Granted, I’m still the NKOTB here at CQ/Roll Call Gossip Central. But we’ve definitely had some fun this year in the HOH-verse, haven’t we?

Breaking news, meta navel-gazing, investigative reporting, fried-chicken flame wars. We’ve done it all.

On the off chance you were distracted by real news (whatever the hell that means), here are my top 5 favorite Heard on the Hill stories from the past year:

1) Pecangate: A lost weekend in Annapolis opened the door to a series of complaints about administrative misdeeds and professional missteps by Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) and his troubled staff.

2) Know Your Role: Bumping into fellow hacks at rallies/political events is nothing new. But my eagle-eyed (eared?) colleague, Neda Semnani, produced her own radio drama when she spotted NPR host Lisa Simeone stirring things up on behalf of one of the “occupy” factions.

3) Draw Your Own Conclusions: Animating the Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.)-Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) tiff from earlier this summer was sheer genius.

4) Man Up: Yes, we love the name Snuggles. Yes, we love that Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) begged reporters not to rat him out. And, yes, we loved Rachel Maddow’s brilliant repackaging of our story.

5) All Apologies: How prescient of Ms. Semnani to prepare this blanket mea culpa for all those overworked staffers who, hopefully, still managed to carve out a little family time after toiling away on the debt ceiling, continuing resolutions and, most recently, the payroll tax cut extension.

Good times!

Tune in tomorrow for another walk down memory lane from the other half of Team HOH.