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SPOILERS! (Click to view)

I had been doing a lot better with depression the past few months, I've made quite some progress. But since I got back from my trip to the States, work has been deadline after deadline, which has me super-stressed. Plus the Oz-thing also happened shortly after I came back, I've been worrying about money, and a couple of other (smaller) negative things happened. So I've been steadily getting pulled back into depression and anxiety, which has also caused me a lot of trouble sleeping. I'm super-tired all the time, to the point where I get nauseous. So I've been missing quite a few days at work, which certainly doesn't help with worrying about deadlines. I've tried to counter getting worse by increasing my medication again (which should help me both with depression and sleeping), but so far it's not working. I'm trying hard to turn it around, but it's a lot of work.

Some of you might have noticed already that I have hardly been commenting or blogging anymore. I tend to crawl back into my shell when I'm depressed, kinda hide away from the rest of the world. I'll be back to spamming your blogs with comments (hopefully) as soon as I'm starting to feel better .

A couple of people have requested more pictures of Tara, so here she is:

She's been such a snuggle bunny lately. Everytime I sit down to watch TV, she'll come to get attention. Which is of course really cute, but she can't sit still! She'll start off by climbing on the couch (stepping and sitting on my remote(s) in the proces), for some reason she jumps onto everything but the couch. The next step is to walk over my legs to lay down by my right side for a minute, followed by walking over me again to find a place to lay down on my left, from where she climbed onto the couch in the first place. She'll then proceed to lay down on my legs, then walk up my sides/belly to lick my face. Then the remote/right/left/on-top sequence repeats itself again, untill I've had enough and pick her up and place her in my arms like a baby. Then she'll just keep snuggling untill I have to get up, prompting the start of the sequence all over again when I sit back down. She's so adorable.
I kinda wish she would play more, though! She'll chase her tail or try and catch a fly from time to time, but she hardly (if ever) plays with the millions of toys I bought her. Oz would play with me for hours, chasing his fishing-rod-with-mouse or his soccer ball (which was even bigger than he was!), but Tara prefers to play by herself. Maybe she's just lazy, like her owner .

Are those videos of her and Oz working, finally? Else I will put them on YouTube. Someone just remind me, because I'm very lazy and forgetfull lately.

Christmas is still 3 months away, but I'm already thinking about what I'm going to cook. I don't know yet for how many people though, which is one of the reasons I want to start coming up with a couple of dishes an/or menus to run with. I'll either be cooking for 5 (me, Mom, Dad, brother plus girlfriend), or 10+ if my brother invites his in-laws like he's planning on. I'm down with either, as long as he lets me know in advance. 10+ would require a trip to the store to get more plates, bowls and silverware and the like .
Anyway, if anyone has some Christmas favourites, let me know . Especially with my brother, I'll have some picky eaters, though. So I could use a lot of recipes to choose from .
Oh, I've been thinking about making this for dessert (the one starting at 3:00):

Doesn't that look awesome?! It looks like a lot of work, and I would have to look into where I can get Pop-rocks here, but doesn't just the phrase "7 different incorporations of chocolate" alone make your mouth water already?
This clip was part of a show by Heston Blumenthal, called "Kitchen Chemistry". It's one of my favourite shows about cooking, as it explores the science behind it. Another dish in this series involves lamb incorporated in 5 different ways, which also sounds awesome, but is a little out of my league just for the required hardware alone.

Another favourite cooking show of mine, is Good Eats, which I've been watching a lot on YouTube lately. Too bad they don't air it on any network here . If someone buys me the dvd's, so I can watch the show on my TV rather than my laptop, I'll love you forever and ever!