Week 16 - Starting a Purge?

I started out the week in full on non-productive mode. Even when we didn't have knitting on Monday, I wasted the free night and got nothing done. This continued for most the week, unfortunately. And then it went further downhill in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

I got up at 4:00 to pee, which is not a normal thing for me by the way, and in the 2 minutes that I was out of bed, one of my rotten cats peed on my bed. Not only on the bed but where I'd thrown the sheets back so It went through all the layers. By the time I stripped the bed, I was wide awake. I dragged myself to work and was in a funk all day. It started with the pee but my co-worker had an interview and facing the prospect of him leaving, added to my funk. My mood finally improved when I went home for a night of knitting and streaming. Good thing because no one wants to feel off on a Friday.

Friday flew by and our boss came in and said we could leave early so I was out the door before 4:00. I had a few errands to run and gave thought to going back to campus to swim but when I finished my errands early, I headed home. I started puttering in the yard and decided it was the perfect night for my first ever fire.

I had traded a yarn winder for a fire pit with a friend but the fire pit was more of a coleman camping grill so I'd never used it. I'd been saving wood, mostly what has fallen into my yard from my neighbor's dying tree, for a couple of years so was ready. I took pieces off of the grill to make it more fire pit-ish and lit a match. I was lovely! Since most of my wood is smaller, I had to make many trips to the brush pile for more. It was so successful that I went onto Craig's List in search of fireplace tools. I found some for $5 and made arrangements to pick them up Monday over lunch. Now to get some bigger logs for future fires, of which there'll be many. I might even make it a Friday night recurring event. Hmm....

I had a haircut scheduled for 10:45 Saturday morning but when my hairdresser called and asked me to come at 9:00, I threw on clothes and headed there. That got me up and dressed so I came home and got the kitchen cleaned up before Andrea picked me up early for spinning. We were hitting Buck's Shoes, where I used to shop all the time when I worked in HR and had to dress better for work. Sadly, they're going out of business so Drae wanted to look for sandals. She found a pair and then we went to spinning, Goodwill and Aldi before going to the sushi place for dinner. It was a good day.

Sunday was Easter and while I don't celebrate it, I usually try to get outside to commune with nature and celebrate spring. Well, it was going to be HOT in the afternoon and I was on a mission so I got busy first thing. UNL was having an electronics recycling event and I had lots of stuff to get rid of. I started in the basement storage room and finished in the garage. I had 3 TV's (I'd have to pay $1/diagonal inch but was fine with that just to get rid of them), an ancient mac, a modem (for Pete's sake!), 2 laptops, a scanner and 2 printers, 1 of which was from Brown. Sheesh! 

The car was loaded and I was a sweaty mess so I took a shower and closed up the house. Because it was already getting hot so I was staying inside. It peaked at 89 degrees. In April. OMG! I spent the rest of the day watching PBS and stashing the yarn I'd bought in Minneapolis. I was feeling good about my spurt of productivity to end a week when I'd mostly been a slug. And once the electronics were gone, I had plans to get rid of the bikes I'd unearthed while digging in the garage. I was hoping that this was the beginning of a big purge. I live in hope.

Week 15 - So Much Excitement!

I had some exciting things this week but in looking back at them, I can tell I'm getting old because very few people would find these things exciting. Oh well. Call me boring. Keep reading if you want. You've been warned.

First up was when my friend cancelled going to the movies on Tuesday. Being an old fart with a flip phone, I didn't see it when she texted first thing in the morning to cancel. So I took a short lunch to make up for leaving at 4:30 for the movie only to find out mid-afternoon that there would be no movie. The weather was gorgeous so I left early to rake. And let me tell you, I was excited to get outside. So much so that my co-worker said he'd never seen anyone so excited about raking. I went right home and raked for almost 2 hours, finishing all my perennial beds except for the one I'd piled sticks in all winter. I went inside that night feeling super satisfied and just the right amount of tired. BTW, I moved the sticks and raked that last bed on Saturday so it was all done. Nice.

Second excitement was my dentist appointment on Wednesday. As happens with age (so I'm told anyway), my two lower front teeth had shifted recently and there was a sharp spot on the corner of one. I don't know if the shift caused a chip or what but I'd spent the last month constantly poking that tooth and irritating the hell out of my tongue. I had tried to get a small mirror in my mouth to see if it was actually chipped but failed. Well, it was chipped and my dentist ground off the corner and life was good! I'm hoping that over time my tongue will stop gravitating to that spot now that it's smooth.

So while those two things may not rate as exciting to you, the last thing was absolutely exciting. I hope. Anne and I were driving to Minneapolis for the world's largest fiber garage sale at the University of Minnesota's Textile Center. We had gone last year but a blizzard forced us to leave right after the sale and drive home ahead of the storm. This year we were excited to enjoy the sale and spend the night in the hotel I'd booked. We met in Waverly because you still can't go east from Wahoo (only 1 bridge of 3 is open from the flood in March) so I drove south to meet Anne. Our ride there was uneventful and we hit Ikea and Lands end before some dram when we got to downtown and our GPS failed us. After a bit of stress getting lost, we did make it there. Next year we'll have to go low tech and print a map.

The sale was fun but I didn't find much sock yarn. That was probably because despite getting there at the same time, we were way further back in the line so most of sock yarn was gone by the time I got there. I did manage to find plenty of other yarn and had time to peruse the books and patterns. We left the sale with full Ikea bags (yes, the huge blue ones) and headed to our hotel. When we saw the Aldi right next store, we decided to grab food there and eat a hotel picnic while going through our purchases. We went to bed satisfied with our day. I might have bought a lot of yarn. : )

After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we headed home. Our plan was to stop at the Spam Museum on the way. Anne had hesitantly suggested it the night before and I jumped at the chance, excited with the prospect. The museum was unique for sure and I had fun in the gift shop. The rest of the trip home was uneventful and I was home by dinner. Definitely a fun mini trip. Sunday was the usual chores to prepare for the coming week. I do enjoy a productive Sunday at home to end the week.

Week 14 - Food and Gardening

This week seemed dominated by food, which isn't all bad. It started with blondies that I made for knitting in my edge pan, which I'd bought last year at Family Thrift (R.I.P.) but had never used. They took longer to cook but the edges were fabulous. With only 3 of us at knitting, I brought the leftovers to work, where they were a big hit.

I was supposed to have lunch with Darla on Tuesday but she was home sick so I was on my own. I went thrifting, of course, and then went to a hotdog restaurant I'd been wanting to try - Fly Dogz. The menu was overwhelming so I scanned the details and ordered the first one that wasn't offensive along with some cole slaw. I went outside to wait because it was SO hot in there and didn't think anything of it when they said they had my soda inside. I hadn't ordered one so said as much and drove off. Only when I got to my desk did I see that the cole slaw was missing. I had an odd messaging exchange with the restaurant and got no satisfaction. While the hotdog was good (BBQ with crushed fritos and a bunch of other stuff), it was an expensive fast food experience - $7.50 for a single hotdog! The universe is clearly telling me something here. No more fast food! I had a taco salad for dinner. : )

I started Wednesday back at the office furniture store trying chairs again. I had done this before but they lost my order so I sat in 20+ chairs again and chose one. Since I was in the east end of Lincoln, I stopped at Le Quartier for croissants for the office. I got a pain au raisin. Delish!

Thursday was yet more food, starting with lunch with Dodie then early FAC at Tico's after work. It was a belated margarita celebration for finishing the Winter Workshop. Belated (the workshop was in February) but fun and yummy. It's fun to hang out with work friends outside of work.

I had seen on Facebook that UNL's Diary Store had fluffernutter ice cream and since spring weather had finally arrived, Nora went to get her daughter and then met Cindy and me for ice cream Friday afternoon. Of course they were out of fluffernutter but I found something else and we disbursed from there. I headed back to campus to swim. I do love ending my week with a workout and shower, ready for the weekend.

We finally had weather for gardening and I spent all day Saturday outside. I started by clearing out one of my compost bins so I could refill it as I raked. I filled my wheel barrow and then started sifting, ending up with 3 big containers of gorgeous black gold. That done, I started out front, clearing out the parking and raking the front yard. I perfectly layered the leaves with half finished compost from the other bin and things were looking good by the time I went inside in late afternoon. I felt great!

My intention was to get outside Sunday too but it was damp and dreary all morning and by the time the sun came out, I was fully involved inside. I had tons of laundry to do - mostly linens - so did 5 loads of laundry and hung them on the line. I also did some chores and cooking. A normal and lovely Sunday to end the week. I was hoping for more warmth to finish the raking, finishing the week hopeful. All good.

Week 13 - Fiber and Produce

Well the week didn't start on an up note. I slept like crap and then laid in bed for 40 minutes, unable to muster the energy to start my week. I had to get better from here, right?

I had training on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, which always makes the week fly. Otherwise it was a normal week with knitting and swimming. Until Thursday. 

Since chickens were on the agenda at City Council, we had rescheduled book club to 6:00 so we could go to the meeting at 7:00. That didn't stop me from stopping at The Warehouse, where I scored all kinds of veg, including a bunch for Andrea. It was a good discussion at book club and then, of course, no progress was made on the chickens. I was glad the next day was Friday after such a long day.

Layton was out of town so I was on my own for Friday lunch. I had been seeing ads for fish sandwiches (lent, you know) on TV and had never eaten there so decided to get take out for lunch. I stopped at Goodwill on the way there for their 99 cent sale. I did find a few shirts and several pairs of pants in my size (score!) but also found a braided hank of fiber (for spinning) on a scarf rack so picked that up. When I got to the register, the person beside me in line remarked on it and mentioned how many there were. I left my stuff and ran back for a quick scan, finding 9 more. Did I mention they were $1.99 each? Very exciting and I'd be sharing them at my spinning group.

I went to Culver's and was surprised to see that the meal was almost $10 but added cheese curds anyway, making my total for take out lunch $14.79. Sheesh! It also wasn't fast - they gave me a number to hang on my window and sent me to park to wait for my food. Since the sandwich was only OK, I won't be going there again anytime soon. But as I waited for my food, I decided to go back to Goodwill for a more thorough check. I scoured every end cap rack in the store and found 3 more, bringing my total to 13 braids of fiber. Here's a picture. I kept the purple and gray one (second from the left) but all the rest is for friends. I love sharing my thrift scores.

It was another cold, dreary weekend so I happily spent it inside cooking, knitting and doing chores. I had fun using all the produce I'd found at The Warehouse and filled my fridge with yumminess for the week. Nice but I was hoping for some nice weather next weekend so I could get outside and do some yard work. Wish me luck.