Laundry, Costumes, and Dirt

I do all the laundry at my house.  Noell and I have a deal to trade certain chores that we don't like to do.  I do the laundry (wash, dry, fold) and she takes out the trash (empty cans, new bags, cans to curb).  Lately the laundry has been a little different than the norm.  Noell's laundry offerings haven't changed at all, but my laundry provisions have included mainly pj's and work clothes.  Very few workout clothes, going out to dinner clothes, or relaxing clothes from my closet.  It's funny that this is what made me notice how much I am working.  Obviously I realized that my schedule was non-stop lately, but I was on auto-pilot, just waking up  going to the prescribed place for that day (clinical site or work), coming home, working out when time allowed, all without giving it much thought.

I am off today (1st time in 10 days) and I am really enjoying it.  Even more so than when I get regular days off each week.  I actually was looking forward to doing my errands and workout.  Funny how a busy schedule gives me a change in perspective and a gratefulness for the everyday routine.  Does that happen to you?

Yesterday at work we had an event that takes place twice each year for nurses.  It is a meeting with guest speakers and we receive some continuing education units (CEUs); but the committee who organizes it always tries to make it fun too.  Because it was Halloween, we had a costume contest.  Our region of San Diego dressed up as "mixed nuts".  We all had different nut costumes and our supervisor made a can for us to all stand inside.  We tied for 1st place.

Peanut

My super-cute nephew John dressed up as a pirate this year.  Unlike last year, he was able to muster up a few words such as "trick-or-treat"  or "thank you" without too much prompting.  When I was growing up in St. Louis, we had to tell a joke or do a trick to get our candy.  We couldn't just merely say "trick or treat"; we had to have something to offer.  John would have never survived it, even saying "trick or treat" was quite a task for this little one.  Isn't he cute though?

Arrrrggg!

In other news on the Z team, I have struggled with Elka digging up my flower bed.  It started out of nowhere,  the flower bed is not new, it has always been there.  I guess she just hadn't discovered it yet.  Here is the first day she figured out that she likes to dig:

Where's the sidewalk?

 Then I found the broom that we keep outside to sweep the patio had been reduced to this:

Poor little broom

So here is my remedy to that situation, using old paver blocks that we already had.  Turned out pretty good I thought:

Not too shabby

Elka apparently disagreed and I found this earlier today:

So after consulting with my wife who is much  more knowledgeable about how to deter dogs from digging, I headed to Home Depot to gather the recommended supplies.  Here is what we have now:

Not very pretty, but it's working so far....

I am hoping this digging phase is over by the time I want to plant my yearly sweet peas in this spot.  I love sweet peas:

Sweet peas 2010