stew, vertigo, etc.

At porphyrin and moiread's request, I have posted my lamb stew recipe. If "recipe" is the right word. Many of the quantities are "some" and "awhile" and "if you like that sort of thing." Stews do not want precision.

I did not get 17 hours of steadiness this time around. I got somewhere between 6 and 11, because I went to bed at the 6-hour mark and was feeling fine and woke up at the 11-hour mark with a very, very bad vertigo-induced nightmare. Somewhere in the middle there, though. Prior to last week, I was always getting unsteady again before bedtime, so this still feels like progress, though obviously not monotonic progress. I also feel like the good steady times are getting longer and the bad vertigo times are getting slightly more intense. We'll see if it continues like this. Hmmm.

With moiread in and mattgritter coming right after her departure and then markgritter leaving right after his brother does for an extended trip to California, I'm feeling like the end of the year and all its holidays are upon me right now. But markgritter will be back in time for Lucia Day, and so things are not quite so precipitous as all that. (Still should remember to do everything what needs doing, though.)

Scents My Body Wash Manufacturer Did Not Need to Add to my Body Wash

1. Baby powder
2. Crushed-up Pez

Fail fail fail fail fail.

And now the three unopened bottles I bought last night, when I was steady, will go to the local women's shelter, and I will have to ask my mom to haul my wobbling self around Target on my big PT day so I can do the ensniffening all over again and pick a new body wash that does not smell like baby powder (which is at least reasonable, just not me) or Pez (not a reasonable smell for body wash! just not!).

Haul out the @#$%&*#$ holly.

So. We have already had Halloween, and we have already had the holiday which comes between Halloween and Thanksgiving, which is The Day markgritter Brings Home A Pomegranate And Then Ignores It For Weeks. (I hope yours was merry and bright.) I wrote something for Veteran's Day, and it was my first "private" post ever, because once I had written it I felt unready to share it.

Macy's--very specifically not Dayton's--is having a rerun this year on the Eighth Floor. A rerun. "Back by popular demand," says their website, and I say, "Bullshit." Last year's Eighth Floor was not even a story, just a series of Christmas-themed tableaux, and those were constructed from the remains of previous years' tableaux from actual stories--if you'd been to the Eighth Floor a lot you could spot the dwarves from Snow White as elves, and the plum pudding from Mary Poppins, and like that. So it was bad enough last year. And now this year, it's not even the cannibalized remnants of other stories. It's just...the same again. "Times are tough," said my mother, but times were tough in previous recessions. "They're trying to kill demand so they have an excuse not to do it any more," said my father, and I think he's right. I will still have the holiday of Taking The Godkids To the 8th Floor, because they want to go, and I will even enjoy it, but the other kids with whom I've been going are as disgusted as I am. So we will have something different this year. Not entirely sure when or what yet.

I am also--and I am sorry to tell you this--not going to observe that popular holiday, The Day I Call Otto. Otto is a delight. But we can get all the Otto's things at the Ukrainian deli up by porphyrin. If it was just a matter of paying the postage, I wouldn't mind, but I actually want there to be a local place that stocks the Hungarian food items we use. And there's only so much csabai I can justify buying.

Also several people I love are going through pretty tough stuff right now, ill health for themselves or loved ones, unemployment, appallingly bad behavior from people close to them. And it's the first holiday season without Grandpa. Grandpa would be the first person to want us to have a merry Christmas and a happy every other thing we do, and I will by God try. But I don't think even he would expect that it would be on my mind.

So. I have part of the work of a Christmas card done, by which I mean timprov has his part done and I have to do the rest except for some bits we will all three do. It should be a good Christmas card. I am pleased with it. And I have a particular surprise for one member of my family by choice, so there's that, and we have some charity stuff in mind, so there's that, too. I'm still trying to think, though. I want to do things that will be special for people I love, and I'm not sure what goes on that list at the moment.

There will still be Lucia Day, and we'll do the decorating when Matt is here, probably, because Mark will be gone a big chunk of time after that.

For some reason I am feeling uninspired on the baking front. I'm feeling very inspired about Cookie Day--I am positively excited about Cookie Day--and I'm hoping to get it scheduled with Mom and Grandma tonight. But I'm not thinking of a great many things I want to make. I'm sure once we get going we'll have ideas occur to us. But right now I'm not sure what to put on the grocery list for it, other than butter and flour.

What do you want in Christmas treats? Spice this and lemon that and caramel the other? Chocolate-dipped somethings? Or if you don't celebrate Christmas, what kind of treat don't you get enough of?