"We're Havin' A Heat Wave..."

First of all, welcome to summer! And boy, did it feel like summer, with temperatures into the upper-80s, lower-90s.

Started a hot, humid, but breezy day with a run to the laundromat. I really like doing my laundry at a laundromat. I can do it when I want to without having to call my dad and ask him if the dryer and washer's free. If one washer or dryer's taken or broken, I can use another. If I have to wait, it's no big deal, either. And it only takes an hour for everything to wash and dry, rather than the hour and a half to two hours it often took at Dad's. (He really should have replaced that dryer ages ago.) Not to mention, I usually only have one load of laundry a week that costs me $3 to 4 dollars, tops, if I don't buy a can of soda for 75 cents. I got to the laundromat by quarter of 11 and was out by almost noon.

I finished North By Northwest as I folded laundry and had a simple lunch of celery sticks, peanut butter, yogurt, and a granola bar. Northwest is the tangled tale of a New York ad executive (Cary Grant) who gets mixed up with spies (Eva Marie Saint and James Mason) who think he's a fictional man. While I enjoyed Grant and Marie Saint's wonderful performances (including some surprisingly adult banter for the squeaky-clean 50s), like Rear Window, this is another iconic Hitchcock classic that's been imitated so much (such as the famous scene where Grant is chased by a crop duster) that a little of the magic is lost.

After lunch, I grabbed the DVDs and headed back out again. I made quick stops at Rite Aid and Super Fresh, then went to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteering session. The library was busy, but the librarians were trying to catch up on signing items in, and there were few DVDs to put away. I shelved what there was, along with some kids' books. I eventually took out two books on the joys of being single, another Beatrix Potter Cottage Mystery (The Tale of Briar Bank), and four DVDs - The Golden Compass, Alexander's Ragtime Band, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, and a set of Adventures In Care-A-Lot Care Bear cartoons, Cheer, There, and Everywhere.

Watched Alexander's Ragtime Band after I got home and started to make Salisbury Steaks and steamed spring peas and yellow squash for dinner. Band is one of the best known vehicles of Fox star Alice Faye, and her second appearance with Don Ameche and Tyrone Power in 1938 (after In Old Chicago).

Like most of the non-Rogers-and-Hammerstein Fox musicals, Band is an enjoyably corny and melodramatic romantic drama. The lead singer (Faye) and the band's leader (Power) spar and break up and get together again in the years from 1914 to 1938, all while never aging a day. Ameche is the band's pianist and Faye's other suitor, Jack Haley is Power's comic pal, and an energetic Ethel Merman is the band's second singer.

The attraction here, besides the able cast belting Irving Berlin songs, is the intimate numbers. Unlike the cast-of-thousands MGM spectacles, here you often just have people singing one-on-one or a solo performance. Not that Fox couldn't get big with the best of them, but the quieter approach works better with the soap opera story. You really get to know these characters well. Helps that they have some great music to sing, too. Among the standards heard (along with the title song) are "Ragtime Violin," the real-life army number "Gee, How I Hate To Get Up In the Morning," "Heat Wave," and the Oscar-nominated "Now It Can Be Told."

Hot Balance

Yuck. Despite the clouds, it was sticky-humid and 90 degrees when I got up this morning. Things weren't much better at Yogawood, not helped by a very full (at least 21 people, counting teacher Micki) class. We worked on shoulder stands and squats and lifts. Sigh. One of these days, I'm going to be able to lift myself.

I made a quick stop at WaWa on the way home for water (I was sweating like crazy) and a half-gallon of skim milk, then rode home. I spent the rest of the morning watching the Alfred Hitchcock Notorious with my right knuckle under ice. It's been really swollen for weeks now. I have no idea what I did to it. My middle toe on my right foot's been sore, too.

Notorious is a black-and-white Hitchcock mystery from 1946. Ingrid Bergman is a shady lady with connections who agrees to spy on a ring of German scientists; Cary Grant is her contact who falls for her. Claude Rains is the head of the German spy ring whom Bergman marries to get the goods on. Slower-moving than the 50s Hitchcock mysteries, but more elegant, classy, and romantic as well. Bergman and Grant do well as the spy lovers.

Work was really busy when I came in, dead when I left, with no problems other than every person in the entire South Jersey area seemed to want to cash their checks tonight. I was right to leave early to get mine cashed; by the time I got off, there was a sign saying "we can no longer cash checks tonight." They cashed so many checks, the Customer Service Desk ran out of money!

Washed Out

Headed out to the bank and the Farm Market first thing this morning to beat the crowds and the heavy storm clouds. I ended up avoiding neither. There was a line for strawberries and cherries when I arrived at in Collingswood; I bought them last. I needed a lot today, or I might have skipped the Farm Market all together. I waded through the huge Father's Day Weekend crowds to buy carrots, bananas, radishes, spinach, cool red onions with the tops still on (to replace the stringy-looking leeks), zucchini, and the first New Jersey blueberries and cucumbers of the season. Also picked up blueberry butter and two peanut butter cookies for a snack.

It started to rain lightly by the time I arrived at the Farm Market...but the rain picked up as I made my way around people and dogs. It was annoying, but it did it's job. When I returned to the first tables with the cherries and strawberries, the line was gone and I was able to buy my fruit in peace.

I was hoping the rain would let up, but that wasn't to be. I waited twice, once at the Farm Market and once under a tree, but the steady shower continued. I just rode home and got soaked.

Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon watching Rear Window and figuring out where to put all my new fruit and veggie finds. This is another James Stewart/Alfred Hitchcock movie from the 50s. It's not the mind-blower that Vertigo is, and it's been stolen from and spoofed endlessly, but I still enjoyed it. A photographer stuck in a wheelchair with a broken leg spends his time watching his neighbors in his apartment neighborhood...and finally decides one of them killed their invalid wife when she mysteriously goes missing. Lots of tension here, and despite the premise it doesn't feel claustrophobic. It's essentially a three-person show, and Stewart is joined by two of the coolest ladies of the 1950s, future queen Grace Kelly and the hilarious Thelma Ritter.

It was still raining by around 1PM, not hard, but enough that I called Dad for a ride to work. After my wet ride, I didn't trust Mother Nature. And of course, by the time I got out of work, the sun was out. Work was steady to busy today, with no major problems.

The Last Time I Felt Like This

Began the morning by getting my finances in order, such as they are. I don't have much money in the bank right now. After I did that and put out my bills, I was able to get to the library after skipping it last week. The kids' storybook hour had just finished and everyone was busy, so I just did the children's DVDs and helped kids find titles. I eventually took out two October issues of Walt Disney Comics and Stories, the newest Backyardigans DVD, and the new Maisie Dobbs novel.

It was a lovely day again, sunny and chilly but this time windless. I took the long way home across Newton River Park, going straight home this time. I didn't have the money to stop anywhere. When I got home, I put my books upstairs and went back downstairs to take my recycling out. I took advantage of the lack of wind to rake the side path leading to my apartment and sweep my porch, both of which were heavily laden with golden and copper-colored leaves. I wanted to do the side path last Thursday, but I ran out of time before work. I'd had enough of tripping over those three little stumps near the side of the house.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on a loaf of English Wholemeal Bread from my English baking cookbook, doing stuff online, and watching DVDs. I ran The Backyardigans while working on the bread and making Lemon Chicken with Curried Rice for dinner. That show is just so unbelievably creative. I can't believe the stuff they come up with. One episode had Tyrone and Pablo as a weatherman and an athlete in ancient Greece who go up to Mt. Olympus to ask God Austin and Goddesses Uniqua and Austin to stop raining on their basketball game, to the tune of samba music. Another has intergalactic travelers Zuniqua and Zablo working on Cowgirl Tasha's ranch to earn the fuel for their ship - blueberry pancakes! The cutest was their underwater take on National Velvet. Uniqua wants to race Tyrone on her little wild dolphin, but Tyrone doesn't think she has what it takes to beat a champion. Will her new friend's fear of clams upset their chances?

I enjoyed Vertigo during and after dinner. Whew, was that a mind-blower or what? Alfred Hitchcock was the master of messing with the mind, and I thought this would be a better (and less messy) place for me to start than Psycho or The Birds. Besides, who doesn't love James Stewart? I figured out something of what was going on about half-way through, but the ending was still amazing. Great imagery, too, especially Stewart's nutty animated/effects dream.

And...ergh. My tooth hurts again. I'm going to take some aspirin and swish with salt water after I get off here, but I wish it would stop doing this occasionally, so I could actually chew on my right side? :p