Week 38 - Done with Vietnam

This week was pretty normal during the days but I went home every night to Vietnam – both on PBS and the book I was reading for book club. It was a lot to take in and lead to some disturbed sleep. Let’s talk about the happy stuff first.

I had a lovely catch up dinner with Anne and Rene on Thursday night. I see Anne once a week at swimming but haven’t seen Rene since spring because she quit swimming as a protest, which went unnoticed and has only hurt her. Anyway…. The food at Cheddar’s is mediocre at best but they let us use 2 coupons for a free appetizer and free desert so at least it was cheap. There was no rush for us to leave the table so we talked for a couple of hours. I got home just in time to watch the auction of 30+ skeins of someone’s leftover sock yarn that I’d bid on and ultimately won, despite being sniped in the last seconds. It was to no avail since my proxy bid was for much higher so for $33 + shipping (almost exactly what I won at the state fair), I got all this. I’m super excited and can’t wait for it to arrive.

It was homecoming weekend on campus so there was no swimming Friday, which meant I could go straight home. Nice. I had a big to do list for the weekend and had high hopes for productivity. But then there was Vietnam. Luckily I’d finished my book club book (Death Zones and Darling Spies about a Nebraska woman who was a war correspondent there for 7 years in the 60’s) mid-week but I absolutely could not stop myself from watching PBS. I was able to stream the entire series so after a couple of nights of watching the broadcasted episodes, I found myself streaming it instead and watching multiple episodes each night. By the time I went to bed on Friday, I only had 2 episodes left. I was determined to watch them on Saturday so I could move on to happier things. Because the more I learned, the more disgusted I got.

So after starting the morning with more Vietnam, I headed out for errands. My coffee pot had died during the week and I’d bought a replacement at the thrifts, only to have it be too tall to fit under my cabinets. I then attempted to buy another but it too was too tall. Sheesh! So with measurements in hand, I went to the little hardware store in Wahoo and paid $36 for a Black & Decker. After hitting the market, the bakery and the bank, I went home for lunch and more Vietnam. I did hit pause several times to get my kitchen cleaned up and finally finished watching just after 4:00.

It was more disgusting with every passing minute but I was glad I watched it. I was too young to remember any of it but do recall the whole family being worried because my cousin David’s draft number was up just as Nixon was withdrawing the troops. Luckily he never went but I have a friend whose brother was killed there. It makes me want to call my Auntie Margaret, the last family member of that generation, and pick her brain about it all. Anyway, I was happy to be able to move on from watching it all.

I had big plans for Sunday but struggled to get motivated.  I did manage to get the laundry done and dishes put away but any attempts at tackling a major project fell flat. I did do a bit of yarn organization, which usually is fun, but didn’t manage much by the end of the day. I had also planned to clear out and organize the refrigerator and freezer. Neither of those things happened either. Oh well.

With only 2 more weekends before I’m off for Ireland, I cannot let another weekend slip away. Not only do I need to finish clearing the spare room and the dining room table, I need to get cooking to stock the freezer for when I’m home after my knee surgery in November. I will have one weekend at home between Ireland and surgery but I’m sure that’ll be busy enough without adding anything else. So, productivity will have to rule the day until I head to the emerald isle. I live in hope.

Week 37 - More Yarn Fun

There was lots of yarn fun this week so it was a good one. Input – it’s a strength! I also made some pre-surgery progress, including some Ireland stuff too.

It was a cleaning lady week and I’d done tons of cooking on Sunday right up until bedtime so had dishes galore to do. But did I do them Monday after knitting like an adult? Nope. I had screwed up the heel I was working on at the library so just had to fix it immediately and did that instead of dishes when I got home. I did get the entire kitchen picked up on Tuesday before sitting down to dinner, which was a 600 calorie day meal of grilled chicken and green beans. Despite not losing much in last week’s 3 600’s, I was doing 600’s again Tuesday and Thursday in hopes that I’d drop more and be able to continue with this 3/600 plan until surgery. Alas, it didn’t work, despite eating judiciously on my non-600 days so I’m going for 3 600’s in a row next week.

On other pre-surgery things, I called and made all of my appointments except my pre-surgery/annual physical. I have to decide whether I’ll take whoever’s available at the clinic or follow my old doctor, who was my best doctor ever, to her new office in Fremont. I need decide soon so I can get the appointment done in early October before Ireland. And speaking of Ireland, I finally bought our Dublin to Belfast train tickets and paid Anne for my plane ticket. All that’s left is the shuttle bus ticket from Belfast to Dublin airport but I think we’ll just buy that there since they leave on the hour and we’ll have plenty of time the afternoon we need to take it.

Wednesday night was a 40 year work anniversary party for Diane, one of the accountants, at Mary’s after work. I went after swimming so got there a bit later than most. It was fun but made for a long day since I didn’t get home until after 9:00. The end of the week was quick and uneventful. After lunch with Tammie on Friday (Layton had cancelled), I swam Friday night and then headed home. I was happy for the weekend but it was going to be a busy one.

Saturday was our spinning group’s annual retreat, which was basically a yarn dyeing day since Andrea and I were opting not to sleep over. It was in Belden – a tiny town a 2 hour drive north of Wahoo. Andrea was picking me up at 9:00 on Saturday so I pulled my yarn and made my cranberry cole slaw on Friday night. Our plan was to have a bit of time to shop in Wayne, a cute town on the way where Wayne State College is. They have a wonderful thrift shop, which we hit first and scored all kinds of fun stuff for dirt cheap. From there we went to the bakery because I love a good small town bakery. This might be one but it was pretty cleared out by late morning, yet I still managed to buy 2 cookies and a crispy to have with tea on Sunday. We then walked down the main drag to check out a little antique store (too pricey for us) and then an antique/consignment/thrift shop. I headed right to the thrift part in the back and found bags and bags of good quality yarn. Clearly someone had cleared out their stash so I bought most of them, spending $35 for all this yarn. Score! It’s got some for my sister, Anne and the NYC lady plus a bunch for me, mostly for my will trade of sell stash. We only spent 5 minutes in the last shop because we were running late so headed to Belden rather than explore more. Next time, we’ll have to allow more time in Wayne.

The retreat was fun. We got there just in time for lunch, which was a yummy hodge podge of potluck fare. Then the yarn dyeing started. We began with a math lesson on how to calculate dye amounts to adjust shade with the mission to create a gradient of mini skeins that would go to one lucky winner. Luckily I got the easiest one because I had no interest in the math and just wanted to get dyeing. When we were done with the gradients, which were gorgeous (they're in the top middle of the pic), I was the first one up to dye my skein. Of course I measured nothing, opting instead for winging it. My first skein was gorgeous and since I was the first one done, I dyed a second one, which was less elaborate but gorgeous nonetheless. Mine are the blue/green and orange/yellow/green ones in the 2nd row from the bottom on the left.

With the dyeing done, I had time to knit some and enjoyed watching Patty’s 2 5 month old boy kittens cavort all over the yard. The people who were staying over were going out to dinner at the bar in the next town but Andrea and I headed home when they left at 7:00 since we didn’t want to get home near midnight. It was storming on the way home but we stopped at the super market in Fremont (It was the only place milk was on sale and I refuse to pay full price for milk!) so we got home just after 9:00, which made it a 12 hour day but it was worth the drive and the time.

Sunday was typical – TV and relaxing in the morning and then chores and cooking in the afternoon. I made cheesy baked cauliflower for supper, a loaf of whole wheat bread and chopped salad, which wasn’t complete when Ken Burns’ Vietnam started. I’d been waiting to see this so stopped everything except yarn winding to watch it. The salad could wait. It was sad but interesting and it’s on nearly every night for 2 weeks. It perfectly dovetails with the book we’re reading for book club on the 28^th – Death Zones and Darling Spies about a woman who was a war correspondent in Vietnam. It’s a lot of war but all good. As Andrea pointed out, at least it’s not Nazis. : )

Week 36 - Purging and Relish

What’s not to like about starting a week with a Monday holiday? Absolutely nothing! And since the library was closed, we were going to Lori’s new house in Omaha to knit. I got up first thing and made a pear pie to take, which was a new pie for me. I googled a few recipes and winged it. Yummy! Not only was it delicious but it was pie perfection with perfectly consistency filling. I also used the honeycomb rolling pin I bought in Portland for the first time so the crust was pretty. We had fun seeing Lori’s new house and knitting away the afternoon. Drae and I hit HyVee on the way out of Omaha and then it was back home to get ready for the short work week.

My goal for the week was to get rid of stuff. First up was mailing the HUGE box of yarn and knitting supplies I’d collected for a woman I know online who runs an after school program teaching kids to knit in Brooklyn. I’d prepped a bursting box that was too heavy for my postal scale so I schlepped it to UPS, figuring that’d be cheaper, at lunch on Tuesday. One down. I left a bag of yarn on Kate’s car so another gone. On Thursday I loaded up the 5 huge bags of clothes and dropped them at the People’s City Mission at lunch on Thursday. It felt great to get it all out of my house and it all went to good causes.

Wednesday was my annual trek to Seward after work to pick up the state fair entries. I enjoy it every year because Seward has their farmer’s market on Wednesdays. This year I left work early enough that I could hit the thrift shop (it’s a Mennonite shop and very nice) and the yarn shop before they closed. After buying some baked goods and caramel corn at the farmer’s market, I took yet another different route home, stopping in Bee, which is a tiny town that’s known for its Friday fish fries. This is the last little town on my route back that I hadn’t seen and it meant taking 5 miles of gravel road but I’m glad I went. It was another successful fair entry pick up trip. Yay!

I swam on Friday (my only night that week) then hit Aldi before heading home for the weekend. I had to go to the library Saturday morning at 9:30 to do the final deposit for the Friends’ book sale. That got me dressed and out of the house early, which isn’t all bad. My vet appointment with Gansey was at 11:45 so I went home and ground up the sedative in some wet food and threwh all the other cats out. She barely touched the food so I tried my best to act normally so she wouldn’t suspect anything. She had gone down to the basement so I nonchalantly took some yarn down, picked her up and immediately grabbed her by the back of the neck, which worked like a charm. She went totally limp and I got her in the carrier easily. But then the howling started – like she was being torn asunder. Good thing the vet is only a couple of miles away. They gave her her shots in the carrier and I was home in 15 minutes. Done! The third time was the charm. : )

The rest of the day was a nice mix of relaxing (knitting) and the usual chores. I spent most of Sunday cooking, with the main focus being making homemade sweet relish, which is an all day process. When I stopped eating high fructose corn syrup, that nixed any store bought sweet relish so I’ve been making my own. Now a full batch only makes ~3 pints and usually I get my cukes from a neighbor, which means I share a jar and only end up with 2 jars for an entire year. Well this year, for the first time ever, I’m getting cukes in my garden. Plenty of them so I made an entire batch from my own and so didn’t need to share. Nice. Well it doesn’t sound very nice but now I have 3 jars so won’t run out (hopefully) before I can make more next summer. I did run out this year and was pouring the pickle juice onto my hotdog buns for the flavor. It made a soggy mess so I’m happy to have another jar from this year’s batch.

Next up will be a batch of chutney but that’ll be closer to the end of the season when I pick the last of my tomatoes. I do enjoy canning when there’s no pressure. It also plays to my penchant for using things up and making something from nothing. Now to deal with the last of the pears in the fridge. Maybe another pie? Or I’ll puree them for pear jam. Yum!

Week 35 - Fun Over Oddness

I’m not sure about this week. It had some oddness but also some fun but was mostly uneventful – nothing wrong with that. Plus it ended with a long weekend. Gotta love that, right?

Monday started well, sort of. I had a 3:00 appointment with my podiatrist about a suspected hammer toe. Yes, it is one but isn’t really fixable so not good news there. It also happens to be on the side where my knee’s being replaced. Whatever. The nice thing was Nora told me to go home rather than coming back to work so close to the end of the day. I happily went home and got all my leftover chores done before knitting, which meant I could relax on Tuesday evening rather than slamming to prep for the cleaning lady on Wednesday. I got to go straight home Thursday too but was back in the pool on Wednesday and Friday. That felt great after not swimming for most of August.

On the work front, I was scheduled to teach my 2 reporting classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and had several people signed up for each. But in both cases, only 1 person showed up. Strange and kind of a waste of time but I could customize the class for each person and so they went fast. There was a strange staff meeting on Tuesday that was about the upcoming budget cuts but with absolutely no specifics. Rather than being reassuring, we all left it feeling icky. At least we were told none of our jobs were on the line but it just added to the emotionally charged atmosphere on campus. Everyone just wants some word on what’s happening so we wait and wait and wait. By mid-week, I was prepping for a new method of doing our monthly reports, which I was training Brook on. He’s a joy to work with, especially after Josh, and they went pretty well. How’s that for positivity at work?

There were a couple of bright spots in the week. First I had my favorite kind of thrift score – sock yarn! I had to buy a few bags filled with miscellaneous yarn to get it all but ended up with a pile someone’s leftovers for monster socks, some acrylic for my sister’s hat for the homeless project and more yarn for the box I was prepping to donate to an after school project and online knitting friend runs in NYC. Check out my new sock yarn. SO fun!

Darla called me Wednesday afternoon to ask if I could do breakfast Thursday morning. She had the day off and since I don’t get enough Darla face time, I jumped at the chance. We met at 7:00 a.m. at Cracker Barrel and caught up over a nice breakfast. I had lunch scheduled later with Dodie too so had lots of yummy food with friends that day. Layton was going away for the weekend so we didn’t eat on Friday but I was planning on a 600 calorie day so that worked.

And then came my downfall. Literally. After swimming, a few of us were heading to the parking lot to see Carol's new Tesla. Well, I took a step off the curb just fine but caught my foot on uneven pavement on the next step and went down. There was a cartoonish pinwheeling of arms but when it was clear I was going down, I tucked my arm in to spare my shoulder, which left me skidding across the pavement resulting in bloody road rash on my elbow, denim burn on my knee and a bruised thigh. It had also rained lightly while we were swimming so there was mud along with the blood. After using a used kleenex from my back pocket to keep blood form dripping on the new car, I went home to shower and dose up on my prescription anti-inflammatory. I could only hope I wasn't too sore to function the next morning.

I woke up feeling pretty good considering and my morning meloxicam took away 95% of any soreness so it wouldn't impact my weekend. Nice. The only firm plan I had for Labor Day weekend was to get Gansey to the vet and feed Andrea’s animals. Again I completely failed to get Gansey in the carrier so when I went out to Andrea’s, I stopped at the vet to get a kitty sedative and make yet another appointment. Third time lucky? Hopefully with drugs on board she’ll be more compliant. I can only hope.

With all my commitments off the list, I started slogging through the spare room. The nexus of the problem was when I put the chair from the front room in there when I got the recliner for after my shoulder surgery. The chair took up the only spot of floor space and became the base of a pile that then spread to the bed. With my sister coming in early November to help me after my knee replacement, I needed that room cleared out and guest ready.

I started with moving the chair back to the front room where it will sit in the middle of the floor but at least won’t be in the way. With that gone, I was able to stack totes on the floor, which got them off the bed. Then I started going through clothes mercilessly with the goal that the only clothes I’d keep had to fit in the ladies dresser in there. By the time I was done, I had 5 huge bags to donate and all the clothes were put away.

This took most of Saturday and Sunday but was well worth it. I still had more to do in there and some bags in the front room to deal with but I had made a dent. And what with Monday being a day off, I went to bed feeling great and looking forward to fun on Labor Day.

Week 34 - Overwhelmed to Start

Monday was eclipse day, which was a lot of fun. We scheduled an eclipse food day (focus on round food) and we all had our glasses at the ready. After lunch, I headed outside with some of my office mates. The main viewing area was the green behind the Union but we snagged a bench on the plaza behind the library, which had plenty of people but not the thousands behind the Union. It was pretty cloudy but they parted just before the totality and we got to see it all – the beads and the diamond ring. All in all, it was pretty amazing. The group exclamations from over the hill added to the experience. I’m glad I got to see it.

I started Tuesday feeling slightly overwhelmed so made a list of stuff I needed to do to try and get a handle on things. I got on the phone and started making appointments – hair, vet and foot doctor. I dropped my football tickets on the way home and prepped 3 lots of yarn to ship that night. All that went a long way towards easing my mind, which made the rest of the week go well. For sure.

On Friday the state fair ribbons were finally posted. I had entered 9 things in the fair and 8 of them ribboned so I was pretty pleased. I was thrilled to see that my orange socks had won the best socks in the state, which came with a $25 gift certificate to Spindle, Shuttle and Needle – the local yarn shop in the tiny town of Stromsburg. Andrea and I will have to plan a little road trip. But since my friend Jill kindly took lots of pics of my socks, I decided not to go to the fair, despite buying a ticket when I entered all my knitting. Here's the pic that satisfied my need to go and saved me 200 miles of driving on a work night.

Having made all those phone calls on Tuesday, I started Saturday with an 8:00 hair appointment followed by 8:45 at the vet for Pie and Gansey’s shots. Unfortunately Gansey became an evil possessed kitty whereas Pie was easy peasy to get in the carrier, which is usually not the case. Gansey left me dripping with blood from scratches and then hid so I only got Pie in for shots and made an appointment for the next Saturday for Gansey, when I could only hope I’d have better luck catching her.

Later on Saturday, I headed to Lincoln for a celebration of life party for the wife of the Husker Cats weekend feeder. She’d died in July after breaking her neck in a pool accident and while I’d never met her, we had corresponded via email many times. There were hundreds of people there and I even managed to find a couple of people I knew to chat with. I was glad that I made the effort (I avoid going to Lincoln on weekends as a rule) to show support for Lon. After a quick stop at the market, I was done for the day.

Sunday also marked the end of an era, when I brought my last load of produce scraps out to Lori’s chickens. It was her last weekend at the farm before her move to Omaha. Sad. Otherwise it was chores as usual, including prepping the last of the peaches for the freezer. I also managed to finish 3 separate socks. Having so many projects on the needles probably didn’t help with feeling overwhelmed earlier in the week so that was good too. Progress was made this week. Yay!

Week 33 - Back to Nebraska

Monday was my last day in RI and I spent it the usual way – hanging with Cornelia. But the day started with a walk at Rocky Point where Carolyn and I checked out all the new signage. Rocky Point is the amusement park where I worked as a kiddie land ride operator summers during college. I had always thought it was the worst job ever until I moved to Nebraska and learned about detassling. Anyway, now Rocky Point is a beautiful park on the water so better for sure.

After saying goodbye to Carolyn, Corn and I headed to The Crow’s Nest for my favorite meal of fried clams along with clamcakes and chowder. Nothing like a deep fried meal to kick off my day of travel! It was a leisurely lunch with lots of chatting, which continued at Warwick’s town beach before she dropped me at the airport. The worst part of my travel was schlepping the huge duffle bag of yarn, which was fine by me. Nothing untoward happened and I was in my house by 11:30. I was keyed up and so started unpacking right away. I’d be tired on Tuesday but it was all worth it.

Tuesday started off badly though with one of my worst fears coming true. Pie had stayed outside while I was gone and when she showed up Tuesday morning, her mouth was stuck open and had been long enough that the drool down her front had mud caked in it. I tried to unstick her mouth but it wasn’t working so I manhandled her inside, which was only possible because she was weak. While getting ready for work, I was contemplating having to leave early on my first day back to take her to the vet. Luckily by the time I left, it had shut on its own, helped, I’m sure, by all the manipulation I’d done. HUGE relief!. I happily headed to work.

Mary had rescheduled a closing meeting for first thing in the morning so I was busy from the get go. The day flew by and after a quick trip to the market, I ran home to put away everything I’d brought back and do mad prep for the cleaning lady on Wednesday. All good.

The rest of the work week was uneventful. There was no swimming so I went right home every night and gradually got back to normal. I did have a scratchy throat by the end of the week and did the Zicam thing for 24 hours, which either worked to avert a cold or it was allergies all along. Whatever. At least I didn’t get sick.

I had a full weekend, starting with spinning in Fremont, which is really just knitting and chatting so no biggie. Andrea and were thwarted on our Goodwill run because they were closed for a staff cookout so we got to Todd’s in Cedar Bluffs early. Lori met us there and we enjoyed beer and tots with our dinners. It was a nice end to the day despite Lori sharing that she was getting divorced and moving to Omaha. I can only hope we still see each other. If she doesn’t make it to knitting, I guess I’ll be going to Omaha more often.

On Sunday, Michelle and Lori stopped on their way west to take some of the yarn I’d brought back from Rhode Island and then I got busy with laundry and chores. By the end of the weekend, I was fully recovered from my trip and back to “normal.” Just in time for the eclipse, which I’d baked a decadentchocolate cake for. This is the best chocolate cake ever so click on the recipe and try it out. You won’t be disappointed.