massive attack

I'm too tired to write much, but it will be interesting to see if I get back to California tomorrow...an ice storm is currently beginning to move over my area, and is supposed to last all night. That could severely hamper my ability to drive the seventy miles from my house to the airport. Luckily I don't have to be there until 4:30 or so, so hopefully they can clear the roads...but I need to go to work on Tuesday, so I hope that everything works out okay.

However, it's been a great break, and today was a fitting end to it; my mom made vegetable stew (and by vegetable I mean mostly meat and potatoes, w/some corn, green beans, carrots, and tomato juice for color), and Aunt Becky and Grandma came over to eat. We tried to play hearts, but it's a bad game for six people, so we quit early. Then we played a quick hand of 'square dance solitaire,' which evolved over my vacation into an actual game of sorts; it started when I was playing solitaire after a game of hearts, and my dad was sitting at the table watching me and telling me what to play. This eventually developed into some sort of singsong rhythm, which turned into a rhythmic call-type 'song,' like move callers for square dancing. We built it up for my aunt, telling her she had to play square dance solitaire...and when my dad first started calling the moves, she laughed until she cried.

I guess you had to be there.

Anyway, then Lorena showed up with some books on Scotland that she wanted to loan me after I told her I was interested in Scotland, and she read us all a Scottish version of 'Three Little Pigs' in a Scottish accent. We also drank some champagne that I had brought back for new years eve and not opened, since I knew it would turn to vinegar if I left it here. Aunt Becky, Lorena, and Gram all left, but Katie showed up around 7:30. We didn't talk much, and instead watched a re-run of 'Cold Case' on CBS, followed by a network airing of 'Behind Enemy Lines.' I actually liked it a lot; the premise wasn't particularly great, the idiocy level was high (like when Owen Wilson called in to base to say that he was at the rendezvous point, lost contact in the same location, and the admiral was yelling for someone to 'triangulate his position,' which should have been completely unnecessary). They made effective use of completely unnecessary slow-motion, Owen Wilson was ridiculous in the serious role since he often appeared to have a Hansel-type pout (although I'm of course biased because I have seen Zoolander 300 times), and I completely loved it, of course.

So for a last day, that was pretty great--awesome soup, games with my family, square-dance solitaire, Scottish folk tales, champagne, quality time with my best friend, and a thoroughly ridiculous war movie. Yay. So, goodbye Iowa...I shall see you again around the Fourth of July. See you soon, California...I'll be back before you know it (unless I'm iced in, of course).