Started the day with a quick breakfast before heading over to the Christmas tree. I wanted to get the rest of the decorations down today. The tree itself didn't take too long, maybe an hour, hour and a half. It always takes more time to set the tree up than it does to take it down. It took even longer to put the remaining items away, almost two hours! Most of the garlands were in different places than usual, and I had to remember which item went in which bag, and then try to fit them all in with the nativity.
Ran the first disc of The Magic School Bus set while I worked. Season Three continues with Ms. Frizzle (Lily Tomlin) teaching her class science lessons with the help of her very unique bus and unusual powers. Tim is upset when he and Wanda lose all the honey he's supposed to deliver to his neighbors. Ms. Frizzle takes them "In a Beehive" to show them how to make more, and how bees share honey and places to find nectar with each other.
The class ends up "In the Arctic" when Wanda complains about the cold and Arnold wonders how his hot cocoa cooled off so quickly. Ms. Frizzle takes them to the Arctic to show them how to make heat. Making heat becomes even more of a priority after the bus is frozen, and Liz, Phoebe, and Ralphie are trapped on an iceberg!
"Spins a Web" spoofs B-horror films as we begin with the class watching an old 50's horror movie at a drive-in theater. When they insist that they could trap the giant praying mantis in the film better than the gung-ho General (Ed Asner), Ms. Frizzle drives them right into the film to test their theory. After the General takes over the bus, they return to the real world to find the best bug trapper around - a spider with a sticky web.
They're "Under Construction" when Ms. Frizzle opts to let the class remain with Wanda and help babysit her little brother William rather than see a new suspension bridge be constructed. The kids end up having to figure out how to make their own when William uses the bus to shrink them and they all end up locked in the bathroom.
"Gets a Bright Idea" takes them on a flashier trip to a light show. The kids love it...all except Arnold's obnoxious cousin Janet. She really wanted to see a magic show and complains that she can't do her own magic trick because of the ghost haunting the theater. The other kids don't really believe her, but they follow her anyway after Arnold disappears. He reappears as "ghost"...but resident know-it-all Keesha suspects there's something strange about this phantom.
"Shows and Tells" goes the unique route of having them try to decide the true nature of the artifact Arnold brought to the big international "show and tell" game show. While Arnold attempts to explain to the audience and the host (Alex Trebek) about the object, the others use the Bus to general several backgrounds in order to test their hypothesis, like real archaeologists.
One of my favorite science subjects - color - comes up in "Makes a Rainbow," the last episode on the disc. The class is delighted to learn that Ms. Frizzle has a pinball machine that shoots light rather than color. Keesha insists that color is color and light is light, but Carlos says that color needs light. They learn how light creates color when they have to use a prism to refract white light against colored mirrors and into the appropriately colored eye to win. Meanwhile, poor Arnold tries to hold off the school principal Mr. Rhule before he finds out what's going on.
It was past 2:30 when I got organized and ready to head out. Charlie called me while I was packing my backpack. There was a package downstairs for me. Oh, good! The rest of my Target order had arrived. It was everything but the Frozen II soundtrack, the Screen Icons: Judy Garland and Sailor Moon Super S Vol. 1 sets and the original cast of the much-acclaimed new musical Hadestown. Hopefully, Frozen II will show up early next week. The movie is so popular, they may be backordered. I remember it took me a while to find the soundtrack for the first movie.
Had a quick lunch at Phillies Phatties on West Clinton. They were surprisingly busy for quarter of 3 with kids off school for the weekend and teenagers chatting and having snacks. I enjoyed a slice of mushroom and a slice of margarita (mozzarella, tomato, and basil) pizza while watching college football and the lead-in to the big Bills-Texans playoff game later today. (Incidentally, the Texans won that one 22-19 in overtime. In even better news, the Tennessee Titans handed the New England Patriots their rears at home 20-13 later that evening, knocking them out of the playoffs. Maybe the Super Bowl will actually be interesting this year.)
Headed off to the Acme to get my schedule and do a little shopping. I've eaten out of the fridge or elsewhere for the last couple of weeks, and I didn't need a ton. Found two more bags of seasonal chocolate chips, one filled with pumpkin cream, the other with peppermint, on the clearance shelves, and a container of ground turkey with a manager's coupon. Had an online coupon for the fancy "Oui" French yogurt in the glass jars. The Belvita gingerbread cookies are also on clearance. Restocked butter, cheese, bananas, cranberries, powdered sugar, jelly, and honey. Bought a cute photo-picture book about a little Scandinavian girl who wishes to be tiny and her adventures for my niece Lilah's birthday on the 17th.
I'm back to a far more normal schedule - and more hours - this week. In good news, Tuesday and next Friday and Saturday off and a late day on Monday. I do have to work early tomorrow again, though that'll give me plenty of time to come home and get ready for the big Eagles-Seahawks playoff game.
Went straight home and put everything away while watching Classic Concentration, then did some writing. Della and Gene want Isobel to join her army with Della's and distract Malade's guards and trolls while the Legendary Princesses deal with her. Isobel recalls what happened when Malade invaded the once-beautiful Summerlands and took over the Summer-Winter Castle. Its servants simply vanished; the ruler is presumed to be dead or captured. Bill the wolf tries to indicate that he knows something about the missing ruler, but his throat closes when he mentions it, and he ends up sadly howling.
Broke for dinner at quarter after 7. Ran Wakko's Wish while I ate and made Chocolate Triple Chip Cookies. I go into further detail on the wacky Animaniacs movie at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Wakko's Wish
Finished the night on Buzzr with Super Password. Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune and sitcom actress Lauri Hendler were the celebrities guessing words and giving out clues in the two episodes I watched. Both episodes were dominated by one guy who kept winning the main games, sometimes guessing the puzzle in two or three words. He lost the first Super Password bonus round...but Lauri got him through the second in record time. There was a funny moment in the first episode where one of the special effects guys decided to get cute and used the sound from when people lose money on the Wheel in Wheel of Fortune after Pat missed a word. Yes, Pat did comment on it. In the second show, host Bert Convy himself was the answer for a puzzle; despite the answer being right in front of their eyes, it took the players almost all of the words to guess it.
No comments:
Post a Comment