Week 21 - My Pre-trip List

With my trip getting close, I started attacking my pre-trip to do list in earnest. Of course I have things on my list that have absolutely nothing to do with travel but there's nothing like a deadline to get me moving.

Now the gardening stuff on the list made sense because being gone in early June means I need to get all that done before I leave. And I made some good progress, planting irises that Nan shared at knitting at dusk when I got home Monday night. Then I went out right after work on Tuesday and prepped/planted my squash bed and filled in the gaps in the early bed. I also dug hostas to take to Cindy at work on Wednesday. On Sunday I finished planting my veg beds and started my containers. I was a machine all weekend in an attempt to get all the gardening done so I could enjoy Memorial Day weekend. I got close but still had a bit yet to do and was pleased with my progress.

The deadline to register cats in Wahoo is May so I made vet appointments for Friday afternoon and actually managed to get all 3 cats to the vet for shots and flea treatment. So that needed to be done but getting the screen in my slider replaced could have waited but I took the motivation and got that done. The local screen guy that I found on Facebook picked the screen up on Monday and when I came home from campus on Wednesday, it was back with the cat door all installed. Now to get the cats to figure out the cat door. Pixell picked it up right away but not so much with the other 2. Slow learners I guess.

I'm happy to report that the virtual reality headsets are returned and we're done. We had one more team meeting in cartoon land and were so over it that Ben told us to bring them back. Done with those!

Wednesday was a productive day in Lincoln. Since I only work on campus one day/week, I do my best to maximize driving down. I hit WalMart at lunch and bought some pants for my trip and a few other things, I went to the movies with Cindy at The Ross after work - The Duke, which was very good. And when Cindy suggested going out afterwards, we headed to Tico's for magueritas, nachos and venting about work. It's good to have friends. And later in the week, Cindy called me from Goodwill Factimed to show me all the great yarn they had, picking up quite a bit of it for me. I'm a lucky person to have such good friends.

As usual this spring, the weather was all over the place. I tried to have lunch with Lorri in the park on Tuesday, which we hadn't done in months. We did manage to eat lunch but had to cut it short because of storms. After raining on and off on Tuesday and all day Wednesday, it was 94 and muggy on Thursday  then gorgeous by the weekend. Sheesh!

My plan to start the weekend was to stop at the Vets Club to talk to Ed about installing my garbage disposal, which is on the pre-trip list so my friend who feeds the cats can soak the wet food plates and run the bits down the disposal. I found Ed but also Donna and his daughter because it was Donna's birthday. I hung out and chatted for awhile (I should have had a drink but didn't) and made plans for Ed to come over. Check that off. Next day was a Fremont run.

It was spinning day but Andrea was busy with a graduation party so I was on my own. I started at the Habitat Restore and found a few goodies but they also had 4 packs of plants that they were selling 6/$1.00! that was $2.00 for an entire flat. They had tons of red impatiens but I did manage to find a few different types, which meant I could cross plants off my list for after spinning. At that price, I bought a flat of the red impatiens to share at spinning. Spinning was fun then I hit a few different stores than normal - Menard's and Walmart for returns - and no Aldi. I did buy a few more plants at the Kaw Valley green houses. The plants are not cheap but they're always in great shape. I needed some standard tomatoes and bought some lantana. And when I saw this cute little sheep, I couldn't resist and bought him too. 

I really really wanted barbeque after finishing all my errands. Siri sent me to a BBQ restaurant that was clearly no longer in business and there were no other options in Fremont. I called a few local restaurants but none had BBQ on the menu so I stopped at Red Zone, which is in a tiny town halfway home. I ordered a takeout 3 meat BBQ sandwich and sat in the car knitting for 20 minutes then waited another 20 minutes inside. The fries were great and the sandwich only OK but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

So, busy week but got lots of things crossed off my list and had lots of fun too. Less than 2 weeks until the trip and a long weekend yet to come. More will be done. : )

Week 20 - More Crazy Weather

What a week! Blazing heat in early May, ridiculous virtual reality and finally a return of spring weather.

The weather was nuts. It was in the 90's for much of the week. In the second week of May. CRAZY. The blazing heat brought some worry for me because last May, my central AC, which came with the house and hasn't been upgraded like most everything else in my house, needed to have freon added. I wasn't sure if it would come on cool or not but it did. Big relief. I will need to get a new one but didn't want to deal with that now. Also, most of my county and the one to the west lost electricity for an hour Monday morning when something on the grid blew. Probably when everyone turned on their AC. To top that off, it was so hot that Monday Night Knitting was cancelled because everyone bailed. And that was just Monday!

Tuesday was a gorgeous day and Andrea stopped by on her way t work with a bouquet of lilacs from her yard. I have a small bush but it hasn't bloomed yet so this was a treat. With it not so hot, I went right outside after work and got my hoses sorted and brought up my madevilla that I'd overwintered in the basement and got that set up with lichen covered branches from my brush pile to climb on. It felt great to be outside and it was my only chance because the 90's were coming back.

Wednesday was my day on campus and we were having a surprise graduation party for my boss, Ben, who was getting his master's on Friday. It was a good thing I'd offloaded my picking up the ice cream duties because my 8:00 dentist appointment, which would have been 30 minutes with my old dentist, was an hour and then they sent me to the pharmacy for antibiotics to take immediately because my knee surgery was only 1 year ago. I barely made it to campus for the 10:00 team meeting. The party was a complete surprise and fun. We had cupcakes and ice cream and Ben's family and his other staff from across campus came. Nice. 

Ben had gotten our team virtual reality headsets to use for our team meetings so I spent time Thursday getting that all set up. We had storms comes through Thursday night, which finally broke the heat but I also lost internet so went to bed early to read. I got a message from Andrea asking if I wanted to go to a vintage sale in Cedar Bluffs on Friday and I responded immediately that I was in. I'd start work early on Friday and work through lunch so I could leave early to hit the sale. I hoped for a Fremont run and then Andrea wanted to get burgers at our favorite dive bar - Todd's in Cedar Bluffs.

Our first team meeting in VR was stupid. Yes, the sound quality was better but we were interacting with cartoons! I had spent a bit of time creating my avatar but it looked nothing like me and you get zero facial expressions from them plus your mouth moves when you cat meows. Sheesh! Cindy had trouble getting hers to work so I, the old lady of the team, did the trouble shooting and got her operational. We hung out in our virtual meeting room for a bit trying things out and were in agreement that it was absolutely ridiculous.

I hadnt' heard from Andrea so called her at 3:30. She hadn't seen my response but I said I was ready to go so came right over. The vintage sale was a bust and Andrea hadn't considered a Fremont run but I convinced her to go and we scored big with high quality yarn at the Estate Disperal Store, which is only open 1 weekend each month and sells things from people they've helped downsize and move. We bought $400 of quality yarn - what a find! After a few more errands, we headed to Todd's for burgers and beer. What a great way to start the weekend.

With errands already done and some spring weather at last, it was time to start my containers on Saturday. I went to the farm store for plants and while they weren't in sad shape, many of them were tiny, as in 2-3 weeks early for selling. But with a 60 mile round trip as the alternative, I bought the small plants and went home and started my containers. I got most of the ones for my deck and backyard planted that afternoon.

It rained all day on Sunday, which watered in all my plantings nicely. After my first ever Facetime that morning with Deanne, I spent the afternoon doing every floor in my house. Having taken all my overwintered plants outside, they'd dropped leaves everywhere so the floors were a mess. All good and long overdue.

So, not a typical weather week but the weekend was wonderful and since I work full time, that's what counts. This is my first year with 2 functioning knees so I have big plans for my yard and garden. I hope this weather holds for the next couple of weeks so I get everything done before my trip. I live in hope.

Week 19 - Loving Spring Weather

It was another lovely week full of knitting, gardening and general getting things done. Finally we got some rain, which after our bone dry winter was lovely.

Monday was one of those gorgeous rainy days with just constant, steady but gentle rain. We got 1.75", which went a long way towards easing our deficit plus it had been so long since we'd had one of these days that it felt like a treat. And the day ended with double treats at Monday Night Knitting. All in all, a lovely day.

But on the knitting front, I may have overdone it because my right thumb was sore. Not in its usual place (the thumb knuckle closest to my nail) but at the base of my thumb at my wrist. It's always something these days! At least I had finished my April socks so I pulled out some crocheting (!) in an attempt to use different hand motions. I spent the rest of the week not knitting socks. Oh well.

As usual, I was on campus on Wednesday and I was excited to hit the Hort Club plant sale over lunch. Their plants are always in great shape and I like to support them but it's a total crap shoot. Sometimes they have unusual plants and other times they only have things you can buy at Wal-Mart. I did manage to find a few plants to buy and then hit Goodwill, where I scored some yarn for my sister and even a single skein of sock yarn for me. Yay!

On the way home, I stopped at HyVee to get my 2nd booster. The woman who gave me the shot was a brute. It's like she was trying to punch through leather instead of my thin, old lady skin. But it was done and I had hopes for max immunity for my trip. Alas, I couldn't fall asleep that night and so got up and took a benadryl at midnight. I don't know if it was lack of sleep, the booster or a combo but I felt pretty depleted on Thursday. Oh well. Totally worth it if it was the shot.

Friday was a busy day. I had several meetings then took a short lunch because I had a haircut in the afternoon. Gotta love small town living - I stopped 3 or 4 places in addition to my haircut and was home in 35 minutes. I was on a zoom until 4:55 with my boss and then it was time for the weekend. I went right outside at 5:00 and started gardening.

Saturday was a perfect spring day and I got busy. I had arranged for the man who built my deck's youngest son to mow and they came for the first mow of the season. Since Tim has to drive his son over, I asked if he'd be willing to cut down the last yew while Camden mowed and he did. Nice. After they left, I finished the east bed, cutting back the rest of the winter creeper and then moving the hostas that were growing underneath all that foliage. On Sunday, I cut all the weed trees in my bed and took them with the yew limbs to the city burn pile, picking up BK for lunch on the way back. I was done with gardening for the weekend so it was chore time.

As I was puttering around the house, I could hear a nail gun. I saw that a crew of roofers was down the street doing a neighbor's roof so I mosied down there and asked if they did little jobs. The head guy came right over to look at my garage roof where I branch had torn off a bunch of shingles during a wind storm last fall. I'd called the company that did my roof 3 or 4 times and they'd never called back. Lame. But this guy was more than willing to fix my roof and so he did after they finished down the street. Yay! Cross one more house thing off my list. I was thrilled.

I'd call that a great week! Rain, at last, nice spring weather, making a great start on my spring gardening and getting my roof fixed. Now to have a few more weeks like this so I can get everything done before my trip. I can do it! And here are a few pics from my garden of spring bulbs in glorious bloom. Spring is the BEST season. : )

Week 18 - Gardening Between Storms

The week started with cat drama but that was resolved quickly and then the gardening began. Throw in some culture and it was a good week. 

So, the cat drama. First thing Monday, emails started flying about the feeding station by Love Library on campus. I got a report that it had been vandalized and was completely trashed. After not getting through to the person who reported it, I called the campus police and the Monday feeder only to get a call back from the person who originally found it, who went outside and met the officer and feeder. Not vandalism at all but rather blown over by the wind and it was back together in minutes. Who needs drama like this to start the week? No one. Now for some happy garden talk....

I went right out after work on Tuesday and started attacking the purple leaf winter creeper in my east bed. Had I known how vigorous it would be, I never would have planted it but I keep it under control by completely cutting it back every year, which didn't happen last year because of my knee. Well, it was a job getting it done. I rolled, cut, rolled some more, cut some more - I got almost all the way down the length of the house, loaded it into the car and drove it to the city burn pile. Done! After a shower, I had some dinner and got ready for Wednesday work on campus.

Early in the week, there had been a sale for UNL staff on tickets to Come From Away, which is a perfect musical - a play with actual spoken words and songs rather than Hamilton-esque operettas with only songs. HATE that! I had bought tickets happily (I'd watched the play on Apple+ with Connie last fall and loved it) and Rene and I would be grabbing burgers with tots at Honest Abe's before the play. There were donuts and cookies at work and I met with my Fidelity rep on some retirement stuff so it was a great day. The play was wonderful but then I knew it would be. 

I was outside after work on Thursday and got the entire front bed planted. I planted the bare root weigela near the wonky dwarf Alberta spruce (the huge yews had killed the branches on one side) in hopes that it will grow big and fill in the hole. I moved 2 hydrangeas from the back to under my bedroom window. The rest was hostas from the east bed, more hostas from by the garage, vinca and a few other shade perennials from my other beds. This is a north bed so mostly shade. It will take years before it all fills in but it felt good to get it done so it can start growing. The timing was perfect with overnight rain coming to water it all in.

I had scheduled 2 hours of vacation on Friday afternoon so Lorri and I could go to Spring Affair. We usually volunteer but they'd changed the hours this year so neither of us did. We were there an hour after it opened to the public (the preview party was Thursday night) and about half of the plants were already sold out. I managed to find a few to buy and then we headed to Starbuck's. Severe storms were supposed to arrive ~5:30 so I'd nixed dinner but we had a latte and pound cake and chatted a bit before beelining it home. The storms held off and I suppose I would have known that if I had a smart phone. I know, I need to get one. But there's nothing bad about an early start to the weekend. I watched BBC Gardener's World and enjoyed dinner at home.

It was a rainy, cold Saturday so I watched the last Ozark episodes, caught up on Gardeners World and puttered inside. It was gorgeous Sunday but the yard was a soggy mess so I did some transplanting on the deck to avoid the mushy lawn and beds. No complaints from me on the rain, which we desperately need. I think we might be edging out of drought after a bone dry winter and the world is greening up at last. Yay!

So a nice week, right? Gardening, a play, plant buying and those are just the fun things. I love working from home and being able to go right outside at 5:00 to garden, using the time I would have been driving home to actually be productive. Here's hoping we get to keep working from home. Here are some daffodils in my yard with some of the yew wood for my firepit. Happy spring!

Week 17 - Long Overdue Gardening

It was a good week with our first food day in 2.5 years at work and finally some decent weather for gardening. It had snowed the previous Sunday (just flurries but still - in April?) and by Friday it was pushing 90 but in between was some spring weather.

I cooked a bunch on Tuesday night, not just for food day. I had already made my cranberry walnut cole slaw on the weekend but decided to make a sheet pan apple pie and I wanted to make pea soup because it's Anne's favorite and I could see her on Wednesday. I also put the chicken bones in the crockpot to make stock. I cooked until just before bed.

The food day was a big success. We were hosting Ben's staff from his business center across campus so with all the Canfield people, there were 40+ coming. It took some coordination, which fell on Cindy and me, but was lots of fun. I took home enough leftovers for a couple of suppers too. While I had grand plans to run errands after work, I made a beeline home instead and finished the blackberry socks that I'd redone the heels/toes on after being completely done. I love the results and so will not be giving them away as bad karma socks, which is nice because the yarn was a birthday gift from Andrea.

Friday was going to be HOT so I went right outside at 5:00 on Thursday and did some yard work. I got all the back beds raked out, which felt great. It was raining by dark and we got 1/2" overnight, which we desperately needed. After the rain, the heat set in. I closed up the house and survived fine but in retrospect, I should have tried the AC since it's supposed to be replaced this year (I had freon added last year but that was just to get me through summer 2021). Missed opportunity so I'll have to wait until the next hot day.

At some point in the week, I got an email from Southwest that they'd changed my flight back home after my beach week in August. What had been a normal RI > Chicago > Omaha flight was now RI > Tampa > Omaha. Seriously? There was no other option to leave on Saturday so I changed to a Sunday flight and got great times. And since Southwest changed the flight, I got a princess flight for no additional money. I'll stay that Saturday with Deanne. All good.

I had my first mow of the spring scheduled for sometime on the weekend and when I got a text that it would be Sunday, I called Andrea and we headed to the west edge of Omaha in search of a Koreanspice viburnum. I struck out at Lowe's so went to Lanaha, the fancy nursery just down the road, where I scored one - expensive but in perfect condition. Even with stopping at the Aldi across from the nursery, we were home in 2.5 hours. Nice.

Tim, who built my deck years ago when he and a friend had a construction company, was bringing his youngest son over to mow. I'd asked Tim to bring his chain saw and he cut down the last yew in my front bed while Camden mowed. I loaded up the branches and ran them to the city burn pile so my bed was ready. I'd found a bare root weigela bush at Aldi so that would be going there with hostas that were had been frying in the full sun since my neighbor took her tree down. I'm sure I'll find other things to go there too.

So it was a good week. I finally got some garden time in, we got some much needed rain and I have big plans for my yard that I'm excited to start on after doing nothing much last year because of my knee replacement. It's also getting easier to work on campus on Wednesdays and the food day was a resounding success that felt like a return to normal. Now for more spring weather so I can get outside. I just hope we don't go right to summer heat and ship spring.