Dec 30, 2011

Ghosts of Christmas Past


The Kroll cousins have done a lot of these candidly terrible Christmas photos. This one is from family Christmas 2011, and features [left to right] myself, Katelyn, and Kristen.

Here are a few of my other favourites:

2009 - Kristen, Steven, myself

2007- Wes, Steven, Kristen, Me, Katelyn
My favourite thing about this picture is what happened afterwards. Everyone was pretty wet, as is usually the case when you release 5 teenagers into the snow. However, Steven and Wes had been wearing jeans and didn't have extra snow stuff on. When they returned inside, they both took their pants off, Wes (Katelyn's now fiancee) wore a pair of Grandpa's jeans, and Steve covered himself up with a bright pink towel while Grandma put the wet clothes in her dryer. 

I think this was 2006.

As you can see, we've had some pretty good photos done in the last five years. It's a tradition I am sure we will keep up, as it just produces the funniest pictures.

And don't worry, being the good generational dutch family we are, there are many more cousins on that side of the family. See?


Word of the Day: Rain

Quote of the Day: "I am grammatically appalled."

Dec 21, 2011

Surprise!

All the way from Germany...


That's one big Christmas Kinder Surprise! Thanks Micha!

Word of the Day: Oma

Quote of the Day: "You know what's not funny, male pattern baldness!" Chandler, from Friends

Dec 19, 2011

Nice one, Google.


No, I guess one doesn't, does one...

Word of the Day: Ptolemy

Quote of the Day: "The internet is composed of 80% porn, 15% cat videos, and 5% everything else." Jon Macdonald

Dec 18, 2011

Yep, its a snow sky.

Today I watched Hairspray because I didn't feel like studying. All the while, keeping an eye on the greying sky hovering over Ancaster.

Hairspray is one of those movies that will make me laugh everytime I watch it. It's just so hilarious, and its cast is excellent. You can't get much better than Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, Amanda Bynes, Elijah Kelley, Michelle Pfiffer, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, James Marsden (insert little heart here) and John Travolta. It's no Christmas classic, but it'll do, pig, it'll do.

One of my favourite Christmas movie moments, though, comes to us from ELF.



Aha, I know how much my mother just *loves* Will Ferrell. But I think this movie is adorable.

Actually, now that I think about it, Christmas specials, movie moments, and Holiday cheer should be recognized. Here are some of my other favourites:

The Santa Clause with Tim Allen




Home Alone with Macauley Culkin




The Polar Express with Tom Hanks




The Sound of Music with Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews
(you're going to need to click the here to get the video)
It has always been a Christmas watch at our house.


The Nativity Story with Keisha Castle-Hughes




What are your Christmas favourites?

Word of the Day: relaxation

Quote of the Day: "Yep, it's a snow-sky." Abigail

Dec 16, 2011

Freud and Milton

They should never again be used in the same sentence. I can now completely understand why no one has ever bothered to put these two together in an academic paper before.

So, thought I, no secondary research means I get to have some creative liberties.

However, no secondary research means that I have been reading Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams" today, and NOT loving every minute of it. I'm not a psych student, so I don't entirely know what he is talking about some of the time.

Oh well, Academia, I love thee.

Word of the Day: Dreams...

Quote of the Day: "Desdemona was too sexy and too virtuous for her own good; better to be an alto and be both sexy and promiscuous, so that there is no question of the matter because everyone (read: men) wants an alto - soproanos are only ever good when they're on top; altos are more flexible." - Emily, Joel, and Maria.

Dec 13, 2011

Nativity Scene Fail

Thanks to my friend Reubin for pointing this out to me:


Can you figure out what is wrong with this picture?

Hint: Think 600 A.D.

Word of the Day: Milkshake

Quote of the Day: "Now that shit is reader response!"

Dec 12, 2011

The Luther Story

Luther is my new Betta. He was purchased in September, just before school began. Dan had Northrop for the summer, which was all snowfalls and roses until Northrop died. I have a hard time without a fish, now (emotional attachment issues), and I have a harder time remembering that Luther's name is Luther and not Northrop (I call him Northrop at least 4 times a week, and Amanda scoffs at me, every single time).

Well, seeing as I've been having camera problems (site earlier blog entry where I recounted my camera falling to the bottom of the lake), I decided just to pull off a photo of a blue betta fish (since Luther is blue), that resembled Luther most.

iStock photo. Borrowed from a website that had a lovely article about fish
and their habits. Thanks guys!


It actually very closely resembles Luther. He has the cool red fins close to his head. But his head is black, not light blue.

Now. Northrop was a wonderful fish. He truly was. He never complained, he was always exuded patience in the morning while waiting to be fed. He transfered well, and loved minding his own business.

Luther, on the other hand is a little rat. He loves Amanda's music, basically gives himself a concussion every morning while waiting for food, and doesn't have a strange hate of highlighters like Northrop did (which is good, I think). He has, however, a nasty habit of rearranging the bowl. I'm not kidding. He tends to get angry at the small aquarium marbles I have on the bottom, and often slaps them around the tank. He's even pushed one of the bigger rocks around, simply because it was blocking his favourite water-vine. He doesn't scare easily, and he hasn't been sick yet (I've changed the water once since I got him...)

It's humourous, really. I wrote a paper at my desk the other day and Luther decided to put on a show. I think he wanted attention, but he gave me a show. Luther bolted across the bowl, miscalculated depth perception, faceplanted into the glass, jolted back in surprise (I don't know what he was expecting), got caught in the reeds, wiggled himself out, and repeated the whole thing several (and by several, I mean at least 15) times.

He's entertaining though. Peppy. I like peppy.

Word of the Day: Mock

Quote of the Day: "Congratulations, Amanda!" (There's a story here)

Dec 11, 2011

So many good things...

So many good things happen when it snows.

- My first (real) kiss.
- Christmas
- A sparkling world.
- Entering Narnia
- Snow-ball fights
- Hot Chocolate with friends.
- Pretty walks.
- Icicles.
- It snowed on my first birthday.

I came out of my Classical History class and the ground was covered. And I stood there in the snow and let it fall on my face. Just stood there for about ten minutes in the middle of Redeemer's academic building parkinglot, face to the sky, letting the flakes fall on my face. In fact, I'm fairly sure I looked a little something like this:


In my imagination, I'm fairly sure that is what the night looked like. 

The night ended with a parking-lot wide snowball fight sometime around midnight, pelting our friend from Zimbabwe (who had never seen snow), with the wettest, most amazing first-snow snowballs. 

Now, we are entering into our weeks of exams. I am 3 exams, one issue of The Crown, and 2 final papers away from Christmas break. Then I have an unreasonable amount of novels to read for my second semester courses. 

Word of the Day: Coffee

Quote of the Day: "Tonight's the night the world begins again." Googoo Dolls, Better Days

Dec 4, 2011

Soundtracks for Papers.

My weekend:

wake up. write paper. repeat.

This has been one of the worst weeks I have ever had in terms of homework and life stuff. The life-stuff I can't really get into, but it sufficiently affected the time frame I had to work on my papers.

Monday marks the end of the hellish week. On Monday, I will be handing 3 papers (one comparing The Fiddlehead and the Malahat, both of which are Canadian Literary Journals released quarterly, one about the relationship between the Lady of Shalott, and Tennyson's Elaine the Lily Maid, and the last about censorship in Charles I's England.. the latter two are both upwards of 2500 words). I will also be presenting two theses for my finals in my fourth year seminar courses.

Soundtracks of the weekend? Every Michael W Smith Christmas song I could get my hands on, MercyMe Christmas, Sting Christmas, Point of Grace Christmas, and the new Jingle Bell Rock by the Newsboys. Brilliant.

My brain is exhausted.

Word of the Day: Effectively (I have probably overused it in my papers)

Quote of the Day: Nothing. I have been staring at a computer screen all day...