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!
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