Quiet Afternoon at Home

Overslept and got a quick start this morning with breakfast and What's My Line? I barely listened to it. I had to wolf down my food, change into work clothes, put on my sneakers, pack lunch, and dash out the door. I just made it to work on time.

It was on-and-off steady in the morning, while it remained cloudy and humid. By the time of my break around noon, business fell off so quickly, I spent all but five minutes of my remaining shift shelving boxes of candy bars and putting a full cart of loose items away. No problems coming or going. It was pin-drop quiet when I headed out.

Took the long way home down Nicholson Road. That might not have been a good idea. I passed road work being done on Nicholson, near the car shop. They diverted the cars down a side street, and I ended up having to go around all the equipment on the shop's parking lot. Also ran into a little traffic in Oaklyn that was backed up as a train went by. Not to mention, while it was sunny by 3 PM, it was also hot and sticky, with little breeze.

I was so tired when I got home, I changed, had a snack, and just lay down on the futon to rest and watch game shows. Dancers Bobby Van and Elaine Joyce join hilarious comedian couple Frenchie and Marty Allen and Ronny Cox and his brilliant chemist wife Mary on Tattletales this week. The Coxes ended up being the big winners and were the only ones to get three out of four questions right. 

Press Your Luck got even crazier. Two of the three contestants - including the champ - got hit hard with Whammies in the first round. By the end of the second round, the guy with the least money and no Whammies was taking no chances. He passed his two turns to the lady next to him with the big bucks...and saw her Whammy out. Despite having a little over 2,000, he ended up being the big winner. 

Managed to sneak some writing in after I peeled myself off the futon. Betty mourns the frog, who was seriously injured when an angry Malade the demon threw him against the wall. Patti the mermaid has splashed him with water from the fountain, but to no avail. Brett finally calls out from her perch on Malade the demon's shoulder that she should just kiss the amphibian, already!

Broke for dinner at 6:30. Match Game ended Charlie Brill and Richard Deacon's run with jokes about Gene leaving his pants at Brett's house and an Audience Match that was really a "___ Blank." Match Game PM returned to weekdays with a really cute episode from 1979 that began with a cameo by Gene's beloved wife Helen and ended with a big 20,000 win. 

Settled down on the futon and worked on crocheting while watching Sale of the Century in its new 7:30 time slot. The female champ just keeps on rolling. The man got a little closer, but she bought two of the three Instant Bargains, won all of the Fame Games, and zipped through the Speed Round. Chose the ski package on the Match the Prizes board.

Finished up the night on the Watch TCM app with another lovely "enchanted" romance, The Enchanted Cottage. Plain and shy Laura Pennington (Dorothy McGuire) comes to the cottage, owned by the grumpy old Mrs. Minnett (Mildred Natwick), just prior to the beginning of World War II. The cottage is all that remains of a burned-out nobleman's home. It was once rented to honeymooners, until Mrs. Minnett's husband died before they could be married. While there, Laura meets handsome and charming Oliver Bradford (Robert Young) and his fiancée Beatrice (Hilary Brooke). She thinks she's out of his league...until he returns from World War II battered, scarred, and bitter that Beatrice couldn't handle how he changed. She helps him recover, and he brings out her beautiful and gentle nature. They eventually marry, mainly because they think they're the only ones who can stand how they look...until their time in the Cottage makes them realize that, no matter what anyone else thinks, they're beautiful to each other.

This was such a sweet, charming little romance! Young and McGuire were perfect as the seemingly "ugly" people with beautiful insides that stay hidden, until released by love. Herbert Marshall, himself a disabled veteran in real-life, played off them well as the blind pianist who can "see" the true love they can't, and Natwick was appropriately grumpy and otherworldly as the embittered owner of the cottage. If you're a romantic or love low-key fantasies, you'll want to head to the Cottage and check this one out.