One particularly amusing segment was a video of Gustavo Dudamel conducting the 1st movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. The video is pretty much only a shot of his conducting, so it wasn’t as compelling for the girls as some of the other videos we’ve been watching. I made the amusing but ultimately self-defeating mistake of trying to perk their interest by saying, “take a look at his hair!” (in my defense, it is very impressive):

After a few minutes, the girls got bored and started running from one end of house to the other, chasing each other, and returning to the computer. Every time they came to the computer, Siena said, “look at his hair!” Eventually Thalia started saying it too, “look at his hair!” Apologies, therefore, to Maestro Dudamel.

The video we’ve been watching the most is a recording of the BBC Proms from 2009, a performance of the “Jupiter” movement. Nevermind that I think this is probably the best 7.5 minute piece of music ever, the girls especially like this not only because they like the music (Siena sings along to it now) but also because of all the people and their instruments:

I’ve been quizzing Siena on what the different instruments are so that she learns them, and she is now reasonably proficient about distinguishing among the trumpet, trombone, tuba, and french horn. We are working on the clarinet, oboe, and english horn still.

One time as Thalia and Siena were watching this video, Siena informed me that she was going to play the french horn. She then changed it to say she was going to play trombone, because she knows that’s what I played and she likes pleasing other people almost more than anything, but upon further inquiry, she has reliably declared french horn as her instrument. “When I’m older, I’m going to play the french horn.”

Based on my arguably limited knowledge of french horn players (high school band, regional and state orchestras and bands, college orchestra, a traveling orchestra, might have kind of dated one or two, or wanted to), I actually think french horn would be a pretty good choice for Siena. Certainly, she’ll have to go brass; even if she doesn’t end up on trombone she needs to keep it in the family. And french horn players always struck me as the quietest, kindest, most thoughtful, and most musically invested if not gifted of the bunch. These are characteristics Siena possesses in abundance. Of course, they were also the most maligned and trod upon by the other brass players, but c’est la vie. I would still love to hear Siena playing a french horn someday.

Meanwhile, Thalia upon watching the video and hearing us name the instruments as they appeared, declared (and has repeatedly confirmed this upon subsequent grilling):

“I’m gonna play tuba.”

And that too fits right in line with her character. Ooompa oompa.

Last Sunday when Mama had to go sit in some Continuing Education lecture all day (alas!), I managed to get Thalia to finally put the outfit on. Go me! Out came the camera for proof, and Thalia seems to love it:

Extra bonus in this Thalia picture-fest: Another one of her in some post-popcorn bliss:

Thalia loved her butterfly outfit:

Siena was a snow princess, ice princess, or eskimo, depending on her mood. She certainly was properly attired for trick-or-treating when the snow hit on October 29th:

It looked kind of like this:

On Sunday, when things didn’t seem so bad yet, we had a relatively normal day, except the girls romped in the snow on October 30 and we had to wear coats inside. Siena did her homework while Thalia crafted some. (Siena’s homework in this picture is to write her address and draw a picture of her house. Our house is not actually as colorful as she makes it seem.)

We discovered that we actually can get to sleep in a house that is 53 degrees *inside*, though it’s not easy. We all wore two or more layers of clothes and had multiple comforters and blankets piled on top. Siena slept with me and Thalia snuggled with Mama so that we could make sure the kids kept warm. Every morning we would get up, get quickly dressed, hop in the car, and drive to Thalia’s day care to have breakfast there. The teachers were very understanding and accommodating in allowing us to camp out at one of the toddler tables. (Some of the teachers were without power for a few days as well.) Fortunately, both the kids’ schools were open on Monday so we were able to drop them off in a warm, lit environment for the days, while I was able to go into work to shower and have internet access. Mama’s work was closed, being tied to the same trunk line that our town is powered on, so she was stuck either in the cold with the dog or driving around trying to find places to get warmth, light, food, or all three.

On Monday, I ordered one of the few generators from Amazon.com I could find that could be delivered next day for an additional $3.99 (we are happy, loyal Amazon Prime members). I also picked up a small space heater. Once we got the generator all sorted out on Tuesday afternoon, we found we could run the fridge or the freezer or the space heater (on low), but not any two at the same time. We consolidated the remaining good foodstuffs into the fridge, and kept that going most of the time along with some lights and power strips upstairs to charge our phones and provide some night lights for the girls.

One evening we went to Lowe’s for a pre-dinner activity, and went to the mall after dinner to pass time until bed time. We even put the girls in their halloween costumes and let them ride the merry-go-round in our mall’s food court, which they loved. We aimed to get home a little after normal bed time and just pop the girls into bed, get things in order for the next day, and go to sleep ourselves. Two of the evenings some friends of ours in town hosted us for dinner and kid baths, which was a huge help.

Thursday we finally saw the utility company trucks pull into town, and by Thursday evening at 8 PM we thought they’d be restoring our power, but they didn’t; they just restored it on the street next to ours. We were disappointed, to say the least. Friday morning, I followed a utility truck from Virginia around our street like a stalking paparazzi, asking them how things were progressing and when power would get restored. It turned out there were some branches hanging on the wires at the end of our street, and those had to be removed. The workers from Appalachia Energy were very friendly, and about 10 minutes after he told me that they were just about to “make us hot” again (presumably not any sly innuendo there), our lights flickered back into existence, all our thermostats clicked, and all the baseboards got to work.

Two hours later I was on my way to the airport to go to Georgia for my grandfather’s funeral, and Mama had to go pick up Thalia from day care because she had a fever, which turned out to be bronchitis or pneumonia, the doctor wasn’t sure which, and she was home through Tuesday the following week. What a week!

But she still loves it, as evidenced by this video, in which she is shouting “New bed!”

And we didn’t grown corn, but here are Siena and Thalia helping to shuck some: