Dolls on a Stormy Morning

Awoke late in the morning to the tail end of that tropical storm. It was raining every animal on the farm, with enough wind to blow a cow half-way across the country. Half-listened to Blockbusters while the wind howled and I ate breakfast. The young woman champ finally beat the brother-sister team, then handily won the Gold Rush round. She was giving the more of the same to a mother-daughter pair when the show ended.

Spent the next hour and a half organizing my journals while the rain continued to fall. I threw them onto one of the long shelves in my bedroom with no rhyme or reason two weeks ago, just to get them out of their bags. Moved the 2007-2008 volumes to the box with my pre-2007 journals and diaries, leaving plenty of room for the rest. (I'm hoping to eventually buy similar plastic containers for all my journals. It'll make more room.)

I discovered while taking out the trash that the rain cooled down things considerably. It was so cool, I decided I could get away with baking in my new stove. Made Blueberry Muffins while watching Summer Stock with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. I go into more detail on the movie at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Summer Stock

As for the muffins, they came out perfectly. I hadn't had such sweet and moist muffins in months. They browned nicely and were cooked just right in the middle.

After I had my blueberry muffins, I dressed my dolls for the first time since mid-May. I wasn't sure if I could pull it off with my broken elbow, and then I didn't have the time before I packed them. Samantha, Molly, Whitney, and Jessa all wear bathing suits. Samantha's is a navy-blue romper with a skirt, black tights, and soft polka-dot slippers. Molly's is peach tropical knit with matching striped espadrilles. Jessa's is the modern American Girl Hula Outfit, and Whitney's is a purple Popsicle print from Our Generation.

I haven't had the chance to find Ariel a bathing suit yet, so she wears a tank top and shorts in a matching tropical fish print. Felicity and Josefina come from time periods when swimming wasn't considered ladylike. Felicity's in her lavender-striped Traveling (and later Meet) Gown with the matching cap and the satin-covered straw hat from Elizabeth's Summer Gown. I put Josefina in the pretty beige floral Party Dress and moccasins I found her in at a yard sale in 2013.

The sun came out while I was eating lunch. By the time I finished with the dolls, it was a gorgeous, clear, sunny afternoon. It also remained windy and cool, allowing me to open all my windows. The crank windows in the bedroom and bathroom and the one push-open window in the bedroom worked fine. One of the windows in the living room/kitchen almost fell out when I tried opening it, and neither had screens. I left the working one open anyway, just to keep air circulating.

Returned to baking while Tattletales, Press Your Luck, and Card Sharks were on. This time, I tried my favorite Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies recipe. They tasted fine, but I burned part of the first batch. Jodie told me in June that she cleaned the stove with the rest of the apartment. She not only put the grates back in the wrong way, but the bottom one was too low. I fixed them when I could handle them.

Once again, feisty Gary Burghoff and his sweet wife Janet were the big winners on Tattletales. All of the contestants on Press Your Luck did very well in the first half...only to get slammed with Whammies during the second round. Friday's champion ended with $750, but her opponents lost so much money on their final turns, it was enough for her to win again. The 1986 Card Sharks celebrated their "Young People's Week" as a smart 12-year-old girl (with her father's help) won $3,300 on the Money Cards.

Worked on writing for a while after the cookies were out of the oven. Helen Rayburn runs right into her husband's waiting arms. She's one of the servants Betty freed and brought upstairs. Even though she's annoyed as heck with Gene for disappearing, she still loves him and missed him, and he missed her dearly.

Broke for dinner at 6:30. The Match Game episode I watched apparently hadn't been seen since it's original airing until Buzzr ran it last year; it didn't even show up on Game Show Network. I wonder if the tape quality was bad until Freemantle restored it, or someone was offended by some of the racier answers to the "Rip Van Winkle" question towards the end.

Varsity Week continues on Sale of the Century. This time, we had a cheerful girl swimmer, a perky male cheerleader with a very 80's mullet, and a sweet girl cheerleader. No one dominated the game and all the kids won something, but in the end, the girl cheerleader pushed past the other two in the speed round and got the money in the bonus round with time to spare.

Went for a walk after cleaning up from dinner. The rain was long gone, replaced by clear skies and a strong, fresh wind. I'm surprised there weren't more people out and about as I strolled down Manheim and around to Newton Avenue. I saw a dad throwing basketballs with his son and a couple of folks on their porches or walking dogs. Everyone must have been eating late dinners. Thanks to that rain, gardens glowed with late summer flowers and green trees.

Finished the night on The Roku Channel with the next first season episode of Charlie's Angels. It's "Terror In Ward One" when someone at a local hospitals attacks female interns. Kelly and Jill pose as student nurses to get close to the staff, while Sabrina claims she's a reporter doing a story on interns and Bosley is a reluctant patient.