Week 30 - Fair and Year-end

This was the beginning of the busiest weeks of my work year, prepping for fiscal year end closing meetings. This always coincides with the county fair so is a double whammy. Adding to that was my decision to enter food in the fair, which was a first for me and brought on by a new limit on my sock entries. For the first time, you could only have 5 entries in any one category and since there's only one category for small knitted items, I had to choose wisely on knitting and would enter some baked goods to round out my entries. As usual, the goal was to earn enough ribbon money for lunch out.

I'd thawed blackberries so got up first thing Monday and baked a blackberry pie. Entries were Tuesday but I wanted to take the rest of the pie to knitting (you only enter a quarter of the pie) so made it early. It was tart but still yummy according to my taste testers. I got up Tuesday morning and made zucchini chocolate muffins with lemon chips. Normally I use peanut butter chips and would again because the lemon flavor was lost, leaving just a shot of yellow sweetness in the muffins. I brought the extra of those to work and they all got eaten, of course.

Mary was out of town for the first two days of the week so the first closing meeting wasn't until Thursday, which meant my prepping was not stressful this year. Good thing because Tuesday was a long day. I picked up a salad for lunch on the way to work in the morning and then ate a PB&J sandwich, made with the leftover baguette from lunch, in the car on the way home. I dashed inside to pick up my pie and muffins and headed to the fair for 4H vegetable check in, which I do every year as master gardener volunteer hours. Andrea picked up my food and dropped it off for judging, which she does for me every year. It takes a village.

Wednesday was ribbon night so after swimming, I drove straight to the fair to check out my stuff. I won best of lot for a pair of my socks - not the ones I thought would win but lovely ones none the less. I got one red on a pair of socks (it ended up being because I had worn them and there was a slightly felted spot at the toe) and on my muffins (no comments on food so I have no idea why) and all the rest blues. Nice! I went home to relax because closing meetings would be starting on Thursday.

The rest of the week went well with the meetings but when I was getting ready for bed on Thursday, I noticed some red in my eye. Well, when I looked sideways, it was clear that a blood vessel had burst in my eye. That had never happened to me before and freaked me out a little but it was at the side of my eye so not super visible. It faded over time. Good thing.

The heat had broken so I spent a bunch of time outside. First up was weeding the veg beds and then I kept going around the deck and even got some of the big bed done. I got the kitchen cleaned up, which of course lead to cooking up a storm. I had beets I'd roasted that needed using so made quinoa with sauteed chard (from my garden) and beets that I topped with grilled steak come dinner time. I also made summer chopped salad (my own recipe - scroll down if you're interested) and then made a beet salad with some grain mix from Aldi. I even made cabbage and sweet potatoes that went into the freezer. It's always nice to go into the work week with a fridge full of healthy food. 

When I was done with all that cooking, I went out again and mulched all around the deck with the mulch I'd bought weeks ago that was still sitting in a pile by the alley. When I was done, I went in for yummy dinner and then Lorri and her sister, who I met last summer in Portland, came over for a visit. It was a perfect weekend and I was thrilled with the cooler weather (finally!) that let me spend time outside. I was ready for my busy week too. Yay!

Summer Chopped Salad

1 cuke, peeled, seeded, cubed

1 zucchini, cubed

2 paste tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup chopped sweet onion

4 strips crisply fried bacon, crumbled

~1/4 cup of your salad dressing of choice

Put cuke in colander and sprinkle liberally with salt.  Let stand 30 minutes then rinse and pat dry.  Combine in bowl with remaining vegetables, drizzle with salad dressing, toss and top with bacon.  Wonderful served cold as either a side dish or light lunch - YUM!

Week 29 - Routine Weeks Rule

There was no easing into things when I got back to work. Monday was allocation day so that sucked up my entire first day, which wasn't all bad. I also had a custom training on Wednesday for three new business managers and a procurement meeting on Thursday that went so over time that I missed my lunch with Dodie at Panera. Well I did make it there but she'd given up and was already eating when I arrived. Next time I'll know just to cancel. Hopefully there won't be a next time for that meeting though since it was odd as all get out.

Other than working and swimming, my goal for the week was catching up and getting rid of stuff. I brought lemon meringue pie to Monday Night Knitting. Nice start to the week, right? Then I got my oil changed over lunch one day and ended the week unloading a trunk load of stuff at one of the City Mission's drop boxes on the way to Aldi, where I stocked up on groceries. Once I got home on Friday, I was in for the weekend because it was time to catch up there too.

I spent a bunch of time outside since the heat had broken and it was gorgeous. I did major clean up of the driveway and deck, which made a huge difference. It's amazing what your eye ceases to notice when junk has been sitting around for a long time. I also got the entire vegetable garden weeded and then weeded the perennial bed that goes all around the deck. It was just too gorgeous to not be outside!

That said, I cleaned the house on Sunday, which was long overdue. Not everything but my short list - floors (sweep, swiffer, vacuum/wash) and the bathroom plus a general neatize. I did a bunch of cooking too - roasted beets, cabbage/sweet potato/sausage casserole and cucumber salad, all of which meant I'd have food ready to go for the coming week. It also cleaned out my fridge. It was just nice to be home, as always. A routine week is always nice after being away. Happy summer!

Week 28 - Enjoying Rhode Island

Monday was our beach day and I was excited. We decided to go to East Matunuck, where we’d have no parking issues, so were able to relax and enjoy our coffee. My favorite, East Beach, has a tiny parking lot so if you’re not there early, you can’t get in. I think we got to the beach ~10:30, dropped our chairs and immediately walked the entire beach – 6,200 steps. At the end of our walk, I handed my glasses and cover up to Carolyn and went into the water for 10 minutes, after which I sat in the shade of my umbrella relishing being on the beach. I had my legs covered and was actually chilly, even after I put my cover up back on. At one point I put the umbrella down, took off my cover up and had Carolyn time me for 15 minutes. I warmed up and didn’t get a sunburn. We left the beach mid-afternoon and headed to Galilea for lobster rolls at The Portside – the restaurant my family favored from all the beachy options. It was a lovely day and, as always, taking a shower when we got home felt great. I think it’s time to find a beach house to rent for a week next summer.

Carolyn had a hair appointment on Tuesday morning so she dropped me at John’s mom’s house. John’s stepdad had just gotten out of rehab after a series of mini strokes so it was good to visit with them and check in on Brian. It was only an hour then Carolyn and I went home, where Cornelia would be joining us for a light lunch. Carolyn made us grilled cheese and we chatted away before heading to a strange bulk candy store that’s in an industrial park by the airport runway. It was fun and I got some licorice for my aunt and stocking candy for Ginny. We still had some time so Carolyn suggested a trip to the new, huge Asian grocery store in Providence – Good Fortune Market. OMG! It was enormous and fun to walk the aisles looking at every imaginable Asian product, many of which didn’t have translations so were a complete mystery. We had fun and all managed to find a few items before heading back home. Cornelia left and Carolyn and I headed to Crow’s Nest to meet Bette and Aunt Margaret for an early dinner. Yum! Belly clams and seeing my aunt. All good.

Wednesday was my last full day (quick trip) and Carolyn and I had saved it for girls’ day out. We started at the RISD Museum, which was lovely and just the right size for a bit of culture. Then we moved the car (we had good parking mojo both places) and went to Ellie’s Bakery for an absolutely amazing lunch of peach tartine and multiple delicious desserts. Downtown Providence has been transformed since I left in 1996 so we walked around and enjoyed shopping in some cute stores. When we were on our way back to the car, we passed the RI State Archives, where Carolyn’s friend Tracy works so popped in to see her.

Holy crap! Such cool things we saw. Tracy took us into the climate controlled storage room and showed us Rhode Island's original copy of the Declaration of Independence. It was one of the 14 originals - one for the capital and one for each colony. She also showed us the royal charter, complete with the royal seal, of King George authorizing an investigation of the burning of the HMS Gaspee. Rhode Islanders were on the cutting edge of the revolution, you know. What a cool way to end our Providence excursion. John was coming for dinner so we went home and cooked, meaning Carolyn cooked and I did an occasional chopping job. We had a lovely dinner of pasta with pork in a cream sauce. Delish and a nice last evening in RI.

I'd bought very little on this trip so packing was a non-issue. We had a relaxing day and then Cornelia came to take me to the airport. I had a 3 hour layover but had plenty packed for dinner, knitting and an audio book so was all set. Then the flight was delayed, again and again. I ended up spending 6.5 hours at Midway and my flight didn't leave until midnight. Instead of being home by 11:00, I didn't walk into my house until 2:30. Oh well. I'd be dragging on Friday.

And Friday was a busy day. I had scheduled vet appointments for Pixel and Tot at 11:00 and hoped to sleep late but no dice. I was up drinking coffee by 7:00 so faced the day on 4 hours of sleep. I had the easiest time ever getting the cats into the carriers and just had time for BK before I had to clear out the freezer for the appliance man's arrival at 1:00. He had the fan replaced in no time so I reorganized as I put stuff back and was drinking tea by mid-afternoon. 

I got 2 messages on Facebook about a yarn sale in Prague so called Anne and she agreed to come up for it. We were in Prague going through yarn by 6:00. It was a garage full of yarn from an avid crocheter who had died recently, leaving her husband and son with more yarn than 10 people could use in a lifetime. While there was no sock yarn, I did manage to find the 2 balls of wool yarn among the thousands and got a bunch of acrylic for Dottie's hat for the homeless project. They also gave me 2 huge bags of granny squares that needed to be sewn together. Hundreds of them! I assured them they would get made into afghan. Anne opted out of going out to dinner somewhere so I watched The Great British Baking Show and went to bed early. I'd made it through and gotten a bunch done but was running on empty.

Saturday was not a productive day. I didn't manage to make up any sleep so had a low energy day at home. I felt better on Sunday and managed to do my weekly chores to be ready for the week ahead. I also made lemon meringue pies with some of the enormous lemons Donna had brought from California. I dropped one at Donna's and had one for knitting and a tiny one for me. Nice.

It had been a fun week and my less than fully productive weekend had zero impact on life in general. I'd call that a successful vacation, right?

Week 27 - Swaps and Sofas

It was a drama filled week. I was leaving for Rhode Island on Saturday but working a full week and cramming stuff in beforehand, which lead to way too much drama.

 
First up was the swap. I had volunteered to coordinate a sock yarn mini swap on one of my Ravelry (my fave website, knitting of course, for those not in the know) and had been steadily receiving envelopes of mini skeins for weeks. My goal was to get them all mailed out before vacation so I gathered all the envelopes and took them to the library for sorting. It sounds easy – taking envelopes of yarn, mixing them up and sending them out again. Nothing easy about it! I had a spreadsheet and thought I had it all organized but it got out of control so Andrea and I had to slog through envelopes multiple times. I was sweating and stressed but went right home and prepped all the domestic envelopes and had them out for pick up on Tuesday. The international ones, which would require customs forms and special packaging, would wait until after the 4^th.

Fast forward to the 4^th. I’d arranged for my loveseat to be picked up by my trash company and big trash day was Thursday so when I woke up at 5:30, I threw the ancient loveseat out the front door and started cleaning and reorganizing the front room. Getting rid of that monstrosity, which I’d bought in the 90’s when I got my first apartment, completely opened up the room. Moving all the furniture left me cleaning for most of the morning but I felt great when it was done. Then I went to make lunch, opened the freezer and found melted ice cream all over everything. Apparently my fridge was dying but being a small town, I called the appliance guy and he came right over. After completely emptying my freezer, he told me my fan was failing and he’d need to order a part. Luckily he was able to clean the coils and get it running as best he could because I wouldn’t be home for him to install the new one for more than a week. When he left, I went through all the frozen food, chucking quite a bit of old, freezer burned meat and pulling other things out to cook immediately. This was not how I’d planned to spend my 4^th but it was hotter than blazes so at least I was inside. My only plan was to watch the city fireworks in the park at the end of my street but a huge storm blew through just as it was getting dark so the fireworks were postponed anyway. Sheesh!

Thursday was not a good day. I had spent time with my vacuum sealer shrinking all the international packages so they’d fit through the slot of doom and so could go as letters. I checked them at the Union post office first thing in the morning and all but one were thin enough but then I couldn’t find a way to buy the postage online so I’d have to go to the main PO after lunch. It was Dodie’s birthday so we went to Bruegger’s, which is her favorite but not somewhere I want to eat so we rarely go. While we were eating, there was a baby bird – almost a fledgling – chirping on the window ledge with its parents calling from a street tree. It clearly couldn’t fly and must have fallen out of the nest so I picked it up and tried to put it up in the tree but it flew out of my hands when it was inches away. It ended up on the sidewalk and when we crossed the street, I could see that it had hopped into the road. I wanted to go back and try again but didn’t. I then watched it get run over as I drove to the post office, which made me sad. Then the PO wouldn’t let me ship the yarn as letters and made me fill out everything by hand then wait while they entered it. It took forever and I knew the swappers wouldn’t be happy paying the package rate. The icing on the cake was getting home to find the trash people had not picked up the loveseat. See? Not a good day.

I was on the phone with the trash company first thing Friday and they gave me the run around, first suggesting that it must have been too heavy to load. I pointed out that if I, a 57 year old with a bum shoulder and bionic knee, could lift it, certainly their big trash guy could. Then they said they wouldn’t make a special trip just for me and that’s when I blew. I told her in no uncertain terms that I’d arranged this with them specifically for the 5^th and it absolutely could not sit outside for a week because of their mistake. I finally got a salesman on the phone and he assured me the owner would be going out to pick it up. He also offered me a “will call” trash can where I call when it’s full and they pick it up and charge me $20. Perfect! I hung up actually happy after the first, miserable interaction (the office worker is an IDIOT! This was not my first negative interaction with her.) And the loveseat was gone when I got home. Nice.

I had to pack and get ready to leave but only had a single load of laundry to do Friday night and got mostly packed so actually got to relax on Saturday morning. Luckily Pie came in on Friday night (she stays out 24/7 all summer) so just didn’t let them out Saturday morning. Easy peasy. I left the house at 11:00 and was at the gate with time to spare. Unfortunately there was a delay in Chicago so I didn’t get in until 8:30. Deanne, who was picking me up, had cancelled our dinner reservation but I was hungry when I got in so she called and they fit us in. We ate outside at La Masseria in East Greenwich – my hometown. The food was delicious and we had a nice time catching up. I walked into Carolyn’s house at 11:00 p.m. It was a long day but that was only 10:00 my time so I was OK.

The plan for Sunday was to do lunch and shopping with Sharyn. After a leisurely morning, I called to confirm an 11:00 pick up only to hear from Sharyn that she was having a serious medical issue. Very serious but she was still at home. After forcefully suggesting she get to the hospital (I think I may have crossed a line), Carolyn and I headed out to shop on our own at The Christmas Tree Shop and 5 Below. When I called later in the day, Sharyn’s son said not only was she admitted but she was in ICU. Yikes! While I was concerned, at least she would be getting help. John and Bob came over for pizza dinner, which was fun and required little effort. With my first day having such a rocky start, I could only hope the tides had changed. Monday we’d be off to the beach so I went to bed feeling happy and looking forward to more vacation fun.

Week 26 - Small Town Life

It was a week of small town fun. At least I got some gardening done.

Tuesday was going to be the last nice day before more blazing heat set in and since I had half a vacation day in the bank (I hate having uneven days!), I decided to take Tuesday afternoon off. I called my hairdresser from the road and she could fit me in so I was coiffed and working in the yard by 2:00. Since we’d had so much rain, the weeding was easy so I moved my car to the street and cleaned all the driveway cracks then started in on the weed trees. I’d bought Roundup Gel, which looks like a big roll on deodorant and is the perfect solution when I can’t spray the weed trees growing amongst my perennials. I took one small break but otherwise was outside until 6:00, heading inside exhausted and in need of water and a shower. I was so tired that I was falling sleep at 8:45 so went to bed at 9:00, sleeping like a rock until 3:30.

Did I mention that it’s illegal to park in the street overnight in Wahoo? I saw there was a ticket on my windshield at 3:30. Whatever! I never fell back asleep so puttered all morning until my doorbell rang at 6:45. Huh? I went to the door to find the sheriff and a police officer (2 different branches of law enforcement mind you and most likely the entire overnight contingent.) One of my neighbors had seen my car in the street and my garage door open and sent the cops to check on me. Ha! I was actually touched but what a hoot, right? Small town living.

But it gets better! I was telling my PT the story on Friday and was wondering out loud which neighbor it was, figuring it was one of the 2 across the street who could see my garage being open. Well, he’d already heard the story from my neighbor Kim (one of the 2 I’d suspected) so I was the talk of the town. I’m going to make Kim a pie and take it over on the 4^th as a thank you. It’s nice to know my neighbors are looking out for me.

Otherwise it was a pretty normal week. I bailed on Thursday’s swimming in favor of going to a bad French movie at The Ross with Cindy. I finished PT on Friday so am calling my shoulder as good as it’s going to be. And then it was the weekend.

It was still hotter than Hades on Saturday but there were storms coming that would break the heat. Andrea and I were heading to Omaha Saturday afternoon for errands and knitting at Lori’s. Having hit Penzey’s, Michael’s and Trader Joe’s, we got to Lori’s ~3:00 and happily knitted the afternoon away, paying zero attention to anything. Oops! When we left at almost 7:00, there were ominous clouds in the west – the direction we were travelling. The skies opened up just as we left Omaha and we drove home in torrential rain. It was so bad that cars were pulling over to wait it out but Andrea kept her eyes on the white line (it was all we could see) and kept going at 25 mph. It had let up by the time we got to my house but it was a harrowing, hour long drive. It rained on and off all night and there was another 1.5” in my gage to add to the 4.5” from last week. Sheesh!

At least the heat had broken and Sunday was gorgeous! I opened the windows and did something I haven’t done in more than 2 years – mowed my own lawn. John, my friend’s son who mows for me, was away so I got out the mower, which started right up, and mowed. It felt great and I got every little nook and cranny done. I tried to cut more weed trees afterwards but the bugs were so bad that I gave up pretty quickly. It was such a pleasure just to enjoy the fresh air and having the windows open. All good. Just two more months of heat to get through. I can make it.

Week 25 - Lots of Rain

It was a pretty normal week. Except for the rain. Inches and inches of rain.

This was actually not a bad thing because I was on watering duty at Lorri's house, which is not an insignificant task because she has a huge yard and many, many containers. I had watered Sunday night and was on deck through Thursday. When the forecast called for rain everyday, I lucked out. I did go check everything on Monday and smartened up on Tuesday, pulling out the few plants that were under eaves. It was raining so hard on Wednesday that I didn't even check and on Thursday I dumped water out of containers without holes and watered nothing. We'd had 3+ inches at that point and it rained again on Friday so the weekly total was 4.5". Nice.

Otherwise it was PT twice, swimming on Wednesday and FEC (Friday Eve Club) on Thursday instead of swimming. A bunch of us from the office went to the new Green Flash brewery by campus and I had hands down best chicken sandwich I've ever eaten. Everyone else ordered burgers and were served but no sandwich. After 5 minutes, I asked the server and he'd forgotten to put my order in. Free sandwich! That was a nice touch because I thought their food was pricey (by Nebraska standards anyway.) It was worth the wait. It was so yummy that Lana got one to go for her husband. Here are the details.

I had a busy weekend, choosing to cram everything in on Saturday so I wouldn't have to leave the house on Sunday. First up was a run to Fremont to pick up canning jars from the house we'd helped clear the sewing room of last weekend. Andrea had wanted the jars but was out of town so I was on delivery duty. I got there at 11:30 and spent awhile chatting with Jerry and then went home for a quick lunch and clean up so I could meet Anne in Lincoln at 2:30 for Rene's open house to celebrate her son's wedding. The sun came out for the first time in days as I was driving south. It was a fun event and it was nice to meet Rene's son. I then braved WalMart to pick up a few things I hadn't wanted to get on Amazon. I dropped Andrea's jars (boxes and boxes of them) at her back door and was done for the weekend.

Sunday was chore day. Go figure. I needed to give some serious attention to housework so got my laundry done and hanging on the line then started. Bathroom first then all the floors - sweep, swiffer, vacuum and wash. I was sweating profusely but the house looked good when I was done. Alas, I got nothing else done, not even the pots and pans. No cooking either so it would be a repeat of last week, with cooking Monday before work. Whatever. I did manage a bit of weeding in the veg beds but that's all.

I hope you had a good week. After the week of rain and one nice day, we have more rain in the forecast then the heat will be back. Summer in Nebraska. At least I'll be in Rhode Island in 2 weeks where it's sure to be cooler. Stay cool.

Week 24 - A Sad Week

It was not a happy week. The things that I’d normally complain about (not sleeping well – check, starting the week off with 7:30 a.m. PT – check) were trivial. Alas.

I got a phone call right at bedtime Tuesday night that the grandbaby of one of our accountants had died that afternoon. She was less than 3 months old and at her second day of daycare. I could not imagine the devastation of her parents (she was their first child) and my co-worker. I was ready for bed when I got the call but couldn’t stop thinking about it and barely slept that night. So sad.

There was a pall over the office the next day and my energy level was rock bottom so I just stayed as busy as possible to get through the day. I drank copious amounts of caffeine on a nearly empty stomach (600 calorie day), which lead to a sour stomach. We were supposed to go out for dinner after water aerobics but I knew I’d never make it so asked if anyone would mind if we postponed until Thursday. That actually worked out better for most everyone (I hadn’t been the first to bail on Wednesday night) so I limped through swimming then happily went home to veg. I went to bed early and was able to sleep some better than the night before.

After a good swim Thursday night, we all went to Blue Blood Brewing. There were 9 of us and we had a ball, which I needed badly. I enjoyed beer, roasted Brussels sprouts and a small serving of loaded felony fries. Not diet food but worth every calorie. I didn’t get home until after 9:00 and by the time I watered containers and made some cranberry cole slaw, it was time for bed. I got a great night’s sleep, helped by the beer no doubt.

The office was getting together a meal for before the visitation and rosary on Friday night, hence the cole slaw making Thursday night. Lana organized it all and I volunteered to deliver the food on the way to PT. Friday went by in a blur and I left at 3:00 with my car loaded down with food. Another of the accountants met me to help with the delivery, which was difficult but easier than going to the rosary or funeral. It took several trips to bring in the copious amounts of food and then I visited for a few minutes before bugging out for PT. I was so glad to be done with the work week. I went to bed early, slept like a rocks and got up ready for my weekend.

I had a lovely Saturday morning, with a gloriously late start after sleeping until 8:15. I chatted with Carolyn and my sister Dottie, who rarely calls. I had planned to make cookies to take to spinning but time got away from me so I threw a pan of blondies in the oven, grabbed a quick PB&J and was at Andrea’s at 1:00 to head to spinning in Fremont. I hadn’t been in awhile so it was good to see everyone. I sat and knitted socks while they were all glued to a spinning video. The real fun started when we left.

Drae and I were helping a friend load her stuff so had her spinning wheel by her car. A man saw the wheel and pulled over to chat. He was cleaning out a nearby house after a woman had died and had a sewing room full of things that were a complete mystery to him. The rule was anything that would cost less than $5 at a garage sale was up for grabs but the rest had to be photographed and the pics emailed to the woman’s children out of state. We spent an hour of so going through the room, leaving it cleared out and organized. We each left with a big box of stuff. I should mention that the woman appeared to be a hoarder and in addition to sewing supplies, we found totes full of Y2K prepper food (threw that away) and old papers, prescriptions and such. Unfortunately the man had already thrown away most of the fabric. Bummer. But with our good deed of the day done, Andrea and I ran our errands in Fremont and then headed to Todd’s Bar for my favorite vanilla beer, burgers and tots. Gotta love tots, right? I went to bed as soon as I got home.

I rose early Sunday and had hopes of having a productive day. Alas, I struggled to get motivated and spent the lion’s share of the daylight hours knitting and streaming. I did manage to do laundry, pick up the kitchen and do a sink full of pots, pans and plastic but did little else. It had been a long week and I think I was just spent. It didn’t help that it was 100 degrees in the shade. Oh well. Cross that week off and hope for a better one next week, which is pretty much a sure thing. I went to bed grateful for all the goodness in my life, including a work family that sticks together through thick and thin. I really am a lucky person.