When Can You Break the Rules?

We have a rule in our home that you have to replace the toilet paper when it runs out. This probably sounds like a reasonable request, and everyone in the household obeys the rule except everyone but Brad and I. So, in my quest to always have toilet paper adorning every toilet paper holder, Brad is my only accomplice (or I should say, consistent accomplice, the kids make the "very" occasional effort). Then last Thursday, to my dismay, I walked into my bathroom, after driving 10 hours from California, to find the toilet paper roll perched quite precariously on top of the toilet paper holder. As I yelled to my husband that life had obviously gone to h-e double toothpicks in a handbasket (whatever that means), he assured me that he was too tired to replace the roll because he had spent the last two hours after work cleaning up dog throw up in every room in the house (seems our dog has pancreatitis) and finished by vacuuming the whole house and doing the dishes in grand anticipation of my arrival. Okay, I couldn't really argue with that kind of altruism and gave him a free pass. Then tonight I walk into my bathroom again to find my poor TP in the same predicament, nearly falling off it's pedestal. I would have yelled out something to my husband, my cohort in keeping the TP in it's place, but then I remembered that he purchased 14 plants to replace the ones that died in the great Vegas snowstorm of '08, dug the holes (with reluctant and scant help from our daughters) and planted all 14 plants today, complete with enriched soil and yummy nutrients hoping against hope they would now live in this arid climate we call home. I knew that if I pointed out the great TP inequity again that it would again be for naught and sometimes in life you gotta realize that it's better that the rule be broken than that you have to clean up dog barf in the whole house or dig 14 holes yourself.