Week 31 - Fiscal Year End

It was fiscal year end closing meeting week but Mary was out Monday and Tuesday so those days felt like the calm before the storm. Waiting…. waiting…. waiting. The first meeting was Wednesday afternoon and then they were jam packed for the rest of the week.. But since I had plenty of time to prepare, the meeting stuff went swimmingly and the second half of the week flew by.

On the non-work front, Anne and I firmed up our plans to head to Belfast after our knitting tour in October and meet up with Bridget and Francoise, the 2 Brits we met in Canada in May. They found a wonderful house on the seaside an hour south of Belfast on Airbnb and rented a car. With those plans set, Anne and I bought our tickets. While they were super cheap, they would have been cheaper if we’d bought them at lunch when Anne first found them. We thought we would need our passports to reserve so when Anne went on after work, not only was it $175 more for each ticket but it didn’t require a passport. Oh well. It’s still $900 cheaper than last year’s tickets to Edinburgh and we both emailed our passport info to ourselves so we’ll have it handy next time. Lesson learned. And now to get with the Irish travel agent to book our trains and a hotel at the airports for our last night. Getting excited!

The weather broke mid week and with that came almost fall like temps. I happily turned off the AC and opened the windows, which meant I’d be sleeping better for sure. And the cooler temps were going to last through the weekend. I was totally looking forward to another weekend at home, catching up on things. I was a bit delayed leaving work slamming on a huge spreadsheet but got it done at 5:30 and the delay meant no traffic and the market was less crowded. How’s that for positive thinking?

It was downright cold when I got up Saturday morning – so cool in the house that I put a sweater on over my nightie. Love it! I had a Friends of the Library meeting at 9:30, after which I had to do a big deposit of book sale proceeds. I was only home for an hour before it was time to head to Todd’s Tavern in Cedar Bluffs where I’d be meeting Nancy Meyer and family, who were treating me to lunch for finding their daughter a summer job in Payroll. You know I was getting tots. Yum! The vanilla porter and club sandwich were delish too. Having beer with lunch didn’t lead to much productivity once I got home but oh well. I brought home half my club sammie so had that for dinner. Who needs productivity?

I made up for it on Sunday. I did the laundry first thing and when Andrea brought back my shop vac in the early afternoon, I got busy reclaiming the car from the dump trips with the yew. There were needles in every nook and cranny so it took an hour and a half to get it back in shape. That done, I planted fall crops in my empty bed then went inside to get cooking. I’d be leaving for Rhode Island on Thursday so wanted everything I’d eat until then prepped and ready to go and everything else bagged up to give away at knitting or for Lori’s chickens. I even froze 4 servings of my turkey dinner casserole for when I’m home with my knee. The kitchen looked like a bomb went off by the time I was done but I’d get that cleaned up one evening before I leave.

So all in all, it was a good week. Mary is always SO appreciative of all the prep I do for the closing meetings so work was productive and satisfying. Add the cool weather and my weekend productivity and it was a banner week. And with going into a 3 day work week and a trip back to RI, what’s not to like?