Week 16 - Plants and Yarn

While the week was fine overall, there were a couple of things that didn’t work out as planned that put a damper on things. But spring is my season so in the end, it was all good.

It started on Monday when I arranged to have the afternoon off because Tim had said he’d be home and available to cut my weed trees. But when I called him to arrange the exact time to meet, he said he couldn’t do it. Damn! He suggested the next evening instead but by the time I got home Monday, he’d called to say that wouldn’t work either and asked about Thursday. With dreary, rainy weather forecast for Thursday through the weekend, that wasn’t going to work so I’d be losing another week. Grrr… That didn’t stop him from calling twice to the point where I was feeling pestered. Sheesh.

That paled in comparison to what was coming though. A member of our knitting group suggested the entire group do the Mid-Iowa Shop Hop on Friday the 24^th, which is a 500 mile round trip to hit seven different yarn shops. Now she’d been doing it for several years with her sister but this time offered up her 12 passenger van so we could all go and make a day of it. So we all went about rearranging our schedules and asking for the day off work and the total was up to 7. Thursday morning she sent an email saying she wasn’t going, leaving us completely in the lurch because no one but her had a vehicle that would fit the remaining 6. We’d either have to take 2 cars or find a van to rent so we could go together. Either way meant more money out of pocket plus logistics galore. Pissed as hell is an understatement for how I felt. I researched and found a van to rent in Omaha and emailed the group. One member cancelled, which solved the problem but I felt so crappy that this had all gone down. I was in a foul mood all day Thursday and was determined to not let it affect Friday too. At least the trip was salvaged but I still didn’t feel good about leaving someone behind. Never again.

Enough of the problems! Some good things happened too. I sold 16 skeins of yarn from my stash (always good) and received an envelope of scrap sock yarn along with a skein I'd bought from someone's Ravelry stash. Plus I had a fun weekend despite the rain. Let’s talk about happy things.

Lorri and I were going to the grand opening of our favorite country greenhouse on Saturday and that happened to coincide with a rummage sale at the museum and a barn sale at our favorite country gift shop. I picked her up before 10:00 and we scored fun things at both sales (stocking stuffers baby!) before heading to the greenhouse. The first thing I saw when I got out of the car was an old wooden chair painted bright red. I had no sooner told Lorri that I needed to find an old chair to paint orange for my yard when I turned a corner and there one was! It was only $30 and ready to go so I was a happy camper. Add the flat of fun plants I’d bought and it was all good. And while it was pouring rain when we left Wahoo, it stopped just long enough for us to get the plants and head home. The garden gods were smiling on us.

It continued to rain all weekend so there was no gardening to be done beyond putting my pot of pansies on my new orange chair. Love it! While I’d thought about doing some organizing in the basement, when the heat’s off and it’s damp both inside and out, the basement isn’t a hospitable place. The chill drove me back upstairs so I got out some yarn and had dyeing fun. I did two skeins on Saturday, trying and failing to capture the dark pink of crabapples in bloom but ending up with pretty yarn nonetheless. I tried again on Sunday and failed again on the dark pink but got two more gorgeous skeins. I love dyeing but it’s easier if you don’t go into it with a set idea but instead go with the flow. I can’t seem to predict what colors I’ll get but end up with pretty yarn anyway. : )

Taking advantage of the weather and some cans I pulled out when I reorganized all my food cupboards, on Sunday afternoon I made a big pot of cabbage soup to eat for lunches on my 600/900 calorie week. Yum and it counts as a free veg. Speaking of the diet, I lost 2 more pounds so am down 34 going into my 3^rd week. Could I break 40 by the end? Here’s hoping.

So thanks for listening to my whining earlier. Spring and yarn rescued the downer week. Hopefully spring is making you all happy too.