Friday, March 03, 2017

Hazy Shade of Winter

It was sunny but windy when I got up this morning. I avoided the wind and cold by spending the morning eating breakfast and cleaning. Got the vacuuming done and washed the windows. The vacuuming took me a little longer than usual. I shouldn't have put it off last month. The kitchen in particular was really bad. I don't know why there's carpet in the kitchen. Tile, at the least, would have made more sense, or linoleum, given the age of this house. I also sewed up a rip in my good English Fog winter coat.

Watched The Drum while I worked. When his father is assassinated by his brother, a young Indian prince (Sabu) is taken in by a British military base. He befriends the garrison's drummer boy, as well as its head officer and his pretty wife. His uncle, however, still intends to make trouble. He's determined to drive the British off his land, even if he has to kill to do it. Not wanting to see his friends hurt, the prince tries to warn him...but when the head officers don't listen, his warning may come too late to save them all.

Enjoyable late-30's Technicolor action from England. Surprisingly doesn't lay the stereotypes on too heavily, even if most of the cast besides Sabu are obviously Brits playing Indians. This is on the Criteron Collection's budget Eclipse series with other Sabu movies; fun if you can find it.

Switched to some Danger Mouse as I finished the cleaning and got ready to run errands. He's the "Lord of the Bungle" in the early first season. Elephants are vanishing and turning up as sugar cubes in the tea of politicians. DM has to stop Baron Greenback from spreading them across the globe...and figure out how Penfold suddenly became Tarzan. "The Bone Idol" from the fourth season takes them to Tibet, where they have to keep an idol that could control all the world's dogs out of the hands of the Baron and Count Duckula.

Headed to the Oaklyn Library first for this week's volunteering session there. For an on-and-off cloudy day, they were surprisingly quiet. maybe because it was past 1 when I arrived. I organized DVDs and looked over the children's area before heading out.

Since I was already out and about, I did my grocery shopping today. Besides, I didn't really have a very big order. I got really lucky. Almost everything I needed was on sale. The Acme was having their periodic "buck a bag" vegetable sale. I grabbed scallions, oranges, bananas (also on sale), a jar of minced garlic, a small loaf of French bread topped with sesame seeds, and a bag of shredded vegetables. Restocked cream of mushroom soup, canned pineapple, white cake mix, sugar, tomato sauce, cereal (Acme's generic shredded wheat was cheap this week), brown sugar, and skim milk.

My schedule is, once again, a little odd. I still have three days off (Tuesday for counseling) and one long day. I'm later than usual on Monday, and it's still 19 hours instead of 20. (I don't know why they just can't give me 20, like they were.)

Headed straight home after I finished at the Acme. After more than two weeks, my Amazon.com order finally appeared. Just bought ink for my printer and a new record needle. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to hook it up to the player. When I did, it played beautifully. I listened to one of my K-Tel 70's records while putting everything else away.

Spent the next few hours working on and revising my story. Han and Luke are now going to the fair for Henry to display his revolutionary new steam engine and Luke to take part in a fencing exhibition. Both men are upset when Baron Vader comes back in and announces that they've captured some of the Crimson Hawk's men.

Leia says she thinks what the Crimson Hawk is doing is crazy and illegal but noble in a way. Han disagrees. The Crimson Hawk is just out for his own gain, like he is. The young duchess finds his attitude cold and unfeeling. Didn't he ever care about anything enough to fight for it? Han shrugs. He was a pirate, and now, he's a businessman. He loves money.

Finished out the night with more records and a decent dinner. I hadn't made burgers in ages. Threw together simple Turkey Burgers with steamed broccoli topped with shredded cheddar and slices of the mini French bread loaf. Yum. They came out perfectly savory and tasty, a little soft inside, a little brown on the outside. Did the original cast album from the stage version of 42nd Street and the soundtracks for Flashdance, Streets of Fire, and the 60's TV show The Roaring Twenties while I ate.

And we did get snow...for all of five minutes this evening, as I was writing. Otherwise, it was just windy, very cold, and on-and-off cloudy.

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