Week 37 - Hammer Toe News

The start of the week was same old same old - knitting on Monday, working on campus on Wednesday (had lunch with Dodie and we had cake for Allan, our wonderful computer guy who got a new job in Athletics), etc. But a couple of good things happened towards the end.

My new passport, which I'd applied for in August (a renewal) and had worried wouldn't come until November, arrived in the mail on Thursday. Anne had already applied for Global Entry and had an interview scheduled in Sioux Falls for the next week so I immediately went in and did mf Global Entry application, in hopes that I could get an interview too. The waiting began.

I had an appointment for my foot, which of course was 100% better by Friday, but I wanted to get more info on getting my hammer toe fixed. When I'd asked about it before, she (the PA for the foot specialist at my ortho practice) said it was 6 weeks of no weight bearing. Since I've met my maximum out of pocket, I was considering it for later this year. Well, this time she said I would be in a boot that put all my weight on my heel and I could walk day 1. I was thrilled to hear this and she said the scheduler would call next week. My plan is to schedule it for Thursday, December 14th, which will be a week after I get back from my trip and before Christmas break. Progress.

I picked up my favorite Panera salad on the way to campus, which I ate at my desk. I had a 1:00 meeting across campus and so went to the real Starbuck's and redeemed some points for a huge frapuccino. Yum! Since I worked through lunch, I left early enough to hit St. Louise's and then because it was Friday, went to St. Theresa's (another thrift shop that's only open Friday starting at 4:00 and Saturday). I bumped into Andrea there. What are the chances? We talked about going out for dinner but couldn't come up with anywhere we wanted to go so split up. I drove through Arby's on the way home. Lame!

Saturday was spinning so Andrea and I headed to Fremont. We hit the Restore before spinning, which was a basic spinning lesson and there were 18 people there, which is way more than normal. From there we went to the Estate Dispersal Store before Goodwill and Aldi. Since we'd failed on Friday night, we stopped on the way home at Todd's in Cedar Bluffs for burgers and beers.

While I was feeling unenthused about it, I started a rotation on Sunday and I started with a fast. While I wasn't eating, I made a big pot of cabbage soup and a batch of sweet pickle relish with cukes from my neighbor. I did eat dinner but figured the one meal day would be a jump start and hopefully bring some inspiration. I need to lose some weight before my trip.

So I'll call that a good week. Work was fine, I got good news on my toe surgery and had fun in Fremont before my usual chore day on Sunday. Hopefully I'll be successful with my diet and will find motivation to keep at it. I'm also loving the fall weather, which finally arrived. Here's a picture of one of the volunteer sunflowers that are growing all over my yard. Enjoy.

Week 36 - Enjoying Some Nachos

Nachos. Yeah there were a few and I enjoyed them all, which may have been the highlight of the week.

It all started on Monday - Labor Day. I got my weekly email from the local yarn shop in Lincoln and they showcased their September yarn from a local dyer who often uses Lincoln locations as inspiration. September's was Tico's, which is the Mexican restaurant where Darla and I like to go for nachos. I immediately bought the yarn (sock yarn, of course) and instantly had nachos on the brain. It was supposedly inspired by a stained glass window but all I could see was salsa. I will make socks for Darla's birthday and maybe we can celebrate over nachos.

So my plan was to have a productive day to make up for having been a total slug for the weekend. But with nachos on the brain, I decided to bag productivity in favor of nachos. Tico's is closed on Mondays and Darla had plans but my two retired friends were game so I drove to Lincoln and we went to El Toro for margueritas and nachos. Yum! I dropped off a trunk load of donations for the Stuff for Strays garage sales that my friend Becky, who brought me the kittens who saved my summer, runs to raise money for cat care. And when I got home, I put the leftover nacho toppings on chips I had at home and had nachos for dinner. Double yum.

Tuesday was a blur of catching up and troubleshooting and Wednesday was a campus day. Those are all about what I can get done while I'm in Lincoln so I did some thrifting at lunch and scored a sturdy end table to put my new circular sock knitting machine on. Yay! After work, a bunch of us were going to Tico's as a welcome for the new Director of Accounting but she had something come up and worked from home. Bummer but I enjoyed MORE NACHOS and another marguerita while chatting with work friends. I stopped at DQ in Wahoo on the way home and was disappointed that the summer Puppy Chow Blizzard was already over but I got a peanut butter sundae and called it a day.

The rest of the work week was uneventful and I had no plans for the weekend. I ran some errands on Saturday and got my favorite grab and go for lunch and then made bean dip for Saturday snack supper, which I ate with tortilla chips so nacho adjacent.

I had a few more chores to get done on Sunday but the plan was to see if I could get my sock machine set up. Before I could start that, I needed to change the litter boxes. Well, I stepped wrong when I was doing that and instantly had searing, burning pain in the tendon that's been bothering me, which goes from my right big toe to under my arch. I'd never had burning and it was very painful so I spent the day icing and elevating my foot while streaming (Dark Winds on AMC, which was good) and knitting. It did some good and I was able to make dinner, which was a chicken enchilada casserole with a side of broccoli. That's more Mexican food than I normally eat in months and I'd be eating the casserole 4 more times. Good thing it was yummy.

So it was plan B all week and not the productivity I'd planned but as long as I have clean underwear for the following week, it's all good. I started taking big guns ibuprofen Sunday night and would keep that up to hopefully help the sore tendon. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Week 35 - Holiday Weekend Slug

I started the week waking up at 2:30 in the morning worried about not having put out the recycling. You guessed it - I went out in my nightie and put it at the curb. My week didn't get much more exciting than that.

Wednesday was not a campus day because UNL was going for breaking the record of the most spectators at a women's sporting event so we were forbidden from going to campus. They did break the record, which was all over the national news and even across the pond on BBC. Go figure.

As for my week, I had knitting Monday night then 2 zooms Tuesday after work - a Husker Cats meeting and then a Grow Big Red one on fall garden prep. I taught 2 of my monthly classes and ended the week with monthly reports, which I was alone on because Brook was out. We got to stop work for the holiday weekend at 3:00 but I wasn't done so kept working. Oh well. At least I had lunch at Wahoo's new steak house with Helen as a prelude to the weekend.

I had no firm plans for the weekend but Andrea and I went to Fremont early on Saturday so as not to kill the entire day. The Restore was closed for the holiday weekend but I scored some fun stuff at Goodwill before hitting Aldi. The groceries were put away by 2:30 but my day was still dead. I knitted while streaming for the rest of the day. I had high hopes for Sunday.

Nope. I talked to a couple of friends and did laundry but nothing else. I thinking I could redeem myself by being productive on Labor Day. Check out my next post to see if that happened. : )

Here's a picture of the girls just because they're so stinkin' cute.

Week 34 - Miserable Heat Sucks

When I cancelled my trip to Vienna with Connie, I immediately extended my RI trip so wasn't flying home until Tuesday. Of course the weather was finally wonderful but I was going back to blazing heat in Nebraska so would be enjoying my last days in RI.

Deanne had an appointment Monday morning so I happily knitted away before she came back and we went to Whole Foods for lunch. We we going to visit our old girl scout leader, Mrs. Bassett, that afternoon, which has become our summer tradition. After a nice catch up, we went to Dee's mom's house to visit her. It was nearly supper time by the time we left so we went directly to Federal Hill for a yummy dinner at Massimo. It was a fixed price menu so we had salad, an entree and dessert with wine for $35. Such a deal and the gnocchi was wonderful and I took some home, which I froze so I could take it home on the plane. Perfect. I packed and we watched the final episodes of Lioness. I was definitely ready to go home.

Another tradition is that Cornelia drives me to the airport and we have a lovely breakfast on the way. She picked me up before 8:00 and we ate at our favorite breakfast place then went to Pawtuxet to chat on a bench by the water until it was time to head to the airport. It's always a nice send off and I love time with Cornelia. Despite having a C boarding pass (I'd missed the check in reminder when we were eating lunch the day before), I managed to snag a window seat and the flights were fine. 

When I got off the plane in Omaha, the heat smacked me upside the head. It had been in the low 70's in RI but it was over 100 and humid in Nebraska. It was so hot that the cats, who had been inside for 12 days, only stayed out for a few minutes before coming back inside. I had stopped at Aldi on the way from the airport and after unpacking my groceries, I nuked the now thawed leftover gnocchi for my last taste of RI.

Despite being on vacation for 2 days, which I count as campus days, I went to campus on Wednesday. Again, the cats chose to stay inside. It was that hot. The main reason to go to Lincoln was to pick up my 2 foster fail kittens - Hazel and Goodie. I ordered pizza, which Rene picked up, and we ate an Anne's. They both came with me to see the kittens. The house they were in was full of cats - 2 litters of kittens and another ten or so cats. You had step carefully between all the cats and their various toys and towers. I happily took my 2 and left. They were right back at home within 5 minutes. Pixel and Tot were not happy to see them again and went out for the night.

It was such a relief to work from home for the rest of the week. I was still catching up at work and had a Ripples zoom at 2:00 on Thursday. I made polenta with sausage & peppers (from my garden) for supper, watched Backyard Farmer and went to bed early. Such a lovely day at home. Friday was another nice day. I took a short lunch so I could get a haircut that afternoon then Jeanie came at 5:00 to drop off a sock knitting machine that she'd found at an antique store years ago and no longer wanted. How fun it will be to crank out socks but there will be a learning curve. To top off a nice couple of days, storms came through Friday night and broke the heat wave. Yay!

I had the whole weekend ahead of me with no obligations and the weather was gorgeous. I opened the windows and got busy. I flipped my mattress and cleaned underneath the bed (HUGE dust bunnies) then did 5 loads of laundry, which I hung on my newly strung clothesline. I kept it up on Sunday. After a yummy breakfast of pancakes and bacon, I organized the linen closet, ironed and put my bedroom curtains back up then vacuumed. With the house was looking better, I went to Lorri's that afternoon to drop off some thank you gifts for taking care of my plants and cats while I was gone. While I was there, Connie called from Vienna on a video chat so we both talked to her. Lorri shared some produce from her garden so I went home and made leek carbonara for supper and enjoyed it with a glass of wine. Nice.

What a nice week. One last day in RI, an easy trip home, getting my kittens back and then the heat breaking so I could have a productive weekend at home. I don't have any trips until the end of November so hope for more productivity at home until then. Wish me luck.

Week 33 - Zero Beach Weather

We had made very few plans for the week with only a beach day with friends for Wednesday. It was going to be a relaxing week and we were both happy with that.

It was cloudy Monday morning so I happily knitted outside while John went for a bike ride. He brought back pastries which I had with tea and we had pork chops and cuke salad for supper. It was a nice first day.

Our Tuesday plan was to head to Newport to pick up John's beach chair, which his aunt was storing. It was nice to see Jean and I bummed some flour with a dash of cinnamon so I could make a pie for our dinner with friends on Wednesday. Only when I was buying the blueberries and pie crust did I realize we didn't have a pie pan (the kitchen was sparsely provisioned in both staples and pans) so we went back to Jean's to borrow a pie plate. We had a nice lunch at a bar called Pour Judgment, drove Ocean Drive and then stopped for sweet corn on the way home. We skipped supper in favor of snacks while streaming and I made the pie, which looked great.

The weather betrayed us on Wednesday. What had been forecast to be a perfect beach day was cloudy and cold. My sister was supposed to meet us at the beach with some of her husband's family but that didn't happen. Deanne was still coming down so we ended up buying tickets to Barbie, which was wonderful. The sun was out when we got out of the theatre so we went to Shepherd's Run - the event center in an old mansion where Aaron (Carolyn's son) works. He was off that day but we enjoyed wine on the patio before heading back to the cottage.

John's friends from high school were coming for dinner. This was the 3rd year for this Kate, Nancy and Deanne dinner (Covid made that impossible the first year) and we had a lovely time. We had chicken kebabs, rice, grilled eggplant I'd brought from my garden, Mexican street corn and my pie with ice cream. It was all wonderful. I had a lot of alcohol over the course of the day and I don't know if that was the problem but I struggled to fall asleep that night.

We woke up to fog and chilly air on Thursday so were just hanging out when our friend Bob called. He asked if we were free that afternoon and came down with his daughter, Daisy. Cornelia was coming for dinner and we didn't want a teenager to cramp our style so Bob didn't stay for supper, which was swordfish. Yum. And it's always fabulous hanging with Cornelia so it was a lovely evening, even if we needed a sweatshirt after the sun went down.

We had one more day left and the crappy weather continued. We woke up to a storm on Friday morning so were stuck inside while it poured. We went to Aunt Carrie's for lunch of clamcakes and chowder, which was yummy. I got a piece of coconut custard pie (a RI specialty) and we headed back. The sun had come out but it was super windy. After an afternoon of knitting in the wind, I made a mish mash dinner with all the leftovers in the fridge. It was the only night that I cooked. Princess Merry. John is a great cook.

We packed up Saturday morning from our beach week where I never so much as touched sand nor put a toe in salt water. We were out at 11:00 and after a stop at John's uncles to return some chairs we'd borrowed, John dropped me at Carolyn's and headed off. We had spinach pies for lunch and I chatted with Carolyn, who was still recovering from her ankle surgery so hadn't come down to the beach (and why bother with the weather we had?). Deanne picked me up later that afternoon and we went to Al Forno for an amazing dinner then home where we started watching Lioness on Paramount+. It's very good if you haven't seen it.

Of course Sunday was perfect beach weather. Sheesh! We had made plans with a friend from high school so walked on Blackstone Blvd then got lunch to go from a cafe nearby. Deanne and I went back to her apartment and spent the afternoon at the pool. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon and then Dee made shrimp spring rolls from scratch, which were delish.

What a week! 5 days at the beach without a bit of beach weather but still relaxing and perfectly pleasant. Lots of time with friends and plenty of knitting time. And since Deanne knows who bought our old cottage, we got in touch and there's a chance we can rent next summer. If not, we'll do the tiny house again but will make sure to bring a double size blow up mattress. We can't possibly have the bad weather we had this year again, right? I live in hope.

Week 32 - Biding My Time

I usually get on a plane to Rhode Island the day after the books close but this year, I had a week to wait. I'm not sure how that worked out because John and I had the beach house starting on VJ Day weekend (yes, RI still celebrates victory over Japan) but I had time to kill before I'd fly out on Friday.

The week didn't drag. I had work to catch up on now that fiscal year end was done and Mary asked me for lots of data. I had lunch with Dodie on Wednesday and did the final carryforward entry that was truly the end of FY23 work. I offloaded some work to Brook on Thursday and called work done.

On the non-work front, I got some sewing done when Monday Night Knitting was cancelled, making a cute strawberry project bag for a make along with one of the podcasters I watch and I switched up the pattern on my monthly challenge socks. Add a couple of library meetings on Tuesday after work and doing laundry to put directly into my suitcase and I was ready to go.

I had a direct flight leaving Omaha after lunch and stopping in DC before going on to RI. My flight was delayed so I had extra time at home and the flight was completely uneventful, getting in just a bit late. Matt picked me up and I ate delicious leftover pasta for a late supper. Our tiny house rental started the next day.

John picked me up late morning and we went, with Matt and Carolyn, to The Crow's Nest for lunch. It's my favorite place for fried clams but it changed hands and isn't as good anymore. Bummer. We split up from there and John and I headed to Trader Joe's for groceries then hit Stop & Shop too (a normal market), getting to our tiny house right at 3:00.

So, the tiny house. John and I have rented the same cottage for the past three years but it had been sold and we were told the new owner would be living there so not renting. We wanted to stay in the same village and be on the water, which left us renting the tiny house 4 doors down from our old cottage. We started unloading the car when Erica, the woman 2 doors down from out old cottage and the tiny house, came running over to say hello. We were shocked when she told us that our cottage had been empty all summer with only a couple of weeks with people in it. OMG! We were going to be crammed into the tiny house for no reason at all. Oh well.

The tiny house had a full size bathroom and kitchen but only one bedroom and a loft bed. The plan was for one of us to sleep on the "futon" instead of braving the ladder to the loft, which was definitely the right decision. Until John tried to sleep on the futon, which was actually something homemade and not comfortable to sit on never mind to sleep on. After one miserable night on that, we needed a different solution.

We woke up to rain on Sunday so after a relaxing morning, we drove to Wakefield (the closest town) in search of a full size blow up mattress to put on the futon. We failed on that quest so John blew up the queen sized one he'd brought. The problem with that was that when it was put on the futon, it was only ~3" from the kitchen sink, which meant I was trapped in my bedroom. Good thing I don't usually get up in the night. We put the air mattress on top of the loft bed during the day to get it out of the way. There was also a ledge above the kitchen appliances that was handy for suitcases and such. This picture is from the bathroom. Not bad.

We picked up wraps on the way home and called that a late lunch/early dinner and enjoyed an evening of streaming. We were making the best of our tiny house, which actually wasn't horrible but just a bit cramped. The next door neighbors helped us set up our table and umbrella outside, brought us vegetables from their garden and were absolutely lovely. It might not be our perfect cottage but it would still be a good week.

Week 31 - Goodbye to Kittens

Back in June when I agreed to foster the kittens, I said they had to be gone before I left for Rhode Island so this was my last week with all 5. I had plenty of quality time with them between the blazing heat and fiscal year end keeping me inside the house.

I was still in the thick of fiscal year end meetings but Monday was the day for the "big spreadsheet", which takes upward of 4 hours to create and I have to be meticulous as all get out. Not a bad way to start the week because Monday flew but there was a formula problem that I had to fix on Tuesday. Still, this was much better than the problems with it last fiscal year end.

I prepped a huge box of yarn for Dottie after work on Tuesday and reclaimed the front room a bit, which felt great. Dropping the box at UPS before work on Wednesday felt great too. The day was busy with meeting prep and I waited to leave for lunch until Mary had gone into a meeting. First stop was UNL's Passport Office, where they took my picture and helped with my renewal despite me not having an appointment. I then went in search of a post office to mail it from only to be thwarted by Siri sending me to a closed location, traffic preventing me from getting to another and then waiting in line for 20 minutes when I finally found one. Sheesh! But it's all sent so should be back in plenty of time for my late November trip. Swimming after work was lovely and when I got home at 8:00, I enjoyed a bowl of cereal (supper of champions!) while watching The Grocery Girls - my favorite knitting YouTubers.

Thursday at 5:00 was the end of fiscal year 2023 so after prepping for the final meetings, I was happy to end the day with a box of yarn arriving from Facebook Marketplace and a video chat with Anne, who was calling late from Italy because she couldn't fall asleep.

I did some celebrating Friday to mark the end of the year, taking Chinese to Lorri's for lunch and then I made a fake frapuccino (from an Aldi's mix) instead of tea that afternoon. Anne video chatted again so I got to hear more about Italy. Nice end to a busy work week.

Rene was coming to play with kittens on Saturday so I got up and started cleaning. I don't do major cleaning but there's nothing like someone coming over to get me to do the bathroom and floors. I had bought Wahoo wieners (the hot dogs made by the local locker plant) so we had a yummy lunch and lots of kitten fun. It was my last full day with them all so I took lots of picture and gave them some extra love. 

Sunday was the day for Becky to pick them up. While I'd enjoyed having them and they helped me get over Gansey, I'll admit that they were a handful as they got bigger and more comfortable in my house. Becky came and took all their accouterments before I got them in 2 carriers and into her car, which was easy peasy. She thanked me profusely and was off. I immediately started reclaiming my back room. If felt good to have everything in order and clean but it was SO quiet. As much as they could be pests, I'd be missing them for sure. Hazel and Goodie were my 2 foster fails though so I'd be picking them up after my vacation and would be adopting them. Tot and Pixel wouldn't be happy but at least it would only be 2.

Between fiscal year end being mostly done and the kittens being gone, my life was super calm. Now to prepare for my annual beach week, which is usually right after the books close but was delayed a week this year. Just 4 more work days and I'd be Rhode Island bound. Yay!