Friday, January 29, 2016

The Sisters and the Town Treasure

Began a cloudy morning with breakfast and Barbie & Her Sisters In the Great Puppy Adventure. This awkwardly-titled tale takes Barbie and her beloved siblings to their former home town of Willows, where they were all born, for the summer. Barbie is looking forward to the big summer WillowFest and connecting with her old friend Kristy and all the places she used to hang out. Skipper, Chelsea, Stacy, and their new puppies are following clues to a huge treasure that's supposedly buried somewhere around the town. Barbie's discovering the hard way that Willows, like many real-life older small towns, is in major financial trouble. Many of her favorite businesses have shut down, and Kristy's family may have to leave. Barbie finally joins the girls in the search for the fantastic treasure that could save the town...if a pair of bumbling fair carneys don't get there first.

I was surprised with this one, especially after I wasn't crazy about the previous fantasy-oriented horse tale. It's actually a lot of fun, kind of like a girl-oriented version of The Goonies. The stories of Barbie and her sisters seem to work better the closer to reality they get. Ironically, despite getting second billing and being able to talk (though not to humans), the puppies really don't have that much to do besides look cute until the ending. It's also one of the few cartoons I've seen address the trouble many older small towns and suburbs frequently having keeping and attracting businesses.

If your girls loved the previous Barbie and Her Sisters stories or are looking for a princess-less animated adventure, they can do far worse than this one.

Went straight to work after Barbie ended. Everyone must have been waiting for the weekend and the beginning of the month. This time, we were steady to busy all afternoon. There were a lot of annoying people who wouldn't help bag, and a lot of WIC Checks, too. (I forgot to ask for the ID pamphlet for one. I hope I don't get in trouble again for that.) Thankfully, my relief was right on time.

Got my schedule during break. Thank heavens it's a lot closer to what I normally get at this time of year. They'd be crazy if they didn't raise my hours. February is probably the single busiest month of the year here. In the space of the shortest month in the calendar, we have the Super Bowl, then Valentine's Day, then President's Day Weekend. This is the height of winter high school varsity sports season. We're supposed to get warm next week, but it may not last - it is still winter. February is a big birthday month, too. (There's also the years where the Winter Olympics usually occur in February, though this isn't one of them.) Not to mention, a lot of people who don't have kids tend to take their vacation time during February.

I didn't have a really huge grocery list this week. Though I needed meat, there weren't any really good sales. I settled for two packs of salmon and lobster cakes and a pack of ground turkey. Restocked grapefruit, apples, canned pineapple, deodorant, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, and cake mix. The Acme is still getting rid of its older generic brand and replacing them with the Safeway brand. I took advantage of the clearances to pick up vanilla pudding and (badly needed) pads. Mushrooms and the smaller bags of carrots continue to be on a dollar sale.

When I got home, I put everything away, then went into writing. Kathleen can see how badly Darren is hurting. She overrides his protests and calls for a doctor. He confirms her suspicions. He has a broken leg and several bruised ribs and won't be going anywhere for a while.

Moved to the "movie" for the fourth season of Sailor Moon, Black Dream Hole, while making a salmon cake and sauteed spinach and mushrooms for dinner. It's almost Valentine's Day, and the Guardians are enjoying the preparations and cooking for the most romantic day of the year. But some decidedly unromantic things are happening in Tokyo! Children are disappearing from their homes all around the globe. When Rini is among the missing, the girls go after her. They discover that a witch wants to use children's dreams to power her Black Dream Hole, which could swallow the Earth! A rogue dream fairy helps the girls go after Rini.

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