Sunshine On My Shoulders

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. It's "Nighttime In the Neighborhood," and Daniel is excited to be attending a pajama party at the library with his friends. His parents show him and Margaret fun things that go on outside at night while they walk there, like fireflies and Baker Aker starting tomorrow's bread. At the library, the kids play Musical Sleeping Bags and hear a story about Trolley traveling all around the world.

Called Uber after the cartoon ended. They picked me up in about 7 minutes, not bad for 11 AM. No trouble on the road at all, not even traffic. They pulled in behind a food truck at the Gloucester Outlets a little over 20 minutes later. 

I was a bit surprised to see the food trucks again. I figured they were there for Memorial Day Weekend. Turns out they have food trucks at the mall from Thursday through Sunday, probably due to the lack of food options there. While not busy like it was on Memorial Day Weekend, there were still a lot of people going in and out of stores and watching their children run around the (Astroturf) lawn. 

And no wonder they were. The weather was gorgeous today. It was sunny, breezy, and bright, probably in the upper 40's-lower 50's. A little warm for this time of year, but not overly so. Certainly an improvement over the last two days!

First stop was Go! Calendars and Toys. They were having a 40 percent off non-character merchandise sale. I found the recent re-release of the original board game version of Password. Thought Lauren and I could have fun being Betty White and Allen Ludden and giving the game a try ourselves when she visits. With the sale, the game came to $10, about the same as it is on Amazon right  now. 

Peeked around Toys and Socks next, but I need more substantial socks than what they have, and their prices on stuffed animals were not great. Had more luck at Hanes. Picked up three bras at 40 percent off each. I realized I didn't have a plain blue long-sleeved t-shirt, so I bought one at Eddie Bauer, along with sleep socks on sale for $7.99.

Dropped into Friendly's for lunch at around quarter after 12. It's a good thing I got there when I did. They were able to seat me the second I arrived. By the time I was eating my BLT and fries, they had a wait time of over 40 minutes and were turning people away. I also had the meal that included a bowl of cheddar broccoli soup and scoop of Viennese Mocha Chunk ice cream. 

Their play-until-you-win crane had stuffed animals again. I thought I'd give it a shot. Ended up with a sweet, wooly white lamb and a stuffed angel doll. I didn't need the doll, so I gave it to a little girl who was waiting for a seat with her mother. The girl was thrilled...and so was her mother! 

Ducked in and out of a few stores next. What I really needed were new work pants. The ones I've bought from Boscov's and JC Penney have gotten holes in the thighs less than a year after purchase. My brown jeans from Macy's are already in bad shape, too. Checked Old Navy, Levi, the Gap, and Express. Either they didn't have my size, or their khaki pants just seemed too thin. 

I have a pair of khaki capris from Lane Bryant that I've used for a decade and are still in good shape. Honestly, the black and khaki jeans I bought there seemed a little thin, too, but I'm willing to try them. They were both on sale, though the khaki pair weren't on as good of a sale as the black ones. Grabbed a wire-free poppy-print bra on sale, too. 

After that, I stopped briefly to use the bathroom and buy a Coke Zero from a vending machine before heading across the parking lot to Dave & Buster's. Same deal as Round 1 with a larger sports bar replacing the bowling alley and the ability to tap your card, not just slide it through. They were also just as busy, though I was able to play skee ball here. I think I'm getting a lot better at these arcade games. I came up with over 2,900 points. Picked up a stuffed giraffe with big eyes and a box of cards with yoga poses printed on them as visual references. 

Hiked back to the mall and called Uber. I think I should have called them at Dave & Buster's. They were still mobbed. I had a hard time seeing the car around all the other cars and the food trucks. I almost missed it. At least that's the worst that happened. They arrived in seven minutes, not bad for the beginning of the 3:30 rush hour, and got me home in a little over 20.

Went straight into writing when I got home and put everything away. Joyce is worried about meeting something worse than bees or lions. Richard admits he knows what the Warlock of the West is capable of, but he won't go further into it, saying it's not appropriate for Joyce's human ears.

Checked my schedule while I was on the computer. In good news, Thursday off along with the rest of my vacation. I have a lot of late days, though, and one really early day. Good thing I planned on spending next week after New Year's Day cleaning and taking down my Christmas decorations. 

Broke for dinner and Match Game Syndicated at 7 PM. Gene starts off the episode by reading a fan letter that scolded them for bad grammar on a bible quotation. Peter Marshall continued to play amazingly well, getting every single answer he put forth right.

For some reason, Buzzr jumped back to Match Game '79 at 7:30. I switched to YouTube for Mysterious Island, which is currently free there, instead. During the Civil War, three Union soldiers and a war correspondent escape a Confederate prison in a weather balloon. They end up stranded on a South Seas island where volcanoes rumble and quake and the animal life has grown to gargantuan proportions. 

They're  not alone, either. They first encounter a British noblewoman and her niece who were also stranded on the island, then are attacked by pirates and sink their ship. Later, they learn Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom) was the one who created the giant animals in an attempt to increase the world's food supply. He agrees to use one of his inventions to bring up the pirate ship if they spread his mission of peace to the world. But there's that active volcano that's still rumbling to worry about...

If you're a fan of Swiss Family Robinson and other stories of survival on a tropical island, you'll probably be a lot more into this than I was. The acting was dull across the board from everyone but Lom, who gave Nemo more gravity than the script warranted. The real interest is the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion special effects. The giant crab is especially nifty, and there's those exploding volcanoes and the huge flightless bird, too. Worth checking out for fans of him or of 60's adventure movies. 

Finished the night with New Year's sitcom episodes. It's "A Night To Disremember" for Oscar Madison and his ex-wife Blanche (Brett Somers) in the original The Odd Couple. Felix treats them to dinner on the anniversary of their divorce. This leads them to relating how they finally called it quits during a disastrous New Year's Eve party...but the trio remember how things went very differently.

The 4077th celebrate "A War For All Seasons" on MASH, via a much-mauled Sears-Roebuck catalogue.  It provides the material for Father Mulcahey to start a garden, Hot Lips's ever-evolving knitting project, and Hawkeye and Hunnicut get a wash basin for a liver transfer. Meanwhile, Winchester puts money on the Yankees when he sees Klinger betting on them, but the World Series doesn't go as well as either hoped.

On The Donna Reed Show, Donna encourages her teenage daughter Mary to "Have Fun" when she goes out on a date with a cute, smart guy from school (George Hamilton). Mary runs home in tears, certain that the date went badly and her life is over. Her parents recall their own disastrous first date at a New Year's Eve party, but like Oscar and Blanche, their memories of what happened are quite different.