As Time Goes By

Began the morning with breakfast and Alice's Wonderland Bakery. Alice and the kids want to go "Back to the Root" and find her great-grandmother's root cellar. The Cheshire Cat insists he has a map that will allow them to remember. Initially, it seems like he only wants to fly kites or play croquet...but that's what takes them "Back to the Root" and allows them to remember all the fun the original Alice had with her friends. "Alice the Piefecionist" wants to make the perfect corn pie for the Mad Hatter's harvest tea party. She gets so caught up with her baking, she forgets that being there and having fun with her friends is more important than making the perfect pie.

I messed around online a bit with the new "Notebook" that came with my laptop before heading out...and going back for my cell phone, which I need to sign in. I also stopped to get soft pretzels for my lunch. All that and noon traffic made me 10 minutes late to the school.

As it turned out, I probably could have been infinitely late. We had five pre-schoolers (and the older girl who helps watch them) today. Most of the younger kids went home with their parents after the pre-school graduation ceremony earlier in the day. The vast majority of the kids there were the older elementary schoolers. I did note to the kids that it was nice to be able to hear us think when we ate, take far less time with the bathroom, and there was no squabbling in line for the two swings. The older girl even arranged a fun game of hide and seek tag on the playground. 

We did end up cutting that playground time short, though. It was sunny, but hot, windless, and very, very, cut-with-a-knife humid. It was a lot cooler in the basement gym/cafeteria, where we all crowded around tables with the older kids and drew with colored pencils and crayons. Like I said yesterday, I'm continually impressed with what good artists the kids are. One gave me her artwork, a flower and a Pokeball, today. By 3 PM, two of the kids left, and they didn't need three people and a kid to watch three kids. I ended up leaving early. 

Made a very quick stop at Dollar General on the way home. The pre-schoolers weren't the only ones who graduated today. The daughter of a friend of mine graduated junior high. I grabbed a card for her and a Mountain Dew Zero and headed out. I didn't like the look of the weather, and indeed, it did rain shortly after I got home. 

Put on Remember WENN when I got in. "From the Pen of Gertrude Reece" is one of my favorite episodes of the series and is the episode that really got me hooked on WENN. Receptionist Gertie Reece's radio script becomes a hilarious dead-on spoof of Casablanca, with Scott as Rick, Betty as Ilsa, Eugenia as Sam, Mackie as Renault, Maple as the cafe singer and the immigrants, Hilary as the ex-girlfriend, Jeff as the waiter, C.J as the bartender and a Nazi, Victor as Victor Lazlo, Mr. Eldridge as Carl, and Mr. Foley as a German commander (and Gertie speaks for him, of course). Much like the real Casablanca (and mirroring WENN's ultimate fate), Gertie doesn't have an ending for her play. Betty writes who she thinks she should be with...then doesn't tell Gertie. Sometimes, it's better to come up with your own conclusions.

Sweet Eugenia the organist gets the spotlight in "Eugenia Bremer, Master Spy," the first episode I recorded. Desmond Quist (Daniel Davis), a British intelligence officer, insists that there are still codes going out over the airwaves. At first, he insists that the cast paraphrase their shows. When they protest that, he goes after Eugenia, who has been heard speaking German and having clandestine phone calls. Eugenia, however, knows darn well what Quist is up to and teaches him a lesson in trust and paranoia. 

Switched to records while working on writing. The title song of Etta James' At Last! is probably the best-known here, and the one most associated with her. It's far from the only song of note here, though. Other soulful ballads here include "Stormy Weather" and "I Just Want to Make Love to You." We even get a few bonus songs in "Don't Cry Baby" and "You Know What I Mean."

I haven't seen the film Somewhere In Time, but it's pretty well-known for its gorgeous, romantic score. That's ably represented here by sweeping titles like "The Journey Back In Time" and "Is He the One?" We also get Roger Williams' hit "Theme from Somewhere In Time." 

Labyrinth is all together a different type of romantic fairy tale. David Bowie's "Magic Dance" and the gorgeous ballad "As the World Falls Down" are the best-known titles here. There's also "Chilly Down" for the chorus. Some of the instrumental pieces aren't bad, either, especially the finale "Underground."

Got a little further on the writing. Hilary is so delighted with Betty's play, she wants her to remain in Port Harbor permanently. Betty says no. She has to move on and find the Guardians and their remaining talismans. 

Finished the night with some Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Final Sacrifice is a recently-re-released Mike episode, and one of the most recent they made fun of. This 1990 Canadian fantasy adventure has a geeky kid and a big, burly backwoodsman searching for a lost city that was originally found by the kid's father. They're pursued by a cult who wants to use the kid as the ultimate sacrifice. The woodsman was originally a member of the cult, and he's not about to let that kid get hurt now.

Hoo boy. Ripe 80's-early 90's cheese of the cheapest sort. It's pretty obvious this was made by a film student on a minuscule budget. It's mostly the characters stumbling through the Canadian plains. The minimal dialogue is dull, the characters stereotypes or confusing, the plot a mess of cliches. and the villains consist of one guy in goth clothes and a bunch of burly guys in masks. Unless you have a deep-seated need to hear robots make many Canadian jokes or have a true love of 80's-90's camp fests, I'd stay far away from here.