Week 34 - Relaxing Beach Week

The week started out with absolutely gorgeous weather and we had guests scheduled for every day. It was going to be a great week. Unless Hurricane Erin caused problems.

John was going out to lunch with his friend Nancy on Monday so I called Janice and she came over for lunch and the afternoon. Janice was my best friend from 7th grade through college so it was fun catching up and we laughed for hours. When John got back and asked what was so funny, we couldn't even say. After Janice left, we had yummy burgers for supper and enjoy this beautiful sunset. Beach living. Gotta love it.

Deanne was coming on Tuesday but wanted to go out for lunch. She and I went to The Coast Guard House, which is right on the water in Narragansett and is a Rhode Island institution. I had a lobster roll and we split the most delicious pea salad. We then shopped in Wakefield before she dropped me back at the cottage because she had a zoom at 4:00. Kathy, who used to own the cottage and was how we found it in 2020, was coming for supper. While Dee and I were out, John had gone to the fish store for fresh swordfish (caught that morning) and the farm stand for sweet corn. It was all delicious and the conversation flowed. It was another lovely day.

Wednesday was Cornelia day. We became friends when we lived in adjacent dorm rooms on our junior year abroad in France. It's been more than 40 years. How are we that old? Anyway, we met her at Aunt Carrie's for clamcakes and chowder and then she came back to the cottage for a chatty afternoon until she had to leave for a hair appointment. For a change, I cooked dinner - sausage and peppers with zucchini. The veg came from my garden and had survived being packed in my suitcase just fine. Some of the peppers were spicy (they weren't supposed to be) but it was still good. It was raining so we watched Rogue Agent, which was worth the watch, and went to bed early. 

Hurricane Erin was off the coast and starting to affect our weather by Thursday. The tide was incredibly high and it was cloudy and windy all day. With the high temp only 68, it was pretty chilly. John's aunt and uncle were coming for drinks and nibbles that afternoon and luckily the sun was coming out by then. We had a nice time chatting and ate so many snacks with our drinks that after they left, we skipped supper and had an early night after watching a few episodes of Leanne on Netflix.

It had been cool all week and still was but Friday was our beach day. Carolyn and Matt were coming but with Erin offshore, the waves were huge and swimming wasn't allowed at the state beach. They got to the cottage at noon but John and I aren't ones to sit on the beach so we stayed at the cottage for lunch and said we'd walk down and meet them later. They were planning to leave the beach at 4:30 so we walked down for 3:00. It was too windy for an umbrella so it was a good thing we weren't there long. The waves were crazy big and roared onto shore. I went down to stand in the waves (that was allowed) and they were so strong that just one wave pulled the sand out from under my feet. Sheesh! We drove back to the cottage and John made his marinated chicken, which is always yummy. We watched more Leanne after they left then I took my last outside shower of the year and sat out on the deck listening to the waves crashing from the beach, which is about a quarter mile from the cottage. The stars were bright and I enjoyed sitting there for quite awhile. Another beach week was over. In a flash.

Check out time on Saturday is 10:00 so we got up and got busy packing clothes, linens and food. The car was loaded and we drove out at 10:15. We went to the big Job Lot (a RI store that's like Big Lots used to be but better) in East Greenwich and didn't even get through it all before we had to head to Carolyn's. Our friend Bob was coming and we were going to have a lunch of leftovers from the cottage, which we had plenty of. It was another fun catch up and then John dropped me at Janice's, where I'd be staying for a few days before flying home.

I normally stay with Carolyn or Deanne when I'm in RI but Carolyn was starting school that Tuesday and Deanne is living with her mother while her new house is being built so Janice came to my rescue. Janice and I grew up together so I knew it would be fun. I settled into her spare room and her husband made burgers on the grill. Just like that, Saturday was done.

Janice lives right by the water and they have a BIG (43 foot) boat so we were going out on the boat on Sunday. Janice's brother and daughter-in-law came too and it was fabulous. Despite having grown up in RI, I'd only been out on the bay a few times. It's so cool to see things from the water - a totally different perspective. We went to a Potter Cover off Prudence Island and dropped anchor. We spent the afternoon enjoying sandwiches, snacks and just being on the water. We got back at 6:00 and when they mentioned going to "the club" for supper, I was thrilled to hear they meant The Firemen's Club in East Greenwich. It's legendary and you have to be a member, which her husband and brother are. It's prime real estate overlooking Greenwich Cove and I was thrilled to go there. The food was good and it was a perfect end to a wonderful day and week.

Another RI beach week was in the books and I had just one more day before I'd fly home on Tuesday. I was having lots of fun with Janice and got to check a few new things off my list. Still, home was calling to me. I'd be staying home for a long time once I got home. 

Week 33 - Rhode Island Bound

Any week that includes getting on a plane for vacation automatically becomes busy but this wasn't too bad. I had lots of free time in the four days until I left.

I spent Monday doing some cleaning in my nightie, including putting the laundry room back to normal after the contractors had moved things when they had to replumb my shower. There was strange gunk in my sinks down there - a layer or what felt like rusted metal. It took time to chip off and then left rust stains on the enamel. Anyway, when I was done with chores, the nightie went into the hamper, I took a shower and got dressed. I made a strawberry rhubarb pie to take to knitting, which was the icing on the productive day I'd had.

I did laundry and hung it out on Tuesday and then spent some time neatizing the house, including organizing my knitting, between episodes of The Studio on Apple TV. I made egg roll in a bowl for supper then went to my library board meeting. Not quite as productive as Monday but not a total slug day. I was in pretty good shape for my trip too with clean clothes to pack and the house chores done.

With that in mind and a clear calendar on Wednesday, I decided it was time to tackle a one day project, which was my bedroom. Clothes were off the list but I went through the bottom of my closet and cleared all the surfaces. Then I started cleaning. It was the perfect project and looked great when I was done. I also finally was able to set up Venmo on my credit union account having given up on my Wahoo State Bank account, where I'd failed to get it to work three times. Pixel, who was looking much better, got her last dose of antibiotics. It was a good day.

I was heading to Lincoln on Thursday for lunch with Dana and Cindy so recycled my glass on the way into town then dropped some travel presents off to Darla before picking them up. We had a lovely middle eastern lunch at Fattoush, which Dana recommended. The big boss - Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance, Mike Zeleny - was leaving UNL and I'd be missing his party so grabbed a few minutes with him between his meetings to say goodbye. And since I was on the third floor, I talked to Ben then went upstairs to chat with Erica and Layton. It had been a long time since I'd spent so much time in the office but it was great to catch up with people.

Friday was all about getting ready - watering plants (inside and out), setting up many litter boxes, cleaning out the fridge, doing a final load of laundry and packing. I even knitted the final squares on my temperature blanket to catch up from my last trip, knowing I'd be twelve days behind again before I got back from RI. I had plenty of time to get this all done though so it wasn't stressful. I had to be up at 4:30 for my early flight so went to bed early and called myself prepared.

I got a decent amount of sleep before my alarm went off and was on the road by 5:15. My flights were completely uneventful. John picked me up and we went straight to The Crow's Nest for my favorite fried clams. Delish! We went to Trader Joe's for supplies then headed to the cottage, which is where it got interesting. It was strange to see that Vivian's camper had been removed and there was a nice, new deck on the cottage but the door for the outside shower was gone. Changes.

Our neighbors came over to greet us and helped us unload but when we looked for the key in the lockbox, it was not there. John called and texted the owner but didn't get an immediate response so he got creative. The kitchen window that opens onto the deck wasn't locked so John unscrewed the screen and climbed in the window. Yay! We unpacked the groceries, made beds and settled in. But when it came time for dinner, we had nothing to eat despite buying tons of food at TJ's. I made us fried egg sandwiches and we called it good.  When it was time for bed, I evaluated who could see me if I showered outside and decided it was only one house across the pond and they'd need binoculars so I used my phone for light and took a nudie shower outside. All good. 

Sunday was a low key day with no visitors coming. I took my breakfast out to the deck and then spent the entire morning there knitting, thoroughly enjoying my happy place. We headed out for Stop & Shop to fill in the gaps in the food we'd bought at TJ's. Lots of meat was procured and we had saugies (a RI hotdog) for supper. With the fridge stocked, we were ready for a week of visiting with friends and relaxing. We had a gorgeous sunset to end the evening (the pic at the start of this post. 

Week 32 - Lincoln and Omaha

It was another nice week that started with time inside and ended with all things social.

I spent the first three days of the week puttering inside, finally catching up on online things and doing more cooking. I was feeling guilty about so much streaming while knitting so switched it up to reading and knitting a couple of charity hats. Same chair and same sitting but somehow better. In my mind at least. Here are the hats.

My new friend Ana, who had been staying in Wahoo to go through family stuff and get some intensive PT, was going back to NYC so I said goodbye to her before knitting on Monday. She had been living in a hotel so I'd invited her over for many a meal over the summer and also worked on puzzles with her at the library. I'd miss her but she's planning to move back to Nebraska after she sells her apartment so I'll see her again.

A talk at the lake on Thursday morning was the start of my busy days. It was on specialty crops in Nebraska and was very interesting. From there I went to The Warehouse, the library and then dealt with the driveway weeds. I'd attempted to take them to the city burn pile earlier in the week only to find it closed because they were burning. So when I saw that Lorri had her trailer piled with weeds to take to her brother's farm, I asked if I could add mine. They'd been sitting on the alley for a couple of days and it had rained so they were a mess. She said I could so I loaded them back into the car and offloaded those. After that, I called it a day and relaxed all afternoon.

Friday was my Lincoln day and I had a full agenda. I started at the Nebraska Library Commission, dropping off the book club books they'd discussed while I was in Europe. From there I went to Knit Paper Scissors to pick up the August yarn that I'd ordered, which was a good thing because it sold out. Then it was on to the cancer center for what I hoped would be my last appointments for awhile. I was meeting with my oncologist and the radiation oncologist. I'm happy to say I am done for awhile with my next appointment scheduled for Halloween. I feel like I have my life back again. To celebrate, I met Dodie at Starbuck's and we chatted over yummy coffee. It was great catch up and from there I went to the newly opened Stuff Creative Reuse store and totally scored some yarn. They had a couple of cubbies with "special" yarn that was $10/skein. I scored another skein by the same dyer I'd just picked up and had paid $38 for. SCORE! I got another expensive skein and then all the others were only $1 each. I scored some labeled sock yarn and some remnants. After a grocery run, I headed back home. It was another lovely day.

My plan Saturday was to go to the Thrifty Artists Garage Sale, which I'd tried to get a vendor table at but failed. I'd sold there pre-Covid and wanted to have a table to sell yarn so was going to check it out and run Omaha errands. There had been storms overnight but I'd slept through them and only had a small branch of my silver maple down, which happens all the time so I gave it zero thought. Anyway, when I went to the ATM to get cash for the sale, they didn't have power then the next town towards Omaha didn't have any power either. I pulled over to check that the sale was still on and it was but they said they'd had cancellations of the food truck and several vendors because of the storm. Hmm.... I drove to Omaha and found an ATM to pay a $4 fee to get cash because that's what I'd need to buy anything.

I started by hitting all my fave carb places (Bagel Bin, Winchell's Donuts and the Rotella bread factory) then went to the sale. It was lame with nothing much at all that interested me. I spent $2.25 cents and called it a bust. I did talk to one of the people who runs the sale and suggested they not bury the call for vendors like that had this time, which is why I missed it. Also, a friend from my spinning group was selling so I offered to mind her booth while she went and got lunch so that was helpful.

One thing on my Omaha list was to go to the new Ollie's, which I'd been to in my sister's town and enjoyed. I thought it was on 72nd Street in the heart of Omaha but when I got to where I thought it was, it wasn't there so I googled. It was way up in north Omaha so miles further up 72nd. I stopped at a couple of thrifts on my way there but they were mob scenes. I guess I've become completely accustomed to weekday shopping when the stores are empty. Go retirement! I did make it to Ollie's and found a few things to buy but then made a beeline home for a cup of tea and the enormous apple fritter I'd bought at Winchell's. Note to self - never shop on weekends if it can be avoided. Duh!

I started laundry Sunday morning and then headed to Ashland. The "swim ladies" (Anne, Rene, Amanda and I so named by Amanda's husband) were getting together for lunch at BW's. We enjoyed lunch (I got a fried egg sandwich with tots - talk about an old school menu option!) and talked for so long that Amanda's son left, came back with a change of clothes and left again. Lots of chatting and catching up. I didn't go back to Amanda's because there were big storm clouds so I headed back and drove through torrential rain for a bit.

I'd call that another nice week. It was a good mix of relaxation, productivity and social events and it wasn't ridiculously hot. Still hotter than I like but that's summer in Nebraska. I'd be heading to Rhode Island for my annual beach week and it looks like it'll be much cooler when I get back. Can't wait for fall weather!

Week 31 - Heat and Sweat

The worst of my jet lag was over and my cold was almost gone so I was looking forward to a week of nesting and catching up. But holy crap! The weather was crazy hot to start the week.

It felt like 114 on Monday so going out was off the table. I was madly crocheting the border on a baby blanket that I wanted to enter in the fair and entries were due that night so I spent most of the day on that. I got it finished and into the wash right before the contractor came to go over some changes. I'd asked for bright shiny chrome and he'd installed all brushed chrome and the paint needed some touching up. He was great about it so that was a relief. This contractor will be doing more work at my house for sure. Anyway, I pulled the blanket out of the dryer, attached the fair labels and had my entries dropped off before Monday Night Knitting. I picked up a few things at the local market and called it a good day.

It was almost as hot on Tuesday so I stayed inside again. I talked or zoomed with my sister and friends for most of the morning and then got busy cooking. After weeks of mediocre food on the trip and living out of my freezer since I got home, it was a joy to cook. I had picked wax beans from my garden so made 3 bean salad, potato salad, turkey dinner casserole and mashed potatoes for a future casserole. I had a Ripples Project zoom at 6:00 then ran to the fair to check my ribbons. While my colorwork cowl won best of lot and best of division, like last year I missed best of county, which is the best craft in the fair and gets to enter a special category in the state fair, by one. It was reserve best of county. Will I ever win that? I'll keep trying. I stopped at my friend Lorri's to pick up some beets from her garden. It was another good day at home.

The temp wasn't as high on Wednesday and I tried to go outside to give my garden some love but it was still super muggy so I was dripping sweat within minutes. After that sweaty hour, I went out in 10 minute stints over the course of the day and at least got my containers looking better. I unpacked all but the breakables in the bathroom, hung my new shower curtain and called it a day. I made zucchini butter pasta, which was easy and delish, and had it with some wine. 

Thursday was a Lincoln day because I had a post-trip OT appointment because they were concerned that my trip would exacerbate my lymphedema, which it hadn't. Of course I had many other things planned since I'd be in the big city but I had already decided not to swim so I could do a big grocery run. I started with meeting Cindy on campus to pick up some sock yarn she'd scored for me at an estate sale (yay!) and had BBQ on East Campus (the last BBQ of the summer) with Darla before heading south for the appointment. I was officially done with OT but they didn't close my case so will call in 2 months and if it's still OK, they'll close it then. Of course I thrifted a bit (found $1 bags of yarn - mostly acrylic for Dottie) and hit Aldi and Russ' so had loaded up on groceries. All good.

Finally I was home on Friday to work outside in the much cooler weather, although it was smoky from Canadian wild fires, which had me coughing. The kid who mows for me had done the grass but I had foot high weeds in my driveway cracks so that was my focus for the day. I also wanted to weed my veg beds. I spent hours outside and was only half done with the driveway but did get the veg beds done. I was toast so took a shower and got stuff done inside like bleach testing the mystery sock yarn (almost all of it had nylon), doing the July tally for my Ravelry sock group and catching up on some shows. I felt good with my progress.

I was sore on Saturday so didn't get outside until the afternoon and it took most of the rest of the day to get the driveway done but I did it. Done! I had just dropped the weeds when I pulled them for them to dry out so had piles all over the driveway. I was watching the news first thing Sunday and they said it might rain so I went out in my nightie and swept the piles to the side of the driveway. I had to go pick up my fair entries and didn't want to drive over them. Good thing it was 6:30 am so no one saw me. Ha!

Andrea was at my door after mass and had picked up my fair entries so cross that off my list. Lorri stopped by after church so I had a nice, chatty morning and didn't have to go out again. I did more cooking and caught up on more streaming. I was very disappointed that it was so cool out that they never opened the Lincoln pools so my water aerobics was done for the summer. I love the Sunday class so missed out. Oh well.

I'd still call it a lovely week. I was completely over my jet lag and felt back to normal having caught up both inside and out. Just cooking again was wonderful. Two more weeks before I head to Rhode Island. Hopefully they'll be nice weeks too.

Week 30 - Prague and Home

As if the salad bar and non-chicken from the night before wasn't enough, I found mini wheats when I went down for breakfast on Monday. Yay! Could this hotel get any better? It was the last week of the trip and I was snotty (a cold?) but I'd be sleeping in my own bed by the end of the week.

With a belly full of mini wheats, our first stop was a walking tour of downtown Linz, which was Hitler's favorite town. Go figure. We were going along with the tour but the guide had a really obnoxious voice and seemed to go on and on so when Anne found a yarn shop, we snuck away and went yarn shopping. After the first shop, we bumped into our tour guy and Dom pointed us to another yarn shop that had no online presence. It was small but we found more yarn, of course, and then headed to Starbuck's for yet another frapuccino. Two new friends from the tour joined us and we sat outside until it was time to walk back to the bus. That afternoon, we drove to Mauthausen - a Nazi work camp. They didn't gas people because they worked them to death. Needless to say, it was a sobering experience. We had another yummy dinner in the hotel and our time in Linz was done.

This was the point when our time on the boat would have been over so we were back to the original itinerary, which meant no more 20 euro handouts for food. On our way to Prague, we stopped in the prettiest town - Cesky Krumlov. I'd never heard of it but it was gorgeous. We had another walking tour then had some time on our own. Anne went off to take pictures and I went with Tom and Jill to get some lunch at an Italian restaurant Dom had recommended. I got a yummy pizza and Anne and another friend joined us after a bit and ate some of it. It was the first meal of my own choosing that I'd eaten in a week and it was delicious. From there we headed to Prague.

I don't know if it was because I was tired, snotty and ready for home but Prague was my least favorite city of the trip. There was no greenery anywhere and it just seemed grubby with dirty buildings and lots of trash. And so many people! Anyway, we started with a walking tour in the morning, another in the afternoon and when we were set loose for free time, Anne and I went to the river and did a one hour boat tour, which was lovely. We both thought the tour company missed an opportunity by not having a dinner or cruise during the trip, which would have been nice since it was supposed to be a river cruise. Anyway, we stopped at a cafe for a big piece of cake and went back to the hotel to get organized. Thursday would be our last day in the city and of the trip.

We went across the river Thursday morning and had a tour of the castle district. Even the gardens there were nothing special but we sat in them to knit and watch people. There were shuttles but, as usual, Anne and I walked back. We'd been doing 16-17k steps most days and since we'd be sitting all day Friday... Back at the hotel, we had a farewell talk with the 4 tour managers and then dinner. Then it was back to our rooms to finish packing. It had been a good trip but I was more than ready to head home.

We didn't have an early morning on Friday, only needing to leave the hotel at 10:30. It was just the 2 of us in a taxi and we were facing a long day. We flew from Prague to Munich and then had a 10.5 hour flight to Denver. It was SO long. I watched a short movie and then decided to watch Godfather 1 and 2, which took me almost to the end of the flight. By the end of it, I couldn't sit another minute. I got up and went to the galley (we were at the back of the plane) and did some stretching. We buzzed though Denver thanks to Global Entry (worth every penny), rechecked our bags and headed to our flight to Lincoln. By the time we arrived, we'd been awake for 24 hours. Despite us rechecking our bags together, Anne's arrived and mine didn't. I filled out a lost baggage report and went out to the curb where Andrea was waiting. 

Andrea hadn't seen Rosie the entire time I was gone and I did have contractors going in and out of the house so I was worried that she may have gotten out but when I got home just after midnight, all 4 cats came running. I let them out and proceeded to unpack my my carry on and take a shower in my gorgeous new bathroom. By the time I was ready for bed, the cats all wanted in to get some loving so I went to bed happy to be in my own bed and with all my cats safe inside.

Despite total exhaustion, I only slept 4 hours. Sheesh! I was a zombie but filled the day with talking to friends, catching up on computer stuff and going through my mail. My luggage arrived at the end of the day so I unpacked and got laundry sorted to do on Sunday. I got all the laundry done, talked more on the phone, stashed all the yarn I'd bought, prepped all my fair entries and called the contractor about a few things he needed to fix. I didn't trust myself to drive to Lincoln for swimming so bailed on that.

So, it was a successful trip despite not being the cruise and so feeling longer than I'd hoped (taking a bus from hotel to hotel is not as relaxing as sitting on a deck with a fancy drink watching the scenery along the river) but I'd seen cities I'd never been to and had lots of fun. As always, it felt wonderful to be home and I had high hopes to get over jet lag and the last remnants of my cold so I could enjoy the next week at home. Life is good!

Week 29 - Bratislava and Vienna

One of the missions of the tour company (Overseas Adventure Travel and Grand Circle Cruises) is learning and discovery so we started Monday with a talk on autocracy in Hungary, which was very interesting. Then we headed out to the covered market, where Anne and I went to Aldi. Ha! We went to the first of many chicken meals, after which we got another Starbuck's then were on our way to Bratislava. That wasn't very long in Budapest but I was excited for Bratislava.

Unlike in Budapest, our hotel was centrally located on the main square of the town so we headed out as soon as we were done with supper. I loved the town immediately. It was small so walkable and I found some art that I wanted to buy but didn't have enough cash. Get this - we were supposed to eat all our meals on the boat so anytime there was a meal we had on our own, they handed us each 20 euros. Just one more round of lunch money and I'd have enough for the 2 pics I wanted. Anyway, there was a fun fountain right out front that did a light show that was synchronized to music each hour so we sat outside until bedtime. Nice.

Tuesday was a full day and started with a talk on the transition from communism to capitalism (interesting) then a walking tour of the old town. When we went by the man with the art, I ran over and used my second lot of lunch money to buy it. Yay! After the tour, Anne and I took a Bolt (Slovakia's version of Uber) to a local yarn shop that was wonderful. I found some yarn for myself and for Andrea as a thank you for feeding my cats. We were walking from there to Lidl to buy something for lunch when we passed a cute shop that was a co-op full of fun handmade items. I bought a few things there too and with a savory pastry from Lidl, we Bolted back and ate lunch in a park by the river. We had a couple of hours to kill so went to a cat cafe by the hotel for a bit. The cats were not super engaged but they were the first cats we'd seen so far. From there we went to home visits, which is another thing the tour company does. Four of us went to a woman's apartment, which was tiny and apparently the norm. She was lovely and told us all about life in Slovakia. Then it was back to the hotel to walk to a horrific folk show in a basement that was ancient and a total fire trap. We sat by the door so we could bug out if it was lame, which it was, but the band set up blocking our exit. They were so loud and the food was meh. The minute they took a break, we were outa there.

Somewhere over the course of the day I developed a small blister on my big toe. For some reason is throbbed all night. Throbbed like I was being stabbed with a pin every 2 minutes or so. I barely slept, like still awake at 4:30. Good thing it was a day with bus travel. We had a talk on Bratislava's next generation, had another chicken lunch near the hotel and headed to Vienna on the bus. Our hotel was right across from the main park in Vienna so we headed right there, found a bench near a pond (the pic is the view from the benches) and knitted until dinner, which was in the hotel. Afterwards, we went to the mall behind the hotel and found exactly what I was hoping for - supermarket sock yarn! It was in a SparExtra so technically the extra stuff that normally wouldn't be in a Spar grocery store but good enough. It was only 6 euros for a ball that would cost ~$18 in the US so I bought some for my knitting group. I survived on zero sleep and was loving Vienna so far.

I slept like a rock so was ready to go on Thursday. We started with a bus tour of the city then had yet more chicken in a hot basement restaurant so we left before lunch was over. We walked all over the palace area, starting with the rose garden, and then made our way to a yarn shop, which was very small and I only found 1 ball of sock yarn that was manufactured in Austria. Then it was back to the park to knit on our bench and wait for supper, which was in the hotel. We chatted with an American who was travelling with her dog and several people from the tour as we knitted away. It was a lovely way to end the day.

Friday was a mostly free day so we walked from the yarn shop that was near the hotel (the owner told me sock yarn was out of season (!) so I only found one skein to buy) and then crossed the river to a less touristy part of town and hit the best yarn shop of the lot. The owner was lovely and I bought some great yarn and my fave sock needles so I could cast on another pair. Always a good thing. We stopped at a cafe near the park and had a pancake thing called a Kaiserschmarrn that my friend Layton had recommended. Delish! There was a bus trip to a strange building Austrians seem particularly proud of then back to the hotel for a lecture on Austrian history and their neutrality. I clearly need to read a book on European history. After dinner in the hotel, Anne and I did a carriage ride with 2 other women from the trip. We just took the first carriage in line but neglected to ask if he spoke English. He didn't except for a few words here and there but he knew enough to say "Vladimir Putin good" and give a thumbs up. OMG! Despite him, it was a nice way to spend an evening in Vienna.

Saturday was an out and about day. We went to a cute down called Durnstein that was on the Danube. I took the opportunity to get my feet in the river because wading is one of my very favorite things. From there we went to Gottweig Abbey for lunch, which we ate outside on a gorgeous patio overlooking a gorgeous valley. Then it was on to an apricot farm where we learned so much about the process, ate and drank everything apricot and then I hit the gift shop and bought all the apricot things. We did not need supper when we got back to the hotel so 20 more euros went into my pocket. : )

On Sunday, we left Vienna, which I was sad about since I'd loved it all, except maybe the Putin loving carriage driver. We went to a town called Melk that had a big abbey that we toured before having yet more chicken in a restaurant that was super stuffy. I was so sick of sweating! From there we drove to Linz, which was the longest bus trip so far so lots of knitting time. Linz is an industrial town and was the last city on the Danube and where we would have disembarked from the boat. Our hotel was not near the city center but the restaurant made up for it. We'd been eating chicken at nearly every meal and vegetables were rarely on offer so when we saw a salad bar in the restaurant, I was thrilled and had a huge plate of salad. And they had beef and ribs as proteins so not chicken. I was a happy camper.

So our full week had us in 3 different countries learning at every stop and I'd found lots of fun yarn and made some new friends. There was way too much chicken but considering they had 4 days to redo the tour and find hotels and restaurants that could handle 100 people, I shouldn't complain. We had another day in Linz and then would be on the original itinerary because Prague had always been a hotel/bus portion of the trip. All good.

Week 28 - Best Laid Plans

What a week! It started with a BIG change in plans and ended in Europe. Can't beat that.

The only thing on my agenda for Monday was a 2:00 zoom for 15 minutes with a vendor about a new service for the library (wearing my library board president hat). I had no sooner started the zoom when my phone started blowing up, Anne started messaging me and then doing a video call. I finished the zoom (it was totally lame with a slick salesman who couldn't answer any questions) and immediately called Anne back on Messenger and that lead to a 3 way call with the company doing our river cruise and then came the big news.

Due to drought, there was not enough water in the Danube so we couldn't do a cruise. They offered several options including doing the same tour but staying in hotels and taking a bus between cities. Since I was having my only bathroom gutted to the studs and redone, I had to be gone so we picked that option. Because we agreed to that, we'd be getting everything we paid back as a mix of cash back and future trip credit. All good but I'll admit to a bit of disappointment to not be cruising down the river but what can you do? We'd still have fun and going to Europe is always good. 

The rest of the week went by in a blur with me checking things off my list. I replaced wheels on my luggage, shipped a box of yarn to Dottie, bought paint for the bathroom, got friends and neighbors set up to water plants and feed cats and finally packed. After doing the last few things on Friday morning, I soaked my head (the sweating!), got dressed and was ready when Lorri and her husband came to take me to the airport. I met Anne and we were off!

Our itinerary wasn't ideal. We were leaving from Lincoln, which is always nice, but were flying west to Denver then back over Nebraska to Munich. 10.5 hours just for that flight and then 45 minutes from Munich to Budapest. I barely slept on the long flight but sat next to a man on the flight to Budapest who gave me all kinds of tips on Budapest and told us a couple of must eat items. Cool. Not cool was finding out our luggage was still in Munich but we got a text telling us that just as we got to the baggage carousel. They'd deliver it later that day so not horrible.

After a quick bus ride, we checked into our hotel, dropped out luggage in our room and took a shuttle downtown. Despite being pretty tired, we walked around for a couple of hours, got a Starbuck's caffeine boost and took a shuttle back to the hotel for supper. We made it through the day on barely any sleep. Day 1 success!

After a nice hotel breakfast (great buffet), we had an orientation at 9:00 before heading back downtown for a walking tour. Since I knew nothing about Budapest, it was very interesting. Afterwards we had time on our own to explore and Anne and I immediately found a restaurant to get a langos, which was one of the recommendations from the man I sat next to on the flight. Delish! It was hard to explain but was a big deep fried dough dish with edges filled with Hungarian sour cream, which is different and delicious, bacon, onions and cheese. I'm sorry to say it was the best thing I ate on the whole trip. We shuttled back to the hotel and walked to a buffet nearby that night that was bedlam with zillions of people (beyond our 100+) and so loud that I couldn't wait to get out of there. 

While it was clear that the food wouldn't be the star of the trip (we were supposed to be eating every meal on the boat), there were fun people and our tour manager was great. They split the 101 people in to 4 groups and each group had our own bus and manager so we weren't crammed in. I was looking forward to the rest of the trip. Stay tuned.

Week 27 - Focused on Cowl

It was my last full week before leaving for Europe but did I focus on packing? Nope. The start of the week was pretty normal and then I was busy finishing a project to enter in the county fair right after I got back.

There was lots of socializing early in the week. I went to Lorri's for lunch on Monday, which was supposed to be in a park but rain nixed that, knitted at Nan's in Fremont instead of the library, took Dodie to Green Gateau for her birthday then had tea at Rene's and chatted the afternoon away. After a day at home on Wednesday when the contractor came to get a key and do a final project overview, I was back to Lincoln for another OT appointment, hanging at Helen's and then swimming. I watered in my yard and my neighbor's in a wet bathing suit then showered and was ready to knit.

I have been trying to win Best in County at the fair for a few years now. Last year I got reserve best (2nd place) and so this year was going to finish the colorwork cowl I started on my Norway knitting cruise in December 2018 in hopes of winning. It was only a third done and required concentration so that was my mission for the weekend. Other than watering plants, including my neighbor's, and doing a few chores, the Friday through Sunday was devoted to the cowl. Since it was thick and would take a long time to dry, I needed it finished and blocked well before my trip. I didn't finish it until Monday but here are the 2 sides of it.

As usual, I ended the week going to water aerobics in Lincoln, which I needed after sitting and knitting for three days. I was happy to have the cowl done and since I'd be leaving for Europe on Friday, it was time to change gears and get ready to be gone for 15 days. Yee ha!

Week 26 - Lawrence Trip Fail

So this was the week Anne and I had planned to drive to Winnipeg. It started as a 4 day trip - driving day one, 2 days in Winnipeg and one day home. But we weren't finding things to do in Winnipeg so had dropped it to just one day there, which seemed ridiculous with a 9 hour drive on each end. So we came up with a plan B. We decided to plan a Canada trip to Ontario maybe in the fall to hang with our knitting friends and just go to Lawrence, Kansas for a day trip on Tuesday.

It rained on and off Monday and that broke the heat and humidity we'd been suffering through. We started out early on Tuesday for the 3.5 hour trip to Lawrence, not giving the weather any thought. Well, we drove through torrential rain on the way down there and when we finally got past the rain, we were on the other side of the front and it was blazing hot - mid 90's and so much humidity that it felt over 100. We didn't realize this until we parked on Massachusetts Avenue (the main drag in the wonderful downtown) and got out of the car just before noon. Brutal!

We went into a cute paper store right in front of where we parked and asked them where to eat lunch. The sent us 2 doors down to Terrebonne Po' Boys and told us to get the turkey club and the bread pudding. As we were walking in, someone walking by told us to get the bread pudding too so that's what we did. We split the turkey club, got poutine fries and the bread pudding. It was all delish and the decor inside was fabulous - full of thrift store art grouped by like items. The hallway to the bathroom was hung with vintage calendar towels, there were needlepoint, crewel, paintings. Get a load of the sea captain grouping in this pic! This place was SO fun. And it was the highlight of the trip.

We went into the fabulous fabric store and I got a fat quarter of Charlie Harper bird fabric and Anne bought one with flags of countries so I can make her a travel knitting bag. We went up the street to Yarn Barn, where their sock section was so lackluster that I bought nothing. Me not buying yarn - shocking! I told them they needed to step up their sock section and they actually asked me for my favorite sock pattern and my 5 favorite companies/dyers, which they wrote down. Maybe there's hope. We started walking back towards the car, going into just a few shops before giving up because of the blazing heat. It was too miserable to shop so we didn't even do 2 blocks. Bummer. We hit a Goodwill and World Market on the way out of town, drove through DQ for a treat and headed home. It was a complete fail. Next time we do a road trip, I'll pay more attention to the weather.

It was good to be home on Wednesday and I invited Ana for supper, which meant I did some cleaning. We had pork chops, sweet corn and watermelon and chatted for a couple of hours. Nice.

Thursday was another lymphedema appointment but Cindy had cancelled lunch so I ate at home and headed south. I hit some thrifts after my appointment, got a frapuccino at Starbuck's (my first one of the summer), went to Aldi and still had time to kill. I went to the park where swimming would be at 6:15, downloaded a book to my phone and ate a wrap I'd bought at Aldi. Swimming was good, as always, and I headed home.

I had to be home all day Friday to wait for Windstream to come fix my internet, which had been flaking out for days, sometimes dropping 10 times in 5 minutes. When I got a text saying they'd be there between 3:00 and 5:00, I headed out to hit some garage sales because it was Wahoo's city-wide garage sale weekend. I just went up and down all the streets and found some treasures including some vintage linens, a cool sewing chest on legs and a few other fun things. I spent $17 on everything and had a fun morning out and about before it got too hot. The tech came and said he'd call me when he was done but never did. My internet was some better but clearly not fixed. Monday maybe?

I had a quiet, relaxing weekend. There was knitting, streaming and lots of reading. My cousin had asked me if I'd read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and so I'd taken it out of the library. I was 30 pages in when it started seeming familiar so I searched messages and found that I'd read it in 2022. I kept reading it since I couldn't remember details and Helen wanted to discuss it. I read each afternoon and finished it after swimming on Sunday night. It was a nice weekend after a pleasantly full week. I'll take it.

Week 25 - All About Cherries

That title is a bit misleading because while I did spend time with cherries this week, I did lots of other fun stuff too. Here goes....

Monday was uneventful with laundry, washing glassware from the garage that had been on my driveway since I did some garage cleaning weeks (months?) ago and having to leave Monday Night Knitting early because of storms. But I did take a long overdue step and called Windstream to drop my landline. Yes, I am now cellular only. Saved $40/month for something I rarely used. About time, I know.

Tuesday was my York trip with Darla, which was rescheduled from the day in March when the state was shut down by a blizzard, which had lots of snow that melted in a day. Before I met Darla for our afternoon, I stopped at the home of the Yarn Charm (a closed Lincoln yarn shop that still has an online shop) owners to pick up some yarn for my temperature blanket. I had tried 3 different ways to contact them but hadn't heard back so took this drastic step and it worked. Craig was home and went to his basement and got me the 6 skeins I needed. I had cash but he wouldn't take it, instead taking my email and saying he'd have his wife email about paying online without shipping. Update: it's been almost 2 weeks and still haven't heard from them so it's time to send a check I guess. How last century.

I met Darla in the Tractor Supply parking lot, where we left my car, got Arby's to eat in the car and headed out. We went via Seward and had fun in their 2 thrift shops before taking backroads to York. There's a shop there that Darla loves but neither of us found any treasures there. We hit their messy Goodwill and I did find a couple of skeins of yarn there but then we were done. Our plan had always been to eat supper at Chances R - a local restaurant people rave about. It wasn't even 4:00 and I wasn't hungry at all but we went anyway. This is the third time I've eaten there and there's absolutely no reason to ever eat there again. 

It was cool on Wednesday morning so I went out first thing and did some gardening. I potted up the 2 plants I'd bought recently in Fremont (why?) and dug out the eggplant plant I found growing in my mandevilla and potted that up. A gift from mother nature. The last thing I did outside was pick a bunch of cherries - more on that later. I then ran Wahoo errands and drove through BK for lunch. It was still cool enough to enjoy tea outside on my bench, which is rare this time of year and it would be the last cool day for awhile. I can't complain about the spring we've had though, especially all the rain that is slowing chipping away at our drought. 

Thursday was a busy day built around another lymphedema appointment so of course I didn't sleep well. First stop in Lincoln was East Campus for BBQ with work friends. Having time to kill before my appointment, I hit all the thrifts and found lots of cheap yarn, which was mostly in $1 bags. Those are plentiful these days because they are marking yarn so high that the bags don't ever sell and so get marked down after spending weeks in the store. So stupid but I scored. After my appointment, I went to my cousin's to hang out for an hour, leaving to head to swimming. Well, the pool was open but they'd cancelled water aerobics due to the holiday and hadn't told anyone nor posted online. There we dozens of us unhappy at being turned away. Oh well.

Friday was cherry day. I went out first thing to water and picked another bowl of cherries before the heat set in. I planted the cherry tree when I bought the house 25 years ago but have never done a thing with the cherries. This is the first year there have been enough to bother with (OK there was one other year but I was in Europe when they ripened) and I was determined to make jam, which is what I intended to do when I planted it. I loath fake cherry flavor, which reminds me of the bathroom cleaner at the Kent Theatre in the town I grew up in, but love cherry jam and pie. 

I garden organically so don't spray, which means there's a worm in almost every cherry. So I had to cut each cherry open, pull out the pit and remove the worm, cutting away any damage too. I spent most of the afternoon prepping cherries - 2.5 hours! I wanted to be done with cherries but put on my big girl pants, cleaned up the kitchen and made a batch of jam. I still had some cherries leftover and may make a small pie with those. It felt good to finally have homemade cherry jam and I was ready for the weekend.

Go figure - my big plans for the weekend were to stay inside with the AC cranked knitting and streaming, skipping my spinning group because I had zero interest in the program.  I did talk to a few friends and Anne and I decided not to drive to Winnipeg next week, opting instead for a day trip to Lawrence, Kansas. That makes way more sense. I did some chores on Sunday and hit HyVee before swimming for their big produce sale before swimming to end the weekend, which you know I love.

Like I said, I did plenty beside cherries but that was the highlight of a busy summer week that had plenty of fun otherwise. Now that summer heat has set in, I'll have to come up with a plan so I don't spend this summer sitting on my butt knitting. Wish me luck.

Week 24 - Super Social Week

I don't think I've had this busy a week since I retired. I was out and about every single day, which sounds like a lot but I had tons of fun.

I had a bone scan at 11:15 on Monday in Lincoln (yes, more cancer stuff due to the estrogen blocker that I'm on possibly causing bone loss) so planned social stuff while there, of course. The scan was quick so I picked up pizza and treats at the nearby HyVee and took it to Darla's. She goes home at lunch to let out her dog so we had a nice lunch in her living room. I hit some thrifts when I left and scored some sock yarn, which is my #1 favorite thing to thrift but is wicked rare (went Rhode Island with that wicked). I stopped at 2 different flooring stores and yet again found nothing but gray and tan. Nope. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and was the last cool one so we knitted outside at the library. It was a good day.

Tuesday was a cleaning day, spurred on by the upcoming trip on Wednesday where Anne and/or Rene might need to come in to use the bathroom. I did laundry, floors and cleaned the bathroom. It was getting toasty but I wanted one last night to sleep with the windows open so toughed it out. I had a library board meeting that night and stayed late working on the puzzle with Ana and Denise, who is the library director so we stayed past closing. This was my quietest weekday.

Wednesday was the first road trip of the summer. Anne, Rene and I were heading to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa to go to Growing Up Lulu Fiber Arts - a fun local yarn shop. I'd stopped there once on the way back from Sioux Falls and must have talked it up because Anne and Rene wanted to go. We went up highway 77, stopping at Uehling for their thrift shop and in Oakland, which is the Swedish capital of Nebraska and sells Swedish things in their grocery store. I scored some cardamom bread and some cookies to eat in the car. Lulu's was fun and we all found some yarn (yes, mine was sock yarn) and then had lunch in a cafe in town before heading home on the Iowa side of the river. We stopped in Missouri Valley for soft serve and crossed over the river there so came back through Blair and Fremont. Despite being done with planting, we stopped at Kaw Valley for their 50% off sale and I bought 2 more plants - a beautiful petunia to plant in a container where one of my geraniums died and a double impatiens that I'd find someplace for. It was another fun day.

Thursday was my busiest day of the week. I started with a bird feather presentation at the lake at 9:00 and then went straight to campus to drop my work laptop with Philippe so he could do the migration that had failed the night my internet was down. I had another lymphedema session at 11:30, which was the only available time when I scheduled. I had planned a late lunch with Layton, who was RIF'ing (reduction in force, aka firing) people all morning so he'd be calling me when he was done. I thrifted my way towards the restaurant we'd be meeting at. On the way, I scored all kinds of yarn in bags for $1 because they were so overpriced that they didn't sell for so long that they marked them down. I parked under a tree across from the restaurant and sorted yarn until Layton was ready. I had a yummy burger but Layton was too keyed up to eat. I had to go back to campus to work with Philippe to test the migration but he wasn't ready so I knitted in the car until 4:00 then worked with him until 5:00. I then hit the grocery store to kill time until swimming at 6:15. Long day but productive and fun.

I had some much needed downtime on Friday morning so chatted/zoomed with friends, watched my favorite knitting YouTubers and ate lunch. Andrea gets out of work early on Fridays and we were headed to Abie for their church's rummage sale. But since we were heading west, I wanted to go via David City to hit Buresh's Meats, which always has good deals. From there we went to the sale and then Andrea's boyfriend met us at Abie's Place for fish supper. Andrea paid this time and Mike paid the last time we ate there so next time is on me.

Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day but the Monday Night Knitters hadn't planned anything. I have been following the Omaha Knit Night group on Facebook for ages and even met their leader at Fiberpalooza this spring but have never gone to one of their meetups. Well, they were having a picnic in Elmwood Park in Omaha and I wanted to go Nebraska Furniture Mart on my flooring search so I took some banana bread to share and a sandwich for myself and headed out. The people were nice and there was not only plenty of food there but they had a swap table. I took some of the bulky acrylic I'd scored on Thursday, which all went, and I scored some sock yarn leftovers. I went to the mart where I failed again (so much gray and beige. Am I the only person who wants fun flooring?) and then hit Floor & Decor too. Failed again and officially gave up. I hit a couple of thrifts and was home by mid-afternoon. The air was on and it was hot so it was time to hunker down.

I spent Sunday bleach testing all of the yarn I'd found in the past week (wool dissolves in bleach but nylon doesn't and I want yarn I use for socks to have nylon) and did some baking to use up bread - strata and bread pudding. I streamed Sugar on AppleTV and cast on shorties in my favorite pattern with some of the sock yarn I scored from the swap table on Saturday. Only at the end of the day did I suit up and head to Lincoln for swimming. It's a wonderful way to end the week in the summer. I shower when I get home and settle in for PBS.

So, a super busy week but all kinds of fun. The heat had set in and with a heat wave in the forecast, I'll need to come up with a new summer routine that includes more than knitting and streaming. Wish me luck.

Week 23 - Water and Work

It was an interesting week that started with no water, included more work than I've done since I retired and was supposed to be the first week of water aerobics but weather nixed that.

Monday started normally and I was looking forward to seeing Lori, who was coming to Wahoo for an appointment and would be having dinner at my house then going to Monday Night Knitting. Then I flushed the toilet mid morning and it didn't refill. I called the city utility department and they said there was a water main break at the end of my street and they didn't know how long we'd be without water. I immediately headed to the library, knitting and toothbrush in hand. I went back home at lunchtime and talked to the workers on the street, who said they couldn't find the leak. Still without water, I told Lori we'd need a plan B and headed back to the library, where I spent a lot of time working on the community puzzle. Lori met me there and we headed to Adelita's for Mexican food and then back to the library for knitting. I was thrilled that the water was back on when I got home.

I was not so thrilled Tuesday morning when the water was turned off again. I headed back to the library and also ran errands in Wahoo. It came back on mid-afternoon after they found and fixed the leak. Yay! I happily made turkey korma for dinner (a jar of sauce from Aldi that I was trying for the first time with cooked turkey from the freezer) and had Ana come over to pick some up. 

Wednesday was a gorgeous day and would have been perfect for gardening but I needed to get all the things done that I couldn't do without water - laundry, dishes, etc. - so didn't get any gardening done. Oh well. 

Thursday was a Lincoln day. I had an appointment with a lymphedema specialist at the Cancer Center that afternoon (yes, I have lymphedema in my breast - the latest in my cancer journey. Sheesh!) so had scheduled lunch with my new friend Mary. We went to Heoya, which I'd been to before with my old boss, but I couldn't remember what we ordered and what we got was nothing special. Korean fries was what we should have gotten. I thrifted my way south, had a good massage session that immediately relieved the swelling and left with exercises to do at home. I went to Lowe's and found the perfect sink and light fixture for my bathroom remodel, hit Aldi then stopped at Ernie's in Ceresco looking for flooring, which was a total fail, as had been Lowe's. It should have been the first water aerobics class but since it was in the 60's all day, I'd decided early on that I wouldn't go. Turns out they cancelled class anyway so it was a good call.

When I got home, I had an email from Brook about helping out with some work. Dana, my replacement, had to jump on a plane to Jordan because her dad died so Brook needed some help. We talked some things out but I needed help from our computer guy Philippe before I'd be able to run queries. I spent time with him Friday morning and then worked all afternoon, putting in more hours in 2 days than I'd worked in a long time. I got through the entire list Brook had sent except for one thing that I declined to help with. Of course it was a top 10 gorgeous day and I spent it at my computer. Bummer but I'll call the money I earned yarn money for when I'm in Europe in July. I was tired after working all afternoon.

Despite working just a few hours, I was ready for a quiet weekend. Then I got a text from Helen on Saturday morning inviting me to dinner that night from Brenda's (her daughter in law) birthday. It took ages to decide but I did end up going down and it was fun. Sunday was rainy and cold at only 67 degrees so I spent the day knitting (socks, of course, but I also made my tenth charity hat of the year) and roasted some tomatoes that needed using. No water aerobics again but I wasn't complaining because summer heat and humidity would be coming soon.

So nothing normal about this week, right? Water, working and weather messing with my long awaited return to the pool. Next week, I'm hoping for normal.

Week 22 - Filling My Calendar

Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer and I took that to heart and got busy filling in the fun on my calendar.

As a retiree, the week starting with a holiday doesn't mean much. I have no family graves to visit so it was just a regular chore day, complicated by loosing my landline and internet. With no appointments in Lincoln this week, I had to convince myself that it was OK to leave town for groceries so I headed to Lincoln on Tuesday morning for errands and groceries. I was home by 12:30 so didn't kill the whole day. Nice.

I had called Windstream to schedule a service call and it wouldn't be for another week! Not having internet was cramping my style big time. I could use my phone's hotspot for basic internet but not streaming so I ended up watching Star Trek on one of the geezer over the air channels. And of course this was the night my computer needed to be on for the migration from unl.edu to nebraska.edu. The hotspot wouldn't cut it so I put it on the wifi, which was dropping constantly, and hoped for the best. It did not work so I struggled on Tuesday morning, doing the manual migration steps (my internet had somehow fixed itself but my landline was still dead) and hosed it up even more. I cut bunches of weed trees in the afternoon and went out to dinner with my new friend Ana.

I woke up Thursday and decided it was time to schedule some fun. I started by adding in water aerobics, which would be starting next week on Thursdays and Sundays. Then I set up lunches with the work gang for all the Thursday BBQ's on East Campus. I added a lunch the next week with another new friend, the day trip to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa with Anne and Rene and then went to lunch in Placek Park in Wahoo with my friend Lorri. I ended the day with a trip to Omaha with Anne to go to the grand opening of the Scrap Store after they relocated. They didn't have much yarn so we didn't get much but got a yummy ice cream at Coneflower Creamery to end a fun day.

I was pretty happy with all the fun I had added to my calendar but it wasn't over.  I called Anne on Friday about something or other and she asked if I had any interest in going to Europe this summer. She'd gotten an email from the travel company she uses with last minute deals. She shared her screen and we found a Danube River cruise from Budapest to Prague in July. Before you know it, we called an agent and booked it! The cruise itself, which is 14 days, was only $995 and when we added round trip airfare (from Lincoln!) and insurance, it was only just over $3,000 - score! Talk about unexpected! I am confident this will not be my last cheap, last minute trip with Overseas Adventure Travel. 

I happily headed outside for an afternoon of gardening, which included some of the last easy jobs like marking daffodils that didn't bloom this year so I can find them to split in the fall (I used plastic knives) and planting a tomato in the upside down tomato planter I had bought at a yard sale. It was a happy day.

Despite not doing any heavy gardening on Friday, I woke up Saturday with my lower back in knots and I couldn't stand up straight. I was bent over when I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast then managed to change my sheets and do laundry before heading to the basement where it was cooler because I didn't want to turn the AC on yet so I could sleep with my windows open for one last night.

My back was fine on Sunday. No clue what that was about. I talked to Carolyn, Ginny and Lori before heading to Cindy's in Waverly. Cindy had called me from Goodwill on Saturday morning because there was all kinds of good quality yarn and, of course, I had her buy me most of it. I had tomato plants for her and was excited to get the yarn so drove down in the afternoon. Get a load of this yarn haul, which is full of sock yarn. I think it all added up to $22 and that would be the cost of a single skein of indy dyed socks yarn. Yay!

What a fabulous week! As if my calendar additions weren't enough fun, adding a dirt cheap Europe trip and ending the week with a yarn haul were the icing on the cake. Happy happy happy!

Week 21 - Time Spent Gardening

Be careful what you wish for from the weather gods! After last week's crazy weather, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction but that was fine by me. Beyond that, it was a quiet week of getting stuff done at home.

I woke up Monday morning to 1.5" of much needed rain in the gauge. There was more rain due at the end of the day so I got my butt outside and planted the 3 empty veg beds so they'd get watered in. I made banana bread and tetrazzini that afternoon. By the end of the day, there were tornado watches in effect and talk of big storms with hail so we cancelled knitting. Luckily we just got rain so my seeds got plenty of water to start them off.

It was 57 degrees on Tuesday so a full 40 degrees less than a week ago. I asked Ana if she wanted to come over for lunch and a movie but she was sorting boxes of her brother's stuff so suggested I go to her so I could knit while she sorted. I took lunch but didn't stay very long because she had a deadline and wasn't getting much sorted while I was there. I ran errands in town then went home to knit and stream. 

I had bought a 3 pound chub of frozen hamburger at The Warehouse so planned to do some cooking on Wednesday. First I went outside and did some weeding and puttering. I also talked to Connie, who I was happy to hear did not need me to help her plant her garden, which I'd suggested I might be willing to do because she was worried about being able to garden after her knee replacement. That saves me driving 9 hours each way and now I can concentrate on my own gardening. I made meatballs and meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli then settled in for the Survivor finale.

Thursday was a busy day. For a retiree. I reclaimed the kitchen from all my cooking, ran to the vet to pick up flea stuff, got a haircut and was back for a 2:00 zoom with Paul from The Ripples Project. After a cup of tea, I went outside to plant a few more things and had book club that night. That's plenty busy for me!

It was a rainy day on Friday but I planted before the late morning rain then was back out to repot amaryllis before the 2nd round of rain. I was out again on Saturday cleaning the deck, setting up a plant stand for all the amaryllis and then dug a new wildflower bed and planted that. The hardware cloth is to stop the cats for digging in it. On Sunday I did some cooking, including a rhubarb upside down cake for Tim, whose son mows my yard. He had hinted that he loved rhubarb but hadn't had any since his grandmother died. I also planted the perennials I'd bought at Spring Affair, which were truly the last planting for this season. Unless I buy more plants. : )

I'd call that a good week. Weather was better, I got plenty done and had some fun. I'll take a few more of those please.

Week 20 - Desoto Bend Visit

The week started out super hot, which had me hunkered down, followed by 2 days of 50 mph winds. Crazy spring weather but there was lots of cooking and some fun to end the week.

It was 87 on Monday but I'd put the AC on on Sunday so the house was nice and cool. I finished watching The Pitt on Max (good show if you haven't seen it) and went to the library for knitting. I was the only one there at first so was working on the puzzle while I waited to see if anyone else would come. They did and joined me and Ana around the communal puzzle and worked on it until 7:45 before finally starting knitting. Ha!

Despite the heat, I decided to work on the messy corner in the garage on Tuesday morning. It was cool enough in there in the morning but I didn't finish so went out after lunch and by then it was broiling. I did finish it though and got right into the shower when I went in because I had a library board meeting so had to clean myself up and put on going out of the house clothes. At least it was done.

I had finally heard from the plumber that the contractor needed to look at my bathroom before he could give me a quote and he was coming at the end of the day on Wednesday so I did some cleaning before heading to the dentist at 2:00. The plumber came and I felt better about him than the contractor but still wasn't convinced he was the person to hire so after he left, I arranged for another contractor to come on Thursday late afternoon. The heat had broken overnight so I spent Thursday morning in the kitchen and had so much food that I invited Ana for lunch, which was fun. The new contractor came at 4:15 and no contest, he's the one I'll be hiring. He gave me a ballpark figure that was less than I thought it would be and said he have a quote to me soon.

Friday was my Lincoln day and I'd be having lunch at Helen's. I started downtown picking up book club books at the library commission, ran a few errands and spent the entire afternoon chatting with Helen and looking at her latest decorating projects and her garden. I stayed so long (nothing unusual there) that I gave up on any further errands, just stopping at HyVee for a few groceries before heading home.

Saturday was spinning and we were going to Desoto Bend National Wildlife Refuge for a program. In 1865, a supply boat had sunk in the Missouri River and was silted over for 100 years before it was found and excavated. Except for turning everything red, the silt had kept everything in fabulous condition, including fabric and knitted items. They were doing a special program for the spinners, pulling out items to display and asking us for any knowledge we could share on them. 

The wind had subsided after 2 crazy high wind days Thursday and Friday so a few of us decided that morning that we should bring a picnic for before the program. I packed up lunch for Andrea and me and we headed to Iowa, which was about an hour drive. Sure, the wind was less but it was still too windy to eat outside so we found a table inside. I did a quick buzz through of the museum, which is part wildlife and part displays of the things that were found on the boat - The Bertrand. The program included a power point that gave us the history of the sinking and then we got to get up close and personal with the textiles. We couldn't touch them but they had people with gloves who would turn things over and such when we needed to see more. It was fascinating.

On the way home, Andrea and I hit the Goodwill in Blair and then a Nebraska Passport stop in Bennington, where we got ice cream and a passport stamp. We then hit Aldi in Fremont and went home. It was a fun day. Sunday was my regular old chore day and some work on hoses, which are a project every year of fixing broken ends, finding the right attachments and snaking them under the deck to hook them up. That required a trip to the farm store for parts so of course I bought more flowers, which means there will be more container planting coming up.

So it was a good week. I had some bouts of productivity, made progress on hiring someone to gut my bathroom and ended the week with culture and friends. Hopefully the weather won't be so crazy for a few more weeks. Rain would be nice but not 90 degrees in mid-May please. Are the weather gods listening? Here's hoping