Week 25 - An Unwelcome Souvenir

With the trip pretty much over, we'd be starting the week with a LONG trip home. Little did we know how long it would be.

Monday was out last morning in The Faroes and we enjoyed another fabulous breakfast at the hotel. We were all down in the lobby waiting for our coach to the airport but it was late. Our flight wasn't until mid-afternoon so we just chatted until it arrived and off we went. The weather was not looking good though, with pretty dense fog. Well, that fog prevented our plane from landing and after circling hoping for a hole to punch through, it was sent to Norway to refuel. And since Atlantic Air only has 3 planes, we just had to wait for it to come back. The 2 other planes managed to land but we didn't end up leaving until 5:30, at which point we'd all missed out connections. The travel agent at Arena got on the phone with United and not only rebooked us but talked them out of $1,200 each in extra fees. She also booked us a hotel because now we'd be staying in Edinburgh overnight and flying to Frankfurt at 6:00 a.m. the next day. By the time we got to the hotel, it was nearly midnight and we had to be at the airport at 4:00 a.m. so we didn't get much sleep. We were both snotty and coughing too. Hmm.....

I slept the entire flight to Frankfurt (2 hours) and then we waited for the long flight to Chicago. We had some yummy pastries, both sweet and savory, at the airport and I spent the entire flight watching movies and knitting as we flew with the sun. I finished the scrappy socks with the gansey section that used the design I'd made in one of the workshop. Aren't they fun? But that's as happy as it got because when we got to Chicago, all hell broke loose.

Our flight to Lincoln was delayed but when we got to the gate to wait, we checked our phones which had come back to life. Well... all the Brits, who had already made it home, were texting to say they had Covid. I can't say I was surprised because Anne was worse off than I was and was coughing BAD. Mine was more like a bad cold. We put on our KN95 masks and sat away from everyone for another long wait. Our flight was delayed over and over again and didn't land until almost 1:00 a.m., where Andrea was waiting to pick me up. I'd warned her that I had Covid but she came anyway. I walked into my house ~2:00 (4 hours late), took a shower and went to bed. I tested when I got up and was positive. Bummer.

Having been awake for more than 24 hours after 2 nights of only a few hours of sleep plus having Covid, work was not happening. Of course, my AC decided to quit. I called my AC guy and warned him that I had Covid. He came over but stayed far away from me and got the AC going again (needed freon) and wouldn't even let me pay him. With my house cooling down, I sat like a zombie in my chair, just triaging emails and doing nothing else. I didn't even knit! Now that's sick. I forced myself to stay up until 9:00 and then slept for most of the night, although I did stuff a kleenex up my nose in the wee hours so the dripping wouldn't wake me up. SO pretty! 

A decent night of sleep made a big difference and I was able to work a bit on Thursday afternoon and slept well again. It really was like a bad cold (double vaxed and doubled boosted helped for sure) but I was coughing from post nasal drip so my boss insisted I put in sick leave for the afternoon so I did. I felt good enough to knit and made comfort food - tuna melt and tater tots. Yum! I did nothing else all weekend, vegging like a champion, knitting and eating out of my freezer. I watched the final season of Peaky Blinders and recharged.

So even with catching Covid and the hellish trip home, I was still happy that I'd gone on the trip. And part of me was relieved that I woulnd't have to worry about catching Covid for awhile. I wasn't 100% over it but I was less snotty, which meant less coughing and I had plenty of energy. I still wonder if the fatigue was all jetlag and lack of sleep and not from Covid. I guess I'll never know but cross Covid off my list. At least there's that.

Week 24 - The Faroe Islands

After a whirlwind day in Edinburgh after our red eye flight, Anne and I decided to take it easy on Monday and not go back into the city. Our trip was starting that afternoon so that was a good decision.

After eating a quick breakfast in our room, we headed to the shopping center across the tracks, which had a Tesco and an Aldi. It's always fun to check out grocery stores in other countries but Aldi was particularly fun. Their aisle of shame was huge compared to US Aldis (2.5 aisles of stuff!) and we managed to find a few treats to take to the Faroes. We had to be out of the hotel room at noon so we just went to the airport early, hanging out at Starbuck's and knitting until we met up with our group. After a quick flight, we checked into the hotel, where we found we were in single rooms. Mine was tiny with a twin bed but Anne's was a double. While I wasn't happy to be rooming alone, I got used to it and didn't need to use ear plugs. We had a welcome dinner but we were at several tables and there were no introductions so it was up to us to fine our peeps, which we did. Sue and Celine became our besties for the trip.

Monday started with a walking tour of the town, which was like nothing I'd ever seen before. There were lots of houses with grass growing on their rooves and the government buildings were tiny - one ministry was a single room. When Anne and I went exploring for lunch options, we went into what I thought was a yarn shop but it was actually a charity shop. We scored a bunch of fun yarn for next to nothing. Thrift score even in another country - nice. We had our first workshop in the afternoon, knitting Faroese slippers with Faorese yarn. It was fun but the slippers weren't anything I'd be finishing. We had dinner at a fun nordic sandwich shop with big open faced sandwiches piled high with veggies.

The next day was knitting workshops all day - slippers in the morning and pattern design in the afternoon. Having given up on my slippers, I knitted socks in the morning and thought the afternoon would be boring. I believe I said "3 hours of pattern design? Shoot me now!" But it was super fun and I absolutely loved it. After we had ramen for supper, I immediately started knitting the design in a pair of scrappy socks I'd started. Fabulous!

We had an optional birding boat tour booked for the next afternoon but had some fun shopping for yarn that morning. The town of Torshavn (pronouced tor-shown) was small enough that we could walk all over. Then it was onto the birding trip, which was amazing. They took the boat into channels through the 1000 foot cliffs (yes, that tall) that looked barely wide enough to get into. It was my favorite part of the trip. The touristy stuff that is.

The next day was an all day tour that went hither and yon - a museum, a wool factory, churches, etc. One of the funkiest things was going through the under water tunnels between the islands. There was even a roundabout where 2 tunnels intersected. And during one of the stops, while everyone else went down to the shore, I happily took off my shoes and waded in a stream. Bliss! By the end of the tour, it was raining so the tea and cake stop was welcome before the long drive back to town. The tour guide was froggy, saying she was getting over a cold. We had the bus driver drop us off at the mall that had another yarn shop and then we walked back to the hotel, with more yarn, of course.

The next day was another optional tour - a trip to the closest island to the capital, Nolsoy. Katrina, our designer, had lived there for 14 years so she was our guide. It was a 20 minute ferry ride south of Torshavn so people actually commute from there. It was a tiny little town and we got to walk around before having lunch at a woman's house. She made us traditional Faroese food and it was all delicious. I had taken pictures of her veggie beds when we walked around in the morning so spent some time talking gardening with her. Not much grows there (it was 52 degrees for the high the whole time were were there and that was high summer weather) so she had lots of cold frames and row covers. It was a lovely day and some of our group even stayed there when we left, opting for a later ferry so they could hike a bit.

Sunday was our last full day and it was all knitting with Katrina. We were making a little Faroese shawl, which has a distinctive shape so it sits on your shoulder. We were on the top floor of the hotel so got to watch the start of the Faroe Islands marathon, which had people in from all over the world. We met a woman from NYC at breakfast at the hotel. There was lots of coughing and nose blowing as we knitted the day away. After a farewell dinner in the hotel, we went back to our rooms to pack. 

It was hard to believe the trip was already over. It had been a whirlwind but I loved every minute of it. The landscape was other worldly and the cool weather was perfect. We met wonderful people who I hope to keep in touch with and we'd had some knitting fun in the workshops. I wasn't looking forward to the long trip home but it's always worth it to see somewhere new and different.

Week 23 - Heading to Europe

The week of my trip was here but I wasn't leaving until Saturday. Good thing it was a short week.

I had made plans to take bagels to Lori's for breakfast on Monday and we had a lovely morning of knitting in her beautiful yard. She had afternoon plans so I hit Aldi and then headed home to plant the last few straggler plants in my veg beds. With those in the ground, I really was done with my planting and it had been a lovely Memorial Day.

The work week flew by - I trained on Tuesday, got a cortisone shot first thing on Wednesday, thrifted at lunch and Ed fixed the dishwasher while I was at work. I had been piling clothes on my dresser all week and did my last load of laundry on Friday, drying it at Andrea's when I went to feed her cat since she was at a retreat. I finished packing Friday night, leaving on a few things to add to my bags on Saturday morning. I was ready to go!

I was up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and went to feed Andrea's cat at 6:30 in the morning. I finished packing and had time to relax before Heidi picked me up to take me to the airport. I met Anne and we were on our way! Our flights were uneventful and we ate dinner in Toronto before catching our last flight of the day - the overnight to Edinburgh. As of the day before, we still had an empty seat between us but got onto the flight and a man who had come from Lincoln was in between us. Anne moved to the middle and we settled in. I took a benadryl and was asleep right after dinner, getting the best sleep I've ever had on an overnight to Europe. We woke up in Edinburgh. Yay!

We took a cab to the hotel, dropped our bags and then took the train (we bought the wrong tickets so it was the real train instead of the tram and we had to wait a bit while trams went every 10 minutes). We got lunch at the pub in Grassmarket, which was right across from the hotel we stayed in on our last trip. From there we walked to a small yarn shop, waiting on the step for them to open and then finding some nice locally dyed sock yarn. We were starting to flag at this point so took a cab over to Princes Street looking for the Cath Kidston store, which had closed but we hit Lakeland, got Starbuck's and headed to the gardens. There was a big screen showing a Jubilee parade and there were lots of people. After enjoying some time knitting on a bench, we went to Marks & Spencers for some triangle sandwiches for supper and headed back to the hotel for a picnic.

We were spent and had walked 14,000 steps but had had a nice day in Edinburgh before we'd meet up with the tour on Monday. I'd call that an auspicious start to the trip with more fun to come.

Week 22 - Drip and Disposal

It was my last full week before my trip and after powering through my gardening, I finished planting the last of my flowers over lunch on Monday so crossed that off my list. My plan to have my gardening done early so I could enjoy Memorial Day weekend was well in hand.

We had the UNL All Staff Conference so I was going to campus on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Of course, just before I left for work, I found a drip under the bathroom sink so madly emptied under the sink, put a pan under it and headed to work. The conference was good and I called Ed when I went back for lunch. He came to my rescue, as usual, and said he'd head over to check out the drip and install my garbage disposal too. When I got home, the sink was fixed and I tried the dishwasher, which seemed to work great. Then the phone rang and it was Ed calling from the farm store where he was buying parts for the garbage disposal. Oops! He came back and finished the piping then we chatted in the driveway until 9:00. He's such a peach.

I worked from home on Wednesday and did a couple of the morning sessions of the last day of the conference via zoom. I had my monthly Ripples zoom that afternoon and settled in for the 3 hour Survivor finale, setting the dishwasher to run overnight before heading to bed.

Well, I got up Thursday monring to find a mire of icky water in the bottom of the dishwasher. Clearly it wasn't draining. Ed called to check in that night from Missouri where he was on vacation and I told him the news, suggesting that maybe he hadn't punched through the plug on the side of the disposal before attaching the dishwasher hose. That's exactly what he'd done. I bailed the nasty water and started washing the dishes - my least favorite chore. Oh well. Ed would be back before my trip to fix it at least.

Since I hadn't gotten my grab and go on Tuesday, I called it in on Friday and headed out for errands - the bank, Warehouse Surplus, Mocha C's and the Senior Center thrift, which I rarely go to. I did a quick buzz through and saw Andrea as I was checking out. I found a few things but got a call an hour later from Andrea, who was still shopping and had found me a few things that I'd missed, including a brand new pair of wool clogs that perfectly match the sweater I was packing for my trip. Would wool clogs be too out of season in June? I'd have to consider whether I'd pack them but if not, they'll be great for next winter.

I got news that we could stop work at 3:00 for an early start of the holiday weekend. Yay! It was going to be the last cool night before summer so I called Andrea and invited her for a fire in the driveway. We didn't need the warmth but it was fun and a nice start to the weekend.

The weekend was a blur with some cooking, planning for packing, spending more time choosing yarn than clothes, and chores. I wasn't stressed about the trip and had gotten my gardening done so had the relaxing weekend I'd hoped for and I had plans for Monday. Nice.

Week 21 - My Pre-trip List

With my trip getting close, I started attacking my pre-trip to do list in earnest. Of course I have things on my list that have absolutely nothing to do with travel but there's nothing like a deadline to get me moving.

Now the gardening stuff on the list made sense because being gone in early June means I need to get all that done before I leave. And I made some good progress, planting irises that Nan shared at knitting at dusk when I got home Monday night. Then I went out right after work on Tuesday and prepped/planted my squash bed and filled in the gaps in the early bed. I also dug hostas to take to Cindy at work on Wednesday. On Sunday I finished planting my veg beds and started my containers. I was a machine all weekend in an attempt to get all the gardening done so I could enjoy Memorial Day weekend. I got close but still had a bit yet to do and was pleased with my progress.

The deadline to register cats in Wahoo is May so I made vet appointments for Friday afternoon and actually managed to get all 3 cats to the vet for shots and flea treatment. So that needed to be done but getting the screen in my slider replaced could have waited but I took the motivation and got that done. The local screen guy that I found on Facebook picked the screen up on Monday and when I came home from campus on Wednesday, it was back with the cat door all installed. Now to get the cats to figure out the cat door. Pixell picked it up right away but not so much with the other 2. Slow learners I guess.

I'm happy to report that the virtual reality headsets are returned and we're done. We had one more team meeting in cartoon land and were so over it that Ben told us to bring them back. Done with those!

Wednesday was a productive day in Lincoln. Since I only work on campus one day/week, I do my best to maximize driving down. I hit WalMart at lunch and bought some pants for my trip and a few other things, I went to the movies with Cindy at The Ross after work - The Duke, which was very good. And when Cindy suggested going out afterwards, we headed to Tico's for magueritas, nachos and venting about work. It's good to have friends. And later in the week, Cindy called me from Goodwill Factimed to show me all the great yarn they had, picking up quite a bit of it for me. I'm a lucky person to have such good friends.

As usual this spring, the weather was all over the place. I tried to have lunch with Lorri in the park on Tuesday, which we hadn't done in months. We did manage to eat lunch but had to cut it short because of storms. After raining on and off on Tuesday and all day Wednesday, it was 94 and muggy on Thursday  then gorgeous by the weekend. Sheesh!

My plan to start the weekend was to stop at the Vets Club to talk to Ed about installing my garbage disposal, which is on the pre-trip list so my friend who feeds the cats can soak the wet food plates and run the bits down the disposal. I found Ed but also Donna and his daughter because it was Donna's birthday. I hung out and chatted for awhile (I should have had a drink but didn't) and made plans for Ed to come over. Check that off. Next day was a Fremont run.

It was spinning day but Andrea was busy with a graduation party so I was on my own. I started at the Habitat Restore and found a few goodies but they also had 4 packs of plants that they were selling 6/$1.00! that was $2.00 for an entire flat. They had tons of red impatiens but I did manage to find a few different types, which meant I could cross plants off my list for after spinning. At that price, I bought a flat of the red impatiens to share at spinning. Spinning was fun then I hit a few different stores than normal - Menard's and Walmart for returns - and no Aldi. I did buy a few more plants at the Kaw Valley green houses. The plants are not cheap but they're always in great shape. I needed some standard tomatoes and bought some lantana. And when I saw this cute little sheep, I couldn't resist and bought him too. 

I really really wanted barbeque after finishing all my errands. Siri sent me to a BBQ restaurant that was clearly no longer in business and there were no other options in Fremont. I called a few local restaurants but none had BBQ on the menu so I stopped at Red Zone, which is in a tiny town halfway home. I ordered a takeout 3 meat BBQ sandwich and sat in the car knitting for 20 minutes then waited another 20 minutes inside. The fries were great and the sandwich only OK but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

So, busy week but got lots of things crossed off my list and had lots of fun too. Less than 2 weeks until the trip and a long weekend yet to come. More will be done. : )

Week 20 - More Crazy Weather

What a week! Blazing heat in early May, ridiculous virtual reality and finally a return of spring weather.

The weather was nuts. It was in the 90's for much of the week. In the second week of May. CRAZY. The blazing heat brought some worry for me because last May, my central AC, which came with the house and hasn't been upgraded like most everything else in my house, needed to have freon added. I wasn't sure if it would come on cool or not but it did. Big relief. I will need to get a new one but didn't want to deal with that now. Also, most of my county and the one to the west lost electricity for an hour Monday morning when something on the grid blew. Probably when everyone turned on their AC. To top that off, it was so hot that Monday Night Knitting was cancelled because everyone bailed. And that was just Monday!

Tuesday was a gorgeous day and Andrea stopped by on her way t work with a bouquet of lilacs from her yard. I have a small bush but it hasn't bloomed yet so this was a treat. With it not so hot, I went right outside after work and got my hoses sorted and brought up my madevilla that I'd overwintered in the basement and got that set up with lichen covered branches from my brush pile to climb on. It felt great to be outside and it was my only chance because the 90's were coming back.

Wednesday was my day on campus and we were having a surprise graduation party for my boss, Ben, who was getting his master's on Friday. It was a good thing I'd offloaded my picking up the ice cream duties because my 8:00 dentist appointment, which would have been 30 minutes with my old dentist, was an hour and then they sent me to the pharmacy for antibiotics to take immediately because my knee surgery was only 1 year ago. I barely made it to campus for the 10:00 team meeting. The party was a complete surprise and fun. We had cupcakes and ice cream and Ben's family and his other staff from across campus came. Nice. 

Ben had gotten our team virtual reality headsets to use for our team meetings so I spent time Thursday getting that all set up. We had storms comes through Thursday night, which finally broke the heat but I also lost internet so went to bed early to read. I got a message from Andrea asking if I wanted to go to a vintage sale in Cedar Bluffs on Friday and I responded immediately that I was in. I'd start work early on Friday and work through lunch so I could leave early to hit the sale. I hoped for a Fremont run and then Andrea wanted to get burgers at our favorite dive bar - Todd's in Cedar Bluffs.

Our first team meeting in VR was stupid. Yes, the sound quality was better but we were interacting with cartoons! I had spent a bit of time creating my avatar but it looked nothing like me and you get zero facial expressions from them plus your mouth moves when you cat meows. Sheesh! Cindy had trouble getting hers to work so I, the old lady of the team, did the trouble shooting and got her operational. We hung out in our virtual meeting room for a bit trying things out and were in agreement that it was absolutely ridiculous.

I hadnt' heard from Andrea so called her at 3:30. She hadn't seen my response but I said I was ready to go so came right over. The vintage sale was a bust and Andrea hadn't considered a Fremont run but I convinced her to go and we scored big with high quality yarn at the Estate Disperal Store, which is only open 1 weekend each month and sells things from people they've helped downsize and move. We bought $400 of quality yarn - what a find! After a few more errands, we headed to Todd's for burgers and beer. What a great way to start the weekend.

With errands already done and some spring weather at last, it was time to start my containers on Saturday. I went to the farm store for plants and while they weren't in sad shape, many of them were tiny, as in 2-3 weeks early for selling. But with a 60 mile round trip as the alternative, I bought the small plants and went home and started my containers. I got most of the ones for my deck and backyard planted that afternoon.

It rained all day on Sunday, which watered in all my plantings nicely. After my first ever Facetime that morning with Deanne, I spent the afternoon doing every floor in my house. Having taken all my overwintered plants outside, they'd dropped leaves everywhere so the floors were a mess. All good and long overdue.

So, not a typical weather week but the weekend was wonderful and since I work full time, that's what counts. This is my first year with 2 functioning knees so I have big plans for my yard and garden. I hope this weather holds for the next couple of weeks so I get everything done before my trip. I live in hope.

Week 19 - Loving Spring Weather

It was another lovely week full of knitting, gardening and general getting things done. Finally we got some rain, which after our bone dry winter was lovely.

Monday was one of those gorgeous rainy days with just constant, steady but gentle rain. We got 1.75", which went a long way towards easing our deficit plus it had been so long since we'd had one of these days that it felt like a treat. And the day ended with double treats at Monday Night Knitting. All in all, a lovely day.

But on the knitting front, I may have overdone it because my right thumb was sore. Not in its usual place (the thumb knuckle closest to my nail) but at the base of my thumb at my wrist. It's always something these days! At least I had finished my April socks so I pulled out some crocheting (!) in an attempt to use different hand motions. I spent the rest of the week not knitting socks. Oh well.

As usual, I was on campus on Wednesday and I was excited to hit the Hort Club plant sale over lunch. Their plants are always in great shape and I like to support them but it's a total crap shoot. Sometimes they have unusual plants and other times they only have things you can buy at Wal-Mart. I did manage to find a few plants to buy and then hit Goodwill, where I scored some yarn for my sister and even a single skein of sock yarn for me. Yay!

On the way home, I stopped at HyVee to get my 2nd booster. The woman who gave me the shot was a brute. It's like she was trying to punch through leather instead of my thin, old lady skin. But it was done and I had hopes for max immunity for my trip. Alas, I couldn't fall asleep that night and so got up and took a benadryl at midnight. I don't know if it was lack of sleep, the booster or a combo but I felt pretty depleted on Thursday. Oh well. Totally worth it if it was the shot.

Friday was a busy day. I had several meetings then took a short lunch because I had a haircut in the afternoon. Gotta love small town living - I stopped 3 or 4 places in addition to my haircut and was home in 35 minutes. I was on a zoom until 4:55 with my boss and then it was time for the weekend. I went right outside at 5:00 and started gardening.

Saturday was a perfect spring day and I got busy. I had arranged for the man who built my deck's youngest son to mow and they came for the first mow of the season. Since Tim has to drive his son over, I asked if he'd be willing to cut down the last yew while Camden mowed and he did. Nice. After they left, I finished the east bed, cutting back the rest of the winter creeper and then moving the hostas that were growing underneath all that foliage. On Sunday, I cut all the weed trees in my bed and took them with the yew limbs to the city burn pile, picking up BK for lunch on the way back. I was done with gardening for the weekend so it was chore time.

As I was puttering around the house, I could hear a nail gun. I saw that a crew of roofers was down the street doing a neighbor's roof so I mosied down there and asked if they did little jobs. The head guy came right over to look at my garage roof where I branch had torn off a bunch of shingles during a wind storm last fall. I'd called the company that did my roof 3 or 4 times and they'd never called back. Lame. But this guy was more than willing to fix my roof and so he did after they finished down the street. Yay! Cross one more house thing off my list. I was thrilled.

I'd call that a great week! Rain, at last, nice spring weather, making a great start on my spring gardening and getting my roof fixed. Now to have a few more weeks like this so I can get everything done before my trip. I can do it! And here are a few pics from my garden of spring bulbs in glorious bloom. Spring is the BEST season. : )