Week 16 - Some Crazy Weather

In another quiet work week with Cindy still on vacation, the weather was worthy of a mention and not much else.

The weather was a total roller coaster. Monday was gorgeous (I put 2 loads of laundry on the line to dry) but by Tuesday morning it was dreary, windy and cold. But right at noon, the weather started to change and within a couple of hours it went from the 50's to 91 by dinner time. Then at 7:00 the storm started. There was hail with huge wind gusts and then the tornado sirens went off. I headed down to the basment but the sirens stopped so I went back upstairs to wait out the storm. As soon as it passed, the temp plummeted again and we were back into the 50's. Here's a video of the hail on my deck. At least it was tiny and my pansies survived unscathed.

The office was boring on Wednesday without Cindy. Ben's door was shut most of the day and Brook had his headphones in. I could hear the accountants laughing but no fun for me! I had arranged to meet a woman who was giving away partially made afghans, which I'd be sending to my sister for her charity crocheting. It was a bit of a fiasco with a last minute plan change but I met her near campus at lunch and then ran some errands. Yhe highlight of the day was meeting Dodie at CostCo after work.

The last time Dodie and I went to CostCo was the week before the world shut down in March 2020 so this was much nicer. We chatted our way through the aisles then had pizza and a sundae and chatted some more. I managed to spend $100 on just a few things, which is easily done there. I'm stocked up for awhile.

The work week was just busy enough - plenty of work but nothing stressful. I was plugging away on some data for Mary on Friday when I got the word that we could stop working at 3:00 to start the Easter weekend early. Since I don't do Easter, I usually spend it outside in the garden so used the extra 2 hours to start some flower seeds. Then the knitting began.

Andrea was teaching a class at spinning on helical knitting and I figured some people wouldn't have done the homework - knitting the cuff of a sock - so I pulled a bunch of yarn and knitted the cuff on some hats. I did 2 on Friday night then 2 more on Saturday morning. It was the first Saturday morning I'd been at home in a month so I enjoyed knitting in the sun in my nightie. All 4 hat kits were claimed so it was worthwhile making them.

Saturday was also the first day of my break from dieting. I'd lost almost 10 pounds so wore jeans for the first time in 2 years. After enjoying a burger and tots for lunch and dressed in my hard pants, I picked Andrea up for a full Fremont run. We went to the Habitat ReStore before spinning and we both found a few treasures. Spinning was fun and then we went to the Estate Disperal Store for more treasures then on to Goodwill. Aldi was our last stop and I needed lots because I hadn't been to Aldi in a month or more. We didn't get home until after 7:00 so it was a long day but fun.

I woke up on Sunday to more gloomy weather and before long, there were flurries. In mid-April. On Easter. Seriously? Will spring ever get here? My usual personal Easter celebration of gardening was toast so I spent the day doing just a few chores and doing a bunch of cooking. The snow that fell melted immediately and the sun did come out for a bit mid-afternoon but it was too chilly to be out long.

I'm looking foward to warmer weather and Cindy being back at work. The weather is thwarting my desire to get out and garden. This is the first year with my new knee and without any pressing deadline like last year when I had my knee replaced on May 18th so had to fast track all my gardening. So would spring weather just get here please! I live in hope.

Week 15 - Gardening and Yarn

Things are feeling more normal with every passing week and this week included a garden conference with so many people. Very pre-Covid feeling. But first the work week.

We were all going in on Tuesday instead of Wednesday so we could meet my boss' other staff across campus. We all drove over at 11:00 for a tour and a meet and greet. I had ordered my favorite Panera salad and hit some thrift shops on the way there, where I scored some yarn, mostly for my sister. I went grocery shopping on the way home and picked up a rotisserie chicken, which I chowed down on as soon as I got home. Delish.

Wednesday was Cindy's last day before her vacation and she was slamming to get everything done for the training that would happen while she was gone. I helped her with various things throughout the day but we when we had our delayed morning zoom at 2:00, Ben said it was all going to be put on hold. Payroll is the barrier to all progress. Oh well. Work for the rest of the week was boring without Cindy but it didn't drag but I had some fun on Friday.

My friend Lori had an appointment in town so brought Chinese food for lunch, which was a nice interlude in my day. The afternoon mail brought a huge box of sock yarn that I'd bought from Facebook Marketplace. I know, it's the last thing I need but I'd share. The afternoon flew because I was still slamming through grad allocations to get them posted before 5:00, which I did. Nice. Then I got to open my box of yarn and sort it all into what I was keeping and what I was sharing. I updated my Ravelry stash the same night and have lots of fun socks to look forward to.

Saturday was the West Pott Master Gardener Conference, which I hadn't been to in a few years, even before Covid. I carpooled with my friend Lorri and 2 other master gardeners and was looking forward to the sessions. I had cast on a new pair of stockinette socks to knit while I listened and got most of one sock knitted. It was a lovely day that felt SO normal. Here's the sock, which I finished on Sunday evening.

After being inside all day on Saturday, I spent Sunday outside. With cold weather in the forecast, I was leary of raking out my beds so started with pruning roses. I got them all cut and then drove the thorny branches to the city burn pile. It felt so good to be outside that I kept going, cleaning up the driveway beds and then got 2/3's of the way around the deck before stopping. It was wonderful to start outside and I could only hope the cleared beds would be OK with the coming cold weather. Spring has to come eventually, right?

Week 14 - Mid Century Fun

It was a fun week full of mid century loveliness plus some productivity and socializing. 

So I'd passed on the fun glass fronted case in Beatrice the past Saturday and was fine with that decision until Tuesday. I got an email from Changing Spaces: Senior Relocation Services with their weekly auction. I saw a picture that spoke to me and instantly knew I had to have it. It was a seragraph print by David Weidman. Never heard of him but googled and learned lots, which also worried me that it would be too expensive. I placed a bid immediately and upped it twice over the next 2 days. I had 2 different people bidding against me and Cindy and I zoomed to watch the last minutes. I won! I couldn't have been happier. And with the new print in mind, I'd called the antique shop in Beatrice and they were holding the bookcase for me. I had a plan for a mid century corner in my back room.

All this meant I was headed to Lincoln to pick up the painting then drive back to Beatrice to get the bookcase. But if I was heading to Lincoln on a weekend, I was going to do as much as I could so I started with breakfast with Darla. When I picked up the print, I was so happy that they took my picture. After stopping at Trader Joe's for the high fiber cereal I'd forgotten the week before, I hit the highway to Beatrice. I wanted to get home early so minimized my stops and was back home before 1:00. After a quick lunch, I hung my print and started moving furniture. Finding yarn for inside the cabinet was easy but I tried many, many groups of things on top looking for the perfect grouping. What do you think? I LOVE it.

Other than my mid century fun, I met with my retirement guy at Fidelity (zoom, of course) and got all set up for 2021 and 2022 Roth contributions and confirmed that I'm on track for my earlier retirement plans. Yay! Helen also came by for lunch on Friday, which is always fun. And I ended the week by clearing off my deck of all the winter detritus, which included taking down my deck Christmas tree. I'll miss waking up to the lights in the dark morning but it was time.

So it was a fabulous week full of new things, crossing a few things off my list and starting to work outside. I'm excited for spring. And I started rotating and was already down 5 pounds by the end of the week. All good!

Week 13 - Fun in Beatrice

After such a lovely spring week, a touch of winter was coming back but the snow was supposed to turn to rain, which we desperately needed and so I ran out Monday at lunch and planted yet more seeds. Just couldn't resist and the rain would water everything in nicely.

I woke up to an inch of snow Tuesday morning, which was only the 2nd snow we'd had all winter and it was gone by mid-afternoon but we did get the promised rain - an inch! It was bitter cold when I had to go to campus on Wednesday and as usual, it was still not easy getting ready and setting an alarm but I lived. I ate lunch at my desk and made a beeline home after work because it was just too cold to be out and about. It stayed cold and dreary so the rest of the week was just work and chores. I actually dusted! That's even more rare than snow was this winter. : )

Rene and I had plans on Saturday morning to explore Beatrice, which is the county seat of the county south of Lincoln. I had been there once before I moved to Nebraska (so more than 25 years ago) and I just wanted to see what there was to see. After grabbing treats at Sunrise Donuts, which was recommended by my friend Darla who loved going there when she was a kid, downtown was mostly thrift shops and used clothing stores. After that we went to the Homestead National Historical Park, which was quite interesting. They were doing a controlled burn so we couldn't walk the grounds but it was really too cold to anyway. 

On the way back to Beatrice, we stopped at an antique store and I fell in love with a mid-century modern glass fronted bookcase but didn't get it because my house if full. If any furniture comes in, something else has to go. The woman in the shop recommended a place for lunch but warned us that the service was slow. Indeed it was - we got there at 1:20 and didn't get our food until 2:30. After eating our burgers, we headed back to Lincoln. After a stop at Trader Joe's and dropping Rene, I took Sunrise Donuts long johns to Darla. She wasn't home but I got a happy phone call the next morning.

Anne and I had been working with an agent at Arena Travel planning our next, long overdue trip to the Faroe Islands. After being super responsive, we hadn't hear back from her. Anne had emailed Thursday night and we got no response Friday so I sent one Sunday afternoon. Despite it being after 9:00 in the UK, we got an immediate response. Our original agent was "out of the office" and this one got right on it and we booked the trip. We had intended to look at airfare later but I got right on it and we booked our flight and then to finish it all, I booked our hotels on either end of the trip. So we went from hanging in the wind to completely booked within a couple of hours. Yippee! It's been 2.5 years since I used my passport and I couldn't be more excited. Nice way to end the week, right?

Besides the weekend, it was a quiet week, which was fine. I was recovering from the budget stress and appreciated it. There was lots of knitting going on, of course. I finished 2 pairs of socks and cast on several more plus some yarn I'd ordered from Norway arrived on Friday. And in the spirit of relaxing, here's a picture of my cat, Tot, sleeping in the sun in the front room.

Week 12 - Budget and Gardening

My budget woes continued but gardening and friends got me through it. First budget.

I had hoped that I was done when I'd rerun the files last week but there were more zooms. I was able to answer their questions on Monday but on Tuesday I was clueless. For every question they asked, my response was to check the spreadsheet. After I said that 3 or 4 times, the head of budget said he'd try to come up with more questions I didn't know the answer to and laughed. And that was the end of my budget woes for the week. They never asked me another thing. Yay!

With that over, hopefully for good, I had other fun things to look forward to. After taking a little blueberry pie to knitting, I had a long overdue birthday dinner with Lori and Andrea for their birthdays schedule for Wednesday after work. Two years before, our annual dinner was cancelled when the world shut down and so I was looking forward to it. 

We were meeting in Ashland at 6:30, arriving from 3 separate directions. Because I'd have to time kill after work, I took a long lunch and thrifted all over town with the plan to work late to make the time up. But at 3:45, right after the team got back from a walk to the parking office, the internet went down. When we heard that the entire campus was down and they didn't know when it would be back up, we all got to leave. But with all my errands done, I had time to kill so hit Sam's with Cindy then Dollar Tree and the new huge liquor store before giving up on retail therapy and calling Lori to see if she could get to BW's earlier, which she did. We ordered beer and Brussels sprouts while we waited for Andrea and then had a yummy dinner when she arrived. It was the most normal I'd felt in ages.

A friend dropped off leek seedlings at lunch on Tuesday so I prepped the end of one veg bed and planted them after work. Having gotten my hands in the dirt, I couldn't seem to stop myself from keeping going. Over the course of the week, I planted the little potatoes I'd dug last fall from a volunteer potato plant and then started going through seeds planting most of one bed with old seeds just to see if I'd get any to germinate. Then I dug a little bed by my neighbor's chain link fence and planted a few peas I found in the bottom of my seed basket. Not sure what they are or if they're too old but I had nothing much to lose and it was fun starting to garden.

I had spinning in Fremont on Saturday but Andrea didn't go. I hit the Habitat Restore on the way there then Aldi afterwards. Then it was home for the rest of the weekend for the usual chores, knitting and general puttering. I watched the new season of The Bay on Britbox. Gotta love an good UK crime drama.

So all in all, it was a good week. Budget seemed to be done, gardening had started, I even started some flowers indoor and there was pie! Spring weather had arrived too. Life is good!