Saturday, March 19, 2016

Putting It Together

Had a quick start this morning with a bagel and two Irish-themed cartoons I wasn't able to get to on St. Patrick's Day. "Wearin' of the Grin" has Porky Pig taking shelter in a castle in Ireland, which may or may not be the home of a band of leprechauns who think he's after their pot of gold. They sentence him to wear green shoes that won't stop dancing! Woody Woodpecker encounters another member of the Wee Folk in "His Better Elf." When the little fellow gives Woody three wishes, Woody decides he wants gold. He never said how he wanted it - the gold he got came from a bank. The leprechaun helps him escape, while teaching him a lesson about earning his bread.

Today was one of my early days this week. Originally, I didn't work until 1, but one of the cashiers volunteered to give out tickets for a raffle they're holding this weekend. I took her place. That was fine by me. I'd rather work earlier than later. We were busy all afternoon with people fussing over the snow we're supposedly getting tonight. My relief was just barely on time. I was able to grab a quart of skim milk on the way out - one of the college boys was just restocking the milk when I came over there.

It was starting to spit a little when I got in. As soon as I changed, I spent the next few hours writing. Leia and the guys knock out the soldiers guarding the Falcon and manage to flee the stables. Two figures block the open drawbridge...and the Falcon's only means of escape. Ben and Vader are having their big duel. Vader seems to cut off Ben's head, to Luke's horror, but Ben's armor is empty. He's vanished. He did his job well, though. Vader is distracted enough for the Falcon to ride through.

The moment Ben dies, so does his magic. Han and Arthur (Artoo)'s clothing returns to normal. Chewbacca becomes a horse again; the Falcon is once more a dilapidated piece of junk. Luke's armor becomes tarnished antiques, rather than the polished covering of a Force Knight. Leia demands an explanation when Han stops the carriage and the horses, now turned back into mice, run away. Luke tells her about Ben and why they ended up at the ball. Han tries to move them along. It's getting dark.

Started putting the kitchen and pantry shelves back together around 5:30. That took me over an hour. Turns out, the guys didn't put everything back exactly the way it was. The shelf under the sink that held the parchment paper and the bowl with the Tupperware lids seems to be gone for good. I had to find new places to put those. One of the shelves in the cabinet is now higher than it used to be, which also required some re-arranging. The pantry shelves were no longer staggered, either.

Ran the James Bond movie License to Kill while organizing, and later while making Crock Pot Rice Pudding for dessert. James (Timothy Dalton) goes on a personal vendetta against a drug lord, Sanchez, (Robert Davi) who maimed his friend Felix Lighterer and killed his new wife. M (Robert Brown) isn't happy with this - they want James back on the job - so he resigns. He does get help from Q (Desmond Llewlyn) and from American agent and pilot Pam Bouvier, who want to find out more about Sanchez's operations.

Though I love Timothy Dalton as Bond (I tend to gravitate towards grittier Bonds - see also Sean Connery and Daniel Craig) and consider Pam Bouvier to be one of the more interesting Bond girls, I have more problems with this one today. This remains the most violent of all Bond movies, with far more blood than most films in the series, and the story about the drug lord comes off as alternately boring and overly complicated. This is also incredibly late 80's - see the whole drug lord thing and some questionable Central American/Mexican stereotypes. Surprisingly, I remember my siblings and mom and I really loving this in the late 80's-early 90's.

If you like your Bond movies darker or are looking for something different in the franchise, this is worth a look for older action fans.

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