Week 11 - Fiber and Friends

It was another full week, between work and working out with some social stuff at the end. So, pretty typical but with some cleaning lady drama added in for good measure.

I started out well, getting most of my cleaning lady prep done after knitting on Monday night so it took the heat off Tuesday night. That was a good thing because I had pies to make for Pie Day on Wednesday – lemon sponge pie and strawberry rhubarb with an oat streusel top. I got them made and all cleaned up with time to spare. Nice. I woke up Wednesday with my triceps screaming from Tuesday’s workout and pies in hand, left for work with high hopes of coming home after swimming to a clean house.

Well, I’d bought a new floor cleaner from Amazon in hopes that the laminate would look better than it has in a long time. It was guaranteed to bring the shine back and that’s what I needed. But I walked into the house to find the usual shit job my cleaning lady does on the floors – big swooping streaks (she cannot seem to go with the grain) and footprints in the shine. Because there was shine. Ridiculous shine but totally inconsistent. She even did a single swatch around the rug in the front room ON THAT HARDWOOD FLOOR! I tried to get pictures of the train wreck of my floors but it was nearly impossible. Can you see the footprint at least? And all the streaks?

I spent the evening obsessing about the floor, which was worse than usual and clearly could not stay the way it was. I struggled to fall asleep and woke up several times wondering how to handle it. I went to work Thursday exhausted but determined to settle this. I messaged her on Facebook and she said she’d go right over. Then nothing. No message or phone call all day. I truly thought I’d be going home to find my key and an I quit note on the counter. Nope. I went in to find that she’d redone every floor in the house and while it wasn’t perfect, it was much better. Big relief!

Only after surveying all the floors (because she did the hardwoods too) did I look at the counter and see the cleaner. Except it wasn’t cleaner. It was floor FINISH so was supposed to put down new shine on an already clean floor. I’d bought the wrong thing on Amazon! At this point, I was feeling like crap. This was not something the cleaning lady should be responsible for and knowing her lack of attention to detail, I NEVER would have left this for her. So I called her up and apologized profusely and offered to pay her for her time, which she refused. I then promptly went online and bought the cleaner from the same company. I can only hope that he shine minimizes over time so I can redo it myself and make it perfect. My cleaning lady is sweet and not skeeved by the cats so I keep her but I’m SO over the drama! Getting clean floors should not be this hard.

Early this winter, I’d gotten together with my friend Darla for breakfast at The Stockyard Café in Wahoo, which is open early enough that we can meet at 6:30, enjoy a nice breakfast and both be at work on time. Darla suggested it again and somehow I ended up offering to cook breakfast instead so she was at my house at 6:30 on Friday morning for strawberry pancakes and bacon. It really wasn’t much work but next time I need to agree to eat out. Anyway, it was a nice way to start the day. I love face time with Darla. She brings me energy every time.

I had a nice lunch of my favorite ribs with Layton, swam after work and hit the grocery store on the way home, where I bought a chicken tender to have with 3 bean salad for super and the corn muffin I didn’t eat at lunch – yummy and easy. I needed easy because Saturday was going to start early and be a long day.

It was Fiberpalooza in Winterset, Iowa. Heidi was at my house at 8:00 and after picking up Andrea, we hit the road for the 3 hour trip. There had been a bit of snow and ice overnight in Iowa so we saw lots of cars in the ditch but our ride was fine, albeit gloomy. The fiber show was fun and I bought, you guessed it, more sock yarn. Then we hit the yarn shop in town that sponsors the event and I bought even more. The highlight of the trip though was meeting up with Cynthia, whom I’d met in Portland at the International Master Gardener Conference last July. We got to chat and catch up, which was lovely – a bit at Fiberpalooza but longer over lunch in a little café in Winterset. After stopping to check out one of the covered bridges (we were in Madison County after all), we headed home. I was home before 6:00 and had all my yarn stashed on Ravelry before bedtime. It was a good day.

Having cleaned out the cupboards the previous weekend, now it was time to use up more of those canned goods. After I put the laundry on, I started a big pot of my old friend Vicki’s sauerkraut. Then I started prepping eggplant for a big batch of eggplant parmesan, inspired by 99 cent eggplant from Aldi. When Lorri stopped over after church, my bar was covered with salted eggplant. After she left, the plan was to fry it up and make up several small casserole so I could have extras to freeze.

Well, I was procrastinating getting this done when Amanda called to say she’d be in town and wondered if she could stop by for tea. I went into high gear, setting the table between frying batches of eggplant and had it all put together by the time she arrived. We had a lovely chat over tea and treats – soda bread with Irish butter, which had been car treats on Saturday, and ginger cookies from Ikea. It was evening before she left so I was a bit behind on laundry but I had enough clean underwear for the first few days of the week so I’d be fine.

What a fun way to end the week! I’d had fun with friends every day of the weekend, had bought all kinds of fun yarn and had food for the week. What more could I want? Nothing! I hope your week went half as well as mine. And with spring coming, it would only be getting better. Life is good!