We had planned to recycle last year’s monkey costume for Halloween this year, when Westley came home from Target with my parents sporting a new Spiderman outfit. Fortunately, the fall time change gave us an excuse to delay his bedtime, and I got out of clinic in time to take him trick-or-treating. We stopped by the Glassberg’s again, where Bri-Bri took him to their neighbor’s house to feed some fish. He didn’t take long to overcome his shyness and figure out the “trick-or-treat” and “thank you, bye” routine. By the time we returned home, grandpa was still on candy duty, but almost committed familicide with a Reese’s peanut butter cup. For the rest of the week, I dined out with Melody before she left for a meeting, and took my parents to try spicy dry pot and all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ before they left for NYC. By the time I returned to work last week, it was business as usual – grant applications, progress reports, lab lunch, and busy clinic. Our department had an efficiency consultant visit, but they missed my only clinic day. Fortunately, the Democrats managed to inch past Republicans to retake the House in yet another nail-biting midterm election. It would’ve been a perfect opportunity to take off for Veteran’s Day weekend, if not for my still-unfinished DoD grant, a mysterious fever with no other symptoms, and the deadliest fire in California’s history making the surrounding air nearly unbreathable with smoke. Aside from a brief outing for dim sum with in-laws, we spent most of the long weekend hunkered down with Westley’s Legos, books, and his very first board game as I hummed to the tune of “Smoke gets in your eyes.”