Before the Storm

Started off my morning with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Pancakes and an orange for breakfast. Watched Muppet Babies while I ate. Bunsen and Beaker warn the Babies not to enter their vault of failed experiments. Gonzo does anyway and drinks a fizzy juice that makes him float every time he burps. The Babies try to help him out of "Gonzo's Bubble Trouble" before Bunsen and Beaker see him floating. "Fozzie Can't Bear It" when Kermit says he's going to visit his grandma for two days, so he sticks to him like glue and tries to think of ways to keep him from leaving.

Switched to Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures as I did the dishes. Donald wants to get chores done at home, but his Uncle Manny shows up, charms his skunk (whom he insists on calling Sally), and insists that he has "new" ways of doing things. Donald has his own ways of doing chores, but Daisy insists he should give Uncle Manny a chance. Princess Olivia of Royalandia asks the Happy Helpers to aid her in setting up the "Royal-lympics." She and her friend Charlotte want to take part, but her head advisor insists that princesses always win no matter what. Minnie finds a way for Olivia to compete fairly. 

Worked on writing for a while after the cartoon ended. Goodson taunts Captain Jack Nartz, telling him he has his brother, but hasn't decided what to do with him yet. He may keep Tom in the cages where Jack's being held...or he may throw him overboard, like he did Gene.

Broke at 11:20 to get ready for work. Thankfully, the Uber driver was quick and got me to work right on time. Ironically, after all the fuss yesterday, we were dead for almost the entire afternoon. Either everyone got their snow jitters out yesterday, or they heard we wouldn't be getting much besides frozen rain.

I spent the afternoon and evening outside, bringing up carts and gathering trash and recycling. It wasn't a bad day for it. Clouds hung overhead, but they were blahh gray rather than the pearly sheen of snow...and they never did anything besides block the sun. No rain, no snow, no wind. It wasn't even that cold, probably in the lower-mid 40's, nothing like it has been the past few days. It still hadn't done anything when an Uber driver arrived quickly and zipped me home. 

When I got in, I changed, had a snack, and put on Match Game PM. An Arkansas woman with bouncy blonde curls and a personality to match had a honeyed Southern accent, but terrible answers. The guy easily beat her and went on to get help from Bart Braverman on "The Other Side of ___." The one man left the champ in the dust on Sale of the Century. He leaped ahead of everyone on the Speed Round and won the Bonus Round with a second left.

Finished the night on the Kanopy with Rumpelstiltskin, another German fairy tale movie from the 50's. This one sticks closely to the original Grimm's Fairy Tale. Marie (Liane Croon) is the miller's daughter whom the lazy miller (Wilhelme Grothe) claims can spin straw into gold. The young King (Gunter Hertel) is so desperate for gold to fill his empty treasury, he lets the miller convince him she can spin straw into gold. A little man (Werner Kruger) does what she wants, but asks for her child the last time to teach her a lesson and keep the baby from greed. The poor queen becomes desperate to keep her child, so much, she begs the miller's put-upon assistant Hans to find the little man's name. 

As cheap as it looks, I did end up enjoying this one. What I like is the finale, which puts aside the floor-stamping theatrics to allow Rumpelstiltskin to see that the royals do love their baby, and leave with dignity.  

(And at press time, we still haven't gotten rain, snow, or anything else. It's dry as a bone out my window.)