Week 42 - A Trying Week

It was a trying week all around. It seemed to just be one thing after another all week long but at least the weekend was fun.

First off was the tiny house fiasco. I am going to Berkley next month to meet up with Connie after her conference is over. Since she was already booked into a hotel during the conference, we had decided that I’d book the Alcatraz tickets and she’d book the hotel. But when the hotel ended up costing $389/night, I suggested we consider an AirBnB instead and sent her a link with options in Berkley. She expressed concern that most of them had only one bed, to which I said that I was OK sharing as long as it was a queen sized bed and reminded her that we’d need parking for the rental car.

Fast forward to this week when I poked her having heard nothing back from her. Well, she sent an email saying she’d book this little house. Yes, a tiny house that’s 9x10 feet, with a double bed up a ladder, no kitchen, no seating and an outside shower. In November, when the average high temp is 67 degrees. When I emailed to ask what she was thinking, she said she might have booked the wrong one but didn’t want to cancel and lose money. We went back and forth and when I mentioned the outside shower and how cold it would be in the morning, she said “Outside shower?” I don’t think she even read the listing! But at least the shower was the deal breaker so she cancelled that listing and booked us a reasonable apartment. Sheesh!

I had a colonoscopy scheduled for Friday so would be out of work Thursday and Friday, which meant the only night I could swim was Wednesday. Much as I wanted to go straight home (water aerobics is no longer any fun now that we’re in the lap pool), I headed to the Rec Center. Well, when I was leaving the parking lot, I backed into a traiiler hitch that was sticking out 2 feet from the back of a construction trailer that was parked in the lot. It was blocking half of the driving lane. So the same parking lot and now I have a big honkin’ dent in my freshly repaired hatch. OMG! I could not believe it and vented to Anne when  I got home. At this rate, the colonoscopy wasn’t looking so bad!

Now this would be my 3^rd colonoscopy and 4^th colon prep but things clearly have changed since my last one. I had a list of foods I couldn’t eat for a week before (basically anything with fiber) so ate like crap all week. Then my prep was all over-the-counter – Dulcolax tablets to start with a Gatorade chaser with miralax mixed in. They wanted me to start at 1:00 with the pills then do half of the Gatorade starting at 4:00. All of that was fine but they wanted me to do the 2^nd half of the Gatorade 6 hours before my procedure, which was at 8:30 a.m. I had asked if I could do it sooner and they insisted it had to be 6 hours before so I set an alarm for 2:30 and got up and started drinking.

I think my problem was I went back to bed after the first 2 doses. When the alarm went off for the third, I knew things were not going well. As happened last time I did colon prep, it was no longer moving past my stomach, which felt distended. I paced through the house, trying to settle my stomach but nope. I barfed it all up at 4:00, gave up and went to bed. At least I got a few more hours of sleep but I was nervous that I wasn’t all cleaned out so went early to discuss it. I paced around the hospital waiting for the verdict but they said they’d do it anyway. Big relief! 

Two nurses had trouble finding veins in my left wrist and the back of my right hand so I left with huge bruises but the new short acting anesthesia was great. I was a bit woozy at the hospital but by the time I walked into my house (delivered by my friend Lorri, whose husband drove my car back so I didn’t have to go back later) I felt fine. There was no fatigue at all and after eating my way through my kitchen, I had a lovely afternoon. The week was looking up!

Andrea and I were headed to Fremont for spinning but were going early to hit a Habitat Restore that neither of us knew was there plus a craft fair. The Restore was in a warehouse area by the tracks, which might explain why we’d never seen it, and was enormous! It had way more than the usual furniture and building supplies, with lots of kitchen stuff and was very neat and organized. I could have spent hours there but we had places to be so powered through. I found all kinds of fun stuff and then we hit the craft fair, closing the place down. I got a few stocking stuffers so it was worth it and we were only 45 minutes late for spinning but appeared to have missing nothing of import. It was a big group and they’d moved the tables so we were all sitting in a circle, which was much better. From there we hit Goodwill (lame compared to the Restore) and Aldi before stopping at KFC for $3 bowls for dinner. It was nearly 8:00 by the time we got home but it had been a good day.

I ended the week with my usual Sunday routine – CBS Sunday morning, chatting with my sister and then cooking up a storm. I even organized the freezer, finding some stuffed shells to bake in the leftover jarred sauce I had in the fridge. I love ending the week with all the food for the following week ready to go in the fridge and my chores done. Despite the early issues in the week, I ended on a positive note so all was good in my world. Yay!

Week 41 - Fall Has Arrived

Having run out of steam Sunday night, I got up Monday morning and made a pie for knitting with the strawberries and rhubarb that I'd thawed. How can a week that starts with pie baking not be good? The day got even better when I went to Joann's at lunch to use 2 coupons on sock yarn, of course, and found boxes and boxes of clearance yarn right up front. I sorted through them all and found many, many skeins of Serenity Sock for $2.97 each. Score! Then knitting was fun, with 2 pies because Drae brought a pumpkin pie. I had some of both and all of leftovers got sent home with Donna for Ed. Gotta keep that man in pie since he's so helpful when I need stuff done in my house. It's time to make a serious list for him.

I went back to Joann's on Tuesday to get whatever sock yarn they had left. I got a few single skeins to use for dyeing. I went straight home after work to prep for the cleaning lady so I wouldn't be frantic on Wednesday night. I got busy immediately and had everything except the dishes, which needed to soak, done before I sat down for dinner. I swam on Wednesday and then did the dishes over the course of the evening, doing a few at each ad break during Survivor. Easy peasy and ready for a clean house.

While the weather had been fall-ish for the past week, we were getting our first freeze on Thursday night so I went home and put plants in the garage rather than dirty up my clean floors. I did bring in my lantana tree and the cats found a big praying mantis on it, which I prompty put outside. But when I shook it out of the jar, I didn't see where it landed and then something poked my foot so I screamed. It was a stick. Ha! Anyway, it looks like the plants can go back outside after the weekend for at least a couple of weeks. Nice. I also picked all the green tomatoes, a few peppers and a sink full of chard, all of which I washed Friday before work. The end of another gardening season.

I made a big to do list for the weekend. I had called to have my trash picked up next week (I have a will call can so pay $20 each time they pick it up, which is only a few times/year) so wouldn't be starting my garage until I had an empty trash can. I'd also stopped at Hoot & Sadie's, the chalk painted furniture store in town that wanted the desk I have in my garage, and the woman is out of town until the 15th so no point pulling that out. Clearly the cleaning gods were against me so the garage would wait. Oh well.

While I was loving sitting in the sun in my nightie on Saturday morning, I forced myself to get dressed and head outside for just a bit after lunch. I pulled the bent tomato cage out of the trash to make a bit more room and then put a few things from the garage in there but the real reason to be outside was the beggar's tick. It's a weed that grows prolifically in my yard. Last year, I was good about pulling it out before it went to seed and there was less growing this year. But I hadn't pulled it this year and the cats were bringing the stickers inside on their fur. So I started pulling it, getting covered with burrs, and then drove the full bag to the city burn pile so the seeds would be gone. It took me half an hour to pick the burrs out of my clothes and I just threw the hoody in the bathtub to deal with later. Next year I need to pull them earlier for sure.

Sunday was a lovely day. It felt like the first normal Sunday in a long time, which means I did chores. After a lovely breakfast of pancakes and bacon, I sat in the sun enjoying CBS Sunday Morning then kicked it into gear. I pulled 2 bags of sweaters out of my spare room and washed them all on delicate and hung them out on the line to dry along with my sheets. Then I got busy on the food front. I made a huge pot of red sauce, carrot raisin salad and prepped and froze all the chard and the salsa pork and rice I had in the fridge. It felt like a treat to be cooking my own food. Too bad I'm going into a colonoscopy week so have to be careful what I eat. Oh well. October is medical month for me and after this one, I'll be free for 5 more years. Colon health is important. : )

But the high at the end of the week had to be committing to our next trip. Janice, a fellow alum of the Jean Moss trips, posted on Facebook that a few other alums had already booked a Baltic knitting cruise for next May. It's 2 weeks and leaves from Amsterdam, hitting Denmark, Russia (yay!), Finland, Sweden and Norway. the back and forth lasted for days but Anne and I decided to go and gave our info to the travel agent, who was very responsive, on Saturday. So our next trip is all set when we've barely gotten over the last one. Life is good!

Week 40 - Back to Reality

This was the easiest jet lag recovery ever! I was sleeping normally within a few days and felt absolutely normal by Monday. All good.

The highlight of the week was going to the Downton Abbey movie on Tuesday night with Dodie. She had given me that as my birthday present in February not realizing it wouldn't come out until fall. It was so fun to see the cast again and we totally enjoyed it.

I waited to join the gym until October 1st because I was going with a full membership and fit pass because water aerobics only is no longer an option now that it's in the main gym's lap pool. Despite it being cramped and shallow, it felt good to be back in the pool on Wednesday night. Friday was homecoming so that was the only class for the week, which fine by me. I needed to ease back into it and hopefully will do more than swimming twice a week since I'm spending so much per month.

I had thought my cleaning lady would be coming on Thursday but when I messaged her on Wednesday afternoon, she said it was next week, which was wonderful to hear. That meant I didn't have to go home and madly neatize the house that night. And it's not like the house got horribly dirty in the week since I'd been home. : )

I started hitting the thrifts again and totally scored at the Vine Street Goodwill. They had 2 gorgeous, hand quilted quits in perfect condition in the camping blankets bin for $5.99 each! Check these out. Not bad after not thrifting for weeks.


I hit HyVee again on Friday night to get just a few things but ended up buying pumpkins and mums for my house. Oddly, I was looking forward to being home on the weekend because I wanted to start cleaning out my garage, which is my goal between my trip and when the snow flies. That was the plan until Saturday morning.

I woke up Saturday morning and found an email for Lori, who had forgotten to mention that she had a hair appointment and would be in town. Not a hard decision to make between cleaning the garage and hanging with friends. I ran to the bank before they closed then went to the coffee shop to knit and wait for Lori and Andrea to come. We had lunch (they have yummy chicken salad croissants) and closed them down but had more chatting to do so went to a park and knitted the afternoon away. It was windy but as long as we sat in the sun it was warm enough. By the time we left, the day was gone but it was so worth it.

Sunday was chores and cooking. I'd bought an enormous pork roast at HyVee so cut it up and made pulled bbq pork with half and salsa pork roast with the other half. The crockpot was going all day. After eating so much on the cruise, I had thought I'd start a diet as soon as I got home but I was enjoying eating "normal" food so put that off. At least I'd dieted before the cruise so was just back where I started from. And after a full day at home, I was truly feeling 100% recovered from my trip. Back to reality.

Week 39 - Heading Back Home

Monday was out last day of the cruise and I was looking forward to spending a few hours in Ireland but it was pouring rain. Not the typical misty UK rain but pouring. We headed out anyway but I made the mistake of not wearing my jacket so when my umbrella blew inside out, I got drenched. I would have been anyway. It was raining that hard. But we didn't let it stop us from shopping on the high street. Despite only being there 2.5 hours, I bought more in Ireland than I had the whole time in Iceland. Go figure. Still no yarn but a few other goodies. 

By the time we got back on the ship, we were soaked to the skin but it was  nothing a good towel off and change of clothes wouldn't fix. We had clothes hung all over the cabin in hopes that they would dry some because our luggage had to be out in the hallway by midnight. We had our last class that afternoon and I went to the last afternoon tea and brought scones with clotted cream (the sign said cotted cream for the whole trip - ESL alert!) and jam for everyone. It felt strange to pack up our class supplies and clear out the conference room.

We started packing before dinner and finished afterwards, resorting to packing our still wet clothes in plastic bags. We spent our last night outside of the bar, knitting with the entire group. It was going to be sad to leave everyone but we vowed to stay in touch. Teresa, the tour manager, had offered to drive Anne and I to Heathrow since she would be driving right by so we didn't have that to stress over. I slept fine on our last night on the ship.

We met the group for an early breakfast at the sit down restaurant then waited in our designated spot until we were called to leave. We picked up our luggage, took the bus to Teresa's car and were off. Teresa knew that I'd failed to find any Kellogg's Country Store (my fave UK cereal) so we stopped at a Tesco Express and ASDA (Wal-Mart in the UK) but didn't find it. What a peach Teresa is, right? She dropped us at Heathrow and we checked in no problem. We had middle seats on the flight home, which is NOT what we'd booked but oh well. I watched a movie before finding the HBO series Chernobyl, which I managed to watch all 5 episodes of with just minutes to spare. It took forever for our luggage to come out in Chicago but I waited in the customs line while Anne waited for the luggage and we made it through customs, rechecked our luggage, changed terminals and got through TSA and to our gate with time to spare, even before our flight was delayed. Almost home.

When I called Andrea to say my flight was delayed, she offered to pick up my car from the body shop before she picked me up at the airport. When I got outside the Lincoln airport, which is tiny, my car was so clean that I didn't recognize it. Really. The repair was perfect too, which was the frosting on the cake. Andrea drove me home and had even left her car at my house so she could drive herself home. What a great friend she is. I was pretty tired but immediately unpacked and hung up my damp clothes before showering and going to bed. It was nice to be home, sleeping in my own bed surrounded by my cats. The house was also cleaner than it's been in years, thanks to my new cleaning lady who had come for the first time on the day I left. The toilet looked brand new. Yay!

I felt right to sleep and slept until after 5:00 - not bad for jet lag but staying awake for 24 hours helps. Since I was up so early, I did 2 loads of laundry, ordered a Panera salad to pick up on the way to work and headed in. I was fine all day, not even fading in the afternoon, and was caught up before I left right at 5:00. But so much for feeling so awake that morning. I found the side door wide open and I hadn't hit go on the dryer. Oh well. I'd made it through the day so called it good. I was super tired but the Survivor finale was on so I watched that and finished the laundry before going to bed. I slept well again and while I didn't sleep until the alarm, I still got plenty of sleep. 

Besides getting over jet lag and catching up at work, there was lots going on. My friend Lorri, who had fed my cats and watered my containers while I was gone, went away so I was watering at her house after work every night. I also had book club Thursday night at 7:00. I did a big food shopping at HyVee on Friday night so was good to be home all weekend. I had no plans beyond getting back on track. While I had unpacked Tuesday night, there were still piles on the bar and table so I got all that put away and had a nice, relaxing weekend, catching up on Ravelry and some TV shows I'd missed. It was lovely to be home and I had wonderful memories of a fantastic trip. Life is good!

Week 38 - Fun in Iceland

We woke up docked in Reykjavik. Yay! Iceland at last. I was hopeful that the 3 days of rough seas would be worth it. I'm happy to say, I was not disappointed.

We had knitting excursions booked for both days, which had been hastily redone while we were at sea because weather had forced the ship to reroute and we were circumnavigating Iceland in the opposite directions so were in ports on different days. They both went swimmingly.

We started with a tour of the Istex yarn factory - nice. Unfortunately they didn't sell any yarn there but it's always fun to see yarn in production. Our tour leader posed by some wool. From there we went to the Parliament Waterfall, which is where tribes used to meet to "govern" Iceland. In days of yore, of course. Then we stopped at geysers, which the Brits pronounce geezer. Ha! After another waterfall and several rainbows (I think we saw 6 that day), we stopped at a yarn co-op, where I did buy a couple of hat kits because there was no sock yarn in sight. The scenery was beautiful everywhere we went and I took many pictures of rocks and lichen, loving the colors. After a full day, it was back to the ship for dinner. But Anne and I had other plans.

When we got off the bus, we asked the tour guide if there was a supermarket nearby. She said there was one about a 15 minute walk and pointed the way so off we went. Well, the walk was closer to 40 minutes and it was pretty darn chilly but the market was cool. It was a warehouse type market, as in boxes ont he shelves but not Costco size, more like Valueland for my Rhode Island readers. Anyway, you walked into a cooler room that had the produce before getting to groceries. There were separate cooler rooms for dairy and meat. We found the candy aisle and bought a bunch - some to eat and some to take home. I didn't find my Kellogg's Country Store. Oh well. The walk back to the ship was even colder and we'd missed dinner in the dining room so headed to the buffet, where we found Trish so ate with her. Needless to say, we hit 20,000 steps that day and it was great to sleep in port with no waves.

Our second day in Reykjavik was another excursion with a designer visit and some shopping time. For the life of me, I cannot remember the designer's name (found her card - Bergros Kjartansdottir. See? Not easy to remember, right?) but we went to her house, which doubles as her studio. It was beautiful and there was inspiration everywhere you looked. Her designs were gorgeous too, sort of modern Icelandic. Then we drove to the main cathedral and had a couple of hours to shop. Anne and I went up and down the street but other than a couple of skeins of scratchy Icelandic yarn, I didn't buy much. We headed back to the ship mid-afternoon and enjoyed afternoon tea before settling in our favorite spot outside to watch the ship leave port and knit until dinner. We sat outside with a few friends after dinner too, using blankets from our cabins to stay warm. It had been a lovely day and we'd make up in the northern fjords the next day.

I LOVED Isafjordur! It was a small town that was easily walkable and we had fun shopping. The first stop was a little craft shop, where Anne found me the only skein of indy dyed sock yarn in the shop. Then we hit a lovely bakery for a sweet, coffee and wifi. It was delish and it felt good to catch up on emails and Ravelry. There was a little grocery store there too (we bought more chocolate) and then we walked along the fjord. We even found a friendly cat who let us love on him and pick him up. Nice. We had a lovely day and were back on the ship for afternoon tea and dinner then more knitting on the deck. We got the heaters turned on so were able to stay out there longer. I was loving this cruise!

Wednesday was Akureyri, which is the 2nd largest metro area in Iceland. We had an excursion to mineral baths booked for the afternoon but were up early and headed out for the most northern botanic garden in the world. Of course it was an uphill climb but so worth it. They had it lit up with fairy light and it was fun to see how the plants grow in Iceland. Things that bloom in the spring in Nebraska were blooming in fall there and were all smaller. Gotta love a botanic garden! We found another bakery with wifi (not as good as the one in Isafjordur) and were back on the ship in time to grab our swim stuff for the baths a sandwich from the buffet to eat on the bus. I was super excited for this excursion.

We stopped at the Waterfall of the Gods on the way to the baths and this one was perfect. It was like a miniature Niagara Falls and we could walk right up to it. The colors were amazing and I took a bunch of pictures. After 45 minutes there, we got back on the bus to head to the baths. Yay! The baths stank of sulfur but you only smelled it for a few minutes. It was cloudy and chilly but the water was so warm that it was fine. When we got out and showered, my skin was SO soft and that lasted for days. The baths ended up being the highlight of the trip. 

Our last Icelandic port of call was the teeny, tiny town of Seydisfyordur - population ~600 so we tripled the population when we docked. All the excursions were booked so we were on our own. We saw a cool waterfall from the ship so headed there after breakfast. It was straight up the side of a mountain so got us going first thing. We were climbing in t-shirts and mystified by the Brits in winter coats. We climbed a path of switchbacks then a flight of stairs to get to a landing ~20 feet below the falls. Anne wanted to climb up the loose rocks to get to the actual falls but I declined and watched. She only made it halfway up and then came down on her butt. She spent the rest of the day with muddy jeans. The rest of the day consisted of coffee and wifi, hitting the small market and walking around town. We had exhausted the town's potential and it was only early afternoon. We knitted on a bench but went back to the ship when it started misting. 

The visitors' center had wifi so I setteled in to download season 2 of Stranger Things, having watched season 1 over the course of the crise. I didn't have my charger and ran out of juice before I was done so I went back on the ship to plug in and have afternoon tea before getting back off to download the rest. I made it back just in time to sail. It was sad to be leaving Iceland and doubly sad when I saw all the yarn the people who went on one of the excursions got in a real yarn shop that was in one of the towns they stopped in. It was hard to believe how little yarn I'd bought on this trip but there was hope for Ireland.

Saturday and Sunday were sea days. We had classes morning and afternoon plus I went to a couple of horticulture classes that explained why all the plants in Iceland were so short (to be below the snow line come winter, in case you were wondering). We had our second dress up dinner and plenty of time to enjoy afternoon tea and knitting. The weather had turned again and it was cold and windy but the waves were nowhere near what they were at the start of the trip. But during dinner on Sunday, they announced that it had held us up enough that we'd be late into Cobh in Ireland and all excursions were cancelled. That didn't impact Anne and me but other were disappointed. Oh well. I was looking forward to roaming around an Irish port for a few hours and went to bed happy.