Saturday, February 08, 2020

Return of the Sun

Stayed up late last night and slept in this morning. I was so glad to finally awaken to blue skies sunshine after the rain we've had all week! Celebrated with breakfast and Split Second. I came in during the second half of the 11 AM episode. From the looks of thing, the one guy in the middle had kicked rear the whole game, and though the ladies put up a fight in the speed round, he ultimately answered his questions first. Wasn't able to get the car in the bonus round, though, and opted to come back next week.

Switched to another Winnie the Pooh Valentine's Day special while doing the dishes. This one is actually an episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It's "Un-Valentine's Day" when Rabbit cancels the holiday in the wake of the avalanche of valentines Pooh sent last year. As so often happens when a resident of the 100 Acres Woods cancels a holiday, it doesn't stay canceled for long. Someone leaves Pooh a honey pot...which leads to flying cakes, Piglet clinging to a giant heart, and Rabbit putting on his idea of a romantic play. But who did send the original pot of honey? The episode also includes the super-short "The Three Little Piglets." The group tries to tell the famous folk tale, but Pooh keeps injecting honey, and Rabbit does not want to be the Big Bad Bunny.

Thought I'd try something a little different while getting organized. My sisters and I were huge fans of the original My Little Pony & Friends in the mid-80's, both the toys and the cartoon. The toys remain popular with collectors to this day. The cartoon can be cutesy, but some episodes are surprisingly dark for a girl show from this era. Take "Bright Lights,"  a four-part story from the second season. Four of the baby ponies are crazy about Nightshade, a handsome pony singing idol who is holding a concert in Ponyland. His zebra manager convinces the little ponies to join their band as back-up singers. As soon as they do, he steals their shadows and energy. Their human friend Megan and their horrified mothers go searching for them...and to find out who's really behind the shadow thefts.

Headed out shortly after the cartoon ended. My first stop of the day was the Oaklyn Library. Organized DVDs and books in the kids' area. The library just reorganized their DVDs and cleared out a lot of them. I picked up a box set of all of Shirley Temple's movies for a dollar. (Which means, look for reviews of her musicals at my Musical Dreams blog over the next few months.)

Next stop was the Acme. I had a lot of groceries I needed, and there were quite a few good sales this weekend. Had online coupons for peanut butter, canned tomato sauce, brown sugar, and the Oui yogurts in the little glass jar. An online coupon coupled with a sale on Honey Bunches of Oats allowed me to get it for free. Found turkey bacon with a manager's coupon and sales on crusted fish fillets. The Steve's Organic Ice Cream is still on clearance; went with Cold Cinnamon Coffee Brew. Restocked cranberries, bananas, butter, milk, frozen peas, cake mix, white flour, mechanical pencils, and muffin papers.

Not a bad schedule this week. On one hand, a long and early day tomorrow and I work four days straight through. On the other hand, I have Monday and next Saturday off, and a lot of morning and mid-afternoon shifts will allow me to get writing and other things done at home.

Ran Classic Concentration while putting everything away. Though a young man found the "take" card and was able to swipe pearl earrings from the older woman challenger, she still not only won in the end, but picked up more prizes, including sailing lessons and fresh flowers for a year. In a truly heart-stopping moment, she literally completed the bonus round and got the car at the very last possible second.

Worked on both the mall essay and the fanfic for a while. I wish malls hadn't been so quick to drop fun things like arcades, book stores, toy stores, and DVD and video stores...and considering that many are re-adding arcades, movie theaters, and other entertainment options, I suspect a lot of them are regretting it, too. I don't care if you can find them online. It's more fun to pick them up in a store. Clothes are not the be-all and end-all of everything. Not to mention, there's the sheer hang-out factor. I envy 80's and 90's kids who got to hang out in malls when they were younger. I don't have those stories. Kids in Lower Township had to beg their parents to drive them to malls further up north, or drive themselves and their friends almost an hour or more if they were teens.

Moved on to the fanfic around 5:30. The storm intensifies, turning Richard into a frozen statue. Brett clings to Charles, her dear friend, to protect her from the storm and from Malade's magic. Marcia tries to hang on to her prince friend, but he's vanishing in the heavy snow. All she hears before he disappears into the snow is his warning not to be misled by appearances and to look closer to find him...

Ran Descendants 3 earlier in the evening. I go further into the final movie in this series at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Musicals On TV - Descendants 3

It was almost 7:30 before I broke for dinner. Made spinach bacon salad with that turkey bacon while switching around Roku. The Roku Channel currently has the first two seasons of the late 70's-early 80's mystery-action series Hart to Hart. Since it was set around Valentine's Day, I chose the second season episode "Hart-Shaped Murder." Jennifer Hart (Stephanie Powers), the wife of wealthy industrialist Johnathan Hart (Robert Wagner), sends chocolate hearts to the members of her charity committee as a thank-you gift. However, the hearts are stolen or destroyed almost as soon as they're delivered. As the Harts investigate the thefts, someone sends them a seemingly random box of candies. Good thing the Harts and their man-of-all-trades Max (Lionel Stander) are on diets, because this box of goodies has a poison center inside that candy shell.

Finished the night after a shower with Match Game episodes on YouTube in honor of comedian and long-time regular Orson Bean, who was tragically run over by a car today at 91. His witty and homespun Vermont humor was a favorite on the show pretty much through its entire run. These episodes should give you at least a decent idea of some of his talents:

Match Game '74 - Orson's debut on the 70's show (and Marcia Wallace's as well).
Match Game '74 - Orson's gives an unusual - and rather sexual - answer to a later question.
Match Game '76 - Orson gives wry observations to some rather wild antics, including problems with the set and Betty White getting all tied up in tape.

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