1:40 A.M. and all's well

   This is an insomniac's stream of conciousness. Unscripted, unedited. Hell, I'm not even going to spell-check. You're getting it live, as it spews forth from my vapid mind.

   The dog can't sleep either. I can only lie there for so long, staring at the ceiling, and listen to his untrimmed nails clickity-clack on the hardwood floor as he paces. Lucky you, you get a journal entry from my discomfort. The wife is snoring, so she can't hear it.

   I have about four journal entries in progress in my test journal, in various states of unreadiness, and all I can do is read Miss Snark. It's like a train wreck. I can't look away. How cliché is that?

   I have become addicted to Sudoku. I blame my parents. No, it's not any long buried issues from my small town upbringing. They gave Matthew the beginner Sudoku book that I picked up and read one day because I was bored. Now I go through the McDonald's drive-thru every Sunday morning for breakfast because they give out complementary copies of the Toronto Star, and they print three puzzles that day.

   We went Christmas shopping today (well, yesterday, I guess). Have I ever mentioned how spoiled Matthew is? This year he's getting - no, better not. You never know.
   I'll tell you what he's not getting. He's not getting a Nintendo Wii. We were in one of the electronics stores in the mall, and they had five Wii boxes stacked up on a shelf. The wife had to ask. The guy just laughed at her. No, they don't have any in stock. No, they won't have any before Christmas. No, they won't have any after Christmas either. Probably not until February, we are told.
   So he's getting something else.

   Also, we spent almost as much on his stocking as we did on his main gift. I almost choked when the clerk rang up the total. That much, for the little things we have in this bag? Did I mention he's spoiled? Oh, yeah. I remember. Second sentence of that last bit.

   Tomorrow (today, actually) is December twentieth, the tenth anniversary of Carl Sagan's death. I have a skeptical post I'm trying to write in time to include in this week's Skeptics' Circle (if it wasn't two o'clock in the morning I'd include a link to that - if you want one, go back a few posts - there'll be one there somewhere) and I wanted to publish it today to mark the date, but I don't think I can get it done in time. It's mostly about math, which I understand fine, but which is so boring, I can't stand it. Still, I want to finish it because I think it says something important.

   The damn dog is scratching at the door to go out. Did I mention it's two o'clock in the freaking morning? I'd let him out, because gourd knows I'm going to be up a while, but I'm afraid he'll see a squirrell in the back yard, and start barking, and wake up the neighbours.
   Of course, he could just scratch and whine until he wakes up my wife. Not sure which would be worse.

   I originally wrote freakin' in that last bit, then changed it to freaking. Reads differently. Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to do any editing. I meant after I hit 'save'. Still won't be spell checking, because I'm composing this on the fly here, not in my test journal, and the Canadian version of the software doesn't offer that feature yet. We got descriptive urls in this latest update. What did you get?

   Just got an e-mail. Be right back... Tina just left me a comment. Hi Tina. Thanks for the comment. How's Cali these days?

   I just forgot what I was going to say next.

   Oh yeah. I have to say hello to my wife's cousin Giovanni, in Italy, his wife Chettina, and their little girl Morena. Zio Mario's visiting from Sicily, and he says that Giovanni found my journal, and printed it out so Mario could read it. I don't think Giovanni read it himself, as I don't think he reads English. I could be wrong. If you are reading this, and understanding it, Giovanni, drop me an e-mail and say, "hello." Or, "buon giorno." Or whatever.

   The little clock in the corner says 2:20, so it's been forty minutes since I started this. Should I wrap it up? Will I be able to sleep if I try? Are rhetorical questions also cliché?

   Did you notice that I figured out how to make the little accent mark over the 'E' in cliché? Here's the one link I'll put in tonight (this morning). Special ALT Characters. Instructions at that page. One clarification I'll add: you type in the numeric code while you are holding down the 'ALT' key. I didn't think that was stated clearly enough. Doesn't work in every browser, but it seems to work here. Your results may vary.

   Have a good night (morning). I'm going upstairs to harangue the dog.

tags: we don't need no stinking tags