It Might as Well Be Spring

Began a beautiful morning with breakfast and To Tell the Truth. Three young women who claimed to be gymnasts who specialized in the uneven parallel bars were on the docket. The panelists all thought she was sturdy number one, including me! We were all wrong. It turned out to be long, lean number 3. She gave a rather impressive demonstration on the bars just as I was heading out.

Started out doing the carts at work and enjoying a sunny, breezy, fairly warm day, but I was called in after about an hour. The head manager wanted both bathrooms scrubbed every hour on the hour, as well as all the doors and credit card panels on the registers wiped down. Not only did it take me a while to do all that, but cashiers and other managers kept calling me to return cold items and do other things.

At least they fed us. Someone put boxes of mini-packs of chips, Cheez Doodles, and popcorn, peanut butter and cheese-filled crackers, and packs of small brownies and muffins in the back. By the time I finished, they'd added small pepperoni pizza pies and containers of hot wings, too. I grabbed brownies and pizza and snitched the celery from the hot wings. (I don't do extra-spicy.)

After I got home, I changed, then put the St. Patrick's Day decorations away. Since I had the box out and I figured I could use the cheer, the Easter decorations went up in their place. I still can't use the tinsel garland, but I did find room for everything else. Patchy the big resin bunny statue went behind the DVD player in the living room. The porcelain bunny in the purple dress is next to him on one end of the TV. The smooth porcelain bunny candy holder is currently filled with wooden mini-eggs and sits on the dining area table. Freddie the Frog and Flora the Bunny, two rolly-polly toys that (used to) play music go in the bedroom on the book shelf with the American Girl Easter supplies.

Ran the second Popeye shorts collection while I worked, and later as I did the dishes. Popeye did more wandering in the post-World War II world, taking his adventures everywhere from under the water to outer space...but the basic premise remained the same. Bluto (or a Bluto-like villain) makes Popeye look bad. Olive snubs him and goes to Bluto, only to regret it when he moves in on her too fast. Popeye sees them fight, eats spinach, and rescues Olive.

"House Tricks," at the very least, is a variant. Popeye and Bluto compete to see who can build a side of Olive's house faster. "Service With a Guile" is similar, only this time, they're trying to impress an admiral by rebuilding his car at Olive's service station. In both cases, they focus so much on their feud, what they build or repaired ends up falling apart.

More common are shorts like "Rocket to Mars," "Klondike Casanova," "Peep In the Deep," and "Wotta Knight" that take the Popeye-Bluto feud to other time periods (the Alaska gold rush or King Arthur's court) or places (Mars or under the sea). There's also at least one short, "This Island Fling," that features incredibly offensive native stereotypes in a riff on Robinson Crusoe. Carnivals are another favorite spot for Popeye and Bluto to fight - they demolish two midways in "Abusement Park" and "All's Fair at the Fair."

I'd like this more if it didn't get so repetitive, but there's still some good stuff, and it was largely better than the shorts from the tail end of the war years. Great if you're a Popeye fan; newcomers might be better off looking for the original 30's sets.

Spent the rest of the afternoon working on writing and editing my story. Fannie's about to explain to Richard what she does when the bell rings in the main shop. Her stepmother (Ethel Merman) and stepsisters (Meredith MacRae and Vicki Lawrence) have arrived in their vulgar, bright-colored dresses, demanding that she come home and starting making dinner and fixing up their outfits for the ball. Arlene and Gene are about ready to tell her to stuff it, but Fannie doesn't want trouble.

In the back room, Richard suggests they convalesce at the Merry Men's cottage in Sherwood Forest. It's quiet and isolated. Perfect place to recover from their injuries and make plans.

Broke for leftover chicken tacos and cole slaw for dinner at 6:30. Watched Match Game while I ate. Shy jazz chanteuse Julie London and crusty Ed Asner join Fannie Flagg, Gene, and the regulars for a round of jokes about Ed's grouchiness, Brett's tendency to chatter on, and Fannie's considerable cleavage.

Sale of the Century was neck-and-neck between two women contestants. The one guy didn't get close. Both women bought one Instant Bargain, and they tied on the speed round. The challenger answered the tie-breaker question incorrectly, allowing the champion to win at the last minute. She opted to come back when she heard the prizes were changing, and the next prize up was a $5,000 shopping spree in Beverly Hills.

Finished the night after a shower with Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. The Roku Channel for the time being runs this hit historical mystery drama from Australia. Phyrne Fisher (Essie Davis) is a titled lady who returns to Melbourne in the mid-20's and becomes a private detective. In the first episode "Cocaine Blues," she attends a lunch at the home of a friend of hers, only to discover the woman's husband's been murdered. Police Detective Jack Robinson (Nathan Page) found he was poisoned, but after questioning the housemaid Dot (Ashleigh Cummings), she learns that another housemaid was sent away for odd reasons. Following the lead on the maid brings her to a major drug smuggling ring and a notorious abortionist named "Butcher George."

No wonder Mom loves this show and has often recommended it. It's fun, and Phyrne's a blast to watch. I hope it'll stay on Roku for a while longer. I'd like to check out more.