Week 24 - More Fiber Fun

It was another week of yarny fun, which always makes for a good week.

Monday Night Knitting is always a lovely way to start a week but then I went to the Goodwill way down south on Tuesday at lunch and scored 145 skeins (!) or wool-ease yarn for 80 cents/skein with my senior discount. Yes, 145 and yes, I do qualify for the senior citizen discount. When did that happen? Anyway.... I went home and stashed them immediately but some may very well end up going to Dottie. Some might have already but when I went to pack up the huge box for her on the weekend, I had more than enough to fill it. That's the 3rd box I've shipped to Indiana. The $26 UPS charges is well worth it to get it out of my house.

Awhile ago, I had knitted baby socks for Lilly, the consultant who has been in our office since we moved in in March who is due in early August. But I asked if her 2 year old might like something knitted since the new baby would be getting all the presents. She had just bought Eloise a monkey at Build-a-Bear so I made the cutest little red sweater (the color Eloise asked for) for the monkey. Check it out.

There was even more fiber fun on Saturday. It was the long awaited felted zipper pin class at spinning, which had been originally schedule in March when Fremont was flooded out. I had seen these on Etsy years ago and always wanted one so was thrilled to learn how to make my own. Turns out it's made by felting fiber between the zippers, which wasn't what I thought. I love how mine turned out. 

From spinning, we did out usual Goodwill and Aldi run but were both starving so got KFC bowls before shopping instead of sushi afterwards. Well, Andrea scored 2 enormous bags of yarn that were clearly someone's entire stash. I bought the 3rd bag, which was much smaller and we sorted through them all in the car on the way home. Since there were some in my bag that went with some in hers, she stopped over on Sunday afternoon and we sorted through them all, pulling out stuff to give away and combining like lots so we each had something to work with. Scoring good quality yarn super cheap at a thrift store is such a joy!

The only other fun, non-yarny, for the week was going to The Biggest Little Farm movie with Cindy on Friday night. Her husband and son were away for the week so she was free as a bird and so we scooted out at 4:45 and headed to The Ross. The movie was good so definitely go see it if it's playing in a theatre near you. : )

That's all I've got for this week. Work was uneventful, which is always good, and it was too rainy to garden so it was all about the yarn. Lucky me.

Week 23 - More Knitting Fun

This week was just chock full of knitting fun and I was back in the pool so you know I was a happy camper. I even decided I would swim on Mondays but leave early so I could swim and knit. It’s good to have a plan.

The weather was so gorgeous that Heidi invited us to her house for Monday Night Knitting. She had had a graduation party for her son on the weekend and so plied us with leftovers. We filled our plates with tacos, grabbed adult beverages and sat out by her pond. The weather was glorious and the mosquitos weren’t out so it was perfect. Anne Marie came with some of her littles and it was fun to watch her youngest, Gemma, cavort outside. She is just is a happy little kid and so found joy in everything and her giggles were the backdrop for our knitting. It was a perfect evening.

I had another demo of my database on Wednesday on East Campus. It went well and they gave good suggestions for enhancements but the best part was going to the Dairy Store for ice cream afterwards. Yum! I swam again and went home to a night of streaming and knitting. But when I got out of my chair to go to bed, I was super dizzy. So dizzy that I had to grab my chair or I might have fallen over. Odd but I didn’t worry about it. Then I got up in the wee hours to pee and was still dizzy. When I got up Thursday and was still dizzy, I called in sick. As usual, I had to convince myself it was OK because I do not call in sick when I’m not sick but since I was too dizzy to drive, I felt justified. I went back to bed and stayed there for most of the morning. By the time I got up, the dizziness was much less and gone by early afternoon. A virus maybe? Who knows? I did nothing for the rest of the day.

Friday was over in a flash and it was time for the weekend. I’m liking the summer swimming schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Thursday because it means I can run errands after work on Friday, including doing food shopping. Nice. When I got home, I saw that Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day so poked the Monday Night Knitters to see if anyone was doing anything. Come to find out, someone in town who isn’t in our MNK group had posted on a local Facebook group that I don’t belong to that she’d be knitting at the local coffee shop. I was the only MNK in the dark and other were going so I decided to join them. It’s always lovely meeting new knitters and knitting over coffee.

I got to Mocha C’s around 11:00 and enjoyed a latte while chatting with a woman I’d met before but only casually, Karen, and her daughter. Heidi came shortly after and then Anne Marie with a few kids, of course. The coffee shop is right across from Andrea’s shop so we persuaded her to put a note on the door in case a customer came in and come knit with us. I was there long enough to need lunch so got a delicious chicken salad croissant and kept knitting. We closed the place down at 2:00. Karen had mentioned wanting to make some dish cloths so I gathered some cotton yarn and dropped it at her house. Sharing yarn is a happy thing.

Sunday was chore day, as usual, but I was off to a slow start and it was mid afternoon before I was at full speed. How do you like the flower pics from my garden? The little rose is the one Rene brought after my knee surgery. I wasn't sure if it would winter over but it did and came back great this year. It's a miniature so the blooms are quarter sized. The amarylis came up from the basement a couple of weeks ago with the flower stalk fully emerged but ghostly white from lack of sunlight. It greened up and bloomed beautifully. But I digress....

I was in the middle of something when there was a knock on my door. The man who’s spearheading Re Tree Wahoo was at my door asking if I’d be willing to adopt a few trees that he would be planting along the new bike path. I agreed but the talking went on and on. In my driveway. Until almost 6:00. My productivity was DONE. Oh well. Sometimes you’ve just got to go with the flow. As long as I have clean underwear for the coming week, I’m good to go. : )

Week 22 - First Deck Knitting

The week started on a lovely note. With all my gardening done, I had just chores to do – laundry, dishes, etc. This left plenty of time for sitting and knitting, which I felt totally justified doing. I was a little sore – just enough to remind me of all I’d gotten done. Perfect!

I started my work week catching up on emails and then cleaned my desk. And I mean actually cleared surfaces and wiped them down with windex, which felt great. I had an update “meeting” with Nora on a bench outside and then prepped for the Zoom demo of my new Financial Toolbox database on Wednesday morning. It was a nice first day back.

So there were more than 50 people listening to the presentation and I went to the training room half an hour early to set up. The machine took 15 minutes to boot up (damn updates) and then didn’t have the connection I needed. I was freaking out and had 2 people helping me but at the last minute we had to move it to my desk and tell the other people in my office to be quiet while I was presenting. I was in full freak out mode but when we started 5 minutes late and the mic went live, I went all professional and got it done. Cindy was amazed at how I pulled it off since I’d been ready to cry minutes before. She told me that several times during the day, to which I replied that if I had gotten to my age and wasn’t able to turn to professional mode on a dime, I’d be useless. Anyway, the presentation went well so all was good in my world.

The day had had an inauspicious start long before the presentation difficulties. When I went into my bedroom to get dressed, I found a big pile of cat puke IN MY BED! And since I’d just taken my heavy winter blankets off the bed, it had soaked through all the layers, even the mattress pad which I only had one of. I stripped the bed, got dressed and left. I’d have to deal with that when I got home. I had a nice lunch with Dodie after my presentation, took a break in the afternoon to read on a bench and then hit Aldi on the way home. Book club was the next day and I had 100 pages yet to read but I also had a few things to get done before I sat down to read. After putting the groceries away, I dug up perennials and loaded them into my car. It had to be that night because Thursday was the last cool day and I couldn’t leave them in my car on a hot day. That done, I picked up the book and read while cooking milk for yogurt. When that was done, I sat down at the dining room table (a rarity) and read until I was done. It was a good book – not happy but kept your interest – Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found. I want to read the sequel.

With my demo done and my desk clean, it was time to go through the stack of paper on my desk. I went through it all and came up with a big to do list and several things to get feedback on, all of which felt good. Then I had a super productive rest of the day. I delivered the plants at lunch and ran errands then taught all afternoon. There was a data "meeting" at The Mill that started at 4:00 but since I didn't finish teaching until 4:15, there was no point going. I left a bit early and bought marigolds and a window box on the way home, planting them as soon as I got home. After grabbing a quick dinner, I went to book club, where we had a good discussion on Blackbird.

Friday was lunch with Layton with meetings before and after so went quickly. Since Lori and Andrea would be coming for lunch on Saturday and I didn't want to be stressed getting ready, I started on the deck as soon as I got home. It was covered with helicopters from the maple and there was crap here and there plus everything was grungy from winter. I started sweeping and filled an entire garden trug with helicopters from my small deck. Then I rearranged furniture and washed down the table. With the deck in as good a shape as it could be, I went inside, happy with getting that done. Now I could have a leisurely morning on Saturday.

And it was wonderful. I slept in and then knitted and streamed the morning away in my jammies. And being the 1st of the month, I cast on new socks, which always makes me happy. I had been planning to make a pie but Andrea was bringing dessert so my work was done. We had a lovely afternoon eating Chinese for lunch then knitting the afternoon away. Andrea brought a 6 pack of various adult beverages so we enjoyed those too. Lori left earlier than Drae, who didn't leave until 7:00 so my day was done. It was as good as it gets.

Sunday was chore day, as usual. It had been a good week, filled with accomplishments at work, fun with friends and enough productivity to feel good about it. All good.

Week 21 - Playing with Connie

I can honestly say I was never happier to leave my office than I was on Tuesday afternoon. Connie had arrived Monday night and was picking me up Tuesday ~2:00 to head to Kansas City. Not only did I have the anticipation of fun but the noise was so horrible that I couldn't stand to be in my office another minute! They were doing the final demolition on the first floor directly below my office and that involved dueling jack hammers punctuated by occasional sledge hammer slams. I couldn't hear myself think and was getting crankier by the minute so was thrilled when 2:00 came on Tuesday and I was out the door. It was going to be a fun week.

Connie was giving the keynote at an IT conference and they'd paid for 2 nights in the hotel so I was going along for some KC fun. With us catching up on the drive down, it went quickly and after checking in at the hotel we headed to her friends' for KC barbeque. I didn't know these people but they were perfectly pleasant and welcoming so it was a lovely time. Since Connie had to be bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing, we left relatively early to hit the hay.

I went down with Connie to the ballroom and grabbed a lovely breakfast at the conference's buffet and ate while Connie presented. She did a great job and with her obligations done, we headed off for the day. We were in the Country Club Plaza area and our first stop was Starbuck's so Connie could get some breakfast. We shopped around there for a bit and then walked to the Nelson Adkins Museum. Aside from the lovely art work, we had a delicious lunch in their courtyard cafeteria, complete with a dessert so pretty that we took a picture of it. Earl Gray Cake. Yum! We finished the museum after lunch then headed towards the hotel. The Kemper Museum was next door to the hotel and we went in but were over arted so didn't stay long. We checked the conference out and found a lovely afternoon snack that we grabbed and then sat in a lounge for a bit to recharge before our evening.

The conference organizers had asked Connie to join them for dinner and said I could go too. We weren't sure if it was conference event or just for a chosen few. It was the latter. We walked with a dozen people to a fun restaurant in the plaza and enjoyed free dinner and drinks. I had the gnocchi because I cannot resist it when I find it on a menu. After walking back, we weren't ready for bed so had a drink in the bar. $30 for 2 drinks – big city prices! When we got back to the room, we checked our steps and had walked more than 8 miles that day. No wonder we were tired! It was a fun day though so worth it all.

We didn’t have a firm plan for Thursday but wanted to hit Penzey’s before heading home via the scenic route to avoid I-29. We had a lovely breakfast courtesy of the conference then checked out and headed to Overland Park. Penzey’s wasn’t open yet so we dinked around the cute downtown area until it opened at 10:00, bought our spices and started north, stopping in St. Joe for Starbuck’s, of course. Our route took us through Auburn, where Connie used to live, so we stopped at a cute store we used to shop at and I scored a few stocking stuffers. By the time we were approaching Lincoln, we were starving, having eaten nothing but car snacks since breakfast. We were sitting at Copal (a locally owned progressive Mexican restaurant) when I mentioned that Anne lived just down the street. OMG! Until I said that I’d completely forgotten that I’d left my car there. I called Anne to invite her to join us but she declined. We had a lovely dinner, picked up my car and were back in Wahoo before dark – tired but satisfied with our KC adventure.

I had taken Friday off but wasn’t joining Connie in Lincoln for lunch with her daughter. She left late morning and I went right outside to start gardening. First up was planting my containers. I had bought some annuals but most of my plants were things I’d wintered over. I sifted compost to mix with the soil from last year’s pots and got busy. I had one snafu when the coconut liner for one of my planters disintegrated when I dumped it. Since I was too dirty to go shopping, I decided to find something I could use instead. I immediately thought of felted wool and grabbed a brown sweater from the basement and cut out a circle. I had to do some adjusting but it worked great and I was pretty proud of my ingenuity. Check it out. Connie was back for supper and a movie and helped me place the new raised bed edges roughly where they’d end up. I was happy with my progress and ready to do more on Saturday.

Connie was up and out first thing, facing all day in the car to get home. After I’d finished my coffee, I got dressed and went outside for phase 1 of the veg beds projects. My plan was to put the first one down but then move the other 3 so they’d be far enough apart for a mower to go between them. This meant I was digging into hard packed soil and also moving the fluffy amended soil into the new bed locations. It was hard work! The new beds were also taller than the old ones so I was scrambling to find more to fill them. The first bed was OK as is (probably because I didn’t move it so the soil was still nice and fluffy) but the others needed more. The 2^nd was OK with just added compost but the 3^rd and 4^th were short. I was able to fill the third with the old soil some extra pots from last year and some compost. I had nothing left for the 4^th so thought of the ancient compost under my cherry tree.

Years ago, I had started throwing yard debris under the cherry tree behind the garage. When I’d had real compost bins put up next to the tree, I started using those but the pile under the tree stayed. Over the years, it had become a dumping ground for old pots, bent tomato cages and the like so was an absolute mess. I got busy Sunday morning cleaning out that whole area and once it was down to bare soil, I dug up the top 6 inches and added that to the last bed. It was gorgeous soil/compost and perfectly filled the last bin. I also edged under the tree so there was a clear line for where John could now mow that entire area. Nice.

With all the beds prepped, my last goal for the day was to actually plant some veggies. There was a storm coming Sunday night that would perfectly water them in so I went out, exhausted, and planted them all. When I went inside to shower and sit for the evening, I felt great. Sore but not too sore and SO satisfied with all I’d gotten done. I am reveling in my abilities and stamina now that my knee is 100%. If the heat holds off a bit, I hope to get even more done in my garden reclamation project. Wish me luck!

I can honestly say I was never happier to leave my office than I was on Tuesday afternoon. Connie had arrived Monday night and was picking me up Tuesday ~2:00 to head to Kansas City. Not only did I have the anticipation of fun but the noise was so horrible that I couldn't stand to be in my office another minute! They were doing the final demolition on the first floor directly below my office and that involved dueling jack hammers punctuated by occasional sledge hammer slams. I couldn't hear myself think and was getting crankier by the minute so was thrilled when 2:00 came on Tuesday and I was out the door. It was going to be a fun week.

Connie was giving the keynote at an IT conference and they'd paid for 2 nights in the hotel so I was going along for some KC fun. With us catching up on the drive down, it went quickly and after checking in at the hotel we headed to her friends' for KC barbeque. I didn't know these people but they were perfectly pleasant and welcoming so it was a lovely time. Since Connie had to be bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing, we left relatively early to hit the hay.

I went down with Connie to the ballroom and grabbed a lovely breakfast at the conference's buffet and ate while Connie presented. She did a great job and with her obligations done, we headed off for the day. We were in the Country Club Plaza area and our first stop was Starbuck's so Connie could get some breakfast. We shopped around there for a bit and then walked to the Nelson Adkins Museum. Aside from the lovely art work, we had a delicious lunch in their courtyard cafeteria, complete with a dessert so pretty that we took a picture of it. Earl Gray Cake. Yum! We finished the museum after lunch then headed towards the hotel. The Kemper Museum was next door to the hotel and we went in but were over arted so didn't stay long. We checked the conference out and found a lovely afternoon snack that we grabbed and then sat in a lounge for a bit to recharge before our evening.

The conference organizers had asked Connie to join them for dinner and said I could go too. We weren't sure if it was conference event or just for a chosen few. It was the latter. We walked with a dozen people to a fun restaurant in the plaza and enjoyed free dinner and drinks. I had the gnocchi because I cannot resist it when I find it on a menu. After walking back, we weren't ready for bed so had a drink in the bar. $30 for 2 drinks – big city prices! When we got back to the room, we checked our steps and had walked more than 8 miles that day. No wonder we were tired! It was a fun day though so worth it all.

We didn’t have a firm plan for Thursday but wanted to hit Penzey’s before heading home via the scenic route to avoid I-29. We had a lovely breakfast courtesy of the conference then checked out and headed to Overland Park. Penzey’s wasn’t open yet so we dinked around the cute downtown area until it opened at 10:00, bought our spices and started north, stopping in St. Joe for Starbuck’s, of course. Our route took us through Auburn, where Connie used to live, so we stopped at a cute store we used to shop at and I scored a few stocking stuffers. By the time we were approaching Lincoln, we were starving, having eaten nothing but car snacks since breakfast. We were sitting at Copal (a locally owned progressive Mexican restaurant) when I mentioned that Anne lived just down the street. OMG! Until I said that I’d completely forgotten that I’d left my car there. I called Anne to invite her to join us but she declined. We had a lovely dinner, picked up my car and were back in Wahoo before dark – tired but satisfied with our KC adventure.

I had taken Friday off but wasn’t joining Connie in Lincoln for lunch with her daughter. She left late morning and I went right outside to start gardening. First up was planting my containers. I had bought some annuals but most of my plants were things I’d wintered over. I sifted compost to mix with the soil from last year’s pots and got busy. I had one snafu when the coconut liner for one of my planters disintegrated when I dumped it. Since I was too dirty to go shopping, I decided to find something I could use instead. I immediately thought of felted wool and grabbed a brown sweater from the basement and cut out a circle. I had to do some adjusting but it worked great and I was pretty proud of my ingenuity. Check it out. Connie was back for supper and a movie and helped me place the new raised bed edges roughly where they’d end up. I was happy with my progress and ready to do more on Saturday.

Connie was up and out first thing, facing all day in the car to get home. After I’d finished my coffee, I got dressed and went outside for phase 1 of the veg beds projects. My plan was to put the first one down but then move the other 3 so they’d be far enough apart for a mower to go between them. This meant I was digging into hard packed soil and also moving the fluffy amended soil into the new bed locations. It was hard work! The new beds were also taller than the old ones so I was scrambling to find more to fill them. The first bed was OK as is (probably because I didn’t move it so the soil was still nice and fluffy) but the others needed more. The 2^nd was OK with just added compost but the 3^rd and 4^th were short. I was able to fill the third with the old soil some extra pots from last year and some compost. I had nothing left for the 4^th so thought of the ancient compost under my cherry tree.

Years ago, I had started throwing yard debris under the cherry tree behind the garage. When I’d had real compost bins put up next to the tree, I started using those but the pile under the tree stayed. Over the years, it had become a dumping ground for old pots, bent tomato cages and the like so was an absolute mess. I got busy Sunday morning cleaning out that whole area and once it was down to bare soil, I dug up the top 6 inches and added that to the last bed. It was gorgeous soil/compost and perfectly filled the last bin. I also edged under the tree so there was a clear line for where John could now mow that entire area. Nice.

With all the beds prepped, my last goal for the day was to actually plant some veggies. There was a storm coming Sunday night that would perfectly water them in so I went out, exhausted, and planted them all. When I went inside to shower and sit for the evening, I felt great. Sore but not too sore and SO satisfied with all I’d gotten done. I am reveling in my abilities and stamina now that my knee is 100%. If the heat holds off a bit, I hope to get even more done in my garden reclamation project. Wish me luck!

Week 20 - Pie's Stuck Mouth

It was an eventful week, this time not for work, which was nice. The big boss came back so maybe that took the pressure off my boss. Whatever it was things seemed more even keel. I'll take it.

So even keel was work. Home not so much. When I got home on Monday night, Pie's mouth was stuck open. She goes into full freak out mode when that happens (kitty TMJ, BTW) so she wasn't letting me near her. I was able to try to release her jaw on Tuesday after work but I was bending over while she was sleeping on one of my patio chairs so I couldn't get ahold of her well and she squirmed away. When I got up Wednesday morning, it was still open and she was meowing plaintively. Since it was approaching 48 hours wide open, I decide to take some vacation time and try to get it shut. I tried for 2 hours to no avail so went to work ~10:00. Luckily it was shut when I got home Wednesday night so I made sure she had lots of wet food with water added and sat down to the Survivor finale, happy that she was on the mend. Well, it was open again on Thursday morning but I was able to grab her and get it shut. Something clicked in her jaw so I'm hopeful that her mouth will be fine for awhile now. Sometimes it goes months without being an issue so that's what I'm hoping for.

I left work early on Thursday for a shot in my problematic thumb. Cortisone always burns going in but having all that liquid in my thumb was an issue too. When I got home Thursday night, my thumb was like a sausage. It mostly absorbed overnight so it was now a waiting game to see if it helped. Having not bent my thumb voluntarily since September, the joint would be super stiff but hopefully better.

On the work front, things were pretty much normal again. Big relief! The noise level was off the charts though, which was getting more tedious with every passing day. There couldn't be much left on the first floor so it had to end soon, right? Cindy and I celebrated the end of the week by hitting The Ross for a movie at 5:00 - Red Joan. It was good and a nice way to end the week.

Saturday was spinning in Fremont so we did the usual spinning, Goodwill, Aldi and sushi. The skies opened up while we were in Aldi and it was coming down so hard that Andrea brought the car up to the doors so we could load from there. It calmed down while we enjoyed sushi. Gotta love our Fremont runs.

Sunday started off with Cindy delivering the new raised beds, which her husband had made for me while he was making hers. We stacking them over the old beds for now. Otherwise, it was another chore day with a big to do list to prepare for Connie's arrival Monday night. The rain made working outside impossible, which was good because I had lots to do inside. It would be great to see Connie and since I was taking 3 days off, I was going into a super short work week and fun in KC.