Ninja Pres!

This just in: President Bush is a ninja and has cat-like reflexes. Sweet!

Oh, and don't throw shoes at the President. That's just disrespectful.

Thanksgiving Break Part Two: Turkey Day in London

I really need to blog about things before I forget what happened. Thanksgiving is already starting to blur. It was a lot of fun though. We didn't want to deal with cooking all that food in our kitchen, and even if we had wanted to the turkey wouldn't have fit in our mini oven. Instead, we bought everything already made from Whole Foods. The food was great and the clean-up has never been easier. That night we went to Phantom of the Opera, and other than the fact that the phantom had nothing on Gerard Butler, it was really good. We really wanted to see Ivanov which was ending that week and had Kenneth Branagh starring in it. When we went to get tickets we were told that to get same day tickets people started lining up at 5:00 am even though the ticket booths weren't open until 10:00. Laura and I decided that it was definitely worth it and woke up long before the sun to get in line at five. We were determined to be first in line and we were. No contest there. Not a single person showed up until 7:30 and even then people didn't really start coming until 8:00. At least we got our tickets, and we did get to see a lot happen. We started making a list so we wouldn't think about how freezing it was or how insane we were for actually being there at five:

Drug dealers: 4
Drug deals: 2
Drunk people approach us: 3
Sworn at by drunk man after rejecting his advances: 1
Drunk man serenading us and then attempting to hug me: 1
Being assumed as homeless: 3
Police escort: 1
Tickets bought: 6

It was completely worth it, Ivanov was incredible. Kenneth Branagh did an amazing job and the others were very good too. A couple of them were in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Pride and Prejudice. So glad Laura and I were crazy enough to think standing in line in the freezing cold for five hours sounded like a good time.

We also went to two museums and wandered around wonderful London. It was a great Thanksgiving, I only wish all our family was there. But, most of them are coming to join us for Christmas. We are spending a week up at a cottage in the Lake District and I am so excited. We are staying in the town were William Wordsworth lived! He is one of my favorite poets and I think I will spend the whole trip quoting him. "My heart leaps up..."

Thanksgiving Break Part One: Scotland

I'm going to split my Thanksgiving break into two posts. The Scotland part and the London part. Here goes Scotland:
A few days before Thanksgiving, my mom, Laura and Peter, Ruth, Leslie, and I took a short three day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a blast. The weather wasn't too bad other than one day which left me frozen. It didn't help that that was the day we had to wait 40 minutes for a bus that supposedly came every 15 minutes. I was dying and wanted to take a taxi, but everyone was sure our bus would be the next one. Right when we were ready to give up (I had been ready for a long time) we decided to wait for 15 more buses because the bus we needed was number 15. And of course, it was the last bus to show up. But, it was all worth it because it took us to the Rosslyn Chapel which was amazing. It was one of my favorite places of the trip. The inside was covered in carvings and masonic symbols. We weren't allowed to take pictures, so you are going to have to go to see it for yourself. We also got to go to the Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse which is where the Queen's residence in Scotland. We saw some great art, went on a wonderfully cheesy tour of the underground vaults, and got to walk around a lot and experience Edinburgh that way. We found some great restaurants and Peter was brave enough to order haggis. He claims to have enjoyed it. Leslie was brave enough to try some too. The rest of us wouldn't touch the stuff, but did have some intestine free vegetarian haggis. Edinburgh was such a beautiful place and I'm most certainly planning on going again. Preferably when it is warmer.



Edinburgh Castle







Huge cannon!







Palace of Holyroodhouse

How well they know me

My sister introduced me to these comics and I just adore them. They are funny and a little dark and twisted. So brilliant! Anyway, one of my biggest phobias is being watched. Google Earth freaks me out, people staring at me, even all the security cameras here bother me. I think this comic is so fitting:

Paris is only a chunnel away

My trip to Paris was more than two weeks ago, but better blog late than never. Hopefully you have read my sister's blog, she does a great job telling you what we did every day. And, since I am writing this two weeks later, I don't remember those kind of details. Paris was much cooler than I expected it to be. I had heard so much about how wonderful Paris is I thought there was no way it could live up to all that. But it definitely did. Even being rained on all but one day it was completely enjoyable. We managed to stay out of tourist traps and only got sucked into one restaurant that look great, but was worse than McDonald's. I'll just give you my short list of highlights in no particular order:
~Mom getting forced into giving a woman money who "found" a "gold" wedding ring on the ground and refused to keep it. She made Mom take it and then asked for money. We had no idea what to do with it, so now it's my key chain.
~d'Orsay! Especially the Van Gogh room. I think I want to live there.

~Victor Hugo's house was really cool. He had some odd taste, but can't argue with a genius.




~Saint Chapelle was indescribably beautiful. The stained glass everywhere was just incredible.




~Angelina's is a charming cafe. Their hot chocolate is so rich that one sip was all I needed. The inside was decorated exactly like you imagine a tea place should be. The first time we went we were able to walk right in. I was wondering how it could fill up because it was huge and had two floors. The second time we went, we had to wait 25 minutes. It was wonderful and everyone seemed to know it.
~Montmartre was a favorite if only because Amelie was filmed there. It was the most tourist-filled place out of the whole trip. I don't know why there were more people there than the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, maybe it was the time of day. Or just lots of Amelie fans.
~Walking everywhere was really cool. We did taxi a few times when the water sloshing in our shoes was just too much, or the water had soaked up to our knees, but we walked most of it. I loved walking as a was to experience the city away from the more touristy areas.
And, that was Paris! I definitely am planning to go again. Any takers?












Getting ready for the James Bond premiere.









Ok, the picture is small, but in the middle of the floor is a pigeon. He somehow managed to get in the building, up the escalators, through security, and through a bunch of stores. I guess he really wanted to go to London where all the fat pigeons are.

Related to Clooney?

My friend has recently decided that my dad is the LDS George Clooney. I don't know how I didn't see it before, the resemblance is uncanny.

Necklace from Israel

This is the necklace I brought home that was made by an Israeli jeweler. The store it was in was filled with her things, and they were all so wonderful. I just wandered looking at all the pretty sparklies. This necklace was my favorite one, and I couldn't resist. As my aunt pointed out, it was a great buy and I can even wear it on my wedding day. That day isn't coming anytime soon, but being prepared can't hurt.

Jordan and Israel

This trip was amazing. I had already been to Israel once with my sister Laura and a group of church members from Egypt, but it was such a different experience. Before, we didn't have a tour guide, and we just kinda showed up at sites and wandered around. It was great, but this time we had guides and the amazing Michael Wilcox who talked at each site. I learned a lot and loved being with my family. Being in Jordan made me miss Egypt (Leslie, don't kill me for saying that for the 1000th time!) and I'm going to have to save up to go back. I love the friendly chaos of it all. I didn't buy as much as I thought I would. I bought a beautiful long pearl necklace for insanely cheap, an amazing necklace made by an Israeli artist, a dirt cheap widow's mite, and some scarves (cause you can't live in London without them). I did bring home a rock from the valley where David kicked Goliath's trash, an oil lamp that was a gift, and a 13th century piece of pottery I found at the excavation site we went to. I know I already posted pictures on Facebook, but I'm going to post highlights anyway. I love pictures!

























The cool excavation site we got to check out. This is inside a cave where doves were raised for sacrifices, it is the biggest one found in Israel.










The only picture I took of Michael Wilcox, our amazing teacher

No pictures, but great videos

I know that I have been neglecting my poor blog, but I am having problems uploading pictures. I can't blog without pictures! It would be like trying to play a guitar without any strings. Or making cupcakes without frosting. Or some such metaphor, maybe one that actually makes sense. The point is, as soon as I figure out how to upload my pictures, you will get to hear (and see!) about all my adventures. In the meantime, these video should keep you entertained. I can't wait for The Office! Would it be completely ridiculous to fly to the US just so I can see the premier? hmmmm.

Forced to face fears

Fear # 1: Being watched via camera, satellite, or eyes.
Facing fear #1: I can't stop counting all the security cameras that are on every street. And my sister, Laura, told me this horrify little fact that people in London are watched on average by 300 cameras a day. Here's a freaky article about it http://www.newstatesman.com/200610020022 (sorry, I can't figure out the link thing right now)

Fear # 2: Feet. Dirty feet. Ugly feet. Feet touching me. Even clean feet.
Facing fear #2: Wearing flip flops in the city is no longer a good idea. Socks and covered shoes are. Also, there are lots of people on the streets meaning lots of feet to have to see.

Fear # 3: Dirty teeth. My own in particular.
Facing fear # 3 part a: People here just don't care about their teeth the same way that Americans do. Don't know why they think it is normal to have yellow, crookedy teeth.
Facing fear #3 part b: My toothbrush won't charge and I can't figure out why. A normal toothbrush just doesn't leave your teeth with that just-left-the-dentist clean feeling that I love so much.

All of this to deal with and I'm not curled up in the fetal position rocking back and forth. Pretty amazing if you ask me. I must be really brave and tough.

Advice of the day

When using adapters to plug in your computer, make sure you have the voltage set correctly, or *KABLOOM* your computer will die in a flash of light.

The all-day trip to Ikea

The day started with Mom hoping it would be memorable and me hoping I would have a good story to blog. Be careful what you ask for. Here is our little cautionary tale:
Mom and I went online to order our furniture from Ikea and found out it would take three weeks to be shipped to us. If we went into the store and bought it all there, they would ship all the stuff to our house in only four days. It sounded easy ad like a good, two hour trip. We started out at 12:30 took the tube and the train up there and got shopping. Quickly filling up two carts with mostly hangers and such we went down to the self help area to pull out the boxes of our unassembled furniture. I don't know why we thought the two of us could manage all of those boxes. Four more carts stacked high with boxes, lots of tugging and pulling, help from strangers, and some abandoned furniture later we had finished. Then we just had to manage to push all six carts to the cashiers desk and stuff all the loose items in big blue bags. Two of the carts took both of us pushing and pulling to get them to move. But, we finally got that all finished and only had to take some mirrors and goblets home with us because they couldn't ship glass. OK, I think I am making this story sound not as completely overwhelming and exhausting as it was. That "simple" little trip to Ikea took ten hours. Seven of which were spent in the store trying to figure out how were could pull the boxes onto our carts and manuveur them around. The only thing we had to eat were some crackers and yogurt. Let's just say it was a very long day. I'm pretty sure I still feel it. At least we amused a lot of people. No one exactly told us that, I'm just assuming from all the looks we got. Why didn't we bring along some muscles? Foolish mistake.

Sleepless in London

I've only been here a few days, but I'm catching on.

Things I've learned so far:
1. Hair tongs= curling iron
2. It's spelled 'authorised' not 'authorized' and 'fibre' not 'fiber'.
3. When saying bye to someone add as many phrases as you can think of and say them as quickly as you can.
4. You do not want to be made redundant.
5. It is normal to be woken up at 3:30 am by someone outside you window screaming, "I am South America! I own this street!"
6. Smart people carry umbrellas with them at all times. It is very possible it will rain four times in one day.
7. Avoid looking/going into phone booths. Dirty.
8. People walk on the left side of the street and escalators are switched around too. Also, to avoid near-death experiences whilst crossing the street, remember cars drive on the other side.

I reckon that's not bad for only being here a day or two, yeah? Well, it's two in the morning now and the movers bring all our stuff tomorrow which will keep us very busy so I should try to get some shut eye.
Talk to ya later!Cheers!Thanks!Cheerio!I'm off!It's all good!Right then!See ya!Bye!

D.C.

My trip to D.C. (which was two weeks ago, I've been pathetically slow about updating) was a blast! My sister Sariah and I were crazy tourists, and managed to see almost everything. We went to the top of the Washington Monument and it was so clear we could see our temple far in the background. We got to see 32 million dollar stacks of money which didn't impress me at all. Nope, not one bit. I got to see art by most of my favorite artists including Rothko which made me even more interested in him. And, because I couldn't see The Dark Knight at the midnight showing (Sariah and I left for a two-day car trip the next day at 7am which would have only given me about three hours of sleep) we went with Laura. And it was awesome! I'm sure everyone has seen it at least once by now. I think the coolest place I saw was the Library of Congress. It was beautiful! I wish we had figured out how to get a pass to go in the actual library part of the building, but it was still amazing. It was also fun getting to hang out with Ruth and the boy she nannnies and meeting the people Laura teaches. And it was great getting to hang out with Peter even though his work was crazy. He was lots of fun despite him torturing me. So, summing up the whole D.C. experience: it rocked!

You're it!

Four random things I like about my (future) husband:
1. Adventurous
2. Compassionate
3. Good conversationalist
4. Spontaneous, or does that go along with adventurous?


Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Care provider at day program for adults with developmental disabilities
2. Temp working with adults with special needs
3. Dry Cleaners
4. Sylvan

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. Amelie
2. The Prestige
3. A Knight's Tale
4. Life is Beautiful

Four TV shows I watch:
1. The Office
2. Lost
3. Pushing Daisies
4. MI-5

Four places I have been:
1. Egypt
2. Bolivia
3. Israel
4. Amsterdam

Four people who e-mail me regularly:
1. My dad
2. Cook's Illustrated
3. Gap.com
4. Church people

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Peaches and Mangos
2. Snap Peas
3. Homemade Bread
4. Indian

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Greece
2. Turkey
3. Spain
4. Italy

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Family reunions
2. Living in London
3. Living in London
4. Living in London

Four People I tag:
1. Everyone
2. Already
3. Has
4. Been Tagged!

Minnesota, fare thee well!

I have fallen so behind in my blogs, and lots has been going on. My last few days in Minnesota were awesome, it is sad to be gone. I got to go to Minnehaha Falls which was lots of fun and beautiful (Two-person carriage-type bikes are sweet. Especially going down grass hills.) I had parties with my friends when I should have been cleaning, cleaned when I should have packed, and packed when I should have slept. It all worked out though and Sariah and I safely made the eighteen hour car trip to D.C. Even considering how we got lost (only momentarily), drenched (just Sariah), pulled over (no ticket though), and killed tons of bugs (the car definitely could use a wash). Man, I am really loving the use of parentheses tonight! To those concerned, Winston made it to D.C. just fine in his makeshift home and is loving Ruth's apartment. So am I.

Oh, what a weekend it was!

This was my last weekend in Minnesota, and it was a great one to end on! I didn't get to go to the concert I wanted to cause it was 95 degrees outside with 70% humidity and it was supposed to storm. Not ideal conditions for an outside concert. Leslie, John, and I did have a fun party that night, and there was a killer cool lightning storm. Saturday I went to the family goodbye party the ward had for us, we played football and I actually caught the ball and ran with it! Like three times! Whoot. Then, I went to a friend's goodbye party, you know, cause I hadn't had enough of parties. There were people breathing fire, a blind-folded guy under mistletoe, and spinning basketballs. Yeah, we Minnesotan Mormons really know how to party. I am actually getting pretty good at spinning a basketball on my finger now, only took an hour to figure it out. I would be happy to show off for you next time I see you. Today was the sad day of the weekend. I had to say bye to some of the greatest people. I will miss them lots, especially June Russell. She has been my Minnesota grandma and is wonderful. My family finished the day by walking our beloved lake. "My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky..." ~William Wordsworth. My mom and I recite that poem every time we walk around Neil Lake. It was lovely and I am glad I will be here a few more days so I can still enjoy it. I would post pictures to make this post more fun, but we packed the cords to upload stuff from the camera. Bummer. You will just have to imagine the craziness, beauty, and randomness of the weekend. Or I could draw you a picture and send it to you, but that will cost you.

No more cake, the movers took it all

I haven't posted anything in about a week simply because there is nothing exciting to blog about. The movers came and took the last of our stuff today ad most of the week has been preparing for that. Friday and Saturday are packed with activities and goodbye parties, so I will have plenty of blog material after the weekend. For entertainment I have been reading and searching for music. I am dying to find some new bands to fall in love with, any suggestions?

A little bit of bragging

I'll try to give you guys the short, yet exciting version of this story. On Monday I went to the single's ward FHE (first time, yay!) and Mark was there. He plays for the Timberwolves and is pretty cool. He had brought one of his championship rings to FHE and was letting everyone check it out and I think I was the only girl there who knew what it meant and thought it was awesome. When I gave it back to him I told him that it was on loan and I expected him to return it. I went back home and was telling the fam about how cool it was and they were all just talking about how dirty their teeth were and how badly they needed to brush them. (People who don't know me too well: I am OCD about my teeth and when people talk about dirty teeth I need to go brush mine.) But I was still on a championship ring high that I didn't really notice. Finally Leslie just told me to go to the bathroom and the ring was on the counter. You will have to ask Les about details but I guess he came over and told them to give it to me. A photoshoot, lots of oogling, and ten hours later Sariah and I went to drop it off at his house. We were all talking and basketball came up (big surprise) and I told him how Andrei Kirilenko is my favorite player. He asked Sariah who hers is and she had to tell him she didn't really know basketball. When we were leaving he said he had to get us something and ran out of the room. When he came back he handed Sariah a pair his old shorts with a T-Wolves logo and gave me a huge shoe. Yeah, it's a signed shoe from AK-47! Mark is friends with him and asked Kirilenko to sign two pairs of shoes for boys at the camp Mark has. Mark figures Kirilenko would be happy to give a fan from Minnesota one of them. Now I need to find a rotating pedestal for it.





The championship ring. Lakers won two years in a row which is why it has two hoops.




Me fashioning the awesome ring. It was huge!












Check out the awesomeness of that shoe! So cool!

A Case of Mistaken Identity

John: "So, wasn't that movie awesome?!"

Katherine: "A lot better than I expected it to be."

Sariah: "I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard in a theater!"

Katherine (lies across front of car) : "Ugh, how long is mom going to take?"

Sariah: "Forever."

*beep beep*

John: "Yay! At least she unlocked the car."

Katherine (about to open door when she notices two very confused people behind them): "Oh, is this your car?"

Two Very Confused People: "Uh-huh."

Katherine (stifling laughter): "Sorry! Ours look exactly the same!"

Sariah (laughing uncontrollably): "There it is! Three spots down!"

Katherine: "That's embarrassing."

Smile, it's the weekend!

You made it through another week, well done. Now watch one of the best SNL videos ever, laugh til your stomach hurts, and have a great weekend.

No more Killers

Tragedy has struck the perfect town of Eden Prairie. It's horrible, I know. I was supposed to be rockin' out at The Killers' concert in England with my sister and brother, but the tickets are too expensive. One-hundred and twenty-five pounds! Two-hundred fifty bucks, for the cheapest tickets! Crazy, I know. Now I am going to miss out on this awesomeness (make sure to click the link so you don't miss out on one of the best music videos with a green caterpillar-type thing ever!) Moral of this sad story, not only will I miss out on a brillant concert, but now I will not be able to marry Brandon Flowers. a. because he is already married and b. now I will never meet him. On to my next candidate: Sufjan Stevens, the coolest guy to ever play a banjo.

Midsummer Awesomeness

Friday night I went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream and it was amazing! I went by myself (I swear I'm not a loner) and made friends with two old ladies who laughed at all the dirty jokes with me. The fairies had dreads and mohawks and were totally punk rockers. Some of the lines were sung and it was really well done. Oh, and the best part was when Oberon, the king of the fairies, made his entrance by zip-lining down from the balcony to the stage. Yeah, I was kinda in love.

Word of the day

schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\, noun:
Enjoyment obtained from the misfortunes of others.

I have not managed to pull off using this word, the people I talk to keep giving me weird looks. They either don't know what it means, are surprised that I do, or I totally force the word into the conversation and everyone gets confused. I guess schadenfreude doesn't really have anything to do with swimming or going to a movie. Unless the swimmer's suit falls off and the person at the movie trips and spills their drink on their shirt. That would definitely call for some schadenfreude.
Now you go use schadenfreude in your next conversation. I dare you.

Cupcake Bliss

Can a day get better than when it involves buying new shoes and baking cupcakes? I doubt it. Unless you add sky diving and visiting a different country, which is kinda obvious. Laura showed me this great recipe for cherry-vanilla cupcakes and they are to die for! They have a cherry filling in them and are so cute. Go bake them. Now. You will not regret it. Earlier in the day Leslie and I went shopping for a shirt and I came back with new shoes. That's what happens when I walk into the mall via Macy's shoe section. But the shoes are b-e-a-utiful and make me smile. Now I need to go buy some clothes to match the heels.

Musical Euphoria

Last night Sariah and I got to go see Iron & Wine! Yay! *Happy Dance* They are brilliant and one of my favorite bands of all-time. If you don't know them, you need to fix that. Even though we were one of the last people to show up we managed to squeeze our way up to the front and had an awesome view. The concert was so much better than I was expecting which is pretty impressive because I had high expectations. I contemplated just following them to their next show which is in Iowa, but I decided that might be a little too stalkerish. Also, it would have cost a fortune thanks to the gas prices. $4.10 a gallon? What is that about?


Above: Sam Beam in all his wonderfulness.
Below: Sam Beam with two of his band members. I didn't get a good picture of all of them, but these are the main ones.

Meet Winston

I guess I should start at the beginning. Ruthie sent me beautiful flowers for my birthday. Thanks Ruthie! When they died and I was cleaning out the vase, I realized it would make a perfect fish bowl. So Sariah and I took a trip to the pet store. Twenty minutes and ten dollars later, we had a new member of the family, Winston! He's awesome, especially when he is attempting to kill his reflection. Silly Winston. He also does tricks. Fine, he only knows one trick so far, but it's a great one. He gives kisses! Oh the cuteness! The only sad part to this otherwise wonderful story is that we move to London in two months, and I don't think Winston could handle that long flight very well. So either he will be relocating to the sewers, or someone here can adopt him. Any takers?

Enterlude

My wonderful, internet-addicted sister Laura convinced me to start this blog. It doesn't really have a point right now, but when I move to London in a couple months I will fill it with the awesome adventures I go on. And I will make you all terribly jealous. Until then, every post will be a surprise. Who knows what I will write about: a new band I've discovered, random anecdotes, things that make me smile, a crazy nightmare, or my latest obsession. You are hooked now, aren't you? Well, you will just have to wait for the next post. Try not to die of anticipation.