I started the week frittering away another day. I did make some progress in the house Monday and went to knitting that night but not much else. It had to kick into high gear on Tuesday because I’d invited the knitters for afternoon tea on New Year’s Day. I cleared the bar of Christmas wrapping stuff and was doing dishes when it became clear that the leak under my kitchen sink had gotten exponentially worse. There was now a delay when I turned the water on and I could see it spraying out from underneath. Since I had no luck getting a plumber to come out on New Year’s Eve, it was time to call Ed. I ran to the farm store to buy a new faucet and Ed and Donna came over in the late afternoon. It ended up being just the sprayer that was bad so we rushed back to Bomgaar’s before they closed at 5:00 to get just the sprayer part and Ed had it fixed in no time. When I asked him what kind of pie he’d like (that’s my usual form of payment), he said “February pie.” I had to ask. He wanted me to wait until February because he was so overloaded on sweets from the holidays that he wasn’t interested. Perfect! With the sink fixed, I finished doing the dishes and went to bed early. No staying up until midnight for me.
After enjoying my morning coffee in the sun, I got busy with tea prep. I actually wasn’t cooking much because all the sweets were taken care of with store bought stuff – panettone, pizzelles and various cookies from Trader Joe’s. For savories I was making my hot crab dip (it’s been ages since I made that), honey goat cheese covered with fig jam and a cranberry Wensleydale, both with crackers. Easy but yummy. I had to wash all the china tea cups and dig up tea pots (most are still put away from the floors being refinished last May) and move furniture to the back room. I just had time to jump in the shower before people starting arriving at 2:00. We ate, drank tea, chatted and knitted in the sun. What a perfect way to start the new year! I sent everyone home with leftovers so accomplished my goal to get rid of the ridiculous amount of sweets in the house and then was an adult and cleaned everything up so my kitchen was pristine. It was back to work on Thursday. Another lightning fast break where I accomplished nothing major. Go figure. This happens every year so why would this break by any different?
Thursday was monthly reports so the day flew by. I’d packed PB&J for lunch so I wouldn’t have to leave but did take a knitting and Netflix break in the conference room over lunch. The day was over in the blink of an eye. Not bad for the first day back. I was exhausted though from stress dreams – the test taking kind – so just nuked leftovers and called it good.
I only had a few hours more on my monthly reports and had slept badly again so decided to take Friday afternoon off. I returned the faucet, stopped at the library to pick up the bank statement then hit The Warehouse and scored some lunch meat so had a hot ham and cheese for lunch then settled in for an afternoon of knitting. I probably should have been more productive but it was vacation time so I just enjoyed the afternoon and called it good. I did take the time to do the treasurer’s report for Friends, which included the year in review report. I was hoping that having nothing on my mind at bedtime would stop the stress dreams. It worked and I finally got a good night’s sleep. I had the Friends of the Library meeting at 10:00 then did the deposits before heading home. Unfortunately I had a non-productive afternoon. Seriously non-productive since I didn’t even knit. I went to bed early and called the day shot. Oh well.
Sunday was a Downton Abbey marathon at Lori’s, which I’d instigated by inviting myself over for some woodstove knitting. I then suggested we morph it into some binge watching of season 3 in preparation for the season 4 premier that night. I was in charge of sweets, figuring I had plenty left over from the tea but I really didn’t so I’d baked some sugar cookies and threw a loaf of bread in the machine to go with Lori’s soup. But since I’d be going there, I figured it was a good time to gather up chicken food so I went to work on the frig. I made tabbouleh, baked cauliflower cheese, prepped Brussels sprouts that I’d cook later, pureed the pumpkin I’d cooked earlier in the week and cleaned out the crisper again. When I left just after noon, I had 2 big bags of produce scraps for the girls, the loaf of bread hot from the machine and the sweets. I had redeemed myself for my Saturday and still had an afternoon of knitting ahead of me. It was bitter cold out so soup for lunch was the perfect start for our afternoon of knitting and watching Downton Abbey by the wood stove. Jan and I left just after 6:00, which gave me time to make dinner before sitting down for the premier.
All in all, it’d been a nice start to the new year. Lots of friends and knitting with enough productivity to take the edge off any self-imposed guilt. I know, ridiculous but so me. I hope everyone has a good 2014. I plan on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment