Week 4 - Spitting and Swimming

The week started with a holiday and I'm happy to report that I did continue being productive on Monday. I finished the African violets, bringing in the yellow table I'd relegated to the garage when I got my new end table a couple of weeks ago to snug up with the treddle table in the north window. It held all my violets and the plants I'd potted up from cuttings I'd rooted and the poinsettas from Christmas. My dining room table was finally clear! To celebrate, I made some comfort food - hamburger stroganoff over egg noodles with Brussels sprouts on the side. Yum. I was feeling good about my progress and was ready for my 4 day work week.

The first days of the week flew by. I had a master gardener welcome back zoom after work on Tuesday and while I was on the fence about attending, I did. It only reinforced that I need to opt out of the MG program. The leader pisses me off and the program brings me zero joy. Yup, done with that.

Our team meeting was over just in time to catch the swearing in of Harris and Biden on Wednesday. I was moved to tears and felt a sense of lightness I haven't felt in the past 4+ years. I'm hopeful that our country is back on a path of integrity and healing. I taught a reporting class that afternoon and then jumped in the car to head to Lincoln for a 4:45 spit test. 

The students are due back on the 25th and there are strict protocols for anyone who will be on campus, which starts with 2 negative Covid spit test within 10 days. While I have no plans to work on campus, I want it to be an option in case something comes up so I'm doing the tests. Darla met me at the spit hut (I picked East Campus so it was right outside her office) and we chatted outside then hit Goodwill after my test. I met Anne and Rene at the gym and did water aerobics for the first time in a month. I hit Aldi for a big stock up after the pool and managed to spend $88! That's hard to do at Aldi but I hadn't done a big shopping in ages.

I woke up Thursday to find an email from Mary, who needed some numbers for a 9:00 meeting. I started working immediately and got what she needed so it was a good start, despite working before coffee and breakfast. Since I'd started so early, I stopped working at 4:00 and did the reward yarn job I'd been saving until I made progress on other things - sorting my sock yarn leftovers. I sorted them all by weight, rewinding many of the floppy skeins, and organized them in ziplocs and jars. That was fun.

By Friday, I'd finished most of the things on my work to do list, leaving me just a project that I don't believe is a good move. I spent some time rehearsing why it was ill advised and then scheduled a zoom meeting with my boss. I had barely started when Ben said he agreed that it wasn't the way to go. Big relief! He really is a great boss. I happily moved on to designing some benefits forms and the rest of the day was over in a flash.

It was going to be a cold weekend so I was happily holing up inside. I had some chores to do and spent Saturday interspersing them with kniting while listening to an audio book, something I haven't ever done at home. The only audio books I've done were in the car on road trips. It was lovely. I went to bed early but was awake in the wee hours, worrying about the birthday trip to Stromsburg the next Saturday. There had been ridiculous drama about it from Rene at swimming that initially put me off but I was rethinking the wisdom of going anyway. I emailed Anne and Rene to cancel it on Sunday morning and instantly felt better. It was the right thing to do.

With that settled, I made a nice breakfast of French toast and bacon and enjoyed my Sunday morning, watching the Sunday news shows and talking to my sister. Then it was time to get busy. One lingering thing on my to do list was cleaning the fridge. Not only was it a mess but I'd loaded all my Aldi shopping willy nilly in any available space. So after lunch, I started the fridge, which took hours and had some difficulties while trying to get the bottom shelf back in after washing it all out in the tub because it was too big for my sink. I was frustrated and sweating, despite being a wet mess from a runaway shower head while washing that shelf. But all's well that ends well. I tossed lots of food (old sauces and salad dressings mostly), filled the recycle bin and put everything back in the squeaky clean fridge. Let the cooking begin!

With a snow storm that could drop a foot of snow due on Monday, I did all the outside things - filled the bird feeders, dumped stuff in the compost heap, emptied recycling into the bin, took the glass recycling out to the garage, closing the garage door on my way back in, and taking all the trash out. All that done, I was ready to end my day feeling satisfied and watching PBS while knitting. I didn't get the bar and desk cleared but there will be time for that while watching the snow fly on Monday. I doubt we'll be knitting at the library with the snow not due to stop until the wee hours on Tuesday. I'm ready.