Dolls In the Rain

Kicked off a gloomy morning with blueberry pancakes and Split Second. The college student champ and one of the ladies dominated the competition today; they finished within 50 dollars of each other. She just barely got ahead and won the Countdown Round...and then chose the right flip boards for the car on her first try!

Big winners on Blockbusters this morning, too. A father-daughter pair easily defeated a cheerful young man with a mustache. The dad went on to get every single answer right on the Gold Rush bonus round. They were taking on a lady when the episode ended.

Spent the next hour or so dressing the 18-inch dolls. Samantha wears her current pink Swiss-dotted "meet" dress with the maroon velvet sash, socks borrowed from Molly, and her black strap shoes. Molly's in Kit's blue School Outfit and her saddle shoes. The print on Kit's Flower-Print Dress are the perfect colors for Ariel; she wears it with knee-high socks and Molly's white t-strap shoes. Whitney wears her yellow and red floral print Queen's Treasures dress with the red strap shoes from Samantha's Sunny Day Dress and a crinoline from eBay. Josefina is ready for summer's end in her orange and yellow-print Summer Dress, with its faux-leather vest and high boots. Jessa's more laid-back in a long jean skirt and magenta t-shirt. Left Felicity in her lavender Travel Gown. I really don't have much else to change her into.

Listened to I Love Adventure while I worked on the dolls. Jack Packard and Reggie York return for a short-lived series that initially revolved around them going on cases of "international intrigue" for the 21 Old Men of Gramercy Park. "The Finishing School Kidnapping" is actually kind of sweet. The Old Man representing Italy is frantic when his granddaughter is among the teen girls kidnapped from a distinguished finishing school. Jack and Reggie's trail somehow takes them from Italy to a Tibetan monastery, where the last person anyone would think of taking care of teen girls is keeping them safe.

After that...I'm not sure what happened. I guess show creator Carleton Morse got tired of doing James Bond stuff. The next episode was supposed to have been an Indian adventure, from the announcement at the end, but instead, we returned to LA, Doc, and the guys being private eyes. All 13 episodes of this show exist, so I don't think there's anything missing. Reggie encounters a little boy who tries to pick his pocket in "But Grandma, What Big Eyes You Have." Turns out the kid also snatched a purse, and may have shot a man in the night. He's also scared to death of his grandmother, who is his guardian. Reggie and Jack think she's just a typical old lady at first...until they listen to her and to the kid, and realize where his nightmares came from...

Finished with the dolls in time for most of the noon showings of Match Game. Baked Chocolate Chip-Orange Muffins while I watched. Comedian Joe Silver and Esther Rolle, the warm matriarch from Good Times, appeared in two fun episodes from late 1975. (And if the announcer sounds different, it's Bern Bennett. Johnny Olsen was on vacation.)

Pulled the muffins out of the oven, then had lunch. Watched an episode of Elena of Avalor while I ate and they cooled. With the series finale having played last week, it's past time I caught up with the adventures of Disney's first Latina princess. Went with "The Curse of El Guapo" from season 2. Elena's friend Gabe has the chance to become the Captain of the Guard after the previous captain retires. He's nervous because most of the other guards come from good families and have fancy swords, and he's a baker's son with nothing. He "borrows" a sword he's supposed to deliver to a museum. Turns out it's cursed with the spirit of a handsome and arrogant general. It makes Gabe a fabulous fighter, but also arrogant and uncaring. He finally goes to young wizard Mateo for a potion that may help.

Headed out for a walk after the episode ended. I had a few errands I wanted to run. By the time I made it out around 1:30, a soft, steady shower fell. No matter. I took my umbrella instead of the bike and had a very pleasant stroll, waving to my friend Erica as she headed out in her car. My first stop was Dollar General. I wanted to get bath rugs, but they didn't have any I liked. I did replace the yellow mitten pot holder I've had since college with one that has a pretty flower print and picked up Jiff Natural Peanut Butter (less salt than most major brands).

After I briefly ducked into the post office to finally get Skylar's birthday card out, I went down the White Horse Pike to WaWa. They were pretty busy, despite it being past 2:30 at that point. I treated myself to one of the new fall smoothie flavors, Maple Pumpkin. Not bad. More maple syrup flavor than pumpkin.

Dug a letter out of the mail box when I got home. To my dismay, it was from the main office of the company that owns Acme. They claimed I hadn't sent in my paperwork for my leave...but the letter was dated a month ago. Phone calls to the Acme and the Albertsons office revealed that they'd gotten my paperwork in ages ago, and there were no problems. I hadn't gotten to updating my address with them until recently, and the letter took longer to get here because of the changed address.

After that was settled, I finally got to finishing Press Your Luck. Came in half-way through the second round, just as the one woman Whammied out. The slightly older of the two men just got a Bahamas cruise and a little money, but the other guy was hit with Whammies, and he ended up winning.

Worked on writing for a while after the show ended. The evil witch queen Malade is thrilled that midnight nears. All light magic - including that of the fairies, the wizards, and the princesses - dulls at midnight. While Fannie tries to keep her gown from vanishing, Richard holds his bow on Malade to remind her that not everyone at the ball has magic, or will be heavily effected by her spells.

Broke for dinner at 6:30. After checking a few recipes and what I had in my refrigerator, I ended up making a tuna pasta salad with home-made ranch dressing while Match Game was on. Janet Finn keeps on winning, with a little help from Charles; meanwhile, Brett teases him and complains about Donald Ross' loud shirts, while Richard wants to be the Mickey to Fannie Flagg's Minnie (or at least her Minnie Mouse t-shirt).

For some reason, Sale of the Century jumped way back to 1986. The young man contestant dominated the game full-stop, with him buying two of the three Instant Bargains and getting a big money card on the Fame Game. This was when the "bonus round" was the "match the prize" game. It took the guy a few minutes, but he did finally manage to match the car with this show's equivalent of the "Wild Card" from Concentration.

Returned to I Love Adventure while turning two mealy peaches and old blueberries in Blueberry-Peach Crisp. "The Man With the Third Green Eye" gets closer to the tone of the original I Love a Mystery. This time, Doc joins in as the trio take on the case of a mysterious man who murders their actual contact on a train, and the exotic woman connected to him.

Finished up online after my shower with the first episode of Parker Lewis Can't Lose on Crackle. Parker (Corin Nemec) and his buddies Mikey (Billy Jayne) and nerdy freshman Jerry (Troy Staden) do their bet to navigate the ins and outs of high school in 1990. The trio generally spend their time trying to avoid ending up in the office of strict Principal Musso (Melanie Chartoff), who would love to catch them in the act. Things get a little hairy when Parker falls for the beautiful girl (a young Milla Jovovich, so you really can't blame them) that Mikey also likes, and she kisses him. Mikey stops speaking to him, and it takes fending off gigantic school bully Kubiac (Abraham Benrubi) to bring them back together.

You can't get much more 1990 than this show. It's already a riff on Ferris Bueller's Day Off, with Parker dodging teachers and sisters alike and reveling in everything that seemed cool then. Ironically, it went on to do far better than an actual Ferris Bueller show in the ratings, mainly due to the surreal and occasionally twisted sense of humor. I remember hearing about this show when I was 11, but I just never got around to it then. I don't know how actual teens would react to it now, but for anyone who grew up when I did, this is a really unique blast from the past.