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).

A moment I probably should have had a long time ago

I have never been in a position where I was receiving pressure from people to drink....until now. Last night I was sitting with some friends in the Stewards Bar (the bar in the college) and a fellow student kept asking me if I wanted a drink. I kept replying no, and then he said something that made me think.

If I continue to not drink and then gave it a try later in life would i look back on my 20's or 30's and think I had missed out on something?

It's questions like that one that worry me, because my brain started whirling around and I can't make it stop.

Chip & Lundges

Yesterday Harm, Catherine and I went on a little trip to Brighton (a city that is a 45 minute drive away). Brighton is a beautiful city by the sea with lots of cute colorful streets filled with shopping and restaurants. We had a wonderful day there eating cake and strolling the streets window shopping, basically enjoying one anothers company. I had to go to Rachel's (a girl from the books program) for Thanksgiving dinner so we set off around 4pm to get back for dinner at 5pm (I was planning on being fashionably late). Well after a train, another train that was delayed due to "youth causing mayhem", a third train, a bus (which almost ran us over), a little hail, another delayed train and a taxi we were finally back in Westdeania. It took us 3.5 hours to get home! And to top it all off once we were back in Chichester I slipped on a greasy chip causing me to rein act a move from Flashdance. It was awesome.

Dream Dream Dream

I've been having really weird dreams lately. One involving me and Jenny roller skating in the rain in London. Another where I was in a military training camp with a girl called Sarah and she was making me blow a whistle that would give away my position. And finally last night I was asleep for maybe 45 minutes and I screamed a little whimper of a scream and woke myself up. I had no idea what the hell happened. I think my brain needs some conserving.

Pretty Stuff

Last night Harm was working on his essay in the computer suite while I chatted with Annalise and distracted Catherine from working on her essay. At the end of the evening Harm told me what his favorite English words are pretty and stuff. He had made this decision because they are words that have so many uses. It was at this moment that I decided I couldn't agree more...not to mention the fact that I was so proud of him making that decision as Catherine and I try to use those two words as much as humanly possible in life. Well done.

Today I told my friend Jenny about the BYU honor code...something I did NOT want to ever talk to people about. After explaining what's in said code her exact words were, "i can't even wrap my mind around that."
It's moments like these that I realize how strange our religion can really be.

I decided to check up on the news today in an effort to stay connected with the US of A. This was one of the top stories on MSNBC.com.

Here's a teaser in case you don't want to click through: "There’s a California sea lion that’s either brain damaged — or frisky."

Looks like I'm not missing too much.

James Morrison

I'm not sure if this guy is big in the states yet, but just wanted to give you a heads up. James Morrison...I'm a big fan. To learn more go here. I also found a podcast on iTunes with more about him and a better listen to his music, but I don't think the album is on the USA iTunes store yet. I really like "Wonderful World", the video is on his website. Enjoy.

Birthday Stuff

Well another year older. As many of you know I am now 25, some would say a quarter of a century. (actually many many people did say that to me) All in all it was a great birthday. The first 9 hours pretty much sucked, but the last last 5 made all the difference. I spent the entire day on my birthday making a knife used to thin down leather. We're talking 9 hours of grinding down a piece of STEEL in order to make a knife! It was a really really hard day that was made better by an amazing cake at tea time given to me by Sonia. After all the knife sharpening Sonia, Catherine, Harm and I went to and Indian restaurant for dinner. It was VERY needed. My hands hurt so bad from rubbing the metal on the stone all day, and I actually developed a twitch in my thumb for a couple days. But anyway, dinner was really good and we took our sweet time eating it and chatting about Sonia's amazing life.

After dinner we met up at the Sesly Arms for a drink with some other people and then I got to go home and talk to Kristin on the phone.

The picture above is a little summery of what I got for my birthday. Catherine gave me the cute green mug filled with hot chocolate, Jenny made me the amazing origami flowers, Sonia gave me some Poppycock and Harm made me a strop with my name carved on it. (a strop is used to sharpen knives) The cool looking curly wood is the "ribbon" Harm put on the wrapping. It was so cute. All in all an amazing birthday.

Every night me Sonia and Catherine end our day with a cupa something. I usually choose a hot chocolate, Sonia usually has a cappuccino, and Catherine has a "malt beverage" that is traditionally given to children to help with sleeping. This beverage is called Horlicks.....HOR----LICKS. Is it just me or does that sound like porno flick?

Bookie Open Workshop

Every workshop in the college has an open day during the year to invite other students to come in and see what you're working on. Yesterday we (the bookies) had our open workshop.

It's basically an excuse to drink and munch on snacks and see a little bit of our work. People came around to each work bench and got to hear all about exotic things like Japanese hinge repairs, and crossed structures. I set up a sewing frame for people to have a go at sewing on cords which went pretty well...the finished book wasn't something to write home about but at least people got to have some hands on experience. All in all it was a good night. It's always interesting that people want to know about what we're doing because to us it seems so boring, but lots of people came around and asked questions and seemed interested. I'm pretty sure the free booze had something to do with this interest, they gotta repay us somehow.

Anyway, I thought this picture was great, and I figured it was time to start slowly introducing you to the people I work with, and now I have a picture of pretty much everyone. This is Patrick, a very funny chap who sits on the opposite side of the room as me . I took the Calligraphy short course with him last week and got in trouble a couple times for laughing during the lecture because of the comments he was making. So there you go one down, 8 to go.

Yooooour Daaaaaalaaaas Mavericks!!!!!!!

I took a chance and decided to visit the Mavs website today.....to my complete approval this is what I saw:I have never wanted to be in Dallas more. Mavs v Spurs! Mavs fans! Crazy crazy Mavs fans! I love you and miss you sooooo much.

Dear Mavs,

Kick some ass tonight.

Love,
Kristi

Show and Tell

I took a calligraphy course this weekend where I learned how to write the lower case letters in an old typeface called Foundational. I realized it's tough writing in calligraphy when you're left handed mainly because you have to write like you're right handed to make it look right. Anyway just wanted to share that with ya'll.

I would also like to thank Kristin for sending me a kick-a package containing Halloween candy, a sweet card, and my evening entertainment for the next couple days. AND it arrived on Halloween! Brilliant.

Kristin I salute you! I'm pleased as punch.

Skittles!

Last night a bunch of us went out to a pub in Liss and played skittles! For those of you unwilling to click through to the link let me give you a run down of what this rainbow coated candy game is. It's basically the father of bowling, except there are 9 "skittles" (or pins) that are wooden and you throw a much smaller ball down the unwaxed lane to knock them down. You get three rolls and if you knock down all of the skittles before your third roll the skittles get put back up so you can have a possible high score of 27 points per turn. (this never happens, but it COULD if you were an exceptional skittler)

As for me my first try I only got 3 points for my team, as in I only knocked down three pins, that's an average of 1 pin per roll. (I'm real good at math). Or in other words I suck at skittles. There were about 16 people on each team so that meant loads of down time between turns and the opportunity to fill up on drinks and chatting. By my third try I was up to 6 skittles so things turned out pretty well. All in all a great evening. I'll be sure to post more of the skittling pictures asap because Sonia got some good ones.

Dream Dream Dream

Have you ever had a dream that was so real you expected it to be that way when you woke up. Last night I had a dream that Megan was alive and that her death was a really mean joke. I'm not telling you this to make you sad or feel bad for me or anything like that. It's just that I haven't told anyone at West Dean about her and I can't bare to tell people, but I needed to tell someone about that because it was so unreal. Anyway, I woke up thinking I would be in Plano or at my parents house and it was so strange. Just had to get that off my chest.

Meet n' Greet

I figured all of you would want to see the people I'm always talking about, so here they are:

This is Harm:

Ok, here's what he actually looks like:

And this is Catherine:

I don't actually have a picture of Sonia so I'll have to work on that. There are a couple other people I usually hang out with, but I never seem to have my camera when they are around. I'll have to work on that.