Sleep Walking

Lately my sleep walking activity has increased. The doctor wants me to get a sleep study done, and I am open to doing it but, I am having difficulty finding a place that is covered by my insurance. All I want is quality sleep and the peace of mind that I am not going to hurt myself in the middle of the night.

School

Grad school started this week. It has been a while since I have been in the study habit and getting back in to the grove has been tough. My game plan is to get up at 4:30am and study until 6am when it is time to get ready for work. Then study for an hour around 5:30pm or 6pm when I get home from work. Hubby has been extremely supportive and makes sure I have all of the quiet time I need. Now, I will have to get the others in my life used to the fact that I don't have my evenings free anymore for unplanned visits.

Hutto Olde Tyme Days

Hutto had the annual Olde Tyme Days Festival over the weekend. It was the first time hubby and I went and we actually volunteered to help out at the festival. We were placed at one of the beer and water stations for a couple of hours. It was actually pretty fun. We were placed right next to a tent with the Texas & OU game playing, so hubby was able to see some of the game.

We also walked around the festival for a while and I was able to pick up a bulb of our city flower, the Orange Crush Daylily, from the Keep Hutto Beautiful group. Hubby bought a turkey leg that was huge, but very tasty while I had a chicken suovlaki for lunch. I bought some kettle corn that reminded me of the popcorn we had as a kid; and I bought a t-shirt to support the local Hutto Hippos Athletic group.

The festival had live music, lots of vendors, a petting zoo, horse rides, and a climbing wall. There was face painting, cartoon drawings, and so much more.

All in all it was a really fun day and by the time we got home that evening we were exhausted.

Photo Phriday - Peppers Galore

My pepper plants (bell peppers and hot peppers) have been going absolutely nuts. The fresh ones on the left are the ones we picked today. The bowl on the right is completely full of frozen diced and chopped bell peppers that came from my plants over the past several weeks.

The Missing Ear Plugs

My hubby has a pair of ear plugs that have gone missing. They are not just any ear plugs, they were custom molded to the shape of his ear canal so they would be more comfortable, and are reasonably expensive. He has had them for 2 years and wears them every single day. He is extremely careful where he puts them, but yesterday they came up missing. We have looked literally everywhere imaginable and some places where they could not have possibly ended up. We have come to the conclusion that Riley, the lab, must have eaten them. She has never shown an interest in them before, but that is our only explanation left.

So, I have been doing the Marley routine for a couple of days and hosing down her poop. So far, no ear plugs. Hubby says if I find them in her poop, he absolutely will NOT put them back in his ears.

Tired

Today I am tired. Work is really busy right now. Our region needs to hire 200 new employees in the next 6 weeks which means my team has to process all of their backgrounds. In order to actually clear 200 new people, we will have to process about 250. This is with a team of 3 and one of them will be on vacation for 2 weeks. Of course, we have the normal end of the year activities such as open enrollment, performance reviews, annual bonus processing, and merit increases for 7200 people. Normally this would not be a big deal, but today my energy level is drained so it seems like a lot. I still need to schedule myself to take 100 hours of vacation before 12/31 or I will lose it - and I worked way too hard to just lose the time.

Lucky Dog Chicago Style Dogs

There used to be a place in Northwest Austin called Lucky Dog. They sold Chicago style hot dogs and were fantastic. When we moved to our house, we were excited because there was going to be a Lucky Dog near us again. Unfortunately, when we drove by, there were not there. Then out of the blue I spotted the Lucky Dog sign in a strip center as I was out running errands one day. A couple of weeks ago, we decided to stop in there for lunch. Our mouths were watering just thinking about those Chicago style dogs. When our food finally arrived, neither of us were terribly excited, but we didn't say anything. Finally, I spoke up and said, these aren't as good as I remember them. Hubby agreed and we both continued to eat our lunch in disappointment. We both looked at the menu at about the same time and noticed that it didn't say "Lucky Dog"; instead, it said "Lucky's Dogs". Was this a case of our eyes seeing one thing and our stomach translating it to another? When we left, we look at the sign outside and it clearly said "Lucky Dog" and not "Lucky's Dogs". We were both feeling a bit duped. Come to find out, there is no more Luck Dog Chicago Style Dogs. They went out of business. Very sad for us because they had the best hot dogs around.