Clutter queen

It has been a busy month. After four weeks of regular overtime (and very little sleep--because the beagle demands to be fed the same time every morning, regardless of what time I get to crawl into bed), the chores stack up. And the holidays hit. With all the extra money I earned, I was able to splurge on some nice conveniences during all the holiday sales. Right now I have a mountain of cardboard delivery boxes stacked under the dining room table, waiting to be broken down and either recycled or used as weed barrier in the yard. (The beagle keeps trying to climb on them to reach anything on the table.)

I had a brief trip to visit

gnine and

xparrot. We played some board games, talked about manga, watched anime, and discussed future plans. It was a lovely time, and I wish I could visit friends more often.

We were finally able to reserve annual leave for next year, so I'm locked in for a trip with my family to Europe and another trip to Gen Con. Various staffing changes are going to make life interesting and somewhat unpredictable for a while, though. At least it seems we're not having a government shutdown this year, so yay.

Now I'm looking forward to my parents arriving tomorrow for their annual winter visit. I'll be working on getting things straightened up around here. It's amazing how easily clutter builds up on all flat surfaces.