who are you, boogaloo, we've seen ten of you just this morning
Back from my extended vacation to the hometown! Actually, I got back Tuesday night, but after a fourteen-hour drive (14! Why do I do this to myself? Next time I drive home, I'm making Mary come with me for that reason alone) I was in no shape to do anything, and then yesterday I woke up and found that my mild cold had turned into a GIANT, SOUL-SUCKING COLD FROM BEYOND THE VOID. So I did what any reasonable person would do -- I stayed in bed all day, ate a tin of Christmas cookies, and tried to convince people in chat that there is *too* a vv compelling reson to be a Teal'c/Daniel shipper. (It really all boils down to: candles.)

Anyway, the trip was good! Staying out as late as my 20-year-old sister makes me feel young *g* -- particularly when I could then get up and do things before one in the afternoon, unlike my 20-year-old sister. My father's church has this nifty movie theater on the third floor, with actual movie seats and a popcorn machine and surround-sound, so kind of the geek highlight of my week was taking my shiny new copy of Serenity up to the church with my family and hylomorph and dcaspall and gwyndolin to see it on the big screen once again. shoesbaby would have been there, except for the part about being a loser with other friends to go visit -- and by the way, y'all, I'm still not convinced there's such a person as "Katrina." You just got that name out of the newspaper, didn't you?

In less cheerful news, my father and sister continue to hate each other, but I really think it's the kind of thing that will be self-correcting once they don't actually have to live together. My grandmother is, you know, barely there anymore -- she has a particularly severe form of dementia that may or may not be Alzheimer's depending on which doctor you're asking -- and I was really happy that I went there in October, because at that point she had no short-term memory, but it was still obviously her you were talking to. You just had the same conversation over and over in about eight minute intervals, because that's how long it takes her to forget what's been said. But at this point, I mean, she's just not...I mean, there's really no earth logic there at all. But given that she also has emphysema and no one expected her to live this long at all, I was treating the October visit in my mind like it was the last time I'd see her -- so in a way, I was very well-prepared to feel like I wasn't seeing her now, either, if that makes any sense. They're selling her house in March, and we're in the process of picking it over and taking the things we need or want for family reasons, and I got the only thing I've been saying all along I wanted to lay sole claim to, which is an old ceramic butter churn that sat, all my life, next to the step up from my grandparents' den into their kitchen. When I was young, my grandfather (who died right after I turned nine) used to hide candy and toys and whatnot in it, and as soon as I'd come over to visit, he'd make a big fuss over how I had to go check the churn, because I was the official churn-checker (I was the only grandchild at the time) and I had Important Work to do before I started goofing around. He made it sound like a very significant job. *g* Anyway, that was the thing I wanted, and I have it now.

Now I'm home again, and due to the overlapping nature of our family vacations, I am still without Mary -- it's going to be like two weeks by the time everything is said and done, which is far longer than we've been separated since, uh, the year 2002. It's weird! I mean, it serves its purpose, since I have two more stories that need to get finished in the next few days, so I really shouldn't be lollygagging around letting Mary entertain me, but that's pragmatism, pah.

Okay, enough silly personal stuff. I have pretty much given up on my usual holiday project of reading all the DWNOGA stories all the way through, but I'm at least touching all of them and giving them a page or two's chance to win me over -- because you never know, with Secret Santa stories! I'll kick out a few recs, but like I said, I'm still in holiday-fic-writing mode and I've probably overlooked a ton; this is a very non-scientific survey this year.