A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. "Daniel Asks What Friends Like" when he wants to give hi-fives, but his friends have other ways of greeting people. He doesn't like it when Prince Wednesday calls him Danny, even though Wednesday calls himself W. "Miss Elania's Space Restaurant" is open for business at the Merry-Go-Round Museum. Elaina wears her apron as an apron and is upset that Katarina wants to wear hers as a cape, until their mothers remind them that everyone has their own ways of doing things.

Spent the rest of the morning doing research on basic house-hunting and what I need to do now. The rest of this week, and possibly part of next week, will be spent doing research into house-hunting on days when I don't have two shifts. Buying a dwelling is a lot more complicated than I thought. I have a friend I could talk to about more of the basics, and I need to call Rose and ask her about the legalities. I need to do more research on things like closing costs and housing inspections, too. 

But most of all, I need to see if I can find a housing counselor. I'll call about those next week. There's too much going on here for even just one or two people to deal with on their own. PNC and Camden County have already turned me down for loans. I need to learn more about the basics and find out who will accept good credit and savings without a perfect debt-income ratio.

Listened to jazz vocalists while I looked over websites, took notes, and had a quick lunch. Songs for Swingin' Lovers is one of Frank Sinatra's most famous releases for Capitol Records in the 50's. Every song here is among the best performances he ever gave. Probably the most iconic are "You Make Me Feel So Young" and "I've Got You Under My Skin," but "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me," "Old Devil Moon," "I Thought About You," and "How About You?" are a lot of fun, too.

Johnny Mathis' I Just Found Out About Love is a tribute to a songwriter who often crafted melodies for Sinatra as well, Jimmy McHugh. The title number and "Love Me as Though There Were No Tomorrow" are from a McHugh stage musical Strip for Action that apparently ran into major trouble for doing just what it said in the title before being shut down in Boston. Too bad, because the songs are really nice. "I'm In the Mood for Love" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street" are far better-known today. There's also the sweet "Warm and Willing" and charming "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening."

This time, I got out on time and arrived at the Thomas Sharp School on time. They were in the library when I arrived. The music class was still rehearsing in the cafeteria. Once again, the 26 kids were really noisy. Even my 8 kids were noisy in the bathrooms. They were noisy when they got out of the bathrooms. I had to separate two girls who kept pestering one of the boys. One of the girls fibbed to me about the markers belonging to one of the kids. The pre-schoolers aren't allowed to use markers. They make too much of a mess with them. The girl ran out in the hallway in a fit. I coaxed her out by taking her to the bathroom to wash her marker-covered hands. Ironically, her father was waiting for her when we got back.

They were only slightly less noisy once I came back. They got so crazy, at least 10 kids had to be kept back so the head teacher could talk to them. Once we got out, I had to argue them off the swings at least twice before enough kids went home that they were finally allowed on. (Including the little boy who fell off yesterday. He's perfectly fine.) I did have to argue with an older boy who was outside to let the other kids have their turns. He threw a tantrum, but did get on before his mother came for him. Other kids drew with chalk (and got covered in chalk dust) while listening to "You've Got a Friend In Me" from Toy Story, "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" from Lilo and Stitch, "I'm Still Standing," "The Pink Tiger Hunt," the theme from Bluey, and songs from Encanto, The Lion King, and Frozen. 

At least the weather couldn't have been more perfect for them to be running around. As several parents pointed out when we were outside, this was about as nice of a spring day as one could wish. Like I told one of the littlest boys, the sky was bluey-blue, the sun was bright yellow, the wind felt nice, not cold, and it was just warm enough. It's awesome when spring really feels like spring! They were having so much fun, the other teachers were only just taking the remaining 4 kids to the blacktop to play ball games when I left.

Since it's two blocks down from the school on Magill Avenue, I had dinner at Zena's American Mediterranean Restaurant. Small but attractive blue-and-white painted space on the first floor of an older apartment building sells basic Mediterranean sandwiches, salads, and entrees. I had an enormous chicken gyro, a huge wicker basket overflowing with fries, two small pieces of baklava, and Turkey Hill iced tea. It was all tasty, but so big, I took half of the gyro and about three-quarters of the fries home with me.

Made a really quick stop at CVS on the way home, mainly so I could use the bathroom. Finally remembered to get D batteries, too. My flashlight is starting to look a little on the dim side. 

Watched the second half of Match Game '73 when I got home. They finished out the week with Pat Harrington and moved on to Fannie Flagg's first week. It was the first of two times she was in the 4th "ingenue" seat before she moved permanently to seat 6 by early '74. Bert Convy, comedian Jack Carter, and comedy writer Ann Elder join in here as well.

Finished the night with Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Mole People is a B-sci-fi double feature flick from 1956 that's basically "underground Lost Horizon." After a rather dull and dry opening prologue where a real-life professor explains what you're about to see, archaeologists Dr. Roger Bentley (John Agar) and Dr. Jud Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont) take 20 minutes talking about their major finds, before they finally get under the Earth to prove their theories. They find a race of albino Sumerians living in a lavish kingdom, keeping the Mole People of the title as their slaves. Roger falls for a beautiful blonde (Cynthia Patrick) who has never seen sunlight while using his flashlight to keep the Sumerians at bay. They can't handle bright sunlight, and even sacrifice maidens to it. The flashlight has just gone out when the Mole People finally revolt, and an earthquake once and for all destroys both the kingdom and the maiden who decided she'd rather not see the sun...

It's too bad the first half of this is dull as dishwater and moves slower than the Mole People. The second half is honestly a not-bad Lost Horizon/Phantom Empire-style lost civilization yarn. The Mole People don't turn up until almost the end of the movie, the love interest is perfunctory at best, and the robots are right that people (especially Agar) spend way too much time talking and not enough time doing sci-fi stuff. I like some of the ideas, though, including sacrificing maidens to the bright sunlight. Worth checking out with or without robot wisecracks if you're a fan of lost civilization stories and can get past that lethally dull first hour and some of the plot holes.