Kicked off a cloudy, humid morning with breakfast, then trying a new recipe. I wanted to make something from the Hershey's 1934 Cookbook I found during the Oaklyn Town-Wide Yard Sale. Tried their Chocolatetown Chocolate Chip Cookies. Oh, yum! They came out perfectly, soft, chewy, and just sweet enough. They also use a lot of butter, so I probably won't make them as often as the Oatmeal-Chocolate Chunk Cookies, but it's nice to have an alternate recipe.
Watched more Chip and Dale episodes while I worked. "The Last Leprechaun" is Darby Spree, who tricks the Rangers into giving him some company. As he's using his magic to keep them underground, his gold is stolen by a banshee. The Rangers help him find his fellow leprechauns and bury the gold again, before all leprechauns lose their powers.
Went into "Weather or Not" while the cookies were in the oven and I was cleaning the bowls. Monty claims his tail can predict the weather. The other Rangers doubt this when his tail insists it's cold during a heat wave. They learn Monty's tail may not be quite so off when they discover a snow-making cloud that's freezing bank vaults and leaving armored cars stranded on roofs.
"One-Upman's-Chip" has Chip trying to get Dale back for pranking him earlier by claiming to be a mystical swami. Unfortunately, Dale takes his joking too seriously and ends up being used for bait by Fat Cat, who is after the world's largest pearl.
The Rangers are "Shell-Shocked" when their day off at the beach is disrupted by a group of crabs whose shell homes have gone missing. Tired of Chip constantly scheduling everything, Dale insists on being the leader for the day...then learns how hard it is to lead the group when he has to create a plan to stop Fat Cat from taking over the local fish supply.
"Love Is a Many Splintered Thing" for Monty when he smells a certain perfume and recalls Desiree, a rat he almost married once. The others are trying to figure out what a gang of antique thief rats are after when Desiree turns up, claiming to still be in love with Monty. Chip thinks there's something not quite right with the alluring female rodent, but Monty takes umbrage and leaves...just before they go after the thieves.
It was hot, sunny, and killer humid when I headed to work. When I got in, I first stopped to talk to the manager. I was originally working two and a half hours on Wednesday. That's ridiculous. It's now a more normal four. I also found out why I'm working at noon all week. Apparently, most baggers are now only working from noon to 8. I suspect Acme wants us to emphasize the hourly inside sweeping....ignoring all the other things we do, like bag and gather carts. Who's going to do those things in the morning now? Carts vanish all day.
Speaking of the carts, I spent most of the afternoon keeping up with those. The head bagger helped me early on. Heavy clouds were rolling in, even as I was rounding up the outside trash and recycling. Thankfully, by the time it started pouring, another bagger took over the carts. I was inside doing returns. The rain slowed down just a few minutes after I finished, but I still got home rather wet, thanks to the soaked streets.
After I changed into dry clothes, I did some writing for a while. I re-wrote Luke to being attacked by a yeti, not a human. Harris does get the others back, but he doesn't intend to stick around after their encounter with Bob R. Fettman. They're now staying at the abandoned Hoth Valley Ski Lodge in the Hoth Mountains. He goes to tell engineer Dr. Rieekian about his leaving..but there's one person who isn't happy with his decision...
It was almost 7 before I broke for dinner. Returned to Rescue Rangers while eating the last leftover chicken leg and a spinach salad. "Song of the Night n' Dale" is basically the Hans Christian Anderson story "The Nightingale" in the setting of Lost Horizon. The Rangers crash-land in a Shangri-La-like oasis in the Tibetian mountains. They defrost a nightingale who is upset that he was forced out of the house of the kindly emperor by his nasty sister. The emperor - and Dale - seem to be going crazy when they see the bed go upside-down and statues come to life. The others don't believe them at first, until they find apparatus that make them realize what's really going on.
This time, I did do Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. Went back through "A Spanish Legacy" tonight with the new 4 times extra. Picked up three pieces and enough money to finally buy Blackbeard. He opens the areas blocked by red and black skulls. Took him through Tortuga and picked up two more pieces and True Pirate.
Finished the night with BlackKKlansman. Ron Stallingsworth (John David Washington) is the first black police officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department in 1972. He's tired of getting stuck with low-level jobs and dealing with racist epithets from his co-workers and asks to be transferred. Assigned to infiltrate a Black Panther rally, he mostly agrees with its leader Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins) and college student Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier).
He's transferred again after that, this time to intelligence. He uses his new clout to rout out the KKK, one of the major white supremist organizations in the US. Posing as white, he manages to wrangle a membership from the head of the group himself, David Duke (Topher Grace). Recruiting Jewish detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to act as his "face," the two eventually discover a plot to take down local black leaders...and that racism runs far deeper in the Rockies than they'd originally suspected.
A chilling, well-acted look at one man's attempt to expose one of society's greatest ills...and just how much and how little has changed since the early 70's. Driver and Washington carry the movie as the two putting their lives and reputation on the line to prove that all people, no matter what their color, can work together to bring justice and save lives. The movie was a deserved winner for Best Adapted Screenplay; Driver was nominated for Supporting Actor. Look for long-time activist Harry Belafonte as an older man at the rally who tells the story of one of the most notorious and tragic lynchings in the the south. Adults interested in the history of the Civil Rights Moment and how they relate to what's going on now will find much of interest in this searing tale.
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