Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Spring, Spring, Spring

Though the porch was wet when I awoke this morning and it was cloudy and cold, the rain was long gone. Did two episodes of Good Eats while making Molasses Spice Pancakes and a half of a grapefruit for breakfast. (I was going to make Banana-Spice, but I forgot to add the banana. Oh well. They still tasted pretty good.) Alton explores the properties of popular nuts in "Sometimes You Feel Like a..." and shows how versatile lentils are in "Pantry Raid IV: Lentils." (I can vouch for the latter. I ate quite a bit of them when I was out with a broken ankle in 2012. I made an amazing stew with them.)

Headed out to the Oaklyn Library around 10:30. I haven't been there for two weeks, and it showed. The DVDs were a mess, especially the kids' DVDs. I was there for an hour, caught up between the organizing and the book of vintage articles and photos from the local newspaper The Retrospect I found on a shelf. I'd called Mom earlier to wish her a happy birthday (it was yesterday). She tried calling me while I was there, but my phone died. I'd get back to her later. The Oaklyn Library was fairly busy for them, first with a father and his son, then with several older people. I never did get to looking at the kids' section before I headed out.

Browsed around the House of Fun on the White Horse Pike next, but saw nothing I couldn't live without. Thought I'd go hike down to Dad and Jodie's to find out what's going on with this doctor business without the rest of the family around. Neither they nor their cars were there when I arrived. Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow.

There was a letter for me waiting in the mail box when I got in. It was from Willa about the things I mentioned needed to be repaired. They did fix the sagging heaters in the living room (and supposedly will do the bathroom ones later in the week). It sounds like the cracked window's only going to be covered, not replaced, the wood around the toilet is going to be covered with carpet, not tile (carpet in the bathroom?) and the faucet is going to be coated with more epoxy. While she did say the aging cheap furniture in the bedroom that came with the house was not their problem (I didn't think they'd do anything about it - just thought I'd mention it), she did have a good idea about covering the pantry shelves with paper to make them more even.

Unfortunately, Charlie must have fussed to his mother about the "noise" at night. She mentioned that, too. I'm sorry, but unless you can figure out how to tear off the carpet and fix the squeaks, the floors are going to make noise, including at night. This is an old house. I try not to make too many sounds, but you know, I'm human. I cough, sneeze, and turn in bed.

(I'm starting to think Lauren's right. I have got to find a new place. It's not going to happen now, or probably within the next year, but it will as soon as I can save or earn enough money. This was a nice place when there was just a feisty old lady downstairs. While I appreciate what Willa and Richard have done for me over the years, I'm tired of dealing with their son and their hedging on repairing the porch and roof. It's no longer worth the cheap rent and nice view.)

When I got home, I finally got a hold of Mom. She was fine. Had a nice, quiet birthday yesterday with her family. We did argue a bit over my having let the Camden County food stamps lapse. I got fed up with trying to call them, and Jodie and Dad wanted me to wait until I saw the doctor and could test for SSI. I'm starting to agree with Mom. Maybe it's time I forgot the darn SSI and just focused on getting food stamps, which I should be able to pass now. It's just a matter of actually getting through to them.

Did my first Easter special of the season as I made scrambled eggs with Gouda cheese and stir-fry vegetables for lunch. The Easter Bunny Is Coming to Town is my favorite of the three Rankin-Bass springtime shows. Sunny the Bunny has been adopted by the orphaned children of Kidsville, who want to sell their eggs over the Big Rock Mountain. Bunny takes it upon himself to figure out how to get the eggs past Gadzooks the grouchy bear, and then staid Lady Longtooth. He continuously creates new traditions to sneak everything under the Dowager's watchful eye, to the delight of her henpecked nephew King Bruce.

Did writing and messing around online for a couple of hours. Just as Leia is starting to realize that flirting with the guards isn't getting her anywhere, a frantic Cedric spies smoke. As they make their way down the smoky hall, they first run into Rusty, then see the young woman who cheered on Leia at the fencing exhibition earlier. She leads them up to the off-limits captain's cabin and main cabin, where she reveals that she's Jyn Erso, the daughter of the late Galen Erso, and is Leia's contact.

Broke around 6 to eat leftovers for dinner, then make Pineapple Muffins. Watched X-Men: Apocalypse while I ate and baked. It's now 1983, and Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is doing quite well with his new school for mutants. Among his recruits and teachers are brothers Alex (Lucas Till) and Scott (Tye Sheridan) Summers, psychic Jean Gray (Sophie Turner), shape-shifting Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), and blue Eastern European demon Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee). While he's teaching mutants how to handle their powers, the original mutant, an Egyptian named En Sabah Nur (Oscar Issac) has been revived. Calling himself Apocalypse, he's disgusted with how humans have apparently taken over the Earth. He wants to take it back, destroying everything in the process. He gathers several disenchanted mutants to aid him, including Erik Lensher (Michael Fassbinder), who just lost his family in Poland, and African orphan Ororo Munroe (Alexandra Shipp). When he kidnaps the Professor to help him with his plot, the newly reformed X-Men have to learn how to work as a team...and that when we unleash our true potential, we can be a force to be reckoned with.

I heard some pretty bad reviews of this one last summer, but I ended up liking it. I didn't love it, but it wasn't horrible, either. Some of the kids were kind of stiff as the new X-Men (particularly Sophie Tucker as Jean Gray). Issac was unrecognizable as one of the more unusual villains in Marvel history. My favorite character remains the wonderfully wisecracking Peter Maximoff, aka Quicksilver (Evan Peters), who gets most of the best lines.

Heavy violence, adult subject matter, and some brief but nasty language make this for older teen comic book fans on up. If you're into the X-Men, you've probably already seen this. If you haven't seen the other movies (at least Days of Future Past and X-Man 3: The Last Stand), please do so before coming here.

No comments: