Rushed Harvest

Kicked off a sunny, hot morning with breakfast and more Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It's a "Nightmare In Red" when General "Thunderbolt" Ross has himself injected with a serum that turns him into the Red Hulk, who matches Bruce Banner strength for strength. Bruce, however, was injected with a drug that dampens his adrenaline...but he may not have a choice if he wants to keep this new menace from going on a rampage.

I'd just finished breakfast and was getting ready to head out when the phone rang. Yes, it was the Acme. Could I come in? They'd had a lot of call-outs. I said I'd be in by noon and would stay for four hours. I didn't really want to, but I badly need those hours, and I had planned on going grocery shopping and picking my my schedule at the Acme later anyway.

That now meant I had to rush my plans for the morning. The Collingswood Farm Market was once again bustling when I arrived around quarter of 10. Everyone was out buying produce for barbecues and birthday parties. Saw the first North Carolina blueberries of the season, but I settled for spinach, strawberries, and bananas from the wholesaler.

Had enough time to take a quick look at Collingswood's town-wide yard sale after I left the farm market. They were even busier than Haddon Township had been, and on older streets that are often more narrow. I did manage to pick up two records from a gentleman on Stokes and a CD from a couple on Lee Avenue. The records were:

Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing

Linda Rondstat - Greatest Hits, Volume 2

The lone CD was a replacement for my copy of the Glenn Miller holiday cassette In the Christmas Mood that I've had since 1994.

Went straight home, had a very quick lunch while listening to George Shearing's Deep Velvet (to drown out Charlie working on the steps), then hurried right back out again. Work was really just steady when I got in. I did carts for about a half-hour, but there were already two baggers there. I spent most of the day panicking in the register. I swore the manager said she wanted me to do carts, and maybe be in the register if they needed me! At least everyone was really nice, even when I messed up badly on several orders.

Mixed feelings on my schedule next week. On one hand, lots of early hours will allow me plenty of time to clean my apartment, start my next story, and look for jobs. On the other hand, I won't get to the farm market next Saturday, and while I do have slightly more hours than I did this week, I still don't have nearly enough of them.

I had a lot that I needed today, starting with meat. The Acme was having a big sale on their own packs of chicken; I bought cutlets, boneless thighs, and legs. Used online coupons for graham crackers, honey, beef hot dogs, and grape tomatoes and a free coupon for butter. Peanut butter and eggs are 99 cents each this weekend. I did need peanut butter and grabbed two jars; didn't really need eggs, but the sale was too good to pass on. Found Kashi Almond Snickerdoodle granola bars on the clearance rack. Restocked skim milk, white and brown sugar, blueberries, Cheddar cheese, cake mix, yogurt, and Worcestershire sauce.

Put everything away quickly. Since the chicken legs were out anyway, I poached them in water and vegetable stock and had them with steamed spring peas. Not bad. Wish they hadn't taken so long.

Tried writing after that, but I was too tired. I did finally get around to posting The Rebel League and the Death Ray at my writing blog and Fanfiction.net, though.

Writer's Desk By the Riverside
Fanfiction. net

Played some Lego Pirates of the Caribbean after dinner. "The Malestrom" wasn't quite as difficult as some previous rounds. You have to find objects to toss into a bucket that'll make Tia Dalama grow. When she's monster-sized and covered in crabs, you have to shoot the ship across the way to get Jack out, then take out Davy Jones. This would have been a lot easier if the game hadn't glitched yet again. Davy got stuck on the rope going up the mast and wouldn't come off. I once again had to reset it, though I did manage to get him after that and finish At World's End. Got enough gold bricks to pick up another "red hat" extra, Fast Dig.

Finished the night with All Dogs Go to Heaven and it's sequel, the former of which I began during dinner. I go into more details on these unusual and violent Don Bluth animated fantasies at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

All Dogs Go to Heaven & All Dogs Go to Heaven 2