This week was all about Carolyn’s visit. I spent the beginning of the week prepping for her arrival on Thursday and then it was all a breeze from there. It was all good.
The time change kicked my butt! Despite staying up until after 10:00, I still woke up Monday at 4:45 and couldn’t fall back asleep. This continued for days so I got more and more tired as the week wore on. Then the weather early in the week turned cold and rainy, which didn’t help. The older I get, the harder the time change gets. Oh well.
The work day Monday dragged by but was eventually over and I headed to Kate’s to drop off more food for her. Luckily she’s doing well so I’m calling it good and taking that off my list (unless she asks for more.) It was just Andrea and I at knitting, most likely because of the teeming rain. I was toasty fried but stayed up reading in hopes of normalizing the time. Didn’t work.
I got through Tuesday at work, feeling like a zombie. I decided to skip swimming in favor of going right home to finish prepping for the cleaning lady. I also tracked her number down and called to ask her to stay longer so she could do a thorough clean of the newly reclaimed spare room.
The F&A consultant was due Wednesday afternoon so I left my calendar free in case they needed me. Of course, they didn’t ask for a thing until just before 5:00 so I stayed late to reformat the file and so missed the only night in the pool for the week. Oh well. I went home to check out the extra cleaning and walked in to a sticky kitchen floor. The cleaning lady uses swiffer wet on the floors and I’ve noticed it leaving a film on the laminate in the kitchen and back room lately but this was ridiculous. I was sticking with every step. So I got busy rewashing the floor. I did it once with just water, which came up filthy BTW, and that did no good so I got out the orange clean and washed it again before going to bed. Still sticky. Only when I did a small spot with a kitchen scrubbie did it finally come clean. But I didn’t have time to do more than the spot so left Thursday for a pre-work Wal-Mart run to pick up a few things for Carolyn’s arrival. The day was a breeze, with no more data requests from the consultant. Oh well.
Darla and I went to In Time (the Justin Timberlake sci fi movie) to kill the time until I had to leave to pick Carolyn up in Omaha. It was REALLY good. Made you think. Then we went for a quick dinner at Cracker Barrel, where I rushed to finish only to get a call when I got to the parking lot saying Carolyn was still in Chicago with a delayed flight. I ended up sitting in the lot of the park across from the airport reading a magazine until she arrived. It was great to see her but I was exhausted by the time we got home so we went right to bed.
Helen came over to hang out with us on Friday, arriving just before I made my favorite comfort food lunch – tuna melts and tater tots along with brownies Helen brought. Yum! We visited all afternoon and then headed to Omaha to go to Hobby Lobby (Carolyn was curious about them having never been) before having dinner at Farmer Brown’s. Helen went home and Carolyn and I watched a relatively depressing movie about a famous British author we’d never heard of who got Alzheimer’s and died. Not a happy, peppy movie but at least it was British, which is always a plus for me.
Saturday was supposed to start with Darla coming for breakfast at 8:00 before she headed to visit relatives and we went to Omaha but she unexpectedly was babysitting and so couldn’t come as early as we planned so it didn’t work out. We grabbed something quick for breakfast and headed to Omaha, where we planned to thrift shop. After stopping at Yankee Candle to use a Buy2/Get2 coupon, we went to Personal Threads, where Carolyn was looking for soft yarn with good drape for a sweater that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. No luck so we drove to New Life Thrift, the huge store with cheap prices way east in the old part of Omaha. We didn’t find much though, which unfortunately, would continue for the rest of the day. We hit a couple of Goodwills, still finding very little, and ended up having a late lunch at Noodles, which was yummy. After picking up Starbuck’s, we headed home, deciding to skip dinner and have just popcorn while we watched movies. There was another downer British movie about John Keats that ended with his early death from TB. So we watched Dream Girls looking for some happy but that was endless and not as peppy as you’d expect from a musical.
We had toyed with the idea of having an open house on Sunday but neither of us had enough energy and we had forgotten to go to Garden Ridge, which Carolyn had specifically requested so, we decided to go back to Omaha Sunday afternoon. We had a leisurely morning and left for Omaha right after lunch. You guess it – we bought nothing! On the way home, I called Andrea to see if she wanted to go with us to Our Corner Cottage, a cute gift shop outside of Wahoo. We picked her up and headed out there but again, bought nothing. I dropped Andrea off and we headed home to eat the steaks we hadn’t eaten on Saturday and watched the last movie we had – The Town with Ben Affleck. It was the best movie of the lot but was about down and out bank robbers in Charlestown, Mass. Still not happy/peppy but at least I got to enjoy the Boston accents.
Carolyn was leaving the next morning and while we hadn’t been super successful with our shopping, it was still a great trip with lots of visiting and laughter. I could have fun with Carolyn in a sewer treatment plant so failing at shopping was nothing. And the best part was I'd be in RI for Christmas so more face time with CaWa was only 6 weeks away. I'm a lucky girl. : )
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Week 45 - A Short One
What’s not to like about a week that starts with a vacation day that also happens to be Halloween? Nothing! I slept late and then had a lovely day with a mix of yard work, knitting and cooking. Having carved my pumpkin (I was going for his tongue sticking out but it looks like he’s smoking a stogie) and eaten an early dinner, I was ready for the trick or treaters when side doorbell rang. It was Andrea, stopping by to drop of some things I’d had her get for me at Trader Joe’s. She ended up eating some supper and we chatted all night while handing out candy. It seemed like there were about the same number of kids as last year but I ended up with lots of extra candy.
I didn’t sleep well, worried about the allocations that Nora had called about at the end of the day, which still didn’t tie. I dreamt about numbers and woke up tired. Oh well. The day flew by and I ended it by working late, trying to figure out what was wrong with the numbers. I found it just before 6:30 and got in the car to head to the library to pack up the last of the books. The book sale was really over at that point. Yay!
Wednesday was a miserably cold day with snow in the forecast and I couldn’t get a spot in either the loop or my back up lot so ended up at a meter. By lunch it was snowing – huge flakes the size of half dollars. I was not happy that I had to go out at all but decided to make it worth getting wet so went to Hobby Lobby in search of a cheap yarn swift, which someone had posted about on Ravelry. I struck out on the swift but had time to kill before meeting a Husker Cats feeder at 1:00 to pick up some food so I hit my favorite thrift store and scored some wonderful yarn. But afterwards, I coulnd’t find a parking spot again and ended up parking FAR from my building and got chilled to the bone on the walk back. Sheesh! I swam after work and went to Village Inn with the knitting gang so the day ended well.
Thursday was a normal work day followed by swimming - an Agony with Alison work out that really had my heart rate up. I went through Wendy’s drive thru for some chicken nuggets and then headed to the library for book club. We had read a book I loved – Olive Kitteridge – and the discussion was fun. I went home and finished the mittens I’d been working on. And the next day was Friday. Nothing like a short week.
I went to lunch with Layton at the Chinese buffet then picked up a few things at HyVee, which would save me a trip after work. After three nights in a row that I wasn’t at home, I was looking forward to going right home. I had a lot to do over the weekend.
Saturday started with the Friends meeting, a bank run and the bag sale at the thrift store. I stopped into Andrea’s store and she mentioned going to Omaha but I had too much to do so got BK and headed home. But when I called Andrea, she said it was going to be a quick trip to Goodwill and back to pick up something from an online auction so I decided to go. We had to go to the last chance location, where they have bins full of stuff that they sell by the pound. We dug through the clothes, picking up a few, and then I found a real milk crate (as opposed to a fake, cheap one) so put the clothes in that. We then added a few more things, including a couple of books and Andrea threw an old suitcase in too. Well, paying by the pound is not all so cheap. The total was $27 and I’m sure it would have been less paying the store prices. Oh well. Live and learn.
I got busy when I got home and started reclaiming the spare bedroom. Carolyn is due to arrive Thursday night and that bed hasn’t seen the light of day in months. I made a dent and got started on my laundry before sitting down to watch Waiting for Superman. I set the clocks back and went to bed early. I also woke up early – 4:45! Damn! I had four loads of laundry done, a nice breakfast made and had read the paper by 9:30. The whole day was in front of me. I sorted through all the yarn and scrapbooking stuff in the spare room and got that reorganized and then did some cooking. It was a good day and a good week. Now just four days until Carolyn arrives.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Week 44 - Book Sale Week
What a week! It was the week of the library book sale, which meant I was busy every night, but then work was a mess too. But all I had to do was make it through until Thursday night and then I’d be off.
Monday was not a pretty day. I hadn’t slept well and so was tired going into the week and had a huge to do list for the book sale plus a lot of work deadlines. I was fighting tears from the time I got up and then I got a call from Nancy saying the kitten she was fostering (pathetic picture from last week’s blog) wasn’t doing well. I made a few calls and now had to face picking the kitten up the following morning, taking her to the vet and getting to work late. It was the last straw, leaving me in tears at my desk. But then the phone rang and Belinda, bless her soul, said she was going to send her son up to Cedar Bluffs (an hour north of Lincoln) to pick the kitten up that day. I was so relieved, like a huge weight had been lifted. I made it through the day and made phone calls from the car on the way home, filling the last of my volunteer slots just as I reached Wahoo. That meant I could knit that night, which felt like a joy after the day I’d had. I did duck into the meeting room to talk to Connie, the other co-chair of the book sale, before I left. Things were looking up.
Work on Tuesday flew by, helped by the fact that I taught all afternoon. I had lunch with Dodie, early because Thursday, our usual day, was a food day. Then I swam after work and went to the library for an hour of sorting before heading home. Unfortunately when you don’t let cats out until after 8:00 pm, they don’t come in right away. With my gun toting, lunatic neighbor, I could not sleep until the cats came in, which was near midnight. And yes, I was outside in my nightie calling the cats on and off for two hours. I am the cat lady. Damn!
I started Wednesday doing the last picking up for the cleaning lady to come and then was busy at work, prepping for allocations which had to be done before the end of the month and I was taking the last two days off. The fact that I hadn’t gotten enough sleep and my thumb was bothering me again didn’t help. But I went directly to the library after work and spent two hours doing the final prep for the sale, only leaving when they turned the lights out. I went home and sat like a zombie. Go figure. I had bought two pumpkin cheesecakes at The Warehouse so was all set for the next day’s food day.
I prepped the workers’ comp and unemployment allocations first thing but no one was available to approve them before noon so they weren’t getting processed. Crap! I grabbed a plate of food from food day and worked through lunch. I had to train all afternoon again so I was really under the gun. Then the grad health and tuition allocations weren’t tying. I was desperately trying to figure out why while fielding IM’s and calls on locked cost objects from the allocations that were finally being run. I slammed through training and dug right back into grad health and tuition. Only after checking all my queries did I call the programmer to find out a student had dropped out of the file, which meant all my numbers would change when he was added back. I called the library to tell them I wouldn’t make it for the preview sale at 5:30 and finally gave up at 5:20 and left. I hadn’t finished and had been a bitch on wheels all afternoon as the stress mounted. All that and then Nora was going to be stuck figuring them out anyway. Oh well. I got the library just after 6:00 and there were half as many people there as normal. I was bummed, hungry and cranky. We only made half what we usually do at the preview sale and I went home disheartened. But I didn’t have to get up before dawn the next day. At least there was that.
I slept like a rock that night then made a nice breakfast and lingered over coffee while chatting with Carolyn before heading to the library for 9:30 on Friday. Working the morning shift was fun. Besides helping people find books (always fun), one of the Friends brought her daughters and the older one was a peach. I worked the check out table with her, teaching her to make change and count back. She was such a cutie. We also did really well and some of the people, including some book sellers, who usual came to the preview came that morning instead. By the time I left just before 1:00, we’d made enough money that I could call the sale a success. Earlier in the week, I had bribed my knitting friend Donna to work with me by offering to treat her for lunch but when I didn’t need her, I still said I’d buy lunch. We met at the Mexican restaurant and had a wonderful lunch – good food and lots of catching up since she hadn’t been to knitting all summer. Then I went home for tea and knitting in the sun. I was so full from lunch that I skipped dinner and despite planning to go to bed early, I stayed up and dyed some yarn with Kool Aid, going to bed late but happy. It had been a wonderful day.
I was back at the library Saturday for the morning shift and then when the sale was officially over at noon, worked with Connie to restock the Friends’ book shop. We worked right through and were done by 2:30. I was starving and tired but just went home for tea and toast, determined not to eat a late lunch and ruin my dinner. I had plans for roasted pork tenderloin with fruit chutney, which I made and enjoyed immensely. I watched a DVD of Weeds and went to bed early. It was another nice day, all the better because the book sale was over .
Sunday was catch up day. The sun was blazing and I had lots to do but just having a normal day felt so good that I was looking forward chores. I ended up spending quite a bit of time outside, repotting my geraniums and lantana to bring inside because a frost was due that night and doing some fall clean up. I did get my inside chores done too and was poised to have another nice day off on Monday and planned to cook a ton. It felt so good to have the book sale done and be looking forward to a much easier month that I went to bed feeling fabulous ready for Halloween and a calm November. Like I said, what a week!
Monday was not a pretty day. I hadn’t slept well and so was tired going into the week and had a huge to do list for the book sale plus a lot of work deadlines. I was fighting tears from the time I got up and then I got a call from Nancy saying the kitten she was fostering (pathetic picture from last week’s blog) wasn’t doing well. I made a few calls and now had to face picking the kitten up the following morning, taking her to the vet and getting to work late. It was the last straw, leaving me in tears at my desk. But then the phone rang and Belinda, bless her soul, said she was going to send her son up to Cedar Bluffs (an hour north of Lincoln) to pick the kitten up that day. I was so relieved, like a huge weight had been lifted. I made it through the day and made phone calls from the car on the way home, filling the last of my volunteer slots just as I reached Wahoo. That meant I could knit that night, which felt like a joy after the day I’d had. I did duck into the meeting room to talk to Connie, the other co-chair of the book sale, before I left. Things were looking up.
Work on Tuesday flew by, helped by the fact that I taught all afternoon. I had lunch with Dodie, early because Thursday, our usual day, was a food day. Then I swam after work and went to the library for an hour of sorting before heading home. Unfortunately when you don’t let cats out until after 8:00 pm, they don’t come in right away. With my gun toting, lunatic neighbor, I could not sleep until the cats came in, which was near midnight. And yes, I was outside in my nightie calling the cats on and off for two hours. I am the cat lady. Damn!
I started Wednesday doing the last picking up for the cleaning lady to come and then was busy at work, prepping for allocations which had to be done before the end of the month and I was taking the last two days off. The fact that I hadn’t gotten enough sleep and my thumb was bothering me again didn’t help. But I went directly to the library after work and spent two hours doing the final prep for the sale, only leaving when they turned the lights out. I went home and sat like a zombie. Go figure. I had bought two pumpkin cheesecakes at The Warehouse so was all set for the next day’s food day.
I prepped the workers’ comp and unemployment allocations first thing but no one was available to approve them before noon so they weren’t getting processed. Crap! I grabbed a plate of food from food day and worked through lunch. I had to train all afternoon again so I was really under the gun. Then the grad health and tuition allocations weren’t tying. I was desperately trying to figure out why while fielding IM’s and calls on locked cost objects from the allocations that were finally being run. I slammed through training and dug right back into grad health and tuition. Only after checking all my queries did I call the programmer to find out a student had dropped out of the file, which meant all my numbers would change when he was added back. I called the library to tell them I wouldn’t make it for the preview sale at 5:30 and finally gave up at 5:20 and left. I hadn’t finished and had been a bitch on wheels all afternoon as the stress mounted. All that and then Nora was going to be stuck figuring them out anyway. Oh well. I got the library just after 6:00 and there were half as many people there as normal. I was bummed, hungry and cranky. We only made half what we usually do at the preview sale and I went home disheartened. But I didn’t have to get up before dawn the next day. At least there was that.
I slept like a rock that night then made a nice breakfast and lingered over coffee while chatting with Carolyn before heading to the library for 9:30 on Friday. Working the morning shift was fun. Besides helping people find books (always fun), one of the Friends brought her daughters and the older one was a peach. I worked the check out table with her, teaching her to make change and count back. She was such a cutie. We also did really well and some of the people, including some book sellers, who usual came to the preview came that morning instead. By the time I left just before 1:00, we’d made enough money that I could call the sale a success. Earlier in the week, I had bribed my knitting friend Donna to work with me by offering to treat her for lunch but when I didn’t need her, I still said I’d buy lunch. We met at the Mexican restaurant and had a wonderful lunch – good food and lots of catching up since she hadn’t been to knitting all summer. Then I went home for tea and knitting in the sun. I was so full from lunch that I skipped dinner and despite planning to go to bed early, I stayed up and dyed some yarn with Kool Aid, going to bed late but happy. It had been a wonderful day.
I was back at the library Saturday for the morning shift and then when the sale was officially over at noon, worked with Connie to restock the Friends’ book shop. We worked right through and were done by 2:30. I was starving and tired but just went home for tea and toast, determined not to eat a late lunch and ruin my dinner. I had plans for roasted pork tenderloin with fruit chutney, which I made and enjoyed immensely. I watched a DVD of Weeds and went to bed early. It was another nice day, all the better because the book sale was over .
Sunday was catch up day. The sun was blazing and I had lots to do but just having a normal day felt so good that I was looking forward chores. I ended up spending quite a bit of time outside, repotting my geraniums and lantana to bring inside because a frost was due that night and doing some fall clean up. I did get my inside chores done too and was poised to have another nice day off on Monday and planned to cook a ton. It felt so good to have the book sale done and be looking forward to a much easier month that I went to bed feeling fabulous ready for Halloween and a calm November. Like I said, what a week!
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Week 43 - A Wonderful Mess
It was another busy week. Surprise, surprise! Seriously, this was busy at work (nuts!) and home too. I heard life referred to as “a wonderful mess” and I think that perfectly fit my week.In addition to the ongoing work on the F&A proposal, which included an entire day of coding in Mary’s office with two people watching me (lovely – actually we laughed a lot between the queries), I had a ton of HR stuff to do, which required a certain amount of BS. By week’s end, I was out of BS and so have more to face this coming week. Yay!
So, work was a bear and life was busy too. I ran home on Monday to pick the last of my garden produce before the first frost, which was due mid-week, then headed to knitting at the library. Anne Marie gave me an orange cotton sweater to deconstruct for the yarn and I started right then, unraveling an arm and giving the yarn to Anne Marie before I left. Well, when I got home, despite wanting to go to bed early, I couldn’t resist finishing the sweater, which left me going to bed late but with a pile of fun yarn. What a trade off.
Lack of sleep didn’t stop me from getting up early on Tuesday and hitting Jiffy Lube before work. The day flew by and it was time to go to the movies with Nancy. We were seeing The Whistleblower at The Ross. OMG! Such a depressing movie. I had poo poo’d Nancy’s earlier request for a beer with dinner but needed one after that movie so we went to Bison Witches for soup and alcohol. It was good to catch up. I got home at 9:45 and started bringing in my plants. Unfortunately the cats got out and didn’t want to come back in so it was another late night. Sheesh!
I was running on empty Wednesday but work was busy so I just powered through. I went right home, sat on my butt watching TV and went to bed early. Whew – needed that. Thursday was another busy day at work and afterwards I went to Hy-Vee to pick up dinner for Kate and me plus a few items for Kate and some for me. Kate and I chatted over dinner then I went to Belinda’s to pick up carriers from the weekend. It was another long day but Friday was the next day.
Friday morning was as frantic as can be. I had to feed at 2 feeders, schlep 3 carriers from my car to my office and be there by 8:15 for a phone reference for a friend’s job. Well, I couldn’t get Darla, who was supposed to help me carry carriers, so fumbled them all myself and got to my desk at 8:17, missing the call. I threw the carriers down, took my cell into the conference room and gave a great reference, finishing just as my 8:30 appointment arrived. I threw some water on my face and sat down for 3 hours of one-on-one training. By the time I was done, I was spent. I went to lunch with Layton and then tried to muster energy for the afternoon. I did more F&A stuff with Lacey but completely failed at the HR BS, counting the minutes until 5:00.
I headed to All Feline Hospital to pick up the little black kitten who had been on death’s door when we trapped last weekend. Nancy was going to foster her. I was prepared for pathetic but she was over the top. She was so tiny, thin (you could count the ribs) but with a big belly. The kicker was they had shaved her. It was almost too much to bear. I was very happy when Nancy picked her up and I started my weekend, which was completely free of obligations. Yee ha!
I had a few errands to run, including a bank deposit for Friends, which lead me to the library where I got sucked into book sale stuff. I left with just enough time to eat a quick lunch before heading to Hansen House where Lorri, Steve (another Wahoo master gardener) and I were mulching. It was a damp, drab day and an hour into mulching, the rain that had been threatening started up. We toughed it out for a bit then left. I was cold and wet so took a shower, made a cup of tea and sat down to knit. That was the MO for the rest of the weekend, with some chores thrown in for good measure. By Sunday evening, my house was in order, most of my chores were done and I even had time to make some flannel pillow cases out of one of my old Lanz nighties. The weekend was the perfect foil to my uber busy week and I ended Sunday feeling human again. A wonderful mess but human.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Week 42 - Kitty Equilibrium Returns
What a wonderful week! It was busy, busy, busy but worth it because I got so many things done.
I felt particularly productive at work, getting lots done on my F&A proposal work. I also swam 3 nights in a row, which hasn’t happened in a long time. It was a cleaning lady week too so my house was picked up and clean, which is always good. But the best part of the week had to do with yarn and cats. Go figure.
I knitted on Monday as usual and started a new pair of socks using my favorite pattern and gorgeous yarn. Before the week was over, I was past the heel on the first sock, which has to be a speed record for sock knitting for me. While I was enjoying my new project, that was just the icing on the cake because I had a total yarn thrift score on Wednesday, when I hit my fave thrift store over lunch. I got 2 bags of yarn for $9 that included 2 dozen skeins of quality yarn – lots of Brown Sheep (a Nebraska company), some French wool, some nice Donegal aran and even a skein that’s a wool/mink blend. Nice!
On the cat front, I took the boys to the vet on Tuesday morning to get neutered, which meant money out of pocket for me but I was hoping it would make them more marketable, having failed to get rid of them with an ad in the paper and Craig’s List posting. It also crossed something off my to do – always good. But the best part was getting a call from Darla on Tuesday night. She’d found a home for them and would deliver them over the weekend. Yay!
The week flew by and it was the weekend, which was going to be super busy. The library’s fall vendor fair was Saturday so I was there around noon placing some orders for myself and people at work. I then went to Andrea’s for 1:00 and we headed to Fremont for spinning. We were meeting at the May Museum, where we had a tour then met in the sunroom. From there, we ran errands in Fremont, killing time so we could arrive at Farmer Brown’s when they opened at 5:00 for prime rib – Andrea’s first time there. But we didn’t time it right and arrived just after the tables filled up so we went to the bar and had a beer while we waited for the 2nd seating. Our food was yummy, as always, and we left with doggie bags for another round of beef. Yum! From there we went to Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond. By the time we got home, it was after 9:00. It had been a long day but fun.
Sunday was more of the same. As soon as I had gone through the paper, I started my laundry and got cooking. I was taking some food to Kate after meeting Darla to drop the boys and before doing my stint for Husker Cats. I made chocolate bread pudding with dried strawberries, quesadilla casserole and taco salad meat, finishing just in time to put them in the car. Between the cooking, I snuggled as much as I could with the little gray kitten. He had stolen my heart and I would miss him a ton but the boys had to go. I left the house at 1:30, with the car full of cat carriers, food and the boys. I met Darla at 2:00 in the Walgreen’s parking lot for the handoff, which was sad but I held it together. Then it was on to Kate’s to drop off the food and DVD’s but it was a quick stop because I had to be at the vet’s by 3:00.
Husker Cats was in the middle of a mass TNR (trap/neuter/release) operation for the State Fair Park cats. UNL purchased State Fair Park and is creating Innovation Campus. They’ve been demolishing old buildings but 2 of the oldest, which are filled with unhealthy feral cats, are staying so we expanded Husker Cats mission to help out the SFP cats. The TNR had started the night before but I was only scheduled to help Sunday. They had caught so many cats Saturday (15!) that the vet they’d arranged to spay/neuter all day Sunday had to start early and neuter the males on Saturday night. A group of us was meeting at the vet to pick up the boys as well as carriers and traps. We then had to take the carriers and traps to a car wash to wash and disinfect them so they could be used for round two.
We were setting traps before 5:00, hoping to catch as many cats again as Saturday. The next two hours were a blur – setting traps all over, resetting traps that had been tripped, moving traps as needed and the best part, picking up traps with cats inside. By 6:30, we’d caught 10 more cats. Belinda handled the paperwork (we had to identify the cats as well as the area they were trapped in so they could be returned to the same spots) and we coordinated who would do what next, with people assigned to pick up cats, drop off cats, retrieve traps and carriers, etc. I ended up with 3 cats in my car that needed transport to Belinda’s, where they would overnight in her garage before going to the vet tomorrow. Others had cats going to the Humane Society, which was giving us 5 free spay/neuters. I got home after 8:00, cold and tired but feeling good about all the progress we made. Of the 25 cats we caught, 5 are adoptable (4 kittens and 1 tame cat) and 20 will be released back, spayed and neutered so they won’t be reproducing. What a wonderful thing!
So, I ended the week with my chores not done but at least there was food in the frig and cat equilibrium has been restored at my house. Yay! I also have a warm fuzzy feeling about the State Fair Park cats and there’s my yarn score. Life is good! Now it’s on to all the publicity for the library’s book sale, which is less than two weeks away. It’s going to be a busy month but as I always say, better busy than bored. : )
I felt particularly productive at work, getting lots done on my F&A proposal work. I also swam 3 nights in a row, which hasn’t happened in a long time. It was a cleaning lady week too so my house was picked up and clean, which is always good. But the best part of the week had to do with yarn and cats. Go figure.
I knitted on Monday as usual and started a new pair of socks using my favorite pattern and gorgeous yarn. Before the week was over, I was past the heel on the first sock, which has to be a speed record for sock knitting for me. While I was enjoying my new project, that was just the icing on the cake because I had a total yarn thrift score on Wednesday, when I hit my fave thrift store over lunch. I got 2 bags of yarn for $9 that included 2 dozen skeins of quality yarn – lots of Brown Sheep (a Nebraska company), some French wool, some nice Donegal aran and even a skein that’s a wool/mink blend. Nice!
On the cat front, I took the boys to the vet on Tuesday morning to get neutered, which meant money out of pocket for me but I was hoping it would make them more marketable, having failed to get rid of them with an ad in the paper and Craig’s List posting. It also crossed something off my to do – always good. But the best part was getting a call from Darla on Tuesday night. She’d found a home for them and would deliver them over the weekend. Yay!
The week flew by and it was the weekend, which was going to be super busy. The library’s fall vendor fair was Saturday so I was there around noon placing some orders for myself and people at work. I then went to Andrea’s for 1:00 and we headed to Fremont for spinning. We were meeting at the May Museum, where we had a tour then met in the sunroom. From there, we ran errands in Fremont, killing time so we could arrive at Farmer Brown’s when they opened at 5:00 for prime rib – Andrea’s first time there. But we didn’t time it right and arrived just after the tables filled up so we went to the bar and had a beer while we waited for the 2nd seating. Our food was yummy, as always, and we left with doggie bags for another round of beef. Yum! From there we went to Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond. By the time we got home, it was after 9:00. It had been a long day but fun.
Sunday was more of the same. As soon as I had gone through the paper, I started my laundry and got cooking. I was taking some food to Kate after meeting Darla to drop the boys and before doing my stint for Husker Cats. I made chocolate bread pudding with dried strawberries, quesadilla casserole and taco salad meat, finishing just in time to put them in the car. Between the cooking, I snuggled as much as I could with the little gray kitten. He had stolen my heart and I would miss him a ton but the boys had to go. I left the house at 1:30, with the car full of cat carriers, food and the boys. I met Darla at 2:00 in the Walgreen’s parking lot for the handoff, which was sad but I held it together. Then it was on to Kate’s to drop off the food and DVD’s but it was a quick stop because I had to be at the vet’s by 3:00.
Husker Cats was in the middle of a mass TNR (trap/neuter/release) operation for the State Fair Park cats. UNL purchased State Fair Park and is creating Innovation Campus. They’ve been demolishing old buildings but 2 of the oldest, which are filled with unhealthy feral cats, are staying so we expanded Husker Cats mission to help out the SFP cats. The TNR had started the night before but I was only scheduled to help Sunday. They had caught so many cats Saturday (15!) that the vet they’d arranged to spay/neuter all day Sunday had to start early and neuter the males on Saturday night. A group of us was meeting at the vet to pick up the boys as well as carriers and traps. We then had to take the carriers and traps to a car wash to wash and disinfect them so they could be used for round two.
We were setting traps before 5:00, hoping to catch as many cats again as Saturday. The next two hours were a blur – setting traps all over, resetting traps that had been tripped, moving traps as needed and the best part, picking up traps with cats inside. By 6:30, we’d caught 10 more cats. Belinda handled the paperwork (we had to identify the cats as well as the area they were trapped in so they could be returned to the same spots) and we coordinated who would do what next, with people assigned to pick up cats, drop off cats, retrieve traps and carriers, etc. I ended up with 3 cats in my car that needed transport to Belinda’s, where they would overnight in her garage before going to the vet tomorrow. Others had cats going to the Humane Society, which was giving us 5 free spay/neuters. I got home after 8:00, cold and tired but feeling good about all the progress we made. Of the 25 cats we caught, 5 are adoptable (4 kittens and 1 tame cat) and 20 will be released back, spayed and neutered so they won’t be reproducing. What a wonderful thing!
So, I ended the week with my chores not done but at least there was food in the frig and cat equilibrium has been restored at my house. Yay! I also have a warm fuzzy feeling about the State Fair Park cats and there’s my yarn score. Life is good! Now it’s on to all the publicity for the library’s book sale, which is less than two weeks away. It’s going to be a busy month but as I always say, better busy than bored. : )
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Week 41 - Perils of Neighbors
The week started with a sleepless night and went downhill from there. I was worried about my whack job neighbor who was shooting my cats with a BB gun Sunday night so didn’t sleep much at all. I was awake at 3:00, got up at 4:00 and headed over to the neighbor’s at 7:00. I asked if we could talk after work and that she please not shoot any of my cats before then. She tried to get into it there and then but I didn’t take the bait and went to work to zombie my way through the day.
I left work a bit early and called her as soon as I got in the house. She said she’d come over in a bit and so I sat and waited for a long time. She finally showed up beside my deck and hyperbole ruled the discussion. She said she’d spent $100 on products to keep the cats off (something called Cat Away), spent 1.5 hours with her son to clean the 8x8 foot rose bed (what did she use, a salad fork?) and sometimes the smell was so bad on her deck that her guests had commented (the bed is 40 feet from her patio and besides, they’re all smokers so haven’t smelled anything in years.) I told her I was dismayed that the issue went from a casual mention this summer as step 1 to shooting my cats as step 2 with no further discussion in between. I told her I’d called the City Manager and it was against the law to discharge even a BB gun within city limits, even offering to show her law that I’d printed off. I said I would keep the bed clean and offered to pay for mulch, since this was the only unmulched bed in her yard. She said she’d looked for mulch but couldn’t find it this late in the year. When I offered to get some for her in Lincoln, she declined. I’ve scooped every couple of days since and have found nothing that wasn’t completely buried and a total of 8 turds in 7 days. So basically this is how I see it - she’s a nut case, had a bad day and took it out on my cats. I don’t think they’ll be anymore shooting but our relationship, which I had always considered good, is damaged. Oh well. You can’t pick your neighbors.
Despite being exhausted, I had trouble falling asleep Monday night (something on my mind maybe?) so didn’t make up any lost hours but did manage to get a good night’s sleep. However, I woke up Tuesday with a sore throat. I started zycaming and went to work for a relatively normal and productive day, ending with water aerobics. I still had the sore throat on Wednesday and by the afternoon was coughing and congested. At least my feet felt good cuz I’d been to the podiatrist for a slice and dice on my calluses. Unfortunately, that was the bright spot of the week.
By Thursday afternoon, I was feeling pretty crappy and was happy when Nancy emailed to say her plans had changed for Thursday night so we wouldn’t be doing dinner. I went home to take drugs and sit like a zombie. At least the Actifed I took knocked me out and I slept like a rock. I felt really bad on Friday but went to work to finish up a project I was working on, only to find out I couldn’t finish without a file I needed from someone who was out of town. I went home after lunch and, you guessed it, sat like a zombie again. Other than leaving for a hair appointment Saturday morning, which left me sweating like I had a fever, I never left the house all weekend. By Saturday night I was feeling functional again and actually cooked some dinner – the first I’d eaten in 3 days so you know I had to feel like crap. Speaking of crap, I also had the runs on Sunday morning so have no idea what this was that I had. Oh well. It’s a miracle any of our bodies function so I’ll just chalk it up to a virus or something.
The weekend wasn’t a total loss. I did some knitting, of course, but also took apart 2 thrift store sweaters to harvest the yarn, which was fun, and caught up on some TV on hulu. I did do my regular chores on Sunday afternoon but didn’t manage any cooking, which had been my plan before getting sick. Oh well, it’ll just be another week of eating out of the freezer. I’ll live. And I’m looking forward to a better week. It’s just got to be!
I left work a bit early and called her as soon as I got in the house. She said she’d come over in a bit and so I sat and waited for a long time. She finally showed up beside my deck and hyperbole ruled the discussion. She said she’d spent $100 on products to keep the cats off (something called Cat Away), spent 1.5 hours with her son to clean the 8x8 foot rose bed (what did she use, a salad fork?) and sometimes the smell was so bad on her deck that her guests had commented (the bed is 40 feet from her patio and besides, they’re all smokers so haven’t smelled anything in years.) I told her I was dismayed that the issue went from a casual mention this summer as step 1 to shooting my cats as step 2 with no further discussion in between. I told her I’d called the City Manager and it was against the law to discharge even a BB gun within city limits, even offering to show her law that I’d printed off. I said I would keep the bed clean and offered to pay for mulch, since this was the only unmulched bed in her yard. She said she’d looked for mulch but couldn’t find it this late in the year. When I offered to get some for her in Lincoln, she declined. I’ve scooped every couple of days since and have found nothing that wasn’t completely buried and a total of 8 turds in 7 days. So basically this is how I see it - she’s a nut case, had a bad day and took it out on my cats. I don’t think they’ll be anymore shooting but our relationship, which I had always considered good, is damaged. Oh well. You can’t pick your neighbors.
Despite being exhausted, I had trouble falling asleep Monday night (something on my mind maybe?) so didn’t make up any lost hours but did manage to get a good night’s sleep. However, I woke up Tuesday with a sore throat. I started zycaming and went to work for a relatively normal and productive day, ending with water aerobics. I still had the sore throat on Wednesday and by the afternoon was coughing and congested. At least my feet felt good cuz I’d been to the podiatrist for a slice and dice on my calluses. Unfortunately, that was the bright spot of the week.
By Thursday afternoon, I was feeling pretty crappy and was happy when Nancy emailed to say her plans had changed for Thursday night so we wouldn’t be doing dinner. I went home to take drugs and sit like a zombie. At least the Actifed I took knocked me out and I slept like a rock. I felt really bad on Friday but went to work to finish up a project I was working on, only to find out I couldn’t finish without a file I needed from someone who was out of town. I went home after lunch and, you guessed it, sat like a zombie again. Other than leaving for a hair appointment Saturday morning, which left me sweating like I had a fever, I never left the house all weekend. By Saturday night I was feeling functional again and actually cooked some dinner – the first I’d eaten in 3 days so you know I had to feel like crap. Speaking of crap, I also had the runs on Sunday morning so have no idea what this was that I had. Oh well. It’s a miracle any of our bodies function so I’ll just chalk it up to a virus or something.
The weekend wasn’t a total loss. I did some knitting, of course, but also took apart 2 thrift store sweaters to harvest the yarn, which was fun, and caught up on some TV on hulu. I did do my regular chores on Sunday afternoon but didn’t manage any cooking, which had been my plan before getting sick. Oh well, it’ll just be another week of eating out of the freezer. I’ll live. And I’m looking forward to a better week. It’s just got to be!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Week 40 - Didn't End Well
I woke up on Monday, the last day the California gang was in town, with a funky stomach. I think all the late hours and odd eating had caught up with me. While I never actually got sick, I felt like I could and ended up taking Pepto and sitting like a zombie all morning. Whether it was the resting or the Pepto, I felt better by noon so was ready when they called. We were meeting for lunch in the Old Market in Omaha before they left for the airport.
By the time we rendezvoused, it was after 2:00 so we had a late lunch at Upstream, shopped for just a bit, had ice cream and it was time for them to leave. It was a whirlwind weekend but lots of fun. By that point though, I was ready for some routine again. I made a bee line home, ate some dinner and went to knitting. Step one in finding my normal. I slept like a rock and was up and at em, ready for work Tuesday.
Tuesday flew by, helped by the fact that I had to train all afternoon. I swam after work then went home for dinner and TV, which felt great. But I should have been getting ready for the cleaning lady so I had a busy morning on Wednesday – putting chairs back in the basement, taking the leaf out of the table, folding laundry, etc. I was doing OK until I decided I needed to water my containers. I got that done, let Tot in and drove off, leaving my purse and knitting in the house. I realized that a few miles out of town and had to turn around. Sheesh! The rest of the day went well after that and after a Husker Cats meeting after work, I met the gang at Village Inn, which we haven’t done in a LONG time. Even Kate (who had her hip replaced last month) came and it was great to see everyone.
I spent Thursday morning doing HR stuff and taught again that afternoon – another day at lightening speed. I swam after work and went home to prep my swap box. The final day to ship was Monday but I wanted it mailed sooner. But when I decided to make a chapstick holder, it put me behind. I had everything done except the note and called it good enough, planning to write it Friday and mail it Saturday. Unfortunately I had put chicken in the crockpot that morning and so was dealing with that at 10:00. Typical.
Friday was gone in a flash and after stopping at a going away party for Vicki in Journalism, I went home for a blissfully average weekend. I was up cooking late on Friday and then up early on Saturday so I could mail the swap box before the Friends of the Library meeting. Then I hit the bag sale at the thrift shop and stopped at Andrea’s. I had a relaxing afternoon, getting a few things done but not many. I did, wait for it, knit a bit. And there was more of the same on Sunday but with a few more chores than on Saturday. All in all, it was a good weekend. The slow weekend did wonders for my energy level and I was finally feeling back to normal.
The night did end on a down note though. I was in the yard calling the cats in when I saw a man in my neighbor’s yard (a friend I guess - I don’t really know who he is) pointing a gun at one of my cats. I asked if he planned on shooting my cat and he said he would if it went into Cara’s yard. When I asked about the gun, he said it was a pellet gun then ranted at me about my cats being out loose and “shitting” in other people’s yards. I guess I should have expected this. Since the boys, who I still haven’t found a home for despite putting them in the Market Weekly and on Craig’s List, are living on my deck, the food I give them is attracting other cats from the neighborhood. So I brought all my cats in and will make an extra effort to find a home for the boys. I’ll also go over in the morning and scoop any poop I can see in her garden beds.
It’s too bad it’s come to this. We’ve always had what I thought was a good, neighborly relationship. It’s not perfect. Her boys are autistic so there’s a lot of pacing and humming going on and they also play country music (ICK!) every time they’re in the yard and they leave it blaring when they go back inside. It often drives me inside instead of enjoying time in my yard. Maybe I’ll make some apology cookies and take them over so we can talk this over. I don’t want to have to keep my cats inside all the time so maybe if I offer to scoop her gardens forever in exchange for their freedom. Time will tell I guess. Wish me luck.
By the time we rendezvoused, it was after 2:00 so we had a late lunch at Upstream, shopped for just a bit, had ice cream and it was time for them to leave. It was a whirlwind weekend but lots of fun. By that point though, I was ready for some routine again. I made a bee line home, ate some dinner and went to knitting. Step one in finding my normal. I slept like a rock and was up and at em, ready for work Tuesday.
Tuesday flew by, helped by the fact that I had to train all afternoon. I swam after work then went home for dinner and TV, which felt great. But I should have been getting ready for the cleaning lady so I had a busy morning on Wednesday – putting chairs back in the basement, taking the leaf out of the table, folding laundry, etc. I was doing OK until I decided I needed to water my containers. I got that done, let Tot in and drove off, leaving my purse and knitting in the house. I realized that a few miles out of town and had to turn around. Sheesh! The rest of the day went well after that and after a Husker Cats meeting after work, I met the gang at Village Inn, which we haven’t done in a LONG time. Even Kate (who had her hip replaced last month) came and it was great to see everyone.
I spent Thursday morning doing HR stuff and taught again that afternoon – another day at lightening speed. I swam after work and went home to prep my swap box. The final day to ship was Monday but I wanted it mailed sooner. But when I decided to make a chapstick holder, it put me behind. I had everything done except the note and called it good enough, planning to write it Friday and mail it Saturday. Unfortunately I had put chicken in the crockpot that morning and so was dealing with that at 10:00. Typical.
Friday was gone in a flash and after stopping at a going away party for Vicki in Journalism, I went home for a blissfully average weekend. I was up cooking late on Friday and then up early on Saturday so I could mail the swap box before the Friends of the Library meeting. Then I hit the bag sale at the thrift shop and stopped at Andrea’s. I had a relaxing afternoon, getting a few things done but not many. I did, wait for it, knit a bit. And there was more of the same on Sunday but with a few more chores than on Saturday. All in all, it was a good weekend. The slow weekend did wonders for my energy level and I was finally feeling back to normal.
The night did end on a down note though. I was in the yard calling the cats in when I saw a man in my neighbor’s yard (a friend I guess - I don’t really know who he is) pointing a gun at one of my cats. I asked if he planned on shooting my cat and he said he would if it went into Cara’s yard. When I asked about the gun, he said it was a pellet gun then ranted at me about my cats being out loose and “shitting” in other people’s yards. I guess I should have expected this. Since the boys, who I still haven’t found a home for despite putting them in the Market Weekly and on Craig’s List, are living on my deck, the food I give them is attracting other cats from the neighborhood. So I brought all my cats in and will make an extra effort to find a home for the boys. I’ll also go over in the morning and scoop any poop I can see in her garden beds.
It’s too bad it’s come to this. We’ve always had what I thought was a good, neighborly relationship. It’s not perfect. Her boys are autistic so there’s a lot of pacing and humming going on and they also play country music (ICK!) every time they’re in the yard and they leave it blaring when they go back inside. It often drives me inside instead of enjoying time in my yard. Maybe I’ll make some apology cookies and take them over so we can talk this over. I don’t want to have to keep my cats inside all the time so maybe if I offer to scoop her gardens forever in exchange for their freedom. Time will tell I guess. Wish me luck.
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