726 "Squares"

Well, this afternoon Mom helped me cut the rectangles for my quilt. By help, I mean to say that she cut every single one of them with her rotary cutter.

Mom cut a lot of fabric today. But thankfully, that's the end of it to finish the face of the quilt. 

While I'm grateful that she cut all of the fabric, the edges are now even, instead of, well, cut by scissors like I had done previously. So now, one part of the quilt will clearly be entirely hand-done, and the other will have edges that are a little cleaner. I'll just put my stuff in the middle and everything else around it, so it doesn't look entirely ridiculous.

Before we began this crazy endeavour, we had to find the rotary cutter. Mom was looking all through her fabric bins and an old dresser in the basement (where she came across cross-stitch patterns she had apparently gotten rid of years ago). The rotary cutter was in her blue sewing basket. Now, if we return to the above photos, I would like to direct your attention to the YELLOW sewing basket in the second picture. That yellow sewing basket was the blue sewing basket we were looking for. Typical.

Cutting the fabric took about 6 hours, because we had to stop for dinner, and to say goodbye to Kristen, who was heading back to school. Then we had to open some windows ('cause apparently it was a beautiful day outside...so beautiful, in fact, that my beloved snow melted away), and then find more blue fabric. Eventually we got it all cut - and by we, I mean Mom, since she did all the hard work and I only counted...poorly. 

726 squares. Un-freakin'-believable.

Word of the Day: Fabric

Quote of the Day: "The basic American tourist has the IQ of a newt." Glenn Close, on Jay Leno

Ah-wim-bo-wae

Yesterday, Kristen and I watched The Lion King. I had purchased the newly re-released DVD sometime around Thanksgiving, and had brought it (along with about 10 other Disney movies) home for Christmas break.

This is my favourite part:



Although, knowing that The Lion King is loosely based off of Shakespeare's Hamlet makes me a little more inclined to laugh at the idiocracy of Timon and Pumba. Their characters are just so perfectly written.

Still, I can't help but laugh when I see youtube clips like this:



"They basically blamed him for winter!"

Ah well, it makes me laugh.

Word of the Day: Seriously? (I think Mom said this about 20 times yesterday)

Quote of the Day: "Awake my soul. You were made to meet your maker." Mumford and Sons

Conversations at 2am

Cheers to coherency.

Word of the Day: Astonished

Quote of the Day: "Can I battle wits with your demon computer?" Dan K 

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."

Joy.

Unspeakable joy.

Merry Christmas.

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

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

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

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.