I actually spent most of the time looking at all the new goodies on American Girl website. Their groovy 70's miss Julie got the lion's share of the attention this time. I knew there was a reason they recently retired the vast majority of her merchandise. They gave her two brand-new outfits and re-released one from about 14 years ago.
Julie never had an actual school outfit. Her "school outfit" has always been her basketball uniform, since basketball is important to her story. American Girl finally corrected this by giving her a really cute "School Outfit" with a purple, blue, and white crocheted granny square vest over a purple turtleneck and a blue miniskirt. She has a second roller skating outfit, bright blue shiny shorts with a pastel heart print shirt and matching striped socks and skates. The last outfit I expected them to re-release was her Floral Jumpsuit, a white zippered turtleneck under a floral pants jumper. This version comes with sandals (the original release didn't come with shoes). It disappeared in 2015 and has been pricey on eBay ever since.
The other big news with the historicals is yes, they finally re-released the much-requested 1850's pioneer Kirsten Larson, along with her birthday dress. They also put Addy and Josefina out in their original meet outfits and re-released their birthday dresses. I am happy that all outfits now come with shoes or boots. Out of the four re-released outfits, the only one that originally came with shoes is Josefina's birthday outfit. Supposedly, the re-released dolls are limited editions, but we'll see how long that lasts. (And I wouldn't be surprised if Felicity reappeared in a year or two for America's 250th birthday bash.)
Kirsten is a lovely doll, but I never did get into the pioneer era. I'm mildly interested in Addy. I'm not that into the Civil War, either, but she does have local connections. The bulk of her story takes place in Philadelphia, and she has a short story that's set in Cape May. You can still find a lot of Addy merchandise in both places. However, I did just pick up Kit last year, and I'm not really in the market for another doll at the moment. I found Josefina's Feast Day outfit on eBay over a decade ago.
So, yeah, I just ended up with Julie's School Outfit and Floral Jumpsuit for Ariel. The roller skating outfit is cute, but I found the original red and blue version at the Cottage Shoppe in Marlton last year. I also finally dug up Kit's Bathing Suit for a half-way decent price on eBay. It was retired ages ago and is hard to find without the umbrella and other little accessories that came with it. Kit can go barefoot or borrow someone's sandals. Ari will have a new late fall-winter outfit and something for back to school, and Kit can cool off in August with my other 20th century dolls who have bathing outfits.
Switched to Press Your Luck as I got organized. I only caught the second half of the noon episode. A young man from Parsippany in North Jersey won the first episode hands down, picking up money there. He had a harder time with a guy who definitely had a New York accent in the second, but managed to win with more cash and a "Heritage Tour" of American history sites on the east coast.
Headed out after the second episode ended. My first stop was the Shamrock Deli down the street on Cuthbert. They were busy with older women coming out from their walks for deli meat or sandwiches, but I did get a bottle of Coke Zero, a roast beef and provolone hoagie, and two chocolate chip cookies fairly quickly.
Cut across Audubon, heading down Market and around winding streets to Haddon Lake Park. I thought the spot by the Audubon Recreation Center where they held Audubon Day last week was lovely, and I wanted to check it out without thousands of people milling around. Found a unique spot at two teardrop-shaped yellow vinyl and metal tables. The grassy area was surrounded by four different forms of xylophone. There was one that looked like a larger silver metal version of a toy xylophone a kid might play, a wooden one that made a softer sound, a tower line of huge silver tubes, and one tube one that was larger than the xylophone, but smaller than the tall ones. I ate lunch, then got to play a few tunes.
My back got stiff reading fairy tales at the table, so I moved to a low bench near the playground. At that point, it was still pretty quiet. One little girl played on the spring animals with her mom. Otherwise, it was mostly me, the birds chirping, and the breeze rustling through the new pale green leaves. It was really a gorgeous day today, all sunshine, fresh wind, and insanely warm temperatures for early May, in the mid-80's. When more teenagers started showing up from the high school across the street on their way home, I knew it was time for me to go as well.
(I really enjoyed my picnic and will absolutely do it again...later this summer, after pollen season ends. I spent the rest of the afternoon sneezing.)
Went straight into job hunting and Rio Rita when I got in. I go further into this MGM remake of the 1929 hit with Abbott and Costello as pet-store workers who get caught up with Nazis south of the border at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Worked on writing for a while after the movie ended. I've been trying to figure out exactly what to do with Sir Michael. I considered taking out Lord Jerrick, but I ultimately restored him. Kathleen tries to run off in the woods, but the snow is getting thicker. She needs shelter. Then she sees one of the rabbits who raised the flower garden earlier. It almost seems to be beckoning to her...
Switched to Buzzr and Match Game '77 during dinner. We met Buzz in these two episodes, an older gentleman in a yellow coat who claimed he got his neat coat and tie from his job as the proprietor of a junk yard. This led to many junk jokes, including Charles bringing out a trash can and his sock-less loafers to make Buzz "feel more at home." There were so many tiebreakers in the first episode, they barely got the Audience Match in at the last minute.
Finished the night working on my review for Rio Rita and listening to my newly-acquired James Bond soundtracks. The Spy Who Loved Me was a massive hit that is generally regarded as the best of Roger Moore's Bond vehicles. It's Oscar-nominated theme song "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon was a huge hit in its own right. Moonraker takes an odd left turn into sci-fi territory, but its lovely title ballad is one of the most underrated Bond songs in the entire series. Most critics don't give high marks to Octopussy, likely because of it's fairly absurd plot. It was probably the first Bond movie I saw as a kid, and for that reason alone it has a special place in my heart. It's theme song "All Time High" is one of the better Bond ballads of the 80's as well.
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