did look a bit like Peter Falk), "Law & Order: Special Letters Unit," and the hysterical crack at the High School Musical franchise (as "Pre-School Musical").

And I thought CNN already DID stand for "The Grouch News Network." ;)