We enjoyed a “fend for yourself” dinner last night, my roommates and I. Since we also went to the grocery store right after work this turned out to be a great plan. (Responsible Me picked up some breakfast and lunch options for work so I’m not eating out all week long…) In a fit of nostalgia I picked up a box of something I hadn’t enjoyed in quite a while: Stouffer’s French Bread Pizza. I used to eat those things all the time, I tell you.

Coincidentally, I also used to deal with acid reflux attacks fairly often. I couldn’t quite figure out why, and eventually they just stopped and I didn’t worry about it much.

Yes. Well. Quarter-past-three this morning I woke up to the nastiest acid reflux I’ve suffered in ages. Oh.

I think that’s it for those French Bread Pizzas, don’t you? Now to stumble through my day on about four hours accumulated sleep…

Perhaps letting an entire month go by without a post isn’t the best way to end the year, so let’s do this instead:

I choose here not to excoriate the year we leave behind. Yes, much of it sucked, but regurgitating the reasons won’t help anybody. Instead, I’m focusing on what’s good in my life.

• My loves, who keep me going when nothing else can.
• My children, who make me so proud I can’t even describe it.
• My job, that pays the bills, even if just barely.
• My friends, offline and on, who laugh at my jokes, however terrible they may be.
• My library of books and music, which help me forget the real world for a while.
• My stack of games, which can be played with family and friends to bring amusement to the household.
• My growing collection of ducks, which I use to entertain a couple dozen folks on the Internet every week.

I’ve had a particularly rough time of things lately, hence the lack of writing output. There are plans to improve things somewhat, but I’ve also never been good at making & carrying out plans, so… we’ll see.

Here’s to 2012. May it go better for us all.

It’s not that the sound of water running through the gutters & drains keeps me awake at night. In fact, it’s usually quite an aid to somnolence. However… last night’s rain was just light enough to only keep a somewhat-steady drip coming out of the drains.

Somewhat.

Drip drip drip drip drip drip drip … drip drip drip … drip drip drip drip drip … drip … drip drip drip drip … drip drip drip drip … drip drip … drip drip drip …

It wouldn’t have been a problem had it simply managed to keep the beat steady! Instead… quite the opposite. I had to get up and read for a couple of hours until the dripping stopped. (Which means I’m running on about four, maybe five hours of accumulated sleep today. WHEE.)

As of today, I don’t have “kids.” I have “young adults.” That’s right, it’s my daughter’s 18th birthday. (She got her present on Saturday: A gift card so she can buy more manga… like she needs more, am I right?)

Today she signed up for Google so she can have her own Gmail and Google+ account… they wouldn’t let her until today, you see.

They grow up so fast!

(Mind you: No matter how old they get, they’ll always be my “rugrats.” Heh.)