Snnnnnnnnlush! And Corn, and W&G ...

The first slush of the season has arrived. We knew it was coming, there's been a winter storm warning out for a few days already. Saturday was gorgeous, one of our usual unreal blue sky days, high of about 80, then yesterday it started to cloud over. It started to rain as we were driving over to the
Corn Maze, but that was OK since gloomy fall weather is what you SHOULD have when you're walking through dried up corn fields, right? Unfortunately, the lowest common denominator factored in and the Maze was closed down about 20 minutes after we went in - turns out that someone in the past has fallen in the mud and gotten hurt, so of course if there is any sign of slipperiness, everything must shut down. Stupid logic as I'm guessing that lots of unsafe activities have gone on in the maze - mostly after dark, if you catch my drift - but oh well. They were cool enough to give us our money back, so I was happy.

With some time on our hands, we decided to go check out Wallace & Gromit. At 95% on the Tomatometer, I figured it was a slam dunk. Plus, I didn't want to see Corpse Bride, after being underwhelmed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I wasn't about to get away from Helena Bonham Carter, though - she's in W&G too, doing the voice of Lady Tottington. Anyhoo, it occurred to me as we were walking into the theater that reviewers might favor W&G simply because it's supposed to be more intelligent, and that might mean that it's really just dull. The first half of the movie served well as proof of this theory, offering up only a few chuckles. After that, though, it tipped to the funny side and I woke up (literally - I leaned over on Bill's shoulders and closed my eyes a couple of times). There were quite a few roars of laughter from the adults during the second half of the movie, accompanied by looks of confusion from the kids who didn't know what had gotten into the parents. Bottom line - funny, but doesn't need a big screen, especially if you don't have kids.

So then about this snow. It's a messy sort of snow, not something that gives over to visions of sleigh bells and hot chocolate - more like dreams of car washes and mud room additions. One of our apple trees is now a goner, split down the middle from the weight of snow on branches that haven't lost their leaves yet, and our front yard tree (no idea what it is) will suffer some damage but will make it through. Most of the other trees in the cul de sac look like they got hit a lot harder than ours. Usually the snow would have stopped and even melted by now, but this front is stalled. There's none of our usual Rocky Mountain sun and dry air to suck it back up into the atmosphere until tomorrow, so the drive home will be a mess. Still, it's the kind of weather that makes you want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and a kid, so it's not all bad, right?