Sunday, October 21, 2018

Monstrous Eagles Mash

It was raining when I got up this morning. Thankfully, by the time I headed to work, the rain was just slowing down. I arrived a little damp. That was probably the worst thing that happened all day. It was steady but not overwhelming when I arrived. I shelved three carts of returns (and another bagger handled a fourth) until the lines started to snake around the store. Spent the last hour or so bagging.

By the time I headed out, the rain was long gone. While the sun was out, the wind was a raging gale, and it was unusually cold for this time of year, barely in the 50's. The wind made for a rough ride to Dad and Jodie's house. Dodged a few cars heading to Tonewood Brewery to watch the game as well.

The game had just begun when I arrived. Mark and Rose and her family were already there; Jessa, Chloe, and her mother arrived later. Finley loves Dad's Hallmark dancing figures, a big-eyed mummy who wiggles to "Thriller" and Snoopy in a skeleton costume shaking his tail (not well - he kept falling over) to "Linus and Lucy." She was so funny dancing along with them!

(Rose mentioned that she'd gone to Shop Rite earlier to pick up a few things, including a blueberry crumble cake for dessert this afternoon. She came back to find Finley in an Eagles shirt over a thermal shirt under an Eagles sweater, polka-dot shorts over dotted leggings, and mismatched red polka-dot bows. She said it looked like a demented clown dressed her. She had switched Fin to the Eagles shirt and sweater, a ruffled skirt, and black and white leggings.)

Khai mostly concentrated on playing with Jodie's iPad until Craig had to go to work and she pulled out lunch early. She made "hamburger soup" - ground beef, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes in beef broth. There was crusty bread with butter and a Caesar salad. Yum! While I had to wait a while for the soup to cool off (she cooked it in a crock pot), it was so tasty when it was ready! With a little Parmesan cheese, it was perfect. There was the blueberry crumble cake and Jodie's heavily spiced apple pie for dessert.

Wish the game had gone as well. The Eagles were up 10-0 in the first half, but the Panthers came back in a big way in the fourth quarter. They got a last-minute touchdown that just barely won them the game 21-14.

I had more fun in the den with the kids. We first watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while playing with Finley and some of the larger stuffed animals. The Peanuts are getting ready for fall by jumping into leaves with lollipops and pulling away the football. Linus is determined to wait in the pumpkin patch for the mysterious title character, who supposedly leaves candy and toys for good children. Against her better judgement, Sally joins him. Meanwhile, Chuck has his own problems trick-or-treating and at the party afterwards. Snoopy spends his Halloween fighting the Red Baron.

By the time the fourth quarter was getting insane, Rose had switched the kids over to an episode of the Nickelodeon toddler show Bubble Guppies. In an episode from the fourth (and apparently last) season that parodies space opera, Princess Molly is the owner of the last musical device in the galaxy. The evil Major Bummer has banned all music! The Guppies have to cross the galaxy to upload it and restore music to the universe!

(And...Rose doesn't know what she's doing for Thanksgiving. If Anny's moved by then, she may go down to see her for a few hours. I don't know if I'll join them. I'm seriously considering just staying up here. We'll have to see how things go.)

When I got home I finally finished The Water Room, then went right into writing. Vader and Palpatine force Leia, Luke, and Harry to use their magic to make the weapon work. When the crystal lifts and shines off the shields held by the giant warrior statues, it creates a beam that can destroy in an instant. Palpatine starts trying to shoot down the planes in the air, including the Silver Falcon. Harry does not like anyone trying to damage his baby! He manages to use his strength power to pry his fingers from the Sword and punch Palpatine in the nose. Leia and Luke get their own Swords while Charel, Clarence, and Artie distract Vader (having followed the trail of vines and junk the crew left).

I got so caught up with writing, I didn't stop until I saw Lauren pop up on Trillian and realized it was 7:30. I never really had dinner. I was still full from lunch. I did bring my laptop into the living room and had a quick breakfast cookie sandwich for a snack.

Finished the night with some Halloween-and-horror-themed CDs. Halloween Party Music is just that - decent covers of horror-themed music, from "Purple People Eater" to "Ghostbusters" to "Monster Mash." I dubbed the original London cast of The Phantom of the Opera off the Haddon Township Library's (long-gone) copy over a decade ago. I used to listen to this every Halloween night after trick or treating in the late 80's and early 90's, and then after giving out candy. I have other things that I watch or listen to on Halloween night nowadays, but I still reserve this one for around late October. As much as I enjoyed the film version the other day, the performances of Michael Crawford as the Phantom and Sarah Brightman as Christine are still matchless to this day.

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