Week 19 - Rain and Yarn

It was another average week (works for me) but had some yarny fun at the end and my first pedicure in years plus some spring garden work. Weather was its usual crazy this month.

We had another tornado watch with big storms on Monday night so didn't have knitting. I went out to pick violets before the storms in case we got hail. We ended up with another inch of rain to add to the previous week's 4".

On the work front, I had a nice burger lunch with Erica, the new Accounting Director, on Tuesday and thrifted after work. Wednesday was a going away lunch for Janae, the accountant I worked with on the F&A project who is going to stay home with her daughter and help her parents with their farm accounting. It's nice that she can do that. After our lunch, a few of us had signed up for golf cart tours of campus. I was in the 2nd group so we didn't finish until after 5:00 but it was neat to hear all the history about campus. So not much "work" talk in this bit. Work did get done between all this stuff but that's no fun to talk about.

I had a fun knitting week. One of my favorite knitting podcasters dropped a new sock pattern on Wednesday and I immediately bought a copy for myself and gifted one each to Andrea and Lori. We all had the same Halloween mini set so had decided to knit the same socks with the same minis and not share our design until we were done to see how different they were. I loved the pattern immediately and the socks were flying off the needles. I only used 4 of the 6 minis and did wide 4 repeat stripes. Lori started hers right away too but used all 6 colors and made single repeat stripes. Here are my finished socks, which I love. I didn't finish them this week but since I'm so behind on blogging, I have a picture of them finished. The little bit of black yarn is all I had left so I won at yarn chicken. I can't wait to make another pair with scraps.

I had finally made a plan to get to Omaha to buy the yarn for Dottie so took a couple of hours of vacation time on Friday and left for a solo Omaha run. I went to Rotella's bakery and got 2 huge loaves of their bread (one whole wheat and one cranberry) for $2.15. That's worth the trip right there! It was near where I was picking up the yarn. I took all but a couple of skeins that she had, filling my back seat with yarn for Dottie. Then I went to what used to be my favorite thrift store but, alas, it's gotten a bit grubby. I did find some cut glass goblets for Cindy's niece's wedding, which was the 3rd lot of them I found and these were the cheapest yet at .50 each. I went to the Goodwill bins, which are too crazy for me but I found a couple of garden things. After a stop at Trader Joe's for a few things, I headed home. It was a fun afternoon and I had gotten so much yarn.

Saturday was a Fremont run because it was the Estate Dispersal Store weekend. We started at The Restore, where I found all kinds of fun stuff for cheap, but I bought nothing at the EDS. Their prices have gone up so it's easy to leave things on the shelf. We got pedicures between Goodwill and Aldi so Saturday was fun and semi-productive.

Sunday was my usual day of getting things done. The best part was taking down the baker's rack that has been in front of my slider all winter and putting all my overwintered plants outside. I love having them inside over the winter but am always happy to put them out again come spring. The cleanup takes awhile with removing the plant stands then sweeping and washing the floors but it was time well spent. Spring will get here eventually, with more rain I'm sure. : )

Week 18 - A Relaxing Week

It was a pretty average week, which worked for me. I got a few things checked off my list, had a productive work week and ended with some yarn. 

I had some computer issues on Tuesday morning that left me recreating a file that got lost in the many reboots but it was all fixed by the time my online reconciliation class started after lunch and I ended up working late on the professorship project. 

Wednesday was the normal campus day and the first of the month so I watched Dana do monthly reports since she watched me last month. I had a nice lunch with Dodie and then Becky met me that afternoon to pick up my carful of donations for her Stuff for Strays garage sale, which will get lots of donations from me as I go through my entire house this summer. It's wonderful that have a good cause to donate to that helps cats. Becky is a peach. After a stop at Aldi on the way home, I chalked Wednesday up as a super productive day. Gotta load up those campus days!

We got another .7" of rain overnight, which put us up to 4.1" in the past 7 days. I got my grab & go lunch and taught in the afternoon. I had a contentious work call with a department person when I had some questions on their professorship data. I actually had to message Dana to ask her to call me so I could end that call. Sheesh! I ended the day with a 1.5 hour meeting with the architects about some renovations at the library. That's what I get for having all the ideas at the last board meeting. : )

I was super conflicted on Friday about whether to take some time off for an Omaha run or not. When I was checking Facebook for a message from the Omaha person I was trying to set up a meeting with to buy yarn (she hadn't replies), I found some yarn that had just been posted in Lincoln - a huge bag for $15! I messaged to clinch the sale and said I'd have a friend pick it up. As it turned out, Anne was nearby running errands so she went right over and picked it up. I couldn't convince her to go through it to show me on a video chat but that could wait. I ended up working until 5:00, finishing up the professorship work and doing my last ever self-evaluation. I was ready for the weekend.

It was a pretty chilly weekend with highs only in the low 60's and wind that made it feel colder so I had a lovely weekend mostly inside. I did go out late Saturday afternoon to cut the weed trees by the alley but otherwise I chatted with friends, streamed while knitting, of course, and did some cooking - a batch of blackberry/apple jam, rhubarb compote and peanut butter rice krispi squares, which weren't as good as they looked.

So nothing exceptional although the yarn score made me happy. I could use a few more weeks like this. Rosie had a relaxing time too. : )

Week 17 - Tornados and Plants

What can you say about a week that includes a tornado warning that leaves you in the basement of work watching radar with tornados all around you? Yup, that takes the cake but there was some other fun to share.

The beginning of the week was uneventful, unless you count starting a new quilt and yet another pair of socks. But as usual, I packed things in on my Wednesday campus day. We had a food day, which always cut even further into any semblance of productivity when working on campus. It was fun and lots of people showed up so I got to chat with people I rarely see. Nice.

On the way to dinner with a few of the water aerobics ladies, I stopped at my favorite thrift and found a couple of skeins of sock yarn, which is a rare thing indeed. Then it was on to Granite City to meet Natasha (hadn't seen her in years), Carol (saw her in the city pools last summer) and Anne (see her all the time). We got there in time for happy hour drink prices and it was pasta night so we enjoyed that while chatting for hours. It was lots of fun.

I was home Thursday so got a haircut over lunch and then attempted to help my friend's husband with Messenger after work. He'd posted a bike for sale on Facebook Marketplace but had not idea how to use Messenger and after an hour, still no luck. He did manage to respond to one person while I was there but still wasn't understanding how to use it. We gave up and I headed home for Backyard Farmer on PBS.

I had planned Friday as my second day on campus. It's always a ghost town on Friday and was this week (only Sheila and me) but I had social engagements. I went to Helen's for lunch and it was perfectly pleasant when I got there. When we went outside an hour later to check out plants in her yard (she moved in last fall so hadn't seen the spring plants), the weather had turned. It was much hotter and muggy as all get out. I drove back to campus and was just getting out of my car when the tornado sirens went off. I grabbed my knitting and headed to the basement. There weren't many people down there but I found a seat near the sustainability office. Someone cast their phone to a TV in a conference room and we watched tornados hit both east and west of us but downtown didn't even get any rain. I had taken 2 hours off to meet friends at Spring Affair so left as soon as the storm passed.

I was supposed to meet Anne and my friends from Wahoo (Lorri and Bob, of the Messenger fail) but Anne had tried to beat the storm and ended up sheltering in the event center. She shopped as soon as the danger had passed (a tornado touched down just north of there (like <1/4 mile away) and took out a factory before heading north) and left before I got there. The storm was heading towards Wahoo so Lorri and Bob were still in their basement and the sale was about to close before they got the all clear. I called Lorri and bought the one plant she really wanted, picked up a few for myself (total impulse buys) and headed home. Quite the dramatic end to the work week!

In comparison, my weekend was totally uneventful. I chatted on the phone, puttered a bit in the garden, did some chores and ended the weekend with a Ripples Zoom on Sunday afternoon. Since I like to include a picture, here's my new cat Rosie - it's tough to photograph a jet back cat. Anyway, she was very interested in a 6 pack of petunias that I'd brought inside before the storms in case we got hail. Not only did she dig at it all night but I woke up on Sunday to find it on the floor next to my bed. Go figure.

Week 16 - At Max Vacation

It had taken since my December trips to accrue but I was back at maximum vacation, which meant I'd be using 2 days each month until I retire in August. It was time for more exploring with Rene.

But first my quilt. My knitting friends were more than willing to help with the layout. I randomly laid out the 7 strips and they helped me decide which end to cut off of each to reduce the length to something more bed sized. I sewed them all together after work on Tuesday and then made the backing after work on Thursday, using the cut off bits down the center of the back with some old fabric from my days of sewing dumpy dresses to wear to work. I had arranged to drop it with Danielle at spinning on Saturday. She has a long arm quilting machine and does beautiful work. She said it would take ~2 weeks. I can't wait to get it back.

Thursday was my exploration day with Rene and we were headed to David City, which is the county seat of the county west of me. I think I'd been there once years ago but can't recall why. There is an agrarian art museum and Buresh Meats just north of town and that was reason enough to go. We left my house at 9:00 for the 30 minute drive and our first stop was a thrift shop on the edge of town. I scored a sewing chest full of vintage sewing trims, including lots of rick rack (my favorite) and double folded bias tape that I use for strings in my drawstring knitting bags, for $5. First stop and I was already happy. We went into another thrift and an ancient hardware store downtown before the museum, which was tiny so only took 20 minutes. After hitting the 2 grocery stores, the 2nd of which had Clarkson Bakery goodies, we went to Buresh Meats. Their prices were crazy cheap (85/15 1 pound hamburger chubs for $1.95!) but a lot of their stuff was in huge 5 pound bags so too big for either of us to use. I still managed to spend $50 and with that done, it was time to meander our way home.

What Rene and I like to do is plan a route home that includes as many small towns as we can go through. I'm here to tell you that we saw some SAD small towns on our way home. Octavia was the first and had not a single business in town and their specialty was single wides with multiple junk cars in the yard. But you could see they used to have a big school (someone was redoing it and appeared to be living in it) and a small main street with businesses, all closed now. Linwood was about the same but less junky and had a single huge steakhouse/bar as the only business in town. We ate lunch at Abie's Place in Abie, which is in the basement of the old school. Lunch was delish and cheap then it was on to Bruno, which still has a couple of businesses, and then Prague. I used to be the Wahoo Newspaper school board reporter for Prague but their school has since closed and the town has dried up. There's still a gas station/convenience store but even their restaurant/bar is closed. That's sad. We got home in time for a cup of tea at my house. It was a fun day.

Friday flew by, as did all the work days this week mostly with training Dana on anything that came across my desk, and it was time for the weekend. Andrea had another commitment so wasn't going to spinning but I had to drop my quilt off so headed to Fremont. I didn't do my usual shopping so went right home after. I did some cooking and made one of the Buresh Meats steaks I'd bought for supper. Sunday was my typical phone chats, chores and puttering. Lorri did stop by after work and I did drag hoses out and got some water on my veg beds but those hoses won't stay how I hooked them up but redoing those will wait for official hose and set up later.

Between my quilt and my exploring day, it was a great week. Dana is wonderful to work with and picks everything up super quickly. I'm loving the spring weather. Life is good!

Week 15 - Productivity and Kindness

It was a good week with lots of fun, an eclipse, working with Dana and a random act of kindness from a total stranger. There was also a gas problem but it was fixed without incident so all good.

Lots of people went into the office on Monday because of the eclipse. We were only at 80% so it didn't compare to the last one when we were in totality but it was still fun sitting outside watching it, which made for a nice break in the afternoon. Otherwise I worked on grad allocations with my replacement, Dana, so the day went quickly. I had made rhubarb upside down cake for knitting, which is always well received but then I went home.

I had made some veggies to go with my supper and used the little simmer burner on my stove. I'll call it a senior moment but I didn't turn the burner off. The water must have boiled over and put the flame out so gas was building up the whole time I was at knitting. I smelled it the minute I got into the house, found the burner on and turned it off. I then opened all the windows and started fans all over the house. Within 2 hours, the smell was gone so I went to bed feeling lucky that it hadn't been worse. Sheesh!

I was in the office on Wednesday, as usual, but had signed up for a retirement seminar from 8:00-12:30. I had been to one years ago but with retirement just a few months away, I went again. I knitted through the whole thing and learned some valuable things, such as spend your Roth IRA's last because you've already paid the tax on those so the interest you earn is tax free. Who knew? I had been planning to use those first if my savings don't last until I start social security or drawing from retirement. Anyway.... 

Cindy was at the seminar too and so we decided to go out to lunch before heading back to the office. We went to Bahnwich Cafe and then hit St. Louise's on the way back to campus, where I scored the rare as hen's teeth sock yarn. As if that wasn't happy enough, there was a random act of kindness later.

I decided that I'd stop at Menard's (a midwest Home Depot-ish store) on the way home to get some pansies. Just pansies. But when I went into the garden center, they had all their flowers fully stocked and they looked fresh off the truck. When I saw that they were one sale for $1.50 each (!), I filled 2 flats and picked up a Park's Whopper tomato and a pot of hyacinths. I was waiting in line at the register and chatting about plants with the man in front of me, exchanging tips of best tomatoes and garden deals. He was just buying a hose and was using a stack of rebates to pay. When he found 2 that approximated his total, he paid. As we were saying goodbye, he handed me a $15 rebate card and wished me a happy spring. When I balked, he told me to enjoy my plants and walked off with his wife. So a total stranger paid for most of my plants. It made my already happy day even happier.

The rest of the work week was more training with Dana but I also chatted with Anne from Spain (love Messenger for that) and took 2 hours of vacation time on Friday to start my spring clean up. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and I got the entire front, east side and around the deck and garage raked out before I petered out. I made a cup of tea and sat outside, happy with my progress. Rosie was loving being outside and didn't come in that night until 2:15 a.m.! Goodie was outside with her until 1:15, which meant I didn't sleep well because I got up every half hour or so to call them. Not the end of the work week I'd planned. Oh well.

Andrea and I were doing a Fremont run on Saturday morning to hit the Estate Dispersal Store sale, which is only one weekend each month. She was picking me up at 8:00 and we were getting breakfast too. I was tired but not too bad. We hit the Restore then got breakfast, which took long enough that we could do the EDS sale, which opened at 10:00, before our regular Goodwill and Aldi stops. We spent longer in Fremont than we'd planned but I was home early enough that I invited Lorri over for tea so we could catch up. It was a lovely day and productive too.

Sunday was crazy hot - 87 degrees! It had started to heat up Saturday but I'd kept the house shut up so it stayed cool. I was determined to not put on the AC so headed downstairs to my craft room when the temp upstairs started creeping up. I cut my stashing strips and sewed my crumb quilt squares into 7 strips. I did some bad math in my spreadsheet last summer so they were way too long so decided then and there to take them to knitting the next night, where I could grab a chunk of library floor to lay them out. It was a good plan.

So nice week, right? Dana was picking things up super quickly and we had chatting time to get to know each other. I had happy things left and right and made progress in the yard and on my quilt. I hope I have more weeks like this coming up. There's still plenty to do on all fronts, as usual.

Week 14 - Hanging with Friends

It was a fun week with lots of friends and training but ended with a stomach bug. Oh well.

Monday was the first business day of the month so Dana and I were in the office doing monthly reports, which went well. Dana skips lunch and leaves at 4:00 (she has kids in school/daycare) so I left at 4:30 so I wouldn't be so rushed with dinner before knitting. Good start to the week.

I was taking Thursday afternoon off for a Fremont run with Darla so after a remote day working with Dana, I started cleaning (nothing like having someone come over to motivate me to neatize and clean!) and then did my taxes. Productive day all around.

Wednesday was a campus day and I picked up donated cat food for Husker Cats on the way in. It was Dana time all morning then I thrifted at lunch. We had a long overdue FAC after work at Tico's, which means margueritas and nachos for me. It was fun hanging with work friends outside of work. I listened to the start of Survivor on my phone as I drove home and then settled in to watch the rest when I got home. I did a bit more cleaning and was ready for Darla.

I picked up grab & go lunches mid-morning and Darla arrived at noon. She wanted to meet my cats but they wanted no part of a stranger in the house. (Gansey was the only cat I've ever had who liked people.) We enjoyed our lunch then headed to Fremont. We both found things at Thriftology, which is a small thrift shop that used to be open on Saturdays but isn't anymore so I can't go on my regular Saturday Fremont runs. I filled a bag with fabric scraps at the quilt shop and then we meandered up Main Street, ending with a latte at the local coffee shop. From there it was Goodwill and Aldi. It was a lovely afternoon with Darla, who is one of my favorite people to hang with.

Unfortunately, I was up in the wee hours with digestive issues. There was clean up and a shower involved so it wasn't pretty. I took immodium that was WAY out of date and called in. I have trouble calling in sick but not when I have things leaving my body explosively. I napped and watched TV. The runs were fixed with the old drugs (time to add immodium to my shopping list) but I was still cramping on and off until the evening. It's always something.

I woke up feeling 100% on Saturday, which was a good thing because I had plans Saturday morning. Jennifer, who used to work in Accounting, was in town for a class at the satellite campus of the Southeast Community College so we met and shopped our way through downtown Wahoo. We went to the Senior Center Thrift Shop, where Barbara, who also worked in Accounting before retiring, was volunteering. It was old home week. We ended with lunch at Mocha C's, where I didn't get my regular grab and go choice. Shocking!

Since I was done with Jennifer in the early afternoon and my house was clean, I invited Lorri over for tea so we could catch up after her trip. We had a lovely chat and then I forced myself outside to prep and plant my early veg bed. We had rain due overnight so it'd be watered in. While I was completely unmotivated, I was glad I got it done and we did get a bit of rain. We were inches behind with precipitation last year and with almost no snow all winter, are inches behind this year already. I hope we don't have another droughty summer.

With all my social commitments over and my house as clean as it gets, Sunday was my usual chores and cooking. Knitting too, of course, and I finished my first challenge sock, which is the dreaded toe up method. They're going right into my gift bags when they're done. Toe up is loathsome so I need them out of my life. It was a relaxing end to a full week.

Week 13 - Welcoming My Replacement

The week started with another 4 hour zoom for the F&A proposal on Monday morning. It was supposed to be our last but we had 2 more hours on Tuesday and that was our last until the actual last one first thing Wednesday. The proposal was submitted later on Wednesday so it's finally done. My last F&A proposal - yay!

It was brutally cold at the beginning of the week and everyone bailed on knitting Monday night. I had to unlock Lorri's door for her cleaning lady to get in on Tuesday morning, when the windchills were crazy cold so I got a grab & go lunch since I was out in the cold. Perfectly warm spring weather was back by the end of the week - in like a lion out like a lamb. I took Rosie outside for the first time Thursday evening since it was warm enough. It was her first time outside so she was pretty timid but seemed to enjoy it.

Dana, my replacement, started on Friday. She's a lovely woman and I spent the morning doing financial 101 with her then the team went to Green Gateau for a welcome lunch. Lacey let us out at 3:00 for the Easter weekend so it was a short day. I went straight home for a cup of tea and time outside with Rosie. While they're not best buds yet, Goodie was more interested in playing with Rosie outside so that was good. The temp plummeted after supper so it'd be a chilly weekend.

I had a cozy, warm weekend inside. It was above freezing so I did laundry and hung it out but otherwise was inside on the phone with friends, knitting and streaming. I started some seeds and stayed up late to watch White Lotus. 

Sunday was turkey day. I was flying to Finland on Thanksgiving so thought I'd make a turkey over Christmas break but with my toe surgery, I never did. I was missing having a freezer full of turkey so Easter turkey it was. It was ready mid-afternoon so I tore it apart immediately and put the bones in the crockpot to make stock. I was still picking turkey at 10:00 pm.

All in all, it was a nice week. Dana seemed smart and nice and with her hire, my retirement was feeling more real. Rosie was OK being outside, which made her feel like a normal cat for me, and my freezer and fridge were full o turkey for the next week. All good.