Week 22 - My New Chair

It was a good week for many reasons but the best part was that I finally broke 40 pounds. I feel great and am so psyched to keep going. The fact that I managed to lose weight in a week when I ate out 3 times is just icing on the cake. Getting dressed when nearly nothing fits can be a chore but it’s all worth it.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful week. The weather was what it’s been all month – rain and more rain – plus there were also a couple of truly cold days when the high was barely above 50 degrees. So it was all about getting to the long weekend. My cleaning lady was coming a few days early because her daughter was visiting so I started the weekend with a clean house plus stopped at the market on the way home so I would have everything I’d need to stay home all weekend. Nice.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t being particularly cooperative for my gardening to do list. I had to try and fit things in between rain storms. I managed to get the berry bed prepped, which involved digging the bed, sifting and adding 4 wheel barrows of compost and adding sifted potting soil from last year’s containers on top. I was on that last step when it started raining so I headed inside and started slogging through the spare room. I was needing to try on my spring clothes to see what fit but they were all over the bed with a bunch of yarn so I had to sort that too. That was much more fun than sorting clothes.

I started with the clothes in the spare room and when very few of them fit (I tried on absolutely everything, which worked up a sweat), I headed downstairs to dig through the ironing baskets and 2 small dressers of ancient clothes. All of this took until Sunday night. I had found quite a few tops that fit but it was looking dire in the capri department. I had enormous piles of clothes in my bedroom when I went to bed and tons of laundry to do. At least I’d still have the holiday. It was supposed to rain again in the morning but clear later so I was hopeful I could get outside at some point. I had hope for Memorial Day. Stay tuned.

When I woke up on Monday morning, the rain they’d predicted was forecast to hold off until evening but the ground was still so saturated that I focused on inside stuff again. I started the many loads of laundry from the musty stuff I’d pulled up from the basement. Between loads I prepped tons of produce for the week and make a strawberry/rhubarb pie for Ed to thank him for working on my ceiling fan. With the laundry hung on the line, I decided to take a ride to get rid of stuff, dropping recycling at Region 5, the pie at Ed’s and the produce scraps at Lori’s then stopping at the other Lorri’s to water her plants and pick asparagus for dinner. As soon as I got home, I pulled in the laundry, planted the berries and mowed, which was very muddy but had to be done. Only when I turned the mower off did I hear the rumble of thunder. It started raining again just as I was sweeping my grass from Cara’s driveway. Perfect timing! I jumped in the shower and made dinner, happy when I sat down to eat that I’d gotten so much done. It was a satisfying Memorial Day all in all.

Work was pleasantly busy on Tuesday morning and I taught all afternoon so the day flew and it was time to swim before I knew it. It was going to be sunny on Wednesday so I asked for the afternoon off. Wednesday morning was over in a flash and I was home and ready to garden by 2:00.  Containers were the mission. I hadn’t been outside 2 minutes when I was swarmed with mosquitos. There had been none on the weekend but clearly a zillion had hatched on Tuesday and working without bug spray was not going to work. Despite being in socially unacceptable clothing, I headed to Dollar General for bug spray and was back home in minutes. After spraying my entire body, I successfully potted up every single container, twenty or so that line the driveway, hang from the garage and are all over the deck. I love my containers and my fabulous chicken poop laden compost heap from last year, which has been added to every garden bed and container and still isn’t gone. Life is good!

Dodie and I went thrifting at lunch on Thursday and I scored 2 beautiful, hand pieced, vintage quilt tops (they need filling, backing and quilting) for $5 each. I was so happy and almost said to Dodie that the only thing that would be better was if I found sock yarn. But I didn’t. Well, when we got to St. Louise’s what did find but 16 skeins of sock yarn! Total thrift score. I brought the quilts into work for show & tell then spent the afternoon training then swam after work. One more day and it’d be the weekend. For a 3.5 day week, I still couldn’t wait for the weekend.

I was working on a perfect Friday project for Mary cleansing data for a new database and had planned to run errands over lunch since it was my last Friday without Layton, who’s in Scandinavia on vacation. I had seen a big chair at St. Louise’s that would be perfect for my back room but had completely dismissed getting it because it was too big for my Fit. Well, when Mary mentioned her truck, which I had no idea she had, I brought up the chair and it was quickly decided that we should go get it and she and Ted would pick it up after work and deliver it to Wahoo. So Mary and I went to St. Louise’s to pay and arrange everything. Talk about Plan B but I was excited to replace my ratty old chair at last. It’s almost 16 years old and has shown its age for years.

I headed home at 5:00 to clear the route to the back room. We ended up having to use the front door because neither chair would go through the side door. It didn’t take long before the chairs were swapped and we left for dinner at Chips with the old chair in the middle of the front lawn. I had a small nacho basket because there was nothing remotely healthy on the menu except salad, which I’d had for lunch. After a nice dinner, Ted drove us around Lake Wanahoo, which he’d worked on the wetland plans for so we got an expert tour. What a nice way to start the weekend. And isn’t my new chair great? It goes perfectly with my couch and walls and has a much smaller footprint (no huge rolled arms) but is just as comfy. Excellent. Clearly the cats are fine with it too.

A front had come in Friday night and it was cold! The sun wasn’t out Saturday morning and it was windy and chilly. Too cold to work outside so I finished slogging through the clothes, bagging up tons for Goodwill and pulling a bunch for Helen to try on. Then I finished organizing the yarn, which I bagged up in zippies so it would stop getting tangled. By the time the yarn was all put away, the sun had come out so I headed outside to weed and mulch the marigold bed I’d put in along the garden fence and the new berry bed. I only had 2.5 bags of mulch (I had planned to stop on the way home Friday for more) so ran out mid berry bed but at least I got something done outside. I then sat down to a modified Saturday snack supper. I hadn’t eaten much all day so figured I had saved enough calories for Guinness, which I ate with sticky toffee pudding cheese and shrimp. I really wanted some ice cream but I only had one more day of this rotation so had a pear instead, which was delicious. I’ll have ice cream on Monday.

I had the radio on while I was sorting clothes and must have switched it to alarm instead of off when I was done because my alarm went off Sunday at 5:50 a.m. I considered getting up but it was just too darn early so I rolled over and didn’t wake up until 3 hours later. I hadn’t slept that late in decades and it felt great. When I finally got up, I was determined to be productive so made a to do list and got busy. I had more gardening to do but every time I went out, which was mostly to hang laundry, the mosquitos drove me back inside. I kept telling myself I’d go out later, deciding to cook until then.

The last time I took a week off rotating, I didn’t cook on Sunday and then didn’t have time early in the week so went days eating whatever and none of it particularly yummy. So this Sunday I decided to cook all kinds of tasty food even though I couldn’t eat it until Monday. I started with a loaf of whole wheat bread and while that was rising, I made 3 bean salad, potato salad, a strawberry/rhubarb pie to take to knitting and banana bread for work. I thawed ribs to put in the crockpot Monday morning and am looking forward to a bowl of mini wheats in the morning. Between the laundry and all the cooking, it was evening before I was done. I’d called Ed to see if he could fix the fan since it’d be warmer next week. He said he’d come later and didn’t arrive until almost 8:00 and didn't leave until after 9:00. The day was gone and I hadn’t gotten outside but my fan was working again just in time for the coming hotter weather.  

So all in all, it was a good week and I’m prepped for another good week to come. My grass will be horribly long before I can mow and no one took the chair from my driveway, despite posting it for free on Craig’s List. Maybe the trash truck will take it. Anyway, I got enough done to feel productive and crossed a few things off my list, including buying my ticket for my New York City/Rhode Island trip. And I loaded a few old clothes into the car. Quite a load, am I right? It'a all about output. All good. Happy summer.

Week 21 - Forty Pounds Down!

It was a good week for many reasons but the best part was that I finally broke 40 pounds. I feel great and am so psyched to keep going. The fact that I managed to lose weight in a week when I ate out 3 times is just icing on the cake. Getting dressed when nearly nothing fits can be a chore but it’s all worth it.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful week. The weather was what it’s been all month – rain and more rain – plus there were also a couple of truly cold days when the high was barely above 50 degrees. So it was all about getting to the long weekend. My cleaning lady was coming a few days early because her daughter was visiting so I started the weekend with a clean house plus stopped at the market on the way home so I would have everything I’d need to stay home all weekend. Nice.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t being particularly cooperative for my gardening to do list. I had to try and fit things in between rain storms. I managed to get the berry bed prepped, which involved digging the bed, sifting and adding 4 wheel barrows of compost and adding sifted potting soil from last year’s containers on top. I was on that last step when it started raining so I headed inside and started slogging through the spare room. I was needing to try on my spring clothes to see what fit but they were all over the bed with a bunch of yarn so I had to sort that too. That was much more fun than sorting clothes.

I started with the clothes in the spare room and when very few of them fit (I tried on absolutely everything, which worked up a sweat), I headed downstairs to dig through the ironing baskets and 2 small dressers of ancient clothes. All of this took until Sunday night. I had found quite a few tops that fit but it was looking dire in the capri department. I had enormous piles of clothes in my bedroom when I went to bed and tons of laundry to do. At least I’d still have the holiday. It was supposed to rain again in the morning but clear later so I was hopeful I could get outside at some point. I had hope for Memorial Day. Stay tuned.

Week 20 - Yet More Rain

The highlight of the week was the weather. Yes, more rain. It seemed like every time we turned around, it was raining again. And that was after last week’s record rains. The whole world was a soggy mess. This also coincided with the annual steam outage on campus, which meant no heat. We froze in our offices but lived to tell.

Wednesday was a window between storms so I took the afternoon off and gardened, focusing on getting my veg beds prepped and planted. After stopping at Lorri’s to pick up seedlings and eating lunch, it was 2:15 before I got outside. But I worked like a dog and got it all done – sifting compost, turning the soil with the compost and planting everything. At 5:15 I gave up thoughts of getting the berry bed done and went inside for a shower and dinner. All good. All that’s left is the berry bed, planting all my containers and putting the few perennials I’ve bought into the ground. While the rain hasn’t cooperated with my time off, there haven’t been any really hot days yet so I’ll take it.

The weekend brought even more rain so I went to spinning since I couldn’t garden. It was good to see people and from there Andrea and I went to Omaha. She needed to pick up her sewing machine and I wanted to do a Trader Joe’s run. When we got to the sewing machine store at 4:30, I had the brilliant idea to see if Imagiknit, the yarn shop that moved to Omaha last year from Hastings that neither of us had been to yet, was still open. We called Lori, who is a regular customer, to see if she knew when they closed and she was actually in the shop! That clinched it and we headed there. Well, of course I bought some yarn – mostly sock. Did you have any doubt? The owner is a gem and stayed open late for us, chatting away as we shopped. Only when we left did I realize I had met her before – years ago when I went to Hasting’s after a bridal shower for Helen’s daughter-in-law. I had completely spaced but enjoyed her back then too. Knitters are simply the best people!

Since it had rained hard on Saturday and then again overnight, there was no gardening possibility for Sunday beyond slogging across the soggy lawn to pull a few weeds. I took advantage of the wet to get busy inside and just started going through paper. By the time I was done, the top of the desk was clearer than it’s been in years. I also prepped a ton of food for the coming week, which always feels good, and made Ed’s pie for helping with the ceiling fan. In the spirit of getting things out of the house, I then delivered the pie, dropped Andrea’s sewing machine at her house (I’d dropped her at a restaurant in Omaha for a date so still had her stuff in my car) and then drove out to Lori’s and fed all my produce scraps to the girls. Only then did I head out to mow, having waited as late as possible for maximum drying, but it was still like walking on a sponge and I had to mow the backyard twice in different directions because the grass matted to the underlying mud on the first pass. It wasn’t the best mowing but I got it done and was showered and enjoying dinner by 7:00 when Call the Midwife started, content in my progress and how good my house looked.

This has been a weird spring – cooler than normal and wet, wet, wet! Despite making big progress in April and not going to Europe, I still feel under the gun. But I still have two weekends in May so my annual goal of having my gardening done by May 31^st is still an option. I live in hope. Not that the forecast for Memorial Day weekend is dry but what can I do? Time to go with the flow, which is literal considering all the rain. Happy spring!

Week 19 - Cold and Weather

When the week starts with a lightning strike so close to your house that it takes out your phone and internet, you can only go up, right? Not so much this week.

The lightning hit in the road in front of the house next door just before I left for work on Monday. I left in the pouring rain and fighting a cold. It was an uneventful day and I got home to a big box of yarn (the prizes for everyone from the shop hop) and no phone or internet. My neighbor from the other side came over to say their big tree in the backyard had been hit by lightning right after I’d left for work. I got on my cell to Windstream and they estimated Wednesday morning for someone to come. No phone is no biggie but no internet for another 2 days? Not acceptable. Good thing I had knitting, which meant 2 hours at the library with my iPad. My cold was gearing up too so things were not looking up.

I slept like crap that night and had I not arranged for replacement maple nutty long johns for Mary, I would have considered calling in. But it was also food day so I took my brownies and headed to work with the thought that I’d leave after lunch if I didn’t feel better. Well, despite having taken my fave Claritin D, I was feeling worse and didn’t even make it until noon, leaving at 11:00 with barely the energy to get home. At least I’d done an online chat with Windstream at work and they’d committed to come that day. I took my iPad next door to my neighbor and begged his wireless code so at least I could stream Netflix but only from my front room. The tech came at the end of the day and respliced my line and replaced my modem so I was back up and running. Yay! I am clearly dependent on the internet for happiness. Luckily I have great neighbors. : )

I coughed all night long and so felt even worse on Wednesday and called into work. There was no thought to going in. I felt that bad. I did nothing but sit and nap all day long. It poured rain all night long and I was back at work on Thursday, feeling much better. I had 2” in my rain gage but Lincoln had gotten closer to 8”. In one night! There were floods everywhere driving in and lots of people, including Dodie who was my lunch date, were home with wet basements. Since I hadn’t brought my iPad and knitting for lunch, I went thrifting without Dodie and scored a couple of things for me and a bunch of cute baby clothes for my boss’ new granddaughter. With all the flooding in town, which had gotten worse over the day and some highways out of town (mostly to the south) were closed and neighborhoods near campus were being evacuated, they let us leave early since rush hour was going to be bad. Luckily my energy had come back because I hadn’t thought to check my basement for water (2” is still a lot even if it wasn’t as much as Lincoln got) and I did have some water and wet linens downstairs so started laundry as soon as I got home. I was then able to neatize the house, which was looking awful after my 2 days staying home and doing absolutely nothing. It was wonderful to feel better again. I still had the cough and congestion but it was ebbing.

Friday was over in a flash and despite having a big errand list for after work, I headed straight home instead, leaving everything for Monday. I had no obligations for the weekend and more rain was forecast but I was hoping to get outside between storms. Saturday ended up being the better day and while I wasn’t feeling 100%, I was able to get outside to mow then compost and plant my new flower bed against the fence in the vegetable garden. I did a bit of weeding but not much else before leaving for a Dollar General run. I enjoyed Saturday snack supper with Guinness, sticky toffee pudding cheese on crackers and leftover seafood dip from Friday’s lunch with Layton. I had hoped to get more done outside but you can’t fight weather.

It was pea soup muggie on Sunday and it was clear I wouldn’t be getting anything else done outside. It finally started pouring around lunch time, which felt better than the humidity. I was coughing again and chalked it up to the cold breaking up (hopefully) and spent the afternoon cleaning out my frig and prepping fruits and veg for my upcoming rotation. I had a nice final normal meal of turkey and stuffing from the freezer and stewed rhubarb over vanilla ice cream for dessert. I’d managed to not gain weight during my 2 weeks off but was ready to be rotating again.

Between being sick and the weather, it really was a doozy of a week. Then I got a sad email at the end of the day saying at least 2 campus cats had drowned in the floods on Innovation Campus. I’ll be doing a headcount of my kitties when I get to campus this morning but I don’t expect any casualties. Of course there’s more rain in the forecast. Spring in Nebraska!

Week 18 - Some Life Huccups

Why are things so hard? Things that should be easy, you know? There was definitely some of that this week and I’m getting a cold. Oh well.

The highlight of the week was Wednesday afternoon when I finally took advantage of the vacation arrangement I’d made with Nora. The weather was going to be gorgeous so I left work at noon. Fabulous! After a quick stop at Menard’s for LED lightbulbs, I headed home to garden. Before heading outside, I changed the light bulbs in the kitchen and over my desk, both of which are now bright enough to do surgery. It was a perfect day to work outside – low 70’s and sunny with no wind to speak of. I raked by the alley, which was where Tim had cut down all the trees and bushes, adding the leaves to my new compost bins. Then I moved the rest of my raised veg beds and dug in all the scalloped edging around my new berry bed. All that done, I was ready for a shower, feeling good about my afternoon off and the progress I’d made.

I had skipped swimming on Tuesday and then left early Wednesday so Thursday was going to be my only day in the pool. Then at 4:30 Mary asked me to help with a spreadsheet. Long story short, Mary, Nora and I were at work until 6:15. Damn! I was supposed to be at Mellow Mushroom at 6:30 for our end of semester water aerobics dinner but Nora was going to be stuck at work until after Elise’s soccer game so I drove her there instead, arriving nearer 7:00 at the restaurant. It was a fun night though and the pizza was yummy. There had to be 25 of us there, which was our biggest group ever.

I had to pick up donuts at the Wahoo Bakery and be at work by 8:00 on Friday so, of course, I had donut stress dreams. Ridiculous. I picked up the special ordered donuts and met my boss’ husband just before 8:00. Only when Mary got in did we open the boxes to see that they’d made 24 of the wrong donuts! Mary loves maple nutty long johns, which the bakery in her hometown made, but they’d frosted them all with chocolate instead. They were still yummy but I was feeling bad that Mary’s birthday surprise wasn’t right so I called the bakery to let them know about their screw up. Their response was so flip and dismissive and they took no responsibility for their error, only offering a discount on my next order. Why would there be another? Seriously! After stewing for awhile, I called again and the first woman I talked to said they’d called Ted and apologized. Good thing but sheesh! I then arranged to pick up 6 maple nutty long johns on Tuesday morning to make it up to Mary. If they ask me to pay, I’m gonna lose it.

The rest of the day went quickly, which was a good thing (monthly reports day you know) and I made a beeline home. I had high hopes for a productive weekend so started by neatizing the entire house Friday night so I’d wake up Saturday to a clean house. There was a sock knitting machine demo at Yarn Charm on Saturday afternoon and Andrea and I had talked about going to The Avengers afterwards so I was hoping to have a productive morning since Sunday’s weather was iffy. I went to bed later than I’d planned, hoping for a good night’s sleep since I’d had a couple of bad nights in a row.

I woke up to Pie with her mouth gaping open. Now this happened once before and the vet had to knock her out to get it shut. She had drool down her chin so it had been stuck for awhile so I called the vet and started reworking my day. I took her in and waited for the phone to ring. They sedated her and got it shut and I could pick her up at 2:00, which would totally hose my day. After talking to Andrea and calling the vet to ask about picking her up later, Andrea and I headed to Yarn Charm. The demo was fun and I got to crank on some socks. These machines, which cost $1300 for the base model, let you crank out a sock in minutes. Too rich for me but it was fun. After a quick stop at HyVee, we headed to the vet then back to my house to pick up some things for Andrea then back to her house. By the time I got home, it was time for tea and knitting. At least Pie was OK.

I never did anything outside on Saturday so was going to brave the heat and humidity on Sunday. The forecast was for high 80’s so there would be some sweating. After hanging laundry on the line, I got out the mower and mowed the veg garden and alley areas then dug up my new bed against the fence. After a quick lunch break, I went back outside and dug in the edging on the new bed (it’ll be 20 feet of flowers on against my veg garden fence) and mowed the entire yard. I was dripping with sweat but it could have been worse since the sun had gone in so it wasn’t as hot as predicted. I took a shower and sat on my butt for the rest of the day. Despite having plans to cook, I opted for cheerios for dinner and sat like a blob. I’d earned it I guess.

All in all, it was a good week despite a couple of hiccups. I'd finished a gorgeous pair of socks for myself and had I’d gotten some things off my list, making progress in the yard. The 7 day forecast for the coming week has rain every single day so there won’t be more done until this weather system leaves. Spring. What can you do?