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.