I haven't blogged for a while. The trip so far is going great. Saw Punkin last weekend and had a blast with her (but that's to be expected). Met Ryann's new boyfriend Robert, he's quiet but nice. He's a dock worker at the moment but he's also a pilot. He flies little 2 and 4 seater Cessnas.

Right now we're ion Wyoming, visiting my grandparents. We saw my cousin Julie and her new little girl Angela. SHE'S FRIGGEN ADORABLE!!! She has two little dimples in her cheeks, just like her daddy and a beautiful olivey complexion like him too. Julie's as white as can be (she's French and Scottish) but Anthony is Mexican and Philipino so he's got that darkness to him.

I'm glad we got to see my grandparents when we did bcz my grandpa has Parkinsons and for a while it was bad but right now it's not noticable. I wanted Pieter to see him as I remember him and not as some feeble old man.

Quilting is becoming a new passion of mine and I went to Big Horn Quilts just one town over. Neat stuff and I bought a pack of some beautiful blue and brown fabrics to make something out of them (probably for my mom; her fave color is blue).

It hasn't been snowing since we got here, but the snow on the ground has stuck. In London, the only real snow you get is just enough to ice over and be a nuisance but here there's enough to do things like build snowmen and make snow angels.
There was snow also in Colorado (we flew into Denver and then drove to my uncle and aunt's to spend the night before driving up to Wyoming) and it was still pretty cold. I don't know how my aunt stands it... well, I guess she just has to. She's very much a warm weather type person. Definite Cali girl there.
Pieter and I have been talking about moving to Colorado when we move back to the States. There's so much space there (you should see my uncle and aunt's house!!) and it would be so much cheaper than moving back to California, as much as I'd miss it. The schools in Ft. Collins are supposed to be great. In fact, I think Ft. Collins was in the Top Ten Cities to Raise a Family or something like that. I think too that my brother wants to move there as well so we'd be near family, which is what we want.
We are going to show Gavin and Julie how big the houses are and how affordable the prices and try to get them to move there as well. Muahahaha

Little... America?

So I've just read that the US has plans for a Little Britain-esque show in the making. This worries me. I was just thinking the other day that if I ever got to speak to either Matt Lucas or David Walliams, that I would make them promise not to let the US make a Little Britain show of their own, but it appears I am too late.

For those who haven't heard of it, the show is a series of skits done by Matt Lucas and David Walliams which is, while rather raunchy at times, quite hilarious in fact. We have the first series at home, have rented the second and have conversations with smattered quotes such as "Call me, Bubbles, dahling! Everybody does!" or "I want THAT one" or "Computer says 'No'!"

The thing that makes it work is its British-ness, which is why I think it's a TERRIBLE idea to try and American-ize it.

I mean, sure, The Office survived crossing over the pond and apparently so has Strictly Come Dancing (though why, I have no idea on that one) but Little Britain is Little BRITAIN for a reason. To have a show called Little America (which I am assuming they'd do) would defeat the whole point of the humor. American humor isn't like British humor.

It's the same reason why IQ and Never Mind the Buzzcocks would most ikely never make it either. British humor is wonderfully dry and sharp while American humor is increasingly slap-stick and unintelligent. Hey, I can admit that bcz look what has come out of our movie theaters: American Pie (four of them, actually), Scary Movie (4 of them actually), and a number of National Lampoon movies. I think only the 3 Stooges should be proud of that.

Pucker Up

Did I mention that in my passport photo, I have a huge hickey on my neck? No? Hmmm. Now it is forever immortalized.

Geez, I just realized that the head of the Dept of State has seen my hickey. Dude, weird thought.

'Ello All!

So the weekend wasn't too bad. Saturday Pieter and I went to the sports bar with a few friends to watch South Africa lose to England at Rugby. But the game was exciting nonetheless. I find it easier to follow Rugby than it is to follow American Football bcz it's a faster pace. Some of the rules are strange to my logic (like if you go down while holding the ball, you immediately have to let it go or the rule that you can only throw behind you) but it's still interesting. To say the least.

Sunday our church had a conference and so we didn't go and instead got to sleep in until 10am. Yum. Two days in a row of sleeping in. We mainly just lounged around bcz we have no money at the moment. Luckily Pieter gets paid on Thursday. We were burning candles to conserve our energy bcz we didn't have any £1 coins to pop into our electricity meter. Yes, it's like a vending machine in our flat, except instead of popping out a nice cold Pepsi or a Snickers bar, we get to have our fridge run that much longer.

Tonight is my fortnightly (I love that word) knitting group meeting. I kept finding myself thinking, oh, I can't wait until it's Tuesday all week last week. It's really fun to chat with the ladies I meet with. And we've gotten some interest with the flyers we've posted around. A new lady is supposed to be there tonight and another next time (which I'll be missing bcz I'll be in the States). So that's very cool.

Speaking of the States, ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT!!! We're literally counting down the days on our calender. We're already switching into vacation mode, which actually isn't good bcz then it just makes the days until them seem that much longer.

SHEER GENIUS!!!

Dude, I am SO going to be a granny like this!

Granny V iMoron

Knitting, Reading & Receiving

Got my newly updated passport a few days ago! It was only AFTER I booked the trip to Cali in my married name that I realized my passport was still in my maiden name. But no worries for it only took 15 days to get it changed (when I had been quoted a month previously). The only sucky thing was the courier service that I had to use said it would be delivered somwhere between 8am-6pm and that I HAD to be there with ID to collect it. So I had to sit on my freakin' hands all day until 2:30 when it was FINALLY delivered.

So during the wait, I knitted up an awesomely-awesome red beanie with butterfly beads! Originally I was making it for Ryann but since they're butterfly beads (and I'm definitely more the butterfly person) I decided I'll make another one with the red flower beads I bought and give THAT ONE to her instead.

Inevitably when someone hears my accent, they ask where I'm from and then how I like living here. I have to admit, I feel like I'm lying when I say I like living here. Bcz I don't. Of course Pieter says he felt the same way his first year living here but he's settled here and I can't imagine how England will ever feel like home to me. I am a pure-bred American I guess and America is the only place I think I could call home on a permanent basis. I sometimes think what if circumstances dictated us staying in the UK permanently and I just freak out. It might have something to do with having none of my family over here but I think it also has to do with America being familiar to me and the UK not so much. I hope that as I get used to the way things work here that I can grow to atleast enjoy living here for the time being rather than just tolerating it. I'd love to love living here but I find so many things that just frustrate me with this country.

Onto happier news. I just finished Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde, the sequel to The Eyre Affair. It is just brilliant work! The main character is a SpecOps Literary Detective named Thursday Next and her shennanigans in book jumping and such. I highly recommend it. And I WANT A PET DODO THAT GOES "plock-plock"!!!!!

H-H-H-Hey Kids!

I have some updating to do, don't I?

Friday night was AWESOME! Pieter took me to my first sokkie (pronounced sock-EE). A sokkie is a south african social gathering with something akin to ballroom dancing but not so formal. I had such an amazing time. We didn't get to stay very long bcz Pieter got wrangled into working overtime on Saturday but the dancing we did do was cool. I can't dance very well but with practice, I'll be able to dance well with Pieter at least. Eric (the guy who set the sokkie up) is planning on making it a regular thing, he rented out the top floor of a pub and the lady-owner said she'd love if we'd do it again. FABULOUS!

Saturday was our 10 month anniversary. Holy crap! Has it been 10 months already?! It just FLEW by. Pieter bought me a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of Bailey's Creme Caramel. Yum!

Sunday at church I got to sit in and watch the media being done. Media is the slides for announcements, songs and the sermon. It doesn't look too complicated, it's really mostly about timing and hoping that the laptops don't crash. Anyway, I sort of got wrangled into doing the media next Sunday ALONE bcz the AV Crew is understaffed. YIKES! Pray I don't screw anything up!

Sunday night was Bonfire Night over here, also known as Guy Fawkes night. I think it was 201 years ago that a man named Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament and assassinate the Protestant King James I but was unsuccessful. So today it's celebrated with fireworks (almost like the US's 4th of July) and we went over to Gavin and Julie's for an AV Crew party and fireworks. You couldn't really tell if Michael liked the fireworks bcz he'd get so frantically excited about seeing a "big bang" but then cry once they went off bcz he was scared. Strange child.