Lots of people went into the office on Monday because of the eclipse. We were only at 80% so it didn't compare to the last one when we were in totality but it was still fun sitting outside watching it, which made for a nice break in the afternoon. Otherwise I worked on grad allocations with my replacement, Dana, so the day went quickly. I had made rhubarb upside down cake for knitting, which is always well received but then I went home.
I had made some veggies to go with my supper and used the little simmer burner on my stove. I'll call it a senior moment but I didn't turn the burner off. The water must have boiled over and put the flame out so gas was building up the whole time I was at knitting. I smelled it the minute I got into the house, found the burner on and turned it off. I then opened all the windows and started fans all over the house. Within 2 hours, the smell was gone so I went to bed feeling lucky that it hadn't been worse. Sheesh!
I was in the office on Wednesday, as usual, but had signed up for a retirement seminar from 8:00-12:30. I had been to one years ago but with retirement just a few months away, I went again. I knitted through the whole thing and learned some valuable things, such as spend your Roth IRA's last because you've already paid the tax on those so the interest you earn is tax free. Who knew? I had been planning to use those first if my savings don't last until I start social security or drawing from retirement. Anyway....
Cindy was at the seminar too and so we decided to go out to lunch before heading back to the office. We went to Bahnwich Cafe and then hit St. Louise's on the way back to campus, where I scored the rare as hen's teeth sock yarn. As if that wasn't happy enough, there was a random act of kindness later.
I decided that I'd stop at Menard's (a midwest Home Depot-ish store) on the way home to get some pansies. Just pansies. But when I went into the garden center, they had all their flowers fully stocked and they looked fresh off the truck. When I saw that they were one sale for $1.50 each (!), I filled 2 flats and picked up a Park's Whopper tomato and a pot of hyacinths. I was waiting in line at the register and chatting about plants with the man in front of me, exchanging tips of best tomatoes and garden deals. He was just buying a hose and was using a stack of rebates to pay. When he found 2 that approximated his total, he paid. As we were saying goodbye, he handed me a $15 rebate card and wished me a happy spring. When I balked, he told me to enjoy my plants and walked off with his wife. So a total stranger paid for most of my plants. It made my already happy day even happier.
The rest of the work week was more training with Dana but I also chatted with Anne from Spain (love Messenger for that) and took 2 hours of vacation time on Friday to start my spring clean up. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and I got the entire front, east side and around the deck and garage raked out before I petered out. I made a cup of tea and sat outside, happy with my progress. Rosie was loving being outside and didn't come in that night until 2:15 a.m.! Goodie was outside with her until 1:15, which meant I didn't sleep well because I got up every half hour or so to call them. Not the end of the work week I'd planned. Oh well.
Andrea and I were doing a Fremont run on Saturday morning to hit the Estate Dispersal Store sale, which is only one weekend each month. She was picking me up at 8:00 and we were getting breakfast too. I was tired but not too bad. We hit the Restore then got breakfast, which took long enough that we could do the EDS sale, which opened at 10:00, before our regular Goodwill and Aldi stops. We spent longer in Fremont than we'd planned but I was home early enough that I invited Lorri over for tea so we could catch up. It was a lovely day and productive too.
Sunday was crazy hot - 87 degrees! It had started to heat up Saturday but I'd kept the house shut up so it stayed cool. I was determined to not put on the AC so headed downstairs to my craft room when the temp upstairs started creeping up. I cut my stashing strips and sewed my crumb quilt squares into 7 strips. I did some bad math in my spreadsheet last summer so they were way too long so decided then and there to take them to knitting the next night, where I could grab a chunk of library floor to lay them out. It was a good plan.
So nice week, right? Dana was picking things up super quickly and we had chatting time to get to know each other. I had happy things left and right and made progress in the yard and on my quilt. I hope I have more weeks like this coming up. There's still plenty to do on all fronts, as usual.
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