"Assumption of Risk and Hold Harmless Agreement"

The title of my blog this evening really amuses me. I might fill the world in later, but for now, it'll be the four girls' secret.

Tonight has been a night of incredible bonding. It's insane how something bad can join people together. We've been living in close quarters for over two months and it took tonight for us to really know each other... to sit in a half circle on Sonda's bed, passing around a box of CiniMini's (the European equivalent of Cinnamon Toast Crunch), and just laugh hysterically. Tempers have flaired, hours have been wasted on pointless explanations, and now we can do nothing but sit back and enjoy the crazy show. There's a point where all the fight has been beaten out of you and you have to just let go... thank goodness we have arrived.

Sonda and Kristin made their way to the Tesco this afternoon and came back with the most hilarious surprise. A HUGE cardboard carton of TWO DOZEN EGGS, and chocolate cakes that tasted like Play-dough. They are wonderful grocery shoppers, and I love them very very much.
Kirstin and her boy got into a fight this evening, which isn't that rare of an occurrence, (and I hope she won't hate me for broadcasting her love life on my blog as entertainment). Since we were already having bonding time and feeling quite confrontational, Court, Sonda, and I were the cheering section from our post on the bed... yelling "JUST DO IT! TELL HIM HOW YOU FEEL!!" and loudly voicing our opinions on the intensely private matter. I think we just needed to release all of our energy somewhere and he happened to be the closest thing we had. It was fabulous. That and the multiple nicknames that were conceived this evening: Mother Sun, Pink Pony, Purple Pony, Translator Boy, Finger Lick, Valley Girl, Great Unflexible One. Add that to our ever growing collection of well established nicknames... AL, ABS, L-squared, Lucy, Dora the Explorer, Pale One, Smalls, Misquito Pest, and about seven thousand I can't remember that we make up along the course of one day... and we've got a great collection going. I do believe I can ever quote Sonda as saying, at one point, "You two are the weirdest people I have ever met."
And one would think I was opposed to being in that category, but honestly, I'm not. It's kind of a fun position to hold.

I am truly sorry. I cannot stop rambling.
Our new babysitter here is a cool guy. His name is Zibi (how fun is that?) and today he helped me write Polish phrases all over my converse shoes in Sharpie marker... WHILE an experiment was running in his $160,000 machine. He's really sweet. Take, for example, lunch time yesterday: A man walked up to our table in cute blue overalls, holding two glasses of hot sweet tea and sporting a huge smile, and said "You aren't from around here are you?" in a strange accent that I couldn't quite place. It turned out that he was from the Czech, but had lived in American on and off for 16 years in North Carolina as a white water rafting guide. Strange? Yes. Helpful? Yes. Because we proceeded to ask him all the most thrilled rivers to raft down and then terrorize Zibi about taking him there when he visits America for 3 months in the fall. We'll get him out there and he'll love it. I'll at least follow up on that blog entry.

I have to be in the lab at 8 a.m. We are finished with our experiments here tomorrow after an investigation with the optical microscope and some scratch testing.

In the mean time, answer my poll for some interactive fun?