The Christmas Blues
Generally, this was not a good day. First of all, I overslept. That barely gave enough time to do what I planned this morning, which is call Stockton again for information about their online programs. The woman I talked to at Stockton said that Continuing Learning doesn't handle the online courses and gave me the number for the company that does. They weren't in, of course. I left a message on their answering machine and have yet to hear from them. I couldn't even find the number for the company that shares Camden County College and Temple University's online courses on the site. I may just call CCC's Continuing Learning office on Friday and see what they say.
I had an even less welcome surprise awaiting me at Yahoo!Mail. Someone had left a less-than-flattering remark about me being selfish and not knowing how to put others first at my blog. I moderate comments and deleted it, but it still irked me. Why do people do that? Yes, I know, everyone says to ignore them. Why do that in the first place? How can you know someone just by reading their blog? I just don't understand it.
On top of that, I couldn't get a ride to work. Dad's still on a job, and it was too late to get anyone else. I rode to work in the rain. I did get wet, but it could have been worse. The rain was still hard when I left, but by the time I arrived at work, it had stopped.
Customers were nasty today, too, especially early in the afternoon. I don't know if it's the weather, or just beginning-of-the-month people. I had several of those annoying folks who give five hundred orders on how to bag but won't help themselves in a row. Managers kept telling me not to call for the card or the key to unlock my register on the intercom...then another one would say to use the intercom, because people didn't like it when I called for them without it. Make up your darn minds and get the rules STRAIGHT!
The last straw came shortly before my break. I asked the woman if she had anything under the cart. I don't do this to be mean. Customers sometimes forget that they have things there. The woman snapped at me that I was being nasty and accusing! I wasn't accusing her of anything. It's just a simple question. I couldn't help my tears as I helped her with her bags.
Another woman who was behind me talked to her. Apparently, the woman was once her boss and had been very ill-tempered with her as well, until she gave her a piece of her own mind. She didn't throw a fit after that, but I still felt bad. Thank goodness I went on break about twenty minutes later.
After I came back, I asked to do returns for a while until another cashier had to leave. I just wasn't up to handling anyone else in a foul mood. By the time the other cashier went home, it was steady, but not as busy as earlier, and there were no more problems.
Work wasn't all bad. We had several classes of kindergarteners pass through today. One actually sang the cutest fight song to thank both Acme and Janice, the manager who usually works with the elementary school classes, that was utterly adorable.
Once again, I just rode home in the rain. I discovered something in the mail that really cheered me up when I got home. In the early 2000s, American Girl created several outfits that were exclusive to their American Girl Place stores that corresponded with the theater shows they were putting on at the time. When the shows ended in 2008, so did the costumes. I scored two from the AG Circle of Friends show that were perfect for Molly. One was a purple pleated one-piece outfit that was originally the show's jitterbug costume. The other is a white 40s-style dress trimmed with red and blue sequins that screams "Molly" all over it. It even comes with shiny red tap shoes with real metal taps on them.
I made sauteed spinach and mashed sweet potatoes to go with my leftover chicken leg for dinner. As I ate, I dubbed A Walt Disney Christmas for Lauren (the last dubbing of any kind I want to do for a long time - I think I kind of burned myself out there), then switched to two sweet specials about the possible story behind the donkey who carried Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.
The Small One is a touching Disney featurette from the late 70s-early 80s in which the donkey is an older, kind creature who was once owned by a little boy. The boy had to sell him because of his age, but he couldn't find anyone who would take the scrawny animal...until he looked up and saw a pair of gentle eyes that belonged to Joseph. Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey is one of my favorite Rankin-Bass specials. Nestor is taunted by other barnyard critters because of his unusually long ears, but they end up coming to good use when he uses them to lead Mary and Joseph to their fabled destination.
Life is a lazy river - no matter where you are. Movies, musicals, mysteries, pop culture, and lots of other great stuff.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
The Belles, the Nephews, and the Mouse
Started off today with oatmeal and a pear for breakfast and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. As with the first film, this is an anthology of several short cartoons revolving around the Disney gang. Unlike the first movie, the animation is done by computer, the cartoons are much shorter, and there's five instead of three.
The theme here is dealing with the stress of the holidays. In "Belles On Ice," Daisy and Minnie (and the dancing hippos and crocodiles from the original Fantasia) compete with each other in a huge skating show, but when the competition gets too fierce, they learn a lesson in friendship and cooperation. Huey, Dewey, and Louie are afraid that they're on Santa's naughty list, but when they go on a "Christmas: Impossible" quest to the North Pole to change Santa's mind, they learn that sometimes, it feels good to put others first. Goofy tries to impress college-age Max's new sweetheart in the musical short "Christmas Maximus." Donald just wants to escape the holiday furor in "Donald's Gift," but he discovers that the holidays are even more fun when you share them. Even Mickey can get upset; he blows up at Pluto when his beloved dog accidentally destroys his party decorations in "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas." Pluto runs away and finds a home with Santa's flying reindeer...but the only present either wants under the tree is their renewed friendship.
While I admit that I liked the original better, these are fun, too. There were a lot of complaints at Amazon.com and elsewhere about how nasty the characters were to each other...but let's face it, the holidays can be overwhelming. Who hasn't competed with a friend, embarrassed an older child who brought friends or significant others home for the holidays, yelled at friends or pets over petty things, or just tried to escape when it all seems unbearable? It may be too much for the very youngest, but slightly older kids may enjoy these surprisingly and refreshingly realistic takes on one of the craziest times of the year.
I might have to start doing the laundry on Tuesdays more often. When I arrived around 11, there was not a single soul in the laundromat. Not even the little old lady who manages the place. It was just me and the news on Channel 10. A few men arrived later, but it never got anywhere near as busy as it usually is on Monday.
The weather may have scared people off. It was cloudy and too warm, in the 60s, all day. It rained on and off, too, though never as heavily as in the past few months. It wasn't even doing that when I rode back to the apartment.
When I got home, I put the laundry away, then had the rest of that chicken wrap from yesterday for lunch. I did this year's Christmas cards as I dubbed the 1986 Babes In Toyland with Drew Barrymore for my friend Lauren.
It was showering lightly when I headed out to work, but it wasn't hard enough to call for a ride. I just got slightly wet. Work was a pain again. We're still getting beginning-of-the-month customers, and people are starting to shop for Christmas, too. One couple bought piles of books and activity sets from the discount bin, then almost put them back because they wanted to use a store coupon that isn't good for another two weeks! I don't know why they couldn't have just bought the darn things without it. They ended up letting them use the coupon anyway. It was busy right up until an hour before I left. Thankfully, it slowed down enough that I was able to leave with no relief (though I was late getting out, thanks to one of the cashiers being late coming back from break - she always is).
Started off today with oatmeal and a pear for breakfast and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. As with the first film, this is an anthology of several short cartoons revolving around the Disney gang. Unlike the first movie, the animation is done by computer, the cartoons are much shorter, and there's five instead of three.
The theme here is dealing with the stress of the holidays. In "Belles On Ice," Daisy and Minnie (and the dancing hippos and crocodiles from the original Fantasia) compete with each other in a huge skating show, but when the competition gets too fierce, they learn a lesson in friendship and cooperation. Huey, Dewey, and Louie are afraid that they're on Santa's naughty list, but when they go on a "Christmas: Impossible" quest to the North Pole to change Santa's mind, they learn that sometimes, it feels good to put others first. Goofy tries to impress college-age Max's new sweetheart in the musical short "Christmas Maximus." Donald just wants to escape the holiday furor in "Donald's Gift," but he discovers that the holidays are even more fun when you share them. Even Mickey can get upset; he blows up at Pluto when his beloved dog accidentally destroys his party decorations in "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas." Pluto runs away and finds a home with Santa's flying reindeer...but the only present either wants under the tree is their renewed friendship.
While I admit that I liked the original better, these are fun, too. There were a lot of complaints at Amazon.com and elsewhere about how nasty the characters were to each other...but let's face it, the holidays can be overwhelming. Who hasn't competed with a friend, embarrassed an older child who brought friends or significant others home for the holidays, yelled at friends or pets over petty things, or just tried to escape when it all seems unbearable? It may be too much for the very youngest, but slightly older kids may enjoy these surprisingly and refreshingly realistic takes on one of the craziest times of the year.
I might have to start doing the laundry on Tuesdays more often. When I arrived around 11, there was not a single soul in the laundromat. Not even the little old lady who manages the place. It was just me and the news on Channel 10. A few men arrived later, but it never got anywhere near as busy as it usually is on Monday.
The weather may have scared people off. It was cloudy and too warm, in the 60s, all day. It rained on and off, too, though never as heavily as in the past few months. It wasn't even doing that when I rode back to the apartment.
When I got home, I put the laundry away, then had the rest of that chicken wrap from yesterday for lunch. I did this year's Christmas cards as I dubbed the 1986 Babes In Toyland with Drew Barrymore for my friend Lauren.
It was showering lightly when I headed out to work, but it wasn't hard enough to call for a ride. I just got slightly wet. Work was a pain again. We're still getting beginning-of-the-month customers, and people are starting to shop for Christmas, too. One couple bought piles of books and activity sets from the discount bin, then almost put them back because they wanted to use a store coupon that isn't good for another two weeks! I don't know why they couldn't have just bought the darn things without it. They ended up letting them use the coupon anyway. It was busy right up until an hour before I left. Thankfully, it slowed down enough that I was able to leave with no relief (though I was late getting out, thanks to one of the cashiers being late coming back from break - she always is).
Monday, December 05, 2011
Sharing the Joy of Christmas
Started out a cloudy, windy, fairly warm day with a flurry of chores. I had a lot that I wanted to get done before my friend Amanda from Vineland arrived for her annual Christmas season visit. I put some things away that had been left out. I made the bed. I vacuumed. Vacuuming took me longer than I thought it would, so I was late getting out the door!
Amanda and I were going to meet at 11 at the PNC Bank on the White Horse Pike. She hit traffic and was about 20 minutes late, but that was ok. We weren't going far, anyway. We did what we did last year and had lunch at Tortilla Press, the Mexican restaurant in Collingswood. It was a little after 11:30 when we got there. We thought they were closed at first - it was dark and quiet inside. The door did open and there was a sign outside with the day's specials, so we went in.
Turns out they'd almost literally just opened. We were their very first customers of the day! We both had huge Chicken and Avocado Wraps with lettuce and tomato, Cilantro Cole Slaw, and shared a plate of sweet potato fries and a basket of home-made chips and salsa. We did eat our cole slaw and the small plate of fries, but the chips and half of each of our sandwiches ended up going home with us. Amanda also had a huge cup of strong Mexican coffee that she said was much better than the brew served at the Bob Evans where she works in Vineland.
Amanda originally requested going to a coffee shop after lunch, but since she had her java at Tortilla Press, we went in the opposite direction and had ice cream at the Pop Shop instead. I went tropical and had two scoops of Vanilla with pineapple "goop" (crushed pineapple) and toasted coconut. Amanda opted for a Christmas sundae - two scoops of Peppermint with chocolate syrup and peppermint patties. Despite our large lunch, we both ate all of our sundaes and enjoyed every bit of them.
We were way too full to do anything else in Collingswood (and most stores are closed on Monday anyway), so we just went back to my place. When we got in, I got the mail, and we exchanged gifts. Interestingly, we both gave each other Peanuts-related items. I gave Amanda a cute set of Peanuts ornaments I found at CVS a few weeks ago. She gave me Charlie Brown and Snoopy stuffed toys. Snoopy is dressed in a chef's outfit and holds a felt "cookie"; his apron says "Happiness is a warm cookie." (How true!) Charlie Brown talks when you press his foot. He holds a felt Christmas shopping list and says "If picking the right present wasn't so hard, I'd be better at it."
We continued the Peanuts theme with the two Peanuts specials I hadn't watched yet. Little Re-Run Van Pelt, Linus and Lucy's younger brother, really wants a dog of his own in I Want a Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown. His mother and siblings remind him that it's a big responsibility to own a dog. He doesn't listen at first and just keeps asking Snoopy to play with him. When Snoopy's lanky brother Spike visits from the desert, he finally shows Re-Run just how hard it can be to take care of a pet.
Charlie Brown was the one having the trouble in Happy New Year, Charlie Brown. He somehow has to write a book report on War and Peace over Christmas Vacation, but Peppermint Patty, her big New Year's Eve party, and a host of unrequited romances keep distracting him from his work.
We went for a stroll in Veteran's Park next-door between specials. I told Amanda about wanting to take classes and start a business. She talked about her health troubles and her jobs at Bob Evans and as a substitute teacher in Vineland and Millville (and how much she doesn't like school cafeteria food).
Amanda left around 3:30, shortly after Happy New Year, Charlie Brown ended. She was having dinner with her father and grandmother and wanted plenty of time to get home. I saw her off, then grabbed my DVDs and made a quick run to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteer session there.
It was still pretty light out when I headed past Newton River Park. It had been muddy and spongy in Veteran's Park, so I avoided the ground all together and rode on the street. The library wasn't too busy. I did have some DVDs to put away, and I did some organizing. I ended up taking out more Max & Ruby Christmas episodes (A Very Bunny Christmas), Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (Disney's computer-animated follow up to Once Upon a Christmas), McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and the most recent Chronicles of Narnia movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
It was dark when I left the library. I made a very quick stop at Dollar Tree for a card for my nephew Collyn for his birthday on Friday and for my mom and stepdad's anniversary next week, then rode home. Watched Max & Ruby while having leftovers. After dinner, I took cute Christmas shots of the AG girls around the living room. Here's the link to the Photobucket album:
AG Christmas 2011
Started out a cloudy, windy, fairly warm day with a flurry of chores. I had a lot that I wanted to get done before my friend Amanda from Vineland arrived for her annual Christmas season visit. I put some things away that had been left out. I made the bed. I vacuumed. Vacuuming took me longer than I thought it would, so I was late getting out the door!
Amanda and I were going to meet at 11 at the PNC Bank on the White Horse Pike. She hit traffic and was about 20 minutes late, but that was ok. We weren't going far, anyway. We did what we did last year and had lunch at Tortilla Press, the Mexican restaurant in Collingswood. It was a little after 11:30 when we got there. We thought they were closed at first - it was dark and quiet inside. The door did open and there was a sign outside with the day's specials, so we went in.
Turns out they'd almost literally just opened. We were their very first customers of the day! We both had huge Chicken and Avocado Wraps with lettuce and tomato, Cilantro Cole Slaw, and shared a plate of sweet potato fries and a basket of home-made chips and salsa. We did eat our cole slaw and the small plate of fries, but the chips and half of each of our sandwiches ended up going home with us. Amanda also had a huge cup of strong Mexican coffee that she said was much better than the brew served at the Bob Evans where she works in Vineland.
Amanda originally requested going to a coffee shop after lunch, but since she had her java at Tortilla Press, we went in the opposite direction and had ice cream at the Pop Shop instead. I went tropical and had two scoops of Vanilla with pineapple "goop" (crushed pineapple) and toasted coconut. Amanda opted for a Christmas sundae - two scoops of Peppermint with chocolate syrup and peppermint patties. Despite our large lunch, we both ate all of our sundaes and enjoyed every bit of them.
We were way too full to do anything else in Collingswood (and most stores are closed on Monday anyway), so we just went back to my place. When we got in, I got the mail, and we exchanged gifts. Interestingly, we both gave each other Peanuts-related items. I gave Amanda a cute set of Peanuts ornaments I found at CVS a few weeks ago. She gave me Charlie Brown and Snoopy stuffed toys. Snoopy is dressed in a chef's outfit and holds a felt "cookie"; his apron says "Happiness is a warm cookie." (How true!) Charlie Brown talks when you press his foot. He holds a felt Christmas shopping list and says "If picking the right present wasn't so hard, I'd be better at it."
We continued the Peanuts theme with the two Peanuts specials I hadn't watched yet. Little Re-Run Van Pelt, Linus and Lucy's younger brother, really wants a dog of his own in I Want a Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown. His mother and siblings remind him that it's a big responsibility to own a dog. He doesn't listen at first and just keeps asking Snoopy to play with him. When Snoopy's lanky brother Spike visits from the desert, he finally shows Re-Run just how hard it can be to take care of a pet.
Charlie Brown was the one having the trouble in Happy New Year, Charlie Brown. He somehow has to write a book report on War and Peace over Christmas Vacation, but Peppermint Patty, her big New Year's Eve party, and a host of unrequited romances keep distracting him from his work.
We went for a stroll in Veteran's Park next-door between specials. I told Amanda about wanting to take classes and start a business. She talked about her health troubles and her jobs at Bob Evans and as a substitute teacher in Vineland and Millville (and how much she doesn't like school cafeteria food).
Amanda left around 3:30, shortly after Happy New Year, Charlie Brown ended. She was having dinner with her father and grandmother and wanted plenty of time to get home. I saw her off, then grabbed my DVDs and made a quick run to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteer session there.
It was still pretty light out when I headed past Newton River Park. It had been muddy and spongy in Veteran's Park, so I avoided the ground all together and rode on the street. The library wasn't too busy. I did have some DVDs to put away, and I did some organizing. I ended up taking out more Max & Ruby Christmas episodes (A Very Bunny Christmas), Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (Disney's computer-animated follow up to Once Upon a Christmas), McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and the most recent Chronicles of Narnia movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
It was dark when I left the library. I made a very quick stop at Dollar Tree for a card for my nephew Collyn for his birthday on Friday and for my mom and stepdad's anniversary next week, then rode home. Watched Max & Ruby while having leftovers. After dinner, I took cute Christmas shots of the AG girls around the living room. Here's the link to the Photobucket album:
AG Christmas 2011
Sunday, December 04, 2011
A Different Breed of Superhero
Started the morning with Brunch With the Beatles and Lemon-Rosemary Pancakes. Their annual early December salute to John Lennon was mixed with the solo holiday music and that strange "Fab Four" tribute Christmas album. (For some reason, I've heard cuts from these CDs on the Acme's intercom, too.) John's genius was represented by "No Reply," "Power to the People," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "Come Together," "Revolution," "Just Like Starting Over," "Woman," and "Nowhere Man," among others.
I tried to call Mom this morning, but I got her answering machine. Oh well. I'd call her later. I spent an hour mucking around online before grabbing a bag of trail mix and an apple for lunch and heading out to work.
Work was a madhouse until a half-hour before I left. We had lines going around corners and not nearly enough help. It's the beginning of a month that most people will spend shopping for just about everything else but food. People want to buy their huge orders before they start buying Christmas presents. It wasn't even football. The Eagles played (badly, from what I've heard) on Thursday night.
When I got home, I put on The Green Hornet as I made steamed Brussels sprouts, spinach salad, Cranberry Flummery, and a leftover chicken leg for dinner. For all the comedy, it's actually pretty close to the original radio show premise. Britt Reid (Seth Rogan) is a wild-living playboy who inherits the newspaper The Daily Sentinel on his father's death. Goofy Britt has always admired superheroes, so when he discovers that his dad's houseboy Kato (martial arts star Jay Chou) has added many gadgets to his dad's car to insure his safety, he comes up with the idea of the two of them becoming superheroes who claim to be bad guys while doing good. Britt and Kato end up compete for Britt's lovely secretary Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz) while flushing a group of big-time LA gangsters who have been paying off a district attorney.
I thought this was the cutest superhero movie I'd seen in a while, and not just because the teddy bear-esque Rogan isn't your average superhero material. A lot of people have been really harsh on it, either because the tone is totally different from the 60s TV show, or they were just expecting more of the material. I really think they need to lighten up a bit. Do not come to this one expecting to take it seriously, as in Captain America, Thor, or the Batman or Superman series. Chou and Rogan are surprisingly funny together. Diaz doesn't have enough to do (but Lenore Case didn't on the TV show, either).
I did finally get a hold of Mom while the movie was on. She was fine. Gave me some suggestions for what to get for Dad and Keefe for Christmas. She was happily watching football alone - both her son and her husband were at work. (Much to Mom's delight, the Packers' just barely beat the Giants, and the Cardinals barely pushed past the Cowboys in overtime.)
Started the morning with Brunch With the Beatles and Lemon-Rosemary Pancakes. Their annual early December salute to John Lennon was mixed with the solo holiday music and that strange "Fab Four" tribute Christmas album. (For some reason, I've heard cuts from these CDs on the Acme's intercom, too.) John's genius was represented by "No Reply," "Power to the People," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "Come Together," "Revolution," "Just Like Starting Over," "Woman," and "Nowhere Man," among others.
I tried to call Mom this morning, but I got her answering machine. Oh well. I'd call her later. I spent an hour mucking around online before grabbing a bag of trail mix and an apple for lunch and heading out to work.
Work was a madhouse until a half-hour before I left. We had lines going around corners and not nearly enough help. It's the beginning of a month that most people will spend shopping for just about everything else but food. People want to buy their huge orders before they start buying Christmas presents. It wasn't even football. The Eagles played (badly, from what I've heard) on Thursday night.
When I got home, I put on The Green Hornet as I made steamed Brussels sprouts, spinach salad, Cranberry Flummery, and a leftover chicken leg for dinner. For all the comedy, it's actually pretty close to the original radio show premise. Britt Reid (Seth Rogan) is a wild-living playboy who inherits the newspaper The Daily Sentinel on his father's death. Goofy Britt has always admired superheroes, so when he discovers that his dad's houseboy Kato (martial arts star Jay Chou) has added many gadgets to his dad's car to insure his safety, he comes up with the idea of the two of them becoming superheroes who claim to be bad guys while doing good. Britt and Kato end up compete for Britt's lovely secretary Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz) while flushing a group of big-time LA gangsters who have been paying off a district attorney.
I thought this was the cutest superhero movie I'd seen in a while, and not just because the teddy bear-esque Rogan isn't your average superhero material. A lot of people have been really harsh on it, either because the tone is totally different from the 60s TV show, or they were just expecting more of the material. I really think they need to lighten up a bit. Do not come to this one expecting to take it seriously, as in Captain America, Thor, or the Batman or Superman series. Chou and Rogan are surprisingly funny together. Diaz doesn't have enough to do (but Lenore Case didn't on the TV show, either).
I did finally get a hold of Mom while the movie was on. She was fine. Gave me some suggestions for what to get for Dad and Keefe for Christmas. She was happily watching football alone - both her son and her husband were at work. (Much to Mom's delight, the Packers' just barely beat the Giants, and the Cardinals barely pushed past the Cowboys in overtime.)
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Thrift Shop Adventures and Other Stories
I awoke to another American Top 40 holiday special...but this time, I didn't head out right away. Instead, I went in the back room to pack up my donations for the Logan Presbyterian Church Thrift Shop in Audubon. I had a big cloth tote bag filled with knick-knacks I've wanted to clear out for months. I also wanted to get rid of two porcelain dolls my grandmother gave me years ago that I'd never really liked. It took me a while to dig the dolls' boxes out from the containers that held storage for various collectible dolls and bears. I hadn't seen either box since I moved in.
When I did finally find both boxes, I loaded one into my backpack and one on top of the bag in my bike basket and sped off to Audubon. It wasn't easy riding there with a full basket, plus a doll box balanced on top! It even fell off at one point, and when I went to retrieve it, my whole bike fell over! Thank goodness nothing was hurt, and I managed to get it all out of the way before a car pulled out of a driveway.
Thankfully, there were no other mishaps. I was able to get to Audubon around 11, an hour before the thrift shop closes, with everything intact. The place was hopping when I dropped my donations with the women volunteers behind the front table. You could barely move around in the first room with the clothes, it was so busy! The main room with the records, CDs, books, videos, and knick-knacks was almost stripped bare. I did manage to pick up a few good records, though:
John Denver - Back Home Again
Richard Marx - Richard Marx
Bread - On the Waters (This one was a near miss when I was at the thrift shop a month ago.)
Al Hirt - Al Hirt at the Mardi Gras - Live In New Orleans (An unusual addition to my holiday music collection.)
Went straight home after leaving the thrift shop. When I got in, I had just barely enough time to bake Chocolate-Chip-Oatmeal-Cranberry Cookies and watch more Peanuts holiday specials and Nowhere Boy. It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown is, unlike it's more renown predecessor, basically a series of interconnected holiday-themed Peanuts shorts. My favorite moments involve Peppermint Patty and Marcie, who missed the first special. Marcie takes Peppermint Patty to a concert of "The Hallelujah Chorus," but standing up for the Chorus itself doesn't work out well. Peppermint Patty is disappointed when Marcie gets to be Mary in their Christmas pageant and she's only a sheep...but this turns out to be just as well, as she somehow forgets her lines anyway. Speaking of lines, I also got a kick out of Sally trying to memorize her one line...and what she actually does say when she's onstage.
Nowhere Boy concerns the early life of the Beatles' John Lennon. Lennon was raised by his strict Aunt Mimi in 50s Liverpool. She's not happy when he discovers rock and roll, to the detriment of his schoolwork...and even less so when he becomes closer to his mother Julia, who gave him up to Mimi when he was a child. As John grows toward adulthood, he finds himself being drawn to both rock and Julia and her less-conventional lifestyle. Mimi tries to reign him in, but when he forms a skiffle (country-rock-style) band with his friends from school (including Paul McCartney and George Harrison), even she discovers that there are some things beyond her control, and her nephew is increasingly becoming one of them...
Pretty interesting if you're a fan of the Beatles. I already knew a lot of this, and even I was drawn into the drama as the two women more-or-less battled for the increasingly confused and rebellious John's soul. I seem to remember another early-Beatles movie, Backbeat, about the Beatles' years in Germany, pretty much picking up from where this one leaves off and being really rather good.
The cookies were only just out of the oven when I went flying out the door to work! Work was busy through rush hour, fairly quiet thereafter. It's still the beginning of the month, and there's still quite a few frustrating people coming in, though some of this was lessened by my being in the express lane all night. I also saw a ton of people buying cakes from the bakery. I guess early December is a popular time for birthdays.
After I got off, I had more shopping to do. I needed more grapefruit and to restock yogurt, cereal (Wheat Chex Mix is on sale) and mouthwash.
I awoke to another American Top 40 holiday special...but this time, I didn't head out right away. Instead, I went in the back room to pack up my donations for the Logan Presbyterian Church Thrift Shop in Audubon. I had a big cloth tote bag filled with knick-knacks I've wanted to clear out for months. I also wanted to get rid of two porcelain dolls my grandmother gave me years ago that I'd never really liked. It took me a while to dig the dolls' boxes out from the containers that held storage for various collectible dolls and bears. I hadn't seen either box since I moved in.
When I did finally find both boxes, I loaded one into my backpack and one on top of the bag in my bike basket and sped off to Audubon. It wasn't easy riding there with a full basket, plus a doll box balanced on top! It even fell off at one point, and when I went to retrieve it, my whole bike fell over! Thank goodness nothing was hurt, and I managed to get it all out of the way before a car pulled out of a driveway.
Thankfully, there were no other mishaps. I was able to get to Audubon around 11, an hour before the thrift shop closes, with everything intact. The place was hopping when I dropped my donations with the women volunteers behind the front table. You could barely move around in the first room with the clothes, it was so busy! The main room with the records, CDs, books, videos, and knick-knacks was almost stripped bare. I did manage to pick up a few good records, though:
John Denver - Back Home Again
Richard Marx - Richard Marx
Bread - On the Waters (This one was a near miss when I was at the thrift shop a month ago.)
Al Hirt - Al Hirt at the Mardi Gras - Live In New Orleans (An unusual addition to my holiday music collection.)
Went straight home after leaving the thrift shop. When I got in, I had just barely enough time to bake Chocolate-Chip-Oatmeal-Cranberry Cookies and watch more Peanuts holiday specials and Nowhere Boy. It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown is, unlike it's more renown predecessor, basically a series of interconnected holiday-themed Peanuts shorts. My favorite moments involve Peppermint Patty and Marcie, who missed the first special. Marcie takes Peppermint Patty to a concert of "The Hallelujah Chorus," but standing up for the Chorus itself doesn't work out well. Peppermint Patty is disappointed when Marcie gets to be Mary in their Christmas pageant and she's only a sheep...but this turns out to be just as well, as she somehow forgets her lines anyway. Speaking of lines, I also got a kick out of Sally trying to memorize her one line...and what she actually does say when she's onstage.
Nowhere Boy concerns the early life of the Beatles' John Lennon. Lennon was raised by his strict Aunt Mimi in 50s Liverpool. She's not happy when he discovers rock and roll, to the detriment of his schoolwork...and even less so when he becomes closer to his mother Julia, who gave him up to Mimi when he was a child. As John grows toward adulthood, he finds himself being drawn to both rock and Julia and her less-conventional lifestyle. Mimi tries to reign him in, but when he forms a skiffle (country-rock-style) band with his friends from school (including Paul McCartney and George Harrison), even she discovers that there are some things beyond her control, and her nephew is increasingly becoming one of them...
Pretty interesting if you're a fan of the Beatles. I already knew a lot of this, and even I was drawn into the drama as the two women more-or-less battled for the increasingly confused and rebellious John's soul. I seem to remember another early-Beatles movie, Backbeat, about the Beatles' years in Germany, pretty much picking up from where this one leaves off and being really rather good.
The cookies were only just out of the oven when I went flying out the door to work! Work was busy through rush hour, fairly quiet thereafter. It's still the beginning of the month, and there's still quite a few frustrating people coming in, though some of this was lessened by my being in the express lane all night. I also saw a ton of people buying cakes from the bakery. I guess early December is a popular time for birthdays.
After I got off, I had more shopping to do. I needed more grapefruit and to restock yogurt, cereal (Wheat Chex Mix is on sale) and mouthwash.
Friday, December 02, 2011
Christmas Time Is Here
I spent most of today putting up the remaining Christmas decorations. I started with the bears first. When my sisters and I were kids, Mom would dress our teddy bears and a few other stuffed animals in old baby clothes, scarves, and hats. She'd long stopped doing this by the time I moved on my own in 2002 and turned the remaining holiday-only bears and their things to me. I love dressing the bears. I have the perfect place for them, too - under the tree.
After the bears were done, it was time to pull out the display items. I have all kinds of great stuff for holiday displays I've gotten from here, there, and everywhere. The Sailor Soldiers' tiny tree and its balls were presents in college, when we couldn't have any kind of live greenery in the dorms. The gorgeous Winter Dreams Cinderella, Jessica the December Birthstone Doll, the two porcelain teddy bears with the big smiles in the Santa outfits, and the little porcelain bears in winter clothes came from the Friends In Deed Thrift Shop before they shut down last year. The big resin Santa statue, the copper Christmas bell with the candy cane cut-outs, and the American Girl tin (not to mention the tree and wreath) were Christmas presents.
It took me a while to get everything together. I had to find new places for some things, thanks to the re-organizing I did in the early fall. The new TV being much smaller than the old one helped. I put the Ferro Rocher bell, the rope of fake garland greener, and some of Mom's home-made calico Gingerbread people dolls around the TV and DVD player, and it looks very nice. Max and Ruby hold the little basket with the greenery and the "candy cane" and little wooden penguin. (I hope Max doesn't try to eat that candy cane. It's a wooden mini-cut-out!)
I finished with just enough time to have a quick leftovers lunch and hurry off to work. I wish I'd stayed at home. Work was a pain in the rear. There were lots of huge orders, fussy customers, and people who give you six hundred directions on how to bag without lifting a finger to help themselves. Plus, we were down that suspended cashier and short on help.
Thankfully, I was able to get off of work on time and do my own grocery shopping. I mainly had to restock fruit and vegetables for the first time since the Farm Market ended. Picked up apples, pears, broccoli, bananas, and cranberries. I also needed chocolate chips, canned pumpkin, tape (I ran out this morning putting up the snowflakes on the windows), and brown sugar. There was a sale on almonds, so I got some of those, too.
Also got another good schedule next week. Pretty much the same as this week, only I have Monday off instead of Tuesday. Monday was a request - my friend Amanda is visiting that day. I'm looking forward to it. We get together every Christmas and exchange presents and hang out.
I spent most of today putting up the remaining Christmas decorations. I started with the bears first. When my sisters and I were kids, Mom would dress our teddy bears and a few other stuffed animals in old baby clothes, scarves, and hats. She'd long stopped doing this by the time I moved on my own in 2002 and turned the remaining holiday-only bears and their things to me. I love dressing the bears. I have the perfect place for them, too - under the tree.
After the bears were done, it was time to pull out the display items. I have all kinds of great stuff for holiday displays I've gotten from here, there, and everywhere. The Sailor Soldiers' tiny tree and its balls were presents in college, when we couldn't have any kind of live greenery in the dorms. The gorgeous Winter Dreams Cinderella, Jessica the December Birthstone Doll, the two porcelain teddy bears with the big smiles in the Santa outfits, and the little porcelain bears in winter clothes came from the Friends In Deed Thrift Shop before they shut down last year. The big resin Santa statue, the copper Christmas bell with the candy cane cut-outs, and the American Girl tin (not to mention the tree and wreath) were Christmas presents.
It took me a while to get everything together. I had to find new places for some things, thanks to the re-organizing I did in the early fall. The new TV being much smaller than the old one helped. I put the Ferro Rocher bell, the rope of fake garland greener, and some of Mom's home-made calico Gingerbread people dolls around the TV and DVD player, and it looks very nice. Max and Ruby hold the little basket with the greenery and the "candy cane" and little wooden penguin. (I hope Max doesn't try to eat that candy cane. It's a wooden mini-cut-out!)
I finished with just enough time to have a quick leftovers lunch and hurry off to work. I wish I'd stayed at home. Work was a pain in the rear. There were lots of huge orders, fussy customers, and people who give you six hundred directions on how to bag without lifting a finger to help themselves. Plus, we were down that suspended cashier and short on help.
Thankfully, I was able to get off of work on time and do my own grocery shopping. I mainly had to restock fruit and vegetables for the first time since the Farm Market ended. Picked up apples, pears, broccoli, bananas, and cranberries. I also needed chocolate chips, canned pumpkin, tape (I ran out this morning putting up the snowflakes on the windows), and brown sugar. There was a sale on almonds, so I got some of those, too.
Also got another good schedule next week. Pretty much the same as this week, only I have Monday off instead of Tuesday. Monday was a request - my friend Amanda is visiting that day. I'm looking forward to it. We get together every Christmas and exchange presents and hang out.
Thursday, December 01, 2011
Balance and the Christmas Tree
Started out an absolutely gorgeous day with yoga. I didn't get to it last week because of Thanksgiving, but I had no such distractions this morning. We worked on "inner spiral," which meant balance poses that involve twisting. I can walk up the wall now without breaking as sweat, but I still have a hard time standing on one leg or other balance-on-one-foot poses. My trying hard must have impressed some of my classmates. After class, two college students came up to me and kindly told me how impressed they were. They seemed really sweet, and I was glad to have met them.
Went right to the Collingswood Library after leaving Yogawood. In addition to shelving and organizing DVDs, the head of the library had a fun job for me. He asked me to pull Christmas or holiday-themed books from the fiction section for the displays on the front of each fiction shelf. I came up with everything from a book of Charles Dickens' Christmas stories (including A Christmas Carol and Cricket on the Hearth) to John Grisham's Skipping Christmas to Joanna Fluke's two holiday Hannah Swenson books.
It took me longer to do the display than I thought it would. It was quarter of 1 before I finally made it out of the library. It was even nicer by that point, chillier than earlier in the week but not too bad, probably in the upper 50s. I had a pricy but tasty Turkey Ranch Foccacia sandwich at a very busy Saladworks, then went across the street to run some errands. I needed contact lens solution at Rite Aid and finally got around to getting their store savings card. Desperately needed milk at WaWa - the milk I got from Rite Aid had finally gone sour a few days ago.
Rode straight home after leaving WaWa and found quite a surprise when I arrived. My first Christmas present of the year was sitting in the mail box - my annual Vermont Country Store gift card from my best friend Lauren Miller. She always gives me a couple of gift cards, including that one. I'll have to take a look at their sales.
When I got upstairs, I made Cranberry-Pear Dark Chocolate Chip Bread to get rid of the last of the cranberries from Thanksgiving and the final Farm Market pear that was getting mushy. When the bread was in the oven, I began my favorite part of holiday decorating - the Christmas Tree.
The tree takes me a while to do on my own. I did manage to get the lights right, not too much or too loose, but I somehow popped one of the lights off and had to chase after it. (I found it right inside the closet across from the tree, next to the dining area.) I use three gold garlands to get the right fullness, but the effect is so pretty. I also use bead garlands (one silver bead garland I've had since college and two bead necklaces in holiday colors, plus a pretty swirl-bead necklace my grandma gave me that has a broken clasp) and a small ribbon garland (also from Grandma - it came on a package she gave me and was too festive to throw away). The deep red cloth wound around the base of the tree is an old tablecloth of Mom's. It was too big for my table in Wildwood, so I threw it around the tree...and it looked so nice, I've used it for the tree ever since.
I went for a short walk between doing the garland and doing the ornaments. I'm glad I did. It was too nice to spend the whole day indoors! It was so nice, I was perfectly fine in my black coat, no earmuffs or scarf needed. A lot of people already have their Christmas lights out. Last week's unusually warm weather must have encouraged people to pull them out early.
It took two hours just to put up all of the ornaments I've collected over the years. Some of the fancier ones, like the glitter-covered movie clapper, the beautiful Victorian-style glass heart, and the elegant magenta teardrop one that looks like a 50s ornament were Christmas presents from Mom, who picks up elaborate ornaments at gift shops in Cape May. Most of the character ones - the Winnie the Pooh angel and his honey, Scooby and Shaggy on a sled, Yogi Bear with a pic-a-nic basket full of candy canes, the WebKinz Google and Zangoz, Rudolph and the Misfit Toys, the Disney Cinderella - were given to me by friends or bought from thrift shops or after-Christmas sales.
It took me so long to do the tree, I didn't get to dinner until past 7:30...and I began at 4! I made a quick dinner of salmon with sauteed broccoli and mushrooms while I watched the documentaries Christmas Past, on English holiday customs, and part of Christmas Unwrapped, a similar History Channel show on the origins of Christmas in general and of customs in the US.
Started out an absolutely gorgeous day with yoga. I didn't get to it last week because of Thanksgiving, but I had no such distractions this morning. We worked on "inner spiral," which meant balance poses that involve twisting. I can walk up the wall now without breaking as sweat, but I still have a hard time standing on one leg or other balance-on-one-foot poses. My trying hard must have impressed some of my classmates. After class, two college students came up to me and kindly told me how impressed they were. They seemed really sweet, and I was glad to have met them.
Went right to the Collingswood Library after leaving Yogawood. In addition to shelving and organizing DVDs, the head of the library had a fun job for me. He asked me to pull Christmas or holiday-themed books from the fiction section for the displays on the front of each fiction shelf. I came up with everything from a book of Charles Dickens' Christmas stories (including A Christmas Carol and Cricket on the Hearth) to John Grisham's Skipping Christmas to Joanna Fluke's two holiday Hannah Swenson books.
It took me longer to do the display than I thought it would. It was quarter of 1 before I finally made it out of the library. It was even nicer by that point, chillier than earlier in the week but not too bad, probably in the upper 50s. I had a pricy but tasty Turkey Ranch Foccacia sandwich at a very busy Saladworks, then went across the street to run some errands. I needed contact lens solution at Rite Aid and finally got around to getting their store savings card. Desperately needed milk at WaWa - the milk I got from Rite Aid had finally gone sour a few days ago.
Rode straight home after leaving WaWa and found quite a surprise when I arrived. My first Christmas present of the year was sitting in the mail box - my annual Vermont Country Store gift card from my best friend Lauren Miller. She always gives me a couple of gift cards, including that one. I'll have to take a look at their sales.
When I got upstairs, I made Cranberry-Pear Dark Chocolate Chip Bread to get rid of the last of the cranberries from Thanksgiving and the final Farm Market pear that was getting mushy. When the bread was in the oven, I began my favorite part of holiday decorating - the Christmas Tree.
The tree takes me a while to do on my own. I did manage to get the lights right, not too much or too loose, but I somehow popped one of the lights off and had to chase after it. (I found it right inside the closet across from the tree, next to the dining area.) I use three gold garlands to get the right fullness, but the effect is so pretty. I also use bead garlands (one silver bead garland I've had since college and two bead necklaces in holiday colors, plus a pretty swirl-bead necklace my grandma gave me that has a broken clasp) and a small ribbon garland (also from Grandma - it came on a package she gave me and was too festive to throw away). The deep red cloth wound around the base of the tree is an old tablecloth of Mom's. It was too big for my table in Wildwood, so I threw it around the tree...and it looked so nice, I've used it for the tree ever since.
I went for a short walk between doing the garland and doing the ornaments. I'm glad I did. It was too nice to spend the whole day indoors! It was so nice, I was perfectly fine in my black coat, no earmuffs or scarf needed. A lot of people already have their Christmas lights out. Last week's unusually warm weather must have encouraged people to pull them out early.
It took two hours just to put up all of the ornaments I've collected over the years. Some of the fancier ones, like the glitter-covered movie clapper, the beautiful Victorian-style glass heart, and the elegant magenta teardrop one that looks like a 50s ornament were Christmas presents from Mom, who picks up elaborate ornaments at gift shops in Cape May. Most of the character ones - the Winnie the Pooh angel and his honey, Scooby and Shaggy on a sled, Yogi Bear with a pic-a-nic basket full of candy canes, the WebKinz Google and Zangoz, Rudolph and the Misfit Toys, the Disney Cinderella - were given to me by friends or bought from thrift shops or after-Christmas sales.
It took me so long to do the tree, I didn't get to dinner until past 7:30...and I began at 4! I made a quick dinner of salmon with sauteed broccoli and mushrooms while I watched the documentaries Christmas Past, on English holiday customs, and part of Christmas Unwrapped, a similar History Channel show on the origins of Christmas in general and of customs in the US.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Time for Mistletoe and Holly
I spent most of the morning putting up my Christmas garlands. Mom gave me these ropes of artificial greenery trimmed with ribbons, beads, bows, and small trinkets several years ago. She'd gotten fed up with putting them up all over their house. I can see her point. I do still use tacks on the heavy garland around the two windows in the dining area and the one wrapped with gold ribbon on the window behind the tree, but most of the others are now twist-tied to unused curtain rods. I also have a white and gold tinsel garland that is wrapped around the top of the baker's rack and a long, plush gold tinsel garland that goes around the DVD racks.
Putting up the garlands didn't take as long as I thought it would. I had the time to call Stockton and get some more information on classes. I think I should have said I was looking for Distance Learning (online classes), not Continuing Education (certificate courses). They called back later and said they had none of the courses I was looking for...even though their website clearly says that they do! I'll call them again later in the week and clarify what I meant.
Work was very quiet for a lot of the day. It was much chillier, windy, and on-and-off sunny. With kids back in school and people back in work, most folks had probably returned to their normal schedules this week. Even some regular beginning-of-the-month people may have done their shopping last weekend. I did have some annoying customers, but nothing horrible. It was so quiet at 6PM, I was able to get off and buy things for a Pumpkin Mousse Cream Pie with no relief. (My relief was the new cashier...who apparently was suspended.)
When I got home, I ran Santa Claus Is Coming to Town while making the pie and having leftovers for dinner. One of Rankin-Bass' most famous specials is their interpretation of how the Santa Claus legend got started. Mickey Rooney makes a fine Santa; Keenan Wynn is fun as the Winter Warlock. ("Winter, if you please.")
I spent most of the morning putting up my Christmas garlands. Mom gave me these ropes of artificial greenery trimmed with ribbons, beads, bows, and small trinkets several years ago. She'd gotten fed up with putting them up all over their house. I can see her point. I do still use tacks on the heavy garland around the two windows in the dining area and the one wrapped with gold ribbon on the window behind the tree, but most of the others are now twist-tied to unused curtain rods. I also have a white and gold tinsel garland that is wrapped around the top of the baker's rack and a long, plush gold tinsel garland that goes around the DVD racks.
Putting up the garlands didn't take as long as I thought it would. I had the time to call Stockton and get some more information on classes. I think I should have said I was looking for Distance Learning (online classes), not Continuing Education (certificate courses). They called back later and said they had none of the courses I was looking for...even though their website clearly says that they do! I'll call them again later in the week and clarify what I meant.
Work was very quiet for a lot of the day. It was much chillier, windy, and on-and-off sunny. With kids back in school and people back in work, most folks had probably returned to their normal schedules this week. Even some regular beginning-of-the-month people may have done their shopping last weekend. I did have some annoying customers, but nothing horrible. It was so quiet at 6PM, I was able to get off and buy things for a Pumpkin Mousse Cream Pie with no relief. (My relief was the new cashier...who apparently was suspended.)
When I got home, I ran Santa Claus Is Coming to Town while making the pie and having leftovers for dinner. One of Rankin-Bass' most famous specials is their interpretation of how the Santa Claus legend got started. Mickey Rooney makes a fine Santa; Keenan Wynn is fun as the Winter Warlock. ("Winter, if you please.")
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The Holiday Season Begins
Maybe running out to the Haddon Township Library this morning wasn't a great idea. It had rained on and off all morning, and continued to do so into the afternoon. It was gray, wet, and dismal as I made my way across Newton River Park. The only creatures who weren't bothered by the rain were the flocks of Canadian geese who grazed in great numbers around the path. (The flock was so big, I just walked my bike to the street instead of trying to go around them.)
Surprisingly, the library wasn't that busy when I came in. There were no DVDs for me to shelve, so I organized the kids' DVDs and put away picture books instead. I eventually rented four DVDs - the new Barbie As special, Barbie: Princess Charm School, Max and Ruby's Christmas, and two movies, the version of The Green Hornet from earlier this year and Nowhere Boy, a biography of the teen days of John Lennon.
Made a quick stop at Super Fresh after I left the library. They're having a sale on oatmeal, which I forgot to pick up on Friday. I also found good sales on Whole Wheat Flour and the Dr. Oteker mousse mixes I like. I decided to stock up for the holidays.
On my way home, I stopped at WaWa. I was going to buy a salad, but their salads are huge and not that cheap. I opted for a Santa Fe Chicken Wrap instead. The rain had stopped by this point, but would start again not long after I got home.
I ran Princess Charm School as I put everything away and made my bed. Barbie's tales of royal girls are thrust into the here and now as Blair, a hard-working young girl from a poor foster family, finds herself with a scholarship to a boarding school that prepares princesses for the royal life and commoners to work alongside them as "Lady Royals." Flustered Blair is sure she doesn't fit in, but her new princess friends and the school's head mistress believe in her. The head teacher wants her own daughter to be crowned Princess of the land where the school is, and when she sees that Blair might be royalty, she becomes determined to stop her from making it to the graduation/coronation.
I really wish this has been available in September. It would have been an awful lot of fun for back-to-school. I didn't think I would like it after seeing the trailer earlier in the year. I learned a lesson today about not judging a movie from its advertisement. The trailer emphasized Blair's slapstick falling over her four-inch heels, but the special only has a little of that, and mostly in the beginning. Though it has a lot in common with earlier princess tales (Barbie on a quest; Barbie meets lots of buddies; Barbie is helped by small creatures; well-meaning but nasty mother pushes her daughter over Barbie), the modern setting and Blair's down-to-Earth personality gives it a refreshing twist. The animation looks better, too, if still a tad bit waxy. Still, it's a vast improvement over the last two fairy-themed stories.
I went for a short walk after Princess Charm School ended. It was still gloomy and damp and dripping, but the rain was holding off. I hiked down to the end of Goff Avenue. The water was steel-colored and sharp, like it could prick your finger if you touched it. The trees, now stripped of most of their leaves, looked bare and dismal. I moved along down back to Kendall Boulevard, passing a few of the last kids going home from school on my way.
It started raining shortly after I got back home. This time, I took the hint. I spent the rest of the evening inside. There's a reason I only dust under the toys and books every couple of months...and that reason is it takes forever to do! Of course, it would take even less time if I didn't get distracted by every other book in the apartment. It wasn't until quarter of 7 that I finally got it all done.
Though it was late, I still pulled out the Santa Bag before I had dinner. The big red felt Santa Bag has all of the Christmas items that are too big or awkwardly shaped to fit in containers (like the wreath for the front door and the Ferro Rocher bell) or that I just want to put up first (the poinsettia-print placemats, the holiday-colored coasters that used to be pot holders, the mistletoe).
I ran Max and Ruby while I had leftovers and roasted Brussels sprouts for dinner. I did rent this one last year, but there's some really cute episodes here. The title one, with Max waiting impatiently for Santa (despite his sister trying to shoo him to bed), is adorable. I also like "Max Is It." Ruby and her buddies Louise and Valerie want Max to play Freeze Tag with them. He agrees...but only so he can chase Ruby and get the candy she has in her backpack.
Maybe running out to the Haddon Township Library this morning wasn't a great idea. It had rained on and off all morning, and continued to do so into the afternoon. It was gray, wet, and dismal as I made my way across Newton River Park. The only creatures who weren't bothered by the rain were the flocks of Canadian geese who grazed in great numbers around the path. (The flock was so big, I just walked my bike to the street instead of trying to go around them.)
Surprisingly, the library wasn't that busy when I came in. There were no DVDs for me to shelve, so I organized the kids' DVDs and put away picture books instead. I eventually rented four DVDs - the new Barbie As special, Barbie: Princess Charm School, Max and Ruby's Christmas, and two movies, the version of The Green Hornet from earlier this year and Nowhere Boy, a biography of the teen days of John Lennon.
Made a quick stop at Super Fresh after I left the library. They're having a sale on oatmeal, which I forgot to pick up on Friday. I also found good sales on Whole Wheat Flour and the Dr. Oteker mousse mixes I like. I decided to stock up for the holidays.
On my way home, I stopped at WaWa. I was going to buy a salad, but their salads are huge and not that cheap. I opted for a Santa Fe Chicken Wrap instead. The rain had stopped by this point, but would start again not long after I got home.
I ran Princess Charm School as I put everything away and made my bed. Barbie's tales of royal girls are thrust into the here and now as Blair, a hard-working young girl from a poor foster family, finds herself with a scholarship to a boarding school that prepares princesses for the royal life and commoners to work alongside them as "Lady Royals." Flustered Blair is sure she doesn't fit in, but her new princess friends and the school's head mistress believe in her. The head teacher wants her own daughter to be crowned Princess of the land where the school is, and when she sees that Blair might be royalty, she becomes determined to stop her from making it to the graduation/coronation.
I really wish this has been available in September. It would have been an awful lot of fun for back-to-school. I didn't think I would like it after seeing the trailer earlier in the year. I learned a lesson today about not judging a movie from its advertisement. The trailer emphasized Blair's slapstick falling over her four-inch heels, but the special only has a little of that, and mostly in the beginning. Though it has a lot in common with earlier princess tales (Barbie on a quest; Barbie meets lots of buddies; Barbie is helped by small creatures; well-meaning but nasty mother pushes her daughter over Barbie), the modern setting and Blair's down-to-Earth personality gives it a refreshing twist. The animation looks better, too, if still a tad bit waxy. Still, it's a vast improvement over the last two fairy-themed stories.
I went for a short walk after Princess Charm School ended. It was still gloomy and damp and dripping, but the rain was holding off. I hiked down to the end of Goff Avenue. The water was steel-colored and sharp, like it could prick your finger if you touched it. The trees, now stripped of most of their leaves, looked bare and dismal. I moved along down back to Kendall Boulevard, passing a few of the last kids going home from school on my way.
It started raining shortly after I got back home. This time, I took the hint. I spent the rest of the evening inside. There's a reason I only dust under the toys and books every couple of months...and that reason is it takes forever to do! Of course, it would take even less time if I didn't get distracted by every other book in the apartment. It wasn't until quarter of 7 that I finally got it all done.
Though it was late, I still pulled out the Santa Bag before I had dinner. The big red felt Santa Bag has all of the Christmas items that are too big or awkwardly shaped to fit in containers (like the wreath for the front door and the Ferro Rocher bell) or that I just want to put up first (the poinsettia-print placemats, the holiday-colored coasters that used to be pot holders, the mistletoe).
I ran Max and Ruby while I had leftovers and roasted Brussels sprouts for dinner. I did rent this one last year, but there's some really cute episodes here. The title one, with Max waiting impatiently for Santa (despite his sister trying to shoo him to bed), is adorable. I also like "Max Is It." Ruby and her buddies Louise and Valerie want Max to play Freeze Tag with them. He agrees...but only so he can chase Ruby and get the candy she has in her backpack.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Emma's Webs
It was just too darn warm when I got up this morning. It was a little cloudy and breezy... and almost in the 70s. That's just not right in late November in southern New Jersey. It didn't even feel right when I ran the holiday-themed Cricket On the Hearth during breakfast.
Cricket is one of Rankin-Bass' most unusual specials. Danny Thomas introduces and stars in this tale of the insect of the title, Crocket (Roddy McDowell, who also narrates) who helps out a set of young lovers (Marlo Thomas and Ed Ames) when he is believed lost at sea and she becomes blind from the shock. He turns up again the day before Christmas, but she's set to marry an ugly old miser (Hans Conried). Crocket does his best to make sure the pair learn the true meaning of love...and of the Christmas spirit.
That this is based after a Charles Dickens short story doesn't make it any less strange. The psychedelic animation (not to mention the prominence of pop singer Ames and comedienne Thomas, the latter then appearing in the sitcom That Girl!) marks this as a 1967 production. Some of it isn't for younger kids, either, including at least one death that occurs off-screen and a lot of the melodrama. Try it with older kids who find some of the simpler Rankin-Bass specials too mawkish, but start the little guys with the original Rudolph or Frosty first.
Headed out to get my laundry done after Cricket ended. Perhaps due to the very warm day, the laundromat wasn't busy. I was able to get in and out within an hour, despite a large load that included several towels and dust rags.
I put everything away when I got home, then threw open the windows. The apartment was too warm to leave them closed! Maybe it was just as well. I've discovered over the past week that I seriously needed to dust around the woodwork and behind furniture. There were huge cobwebs and dust bunnies all over the place. It was horrible and very dusty! I finished with just enough time for a quick lunch of leftovers and some Hello Kitty Furry Tale Theater shorts before heading for work.
Work was quiet when I came in, but picked up during rush hour and was just starting to slow down when I finished around 8PM. It's the beginning of the month, with all the annoying customers that often come out then in full force. One woman would pull an item out of her cart, sniff at it, smell it, then hem and haw over it for five minutes or so, before finally deciding to drop it on the conveyor belt or in a basket. After ten minutes of this, I got so fed up, I turned her over to a manager. (I was on my way to to my fifteen-minute break anyway.) Not only did she end up returning more than half of what was in her cart, but she carried her credit cards and money in a huge sock and took forever finding it.
Later, I had a couple of those older women who give five hundred orders on how to bag, but refuse to lift a finger to help...and when they do, they rearrange everything that I've done because I gave them too many bags. Of course there's going to be a lot of bags! If the bags are light, with only a few items, there's going to be a lot of them. That's life. Thank goodness there was plenty of help, and it was quiet enough by 8 that I was able to leave quickly with no relief.
It was just too darn warm when I got up this morning. It was a little cloudy and breezy... and almost in the 70s. That's just not right in late November in southern New Jersey. It didn't even feel right when I ran the holiday-themed Cricket On the Hearth during breakfast.
Cricket is one of Rankin-Bass' most unusual specials. Danny Thomas introduces and stars in this tale of the insect of the title, Crocket (Roddy McDowell, who also narrates) who helps out a set of young lovers (Marlo Thomas and Ed Ames) when he is believed lost at sea and she becomes blind from the shock. He turns up again the day before Christmas, but she's set to marry an ugly old miser (Hans Conried). Crocket does his best to make sure the pair learn the true meaning of love...and of the Christmas spirit.
That this is based after a Charles Dickens short story doesn't make it any less strange. The psychedelic animation (not to mention the prominence of pop singer Ames and comedienne Thomas, the latter then appearing in the sitcom That Girl!) marks this as a 1967 production. Some of it isn't for younger kids, either, including at least one death that occurs off-screen and a lot of the melodrama. Try it with older kids who find some of the simpler Rankin-Bass specials too mawkish, but start the little guys with the original Rudolph or Frosty first.
Headed out to get my laundry done after Cricket ended. Perhaps due to the very warm day, the laundromat wasn't busy. I was able to get in and out within an hour, despite a large load that included several towels and dust rags.
I put everything away when I got home, then threw open the windows. The apartment was too warm to leave them closed! Maybe it was just as well. I've discovered over the past week that I seriously needed to dust around the woodwork and behind furniture. There were huge cobwebs and dust bunnies all over the place. It was horrible and very dusty! I finished with just enough time for a quick lunch of leftovers and some Hello Kitty Furry Tale Theater shorts before heading for work.
Work was quiet when I came in, but picked up during rush hour and was just starting to slow down when I finished around 8PM. It's the beginning of the month, with all the annoying customers that often come out then in full force. One woman would pull an item out of her cart, sniff at it, smell it, then hem and haw over it for five minutes or so, before finally deciding to drop it on the conveyor belt or in a basket. After ten minutes of this, I got so fed up, I turned her over to a manager. (I was on my way to to my fifteen-minute break anyway.) Not only did she end up returning more than half of what was in her cart, but she carried her credit cards and money in a huge sock and took forever finding it.
Later, I had a couple of those older women who give five hundred orders on how to bag, but refuse to lift a finger to help...and when they do, they rearrange everything that I've done because I gave them too many bags. Of course there's going to be a lot of bags! If the bags are light, with only a few items, there's going to be a lot of them. That's life. Thank goodness there was plenty of help, and it was quiet enough by 8 that I was able to leave quickly with no relief.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Caught In the Cobwebs
Started a sunny, breezy, too-warm morning off with Brunch With the Beatles. George Harrison, who passed away around this time in November 2001, was in the spotlight today. Among his songs played were "Do You Want To Know a Secret," the covers "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Chains," "Do You Want To Know a Secret?", "Don't Bother Me," "Taxman," "Something," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and "Here Comes the Sun." Solo numbers included "My Sweet Lord," "Give Me Love," "I've Got My Mind Set On You," and my favorites of his songs on his own "Blow Away" and "All Those Years Ago."
Called Mom during the second hour of the show. I tried to call her earlier, but I kept getting a busy signal. I figured she was probably taking to her sister Terri, who is a bit of a chatterbox, and I was right. She was also on her way to the shower and in a bit of a hurry, so we didn't talk for too long. She loved the Cranberry Bread and had eaten more than half of it, and the rest of the household had made short work of all but the heel of the Cinnamon Strusel Bread.
My Banana Pancakes really filled me up this morning, so I didn't pack much of a lunch. I didn't rush heading out the door to work, either. Thankfully after the last few days, work was steady, but not really busy. We probably won't be really busy again until we get closer to Christmas and Hanukkah and people start buying food for holiday baking and parties.
The moment I came home, I changed into my Eagles shirt, grabbed my purse, and went back out to watch the game at Uncle Ken's. Turns out there was no need to rush to that, either. The only people watching the game with Uncle Ken were Blake, his dad, Dolores, and a couple of Uncle Ken's buddies. I did have a meatball sandwich with them for dinner and got to see most of the second quarter.
I had some unexpected extra time on my hands when I got back in around quarter after 6. I ended up doing the vacuuming tonight instead of tomorrow. Turns out there was a lot more to do than I thought. The kitchen was a mess, with leaves and bits of acorns everywhere from the front door. (The only entrance to the apartment is in the kitchen.) I moved several small shelves and discovered cobwebs in places I didn't know cobwebs could be. I'm going to have a LOT of dusting to do over the next few days.
(And no, the Eagles didn't win. They lost to the New England Patriots 38-20.
Started a sunny, breezy, too-warm morning off with Brunch With the Beatles. George Harrison, who passed away around this time in November 2001, was in the spotlight today. Among his songs played were "Do You Want To Know a Secret," the covers "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Chains," "Do You Want To Know a Secret?", "Don't Bother Me," "Taxman," "Something," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and "Here Comes the Sun." Solo numbers included "My Sweet Lord," "Give Me Love," "I've Got My Mind Set On You," and my favorites of his songs on his own "Blow Away" and "All Those Years Ago."
Called Mom during the second hour of the show. I tried to call her earlier, but I kept getting a busy signal. I figured she was probably taking to her sister Terri, who is a bit of a chatterbox, and I was right. She was also on her way to the shower and in a bit of a hurry, so we didn't talk for too long. She loved the Cranberry Bread and had eaten more than half of it, and the rest of the household had made short work of all but the heel of the Cinnamon Strusel Bread.
My Banana Pancakes really filled me up this morning, so I didn't pack much of a lunch. I didn't rush heading out the door to work, either. Thankfully after the last few days, work was steady, but not really busy. We probably won't be really busy again until we get closer to Christmas and Hanukkah and people start buying food for holiday baking and parties.
The moment I came home, I changed into my Eagles shirt, grabbed my purse, and went back out to watch the game at Uncle Ken's. Turns out there was no need to rush to that, either. The only people watching the game with Uncle Ken were Blake, his dad, Dolores, and a couple of Uncle Ken's buddies. I did have a meatball sandwich with them for dinner and got to see most of the second quarter.
I had some unexpected extra time on my hands when I got back in around quarter after 6. I ended up doing the vacuuming tonight instead of tomorrow. Turns out there was a lot more to do than I thought. The kitchen was a mess, with leaves and bits of acorns everywhere from the front door. (The only entrance to the apartment is in the kitchen.) I moved several small shelves and discovered cobwebs in places I didn't know cobwebs could be. I'm going to have a LOT of dusting to do over the next few days.
(And no, the Eagles didn't win. They lost to the New England Patriots 38-20.
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