Hail and Twilight

Our little mountain towns only seem to make the news for natural disasters. Last year it was for fires, this year it's for flooding. The county decided against clearing out logjams from rivers since they provide habitat for coho salmon. As a result, at least 50 homes near the river flooded and were evacuated.

Everything is going well at our place, though, with the barn only having flooded once. But the night before last was another story. Alex and I went down to the barn to feed the horses. We keep our ewe barricaded in one of our horse stalls when the weather gets bad, because her pen doesn't have much cover. Our ewe, Sheepy, often busts out into the main stall during the day, but we have to shut her up again at night otherwise she'll go into Mickey's stall and eat all his food. As Alex was chasing Sheepy back into her stall, hail began pounding the roof of the barn, spooking Mickey. He bolted out of his stall and took off into the darkness.

Teyla was with us but was too afraid to go out into the hail, but just in case, we locked her into the barn while we tried to lure our wild old man horse back into his stall. He was quite the sight -- a dark, galloping shape through the torrent of white -- the roar of the hail was like a crashing wave. Every time he trotted close to the barn he'd hear the pounding on the roof and bolt again. Alex eventually got a bridle around him and led him back inside. His eyes were wide and his fur was cold, to the say the least!

We aren't used to hail like that -- it looked like it had snowed.





Another storm approached the next day, looming its bruised belly over the mountains.


By that evening, it was so cloudy/foggy that we couldn't even see the mountain range across from us!


Being cooped up inside is starting to get to me. When it's not pouring rain I run (the other day I was jogging, noticed that it was hailing on the other side of the arena, thought that was funny, then belatedly realized it was headed my way and bolted under the trees as I was pelted... laughing the whole time) and we manage to hike. But sometimes we do silly things to amuse ourselves.

For example, we call all of our relatives on their birthdays and sing "Happy Birthday" to them. Teyla always gets excited and joins in with howls and barks. We tried to get her to do it on her own by singing a song from Littlefoot about being happy that I recently used to make a funny Jonas Quinn (from Stargate SG-1) music video:

That didn't do the trick, but "Happy Birthday" did.

We also amused ourselves by making a Harry Potter parody (spoilers for the 6th book).

Harry Potter and the Secret of All Secrets

In other news, we finally saw Twilight. Because it was on TV, we paid no money to see it, and it pays to know thine enemy. I expected rage, disbelief, shock, unintentional comedy, etc. in my reaction since I can't even stomach a paragraph of the books. Instead, while there was lots of laughter from the unintentional comedy, I am left without the rage. At times I get depressed thinking "THIS is what half the population is obsessed with? How do they all not eat their own shit?" but my reaction to the film was different. I'm not even convinced I saw it. I mean, I know I watched the movie, but I didn't really see much of anything. There wasn't much to hate because there wasn't much there, period. The vaguest of plots, the lack of chemistry, the monotone voice overs... I feel like I saw someone's notes on what they'd like to write about/make a movie about. I am stunned that this was the final product.

Our discussions of what makes Edward looks so strange, however, were quite fruitful. I finally concluded that he looks like a Picasso painting -- all of his features tilt at a different angle. Thus inspired, my sister and I set out trying to capture the spirit of Twilight through some art. Here it is.

Edward, by Kellie Rice

Jacob, Edward, and Bella, by Alex Rice

Bella, by Kellie Rice

Edward, by Kellie Rice

Edward and Bella, by Alex Rice. This Edward is so realistic, it gives me shivers.

Eragon, by Kellie Rice

Bell and Jacob the "Indian" by Kellie Rice

Anonymous: Yeah no yeah no yeah. No. Yeah.

the other Amanda: School was actually canceled because there was no power, and there were a lot of trees down which meant kids couldn't get to school, anyway. It doesn't often get canceled for those reasons, but when it does, no one much complains! ;)