Say Hello to my Little Friend

Every night when Catherine, Sonia and I meet up for our evening ritual of coffee and hot chocolate Sonia boils a kettle to fill her hot water bottle with. It is not an ordinary hot water bottle as it has its own cashmere cover (she only does cashmere, nothing else). Well tonight Catherine and I broke down and ordered our own cashmere hot water bottles. Mine is green and Catherine's is pink. I never thought I could get this excited about a rubber bottle with its own sweater.

Katy and Baby Jack

Chirstmas Ball Pictures

Just thought ya'll might want to see some pictures from the West Dean Christmas Ball.

Me & HarmWicked Bass Player
Alex & Sonia
Laurel & Hardy

Nigel & Imagen

In an effort to put off the writing of a really boring science assignment I have been categorizing my blog entries (notice the new set of labels attached to each post). This has given me the chance to go back and re-read bits of each entry in order to attach it to a specific label, a job not easily done as many of my posts are riddled with ridiculous comparisons and inarticulate thoughts. Nevertheless it has brought me to the conclusion that my posts are not nearly as funny as they used to be. What has happened?! In the beginning is was like "joke joke joke" and now it's "Hi I'm Kristi, this is what I did today". BORING! There are several obvious differences between the posts of yore and the posts of today.

1. I was working at a place where I spent around 50% of my day coming up with and perfecting my posts in order to maximize the funny.
2. I was surrounded by REALLY funny people (obviously not while at work, but the other hours of the day).
3. I was able to relate to said funny people with the help of several TV and inside joke references.

Needless to say I need to "up my funny" or start making up some really sweet stories about my new British friends "Nigel" and "Imagen".

Snow!

Yesterday my alarm went off at 7:30am as usual and as I was walking past the window near my bathroom I saw white out of the corner of my eye! It had snowed! I realize that to all of you living in the butt cold of Utah this is not an exciting thing, but it actually made me miss Provo (well maybe not Provo the city, but the people and events that took place there) and the snowy mountains. It was also Harm's birthday so that was a wonderful gift for him on his special day. A bunch of us went out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant (that was actually really good) and then moved on to a celebratory drink at the local pub. As Harm and I were walking back to the Dower House he said that it was one of his best birthdays, and I must say it was a lovely evening of well mannered frivolity.

Jenna just sent me this picture of Kate's first sleepover! I couldn't resist sharing it!

Baby Jack has arrived!

I just opened this email from Katy and thought you might want to see it too.

After 41 weeks 12 hours and 29 minutes, baby Jack has finally arrived! We are so excited to finally be parents and very nervous to take him home. Jack was born 7 lbs 9oz and 19 inches long.

After reaching a week over the due date, Katy and I decided yesterday to hit the track for about an hour. Later on Saturday night after dinner, Katy's contractions started to increase and were around 6-10 minutes apart. We arrived home after eating some dinner and were bored out of our minds. Believe it or not, I was actually reading a book on a Saturday night. As the night progressed the contractions started to increase to a consistant 6 minutes apart and at that point we decided to go to the hospital at 10:45pm.

Only dialated to a three, we took doctor's orders to walk around the nurses station for about a half hour. I don't believe I have ever seen a woman go from being in pretty good condition to one who can't walk anymore in a matter of minutes. Contractions intensified and Katy went from a 3 to a 5. At this point, Dr. Rice (our doctor) decided to admit her.

After getting into a room, Katy's wish came true very quickly; she recieved an epidural before even being officially admitted. Finally, after about 11 hours of heavy contractions, Katy started to push around 11am. At 12:29 pm on Sunday, Jack William Warren was born. He is a beautiful baby with a very, very cone shaped head.

We plan to stay a couple days in the hospital returning home on Tuesday. Thanks for all the support and prayers.

Love,

Clay and Katy

To those interested,

I was just re-watching a couple episodes of season 2 of Sex and the City and there is an episode where Miranda dates Gob. Ironically it is the episode about fetishes and he is obsessed with having sex in public places. The whole time I was waiting for him to perform some sort of illusion.

Just thought you might want to know,
K

Dear Jack Bauer,

Good luck on the container ship. May your next 24 hours be filled with kick-a killings, roundhouse kicks, and the trust of others.

Love,
Kristi

Catherine often uses three excuses.
1. She's ginger
2. She's a woman
3. She's gay

I tried to use the "same: three excuses this evening and came up with these:
1. I'm blonde
2. I'm a woman
3. I'm an American

Not quite the same. She called me the superior race.

Sticky Sticky Web

I went to a pub the other night called The Fox Goes Free and there was a live blues/jazzy type band playing. One of the members of the band was visiting from Boston and (Jenny pay attention) she played the harmonica REALLY well. So well that the majority of the time she was playing I found myself gasping for air because I was convinced she was going to pass out due to lack of oxygen. The best part was when she played a song called Sticky Web where she went on and on saying things like "my web is very sticky" only instead of the 6 or so notes that phrase could take she was dragging it out for 27. The best part was all I could think of was Phebe and her sexy phlegm as she sang Sticky Shoes.

Westwarts? Hogdean?

Well Jenny, I finally remembered to look up the title of the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Sounds scary. AND I had no idea it comes out March 31st! That is soooo soon! Just in time for my Easter holiday in fact! I couldn't be more excited! All this thinking about Harry Potter got me thinking about how similar Hogwarts is to West Dean....thus I have compiled a list of similarities.

1. Hogwarts is a castle -- West Dean is also a castle
2. Hogwarts has a whomping willow -- While the West Dean whomping willow does not whomp, it looks just like THE Whomping Willow
3. Students at Hogwarts celebrate by having a winter ball in the great hall -- West Dean students celebrated Christmas by having a fancy dress ball in the Oak Hall
4. Everyday Hogwarts students eat breakfast lunch and dinner together in a great hall where their meals magically appear -- Everyday West Dean students gather together and eat meals prepared by a not quite as magic kitchen staff.
5. Hogwarts is haunted by several ghosts -- West Dean has had several ghost sightings throughout the house
6. Hogwarts students have houses and secret passageways to their common rooms and dormitories -- West Dean has 7 programs and each one has a hidden away workshop within the college that is guarded by a secret code.
7. Hogwarts mail is delivered by owls -- West Dean HAS an owl. (ok that one was a long shot, but I can hear the hooting of an owl every night as I'm falling asleep)

Ok, I could go on and on about the similarities, but I'll spare you. Needless to say I am REALLY excited for the new Harry Potter book and can't wait to see what happens!

iMazing

I realize that every 4-6 months I go off about how amazing Apple is...but I gotta do it one more time. First of all I went to the Apple website to replace the shuffle charger that the airline managed to completely CRUSH on my flight here, but to my surprise I was greeted by the above image. So Apple is going to combine an iPod, a phone and the Internet into this amazing device called iPhone. I won't go into all of the kick-a features of this little miracle, but I will say that the HUGE screen is all touch activated...pretty sweet. This got me thinking about something else I saw over Christmas that made me love Apple even more.

I was walking through the mall and my sister and I see this really big vending machine filled with iPods and iPod accessories. That's right people, there was a GIANT iPod VENDING MACHINE IN THE MALL!!!!!! Those people at apple are always thinking! I wish I was one of them. Maybe they have some old computer manuals I can conserve for them.

Back at West Deania

Well I'm back in West Dean again. Sometimes I feel like I live in Groundhogs Day. I am seriously living the same day over and over again. It's weird....and slightly annoying. Things here are going as usual. We have jumped right back into the swing of things and each day is full of lectures and practical work. I think I'm coming down with something as my throat is feeling like somebody dragged a porcupine down it and then rinsed it off with a little salt and lemon. (too graphic...probably so) Man this is turning into a downer of a post, I'm so sorry.

Lets lift it up a little. I finally checked out the Scissor Sisters web page and made a couple videos for my own enjoyment. Still wasn't able to see the ones K and J made for me, but atleast now I have a clue as to what they look like. I made one of Harm and Sonia that was pretty priceless. I can see how that would easily keep anyone entertained for days.

Anyway, just wanted to update ya'll on what's going on here and how I'm filling my time.

Dear Readership,

I miss you.

Love,
Kristi

ready or not here I come

This afternoon I brought out my inner child by playing hide and go seek with Kate. It was unlike any challenge I have ever undertaken. After counting to the specified number of 22 I would go and look for her through the house. The best part was that after looking for less than one minute I would hear "I'm in Jill's room!". It was awesome! Man that girl is funny!

No Bull

The other day I decided to take a walk around the block (our block is 1.5 miles) to get some fresh air and enjoy the 70 degree Texas weather. I took the time to pet several horses from different pastures as I went and was lucky enough to have one follow me along the fence because it liked me so much. As I got closer to the main enterance to our neighborhood I heard two bulls from different pastures screaming at one another. One bull had horns and the other was the size of Sloth from Goonies. Needless to say walking between the two pastures where these two were facing off was a little scary...and matters became much worse when the horned beast noticed me and started following me along the fence while charging and mooing at me. It was at this point that I decided animals on the whole do not like me.

Exhibit A - The charging pecking chicken previously mentioned in another post

Exhibit B - The goose that charged me at a pub in Portsmouth

Edhibit C - Los Bull who also charged me and would have killed me had the fence not been there.

It is for the three above reasons that I have decided to place charging animals with a mean disposition on my "dead to me list". Take that suckas!

1 Year Annaversery!

Well one year and two days ago today I joined the blogosphere. And you what promped the whole thing to start? I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia with Annalise and Kelly and before the show started Annalise went to buy a package of Red Vines (crazy deliscious). As Kelly and I were sitting there somehow we got on the topic of blogs and what they were. At the end of the conversation I still had no idea what a blog was and decided to check it out the next day at work. In a last stitch effort to fill my day with something to do at I started a blog to unload my meaningless deivle on others. Thus my blog was born.

It's been an amazing investment of time and typing skills, google skills, photoshop skills and occasionally list making skills. In an effort to keep up on those skills I decided to make a couple lists, none of which have much relevance to one another.

Top 8 post titles:
8. Jolly Bunch of A**holes
7. All I want for Christmukkah is a Bar Mitz-vahkkah
6. Two Jacks, a crooked puppet, and a knocked up chick
5. does it look like i'm "hitn' that"?
4. "It's not like I "o-pah-ed" her plate"
3. The cackle of a man who's ankle should be broken.
2. I love lists. Lists, lists, lists
1. You bring your baby, I'll bring my dog and we'll meet at PetsMart. (thanks J)

8 Favorite British-isms
1. Pleased as punch: so happy you could drink a whole lot of punch
2. Nackered: to be shattered
3. Shattered: to be nackered
4. Foofle: to mess around and waste time
5. Two bites of a cherry: doing something the hard way
6. fagging winger: what Sonia says when she's trying to say wagging finger
7. Twit: jerk...but so much better
8. Tosser: glorified twit

3 nicknames I have received recently
Nursie Nurseberg
Bossie Bossberg
Drunkie Drunkberg (don't worry I wasn't drunk)
This game goes on and on with my name these days, it's really pretty funny.

One year of post reading and this is what I reward you, my readership with....I'm so sorry.

Call for Entries

A week from today is the West Dean Christmas party. It's "fancy dress" also known as a costume party in American. The theme is the 1920's or murder mystery...the theme keeps changing, but I'm sure if I came dressed as either of those it would be ok. I was planning on going as Velma from Scooby-Doo, however I have not been able to locate a short red wig...and as it turns out she doesn't wear the outfit I thought she did....so I don't have the right clothes anyway. In short the plan is crap and not gonna happen. So basically I have no costume and no plan and no other great idea for what to wear. In this time of need I am turning to you, my readership to help me solve this problem, or atleast give me some new ideas as my reservoir has run dry.

Happy Sint Nicholaas Day!

Last night Catherine, Jenny, Sonia, Harm and I gathered together next to the roaring fire in the Oak Hall for a night of Dutch tradition. In Holland they celebrate Sint Nicholaas day on the 6th of December. On the night of December 5th children put their wooden shoes in front of the chimney with a carrot or hay for Sint Nicholaas' horse. The next day the shoes have a little gift if the child has been good and salt & pepper if they were naughty. It is also tradition to receive the first letter of your name made of chocolate, Harm was lucky enough to receive a H and a J from his family.

Catherine got Harm a tiny hammer and Sonia and I got him a bottle of tomato ketchup. Harm LOVES tomato ketchup and never ceases to amaze me with his new uses of the condiment. We decided to wrap them in about 20 layers of paper, boxes and bags to make things a little more fun.

Chocolate letters are hard to find in England so he gave each of us a little bag of chocolates from Montazuma's (a really good chocolate shop). We all sat around enjoying one anther's company eating traditional Dutch biscuits, candies and crisps for an hour or so. The whole evening was gorgeous (and now I can't wait for Christmas).