So, I took the plunge this weekend and moved the kids into the same room together. What had held me back before was that Strudel was too young and then Strudel grew into a very light sleeper. Franny’s anxiety is affecting her, of course, but it is also affecting the whole family. This seems like the best thing for all of us.

Her mattress came yesterday and she slept on the floor on it last night. Mattress shopping was quite a trial. Companion, who when I met him was sleeping on a futon, had no idea how much mattresses actually cost. I was content with a budget one, as I always am. We priced out frames at IKEA to get an idea, but he had no idea a mattress would be more than a frame. Sometimes I have this weird feeling like I have dragged him into teh evil capitalist paradigm farther than he wanted to go. I couldn’t bear to take him into the fancy special room where mattresses cost as much as a liver transplant. I feel bad when his eyes bug out of his head.

They slept together last night, and I think they woke up a little too early, but did okay. Franny said she felt better being in a room with her sister. So we’ll see.

Yesterday we had friends over with their new baby, who is very cute and fun to hold. It’s a nice feeling, holding her. I feel like I’ve always been the one with the baby, the one who is struggling and being barfed on and trying to nurse while everyone else eats. I certainly wasn’t taking any satisfaction in their struggles–it was just nice to enjoy a baby. I also felt really good about coming to the end of reproducing. I thought that maybe the feeling of wanting more babies would never go away, and that I would just have to be reasonable and decide to shut off the baby faucet, but that I would always have secret regrets or yearning. But I don’t. What a relief. I feel so excited about other peoples’ babies. And also about sleeping for eight hours.

I realized I never posted New Year’s pics. I also haven’t been taking many pictures at all lately, due to the flu. Well, here was New Year’s. Franny was in Hawaii, and it was the three of us, ending up on the roof to espy the Space Needle fireworks.

Out of Companion’s Uzbek book I made these little lamb pastry things. I didn’t want to spend hours cooking, so I used frozen puff pastry. PLZ don’t tell the authenticity police.

The funny thing is that there is a scratch recipe and a frozen pastry recipe right in the book. I love this Uzbek book because it is all lamb, all the time. I like the way those people think.

I guess I didn’t seal the edges well enough. No matter! They were crazy delicious. They weren’t much more than cumin, onion, and lamb. I like this taco presentation.

I did not have creme fraiche, so I whipped some heavy cream with a little buttermilk and salt. It had that sour-creamy effect I was looking for, without being sour cream. I served it with these little jobs above and with lamb tacos. The lacos.

I wasn’t even drinking at this point. As I recall, my fever had kicked in. Which can make cooking interesting in its own way. Also, I was proud that I hadn’t ruined my cream.

Strudel killed all the champagne before we even got to it! Actually, the girls were on a Talking Rain jag around xmas and it seemed right for NYE.

Here’s the braintrust on the roof. I like that we all look kind of non-brainy in our own way. Last year we were able to sneak out of Strudel’s window without waking her, but no such luck this year. So she got a nap before midnight, and then went back to sleep.

I brought my speakers and MP3 player up, and we listed to Morphine while the fireworks pooped up the sky with smoke and color. I bought some glog at IKEA and we tossed some rum in and warmed it up, to stay warm on the roof. I think it had kicked in at this point. DUHHHHH

“Wowwww lookit the starrrrs.”