Week 16 - Starting a Purge?

I started out the week in full on non-productive mode. Even when we didn't have knitting on Monday, I wasted the free night and got nothing done. This continued for most the week, unfortunately. And then it went further downhill in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

I got up at 4:00 to pee, which is not a normal thing for me by the way, and in the 2 minutes that I was out of bed, one of my rotten cats peed on my bed. Not only on the bed but where I'd thrown the sheets back so It went through all the layers. By the time I stripped the bed, I was wide awake. I dragged myself to work and was in a funk all day. It started with the pee but my co-worker had an interview and facing the prospect of him leaving, added to my funk. My mood finally improved when I went home for a night of knitting and streaming. Good thing because no one wants to feel off on a Friday.

Friday flew by and our boss came in and said we could leave early so I was out the door before 4:00. I had a few errands to run and gave thought to going back to campus to swim but when I finished my errands early, I headed home. I started puttering in the yard and decided it was the perfect night for my first ever fire.

I had traded a yarn winder for a fire pit with a friend but the fire pit was more of a coleman camping grill so I'd never used it. I'd been saving wood, mostly what has fallen into my yard from my neighbor's dying tree, for a couple of years so was ready. I took pieces off of the grill to make it more fire pit-ish and lit a match. I was lovely! Since most of my wood is smaller, I had to make many trips to the brush pile for more. It was so successful that I went onto Craig's List in search of fireplace tools. I found some for $5 and made arrangements to pick them up Monday over lunch. Now to get some bigger logs for future fires, of which there'll be many. I might even make it a Friday night recurring event. Hmm....

I had a haircut scheduled for 10:45 Saturday morning but when my hairdresser called and asked me to come at 9:00, I threw on clothes and headed there. That got me up and dressed so I came home and got the kitchen cleaned up before Andrea picked me up early for spinning. We were hitting Buck's Shoes, where I used to shop all the time when I worked in HR and had to dress better for work. Sadly, they're going out of business so Drae wanted to look for sandals. She found a pair and then we went to spinning, Goodwill and Aldi before going to the sushi place for dinner. It was a good day.

Sunday was Easter and while I don't celebrate it, I usually try to get outside to commune with nature and celebrate spring. Well, it was going to be HOT in the afternoon and I was on a mission so I got busy first thing. UNL was having an electronics recycling event and I had lots of stuff to get rid of. I started in the basement storage room and finished in the garage. I had 3 TV's (I'd have to pay $1/diagonal inch but was fine with that just to get rid of them), an ancient mac, a modem (for Pete's sake!), 2 laptops, a scanner and 2 printers, 1 of which was from Brown. Sheesh! 

The car was loaded and I was a sweaty mess so I took a shower and closed up the house. Because it was already getting hot so I was staying inside. It peaked at 89 degrees. In April. OMG! I spent the rest of the day watching PBS and stashing the yarn I'd bought in Minneapolis. I was feeling good about my spurt of productivity to end a week when I'd mostly been a slug. And once the electronics were gone, I had plans to get rid of the bikes I'd unearthed while digging in the garage. I was hoping that this was the beginning of a big purge. I live in hope.

Week 15 - So Much Excitement!

I had some exciting things this week but in looking back at them, I can tell I'm getting old because very few people would find these things exciting. Oh well. Call me boring. Keep reading if you want. You've been warned.

First up was when my friend cancelled going to the movies on Tuesday. Being an old fart with a flip phone, I didn't see it when she texted first thing in the morning to cancel. So I took a short lunch to make up for leaving at 4:30 for the movie only to find out mid-afternoon that there would be no movie. The weather was gorgeous so I left early to rake. And let me tell you, I was excited to get outside. So much so that my co-worker said he'd never seen anyone so excited about raking. I went right home and raked for almost 2 hours, finishing all my perennial beds except for the one I'd piled sticks in all winter. I went inside that night feeling super satisfied and just the right amount of tired. BTW, I moved the sticks and raked that last bed on Saturday so it was all done. Nice.

Second excitement was my dentist appointment on Wednesday. As happens with age (so I'm told anyway), my two lower front teeth had shifted recently and there was a sharp spot on the corner of one. I don't know if the shift caused a chip or what but I'd spent the last month constantly poking that tooth and irritating the hell out of my tongue. I had tried to get a small mirror in my mouth to see if it was actually chipped but failed. Well, it was chipped and my dentist ground off the corner and life was good! I'm hoping that over time my tongue will stop gravitating to that spot now that it's smooth.

So while those two things may not rate as exciting to you, the last thing was absolutely exciting. I hope. Anne and I were driving to Minneapolis for the world's largest fiber garage sale at the University of Minnesota's Textile Center. We had gone last year but a blizzard forced us to leave right after the sale and drive home ahead of the storm. This year we were excited to enjoy the sale and spend the night in the hotel I'd booked. We met in Waverly because you still can't go east from Wahoo (only 1 bridge of 3 is open from the flood in March) so I drove south to meet Anne. Our ride there was uneventful and we hit Ikea and Lands end before some dram when we got to downtown and our GPS failed us. After a bit of stress getting lost, we did make it there. Next year we'll have to go low tech and print a map.

The sale was fun but I didn't find much sock yarn. That was probably because despite getting there at the same time, we were way further back in the line so most of sock yarn was gone by the time I got there. I did manage to find plenty of other yarn and had time to peruse the books and patterns. We left the sale with full Ikea bags (yes, the huge blue ones) and headed to our hotel. When we saw the Aldi right next store, we decided to grab food there and eat a hotel picnic while going through our purchases. We went to bed satisfied with our day. I might have bought a lot of yarn. : )

After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we headed home. Our plan was to stop at the Spam Museum on the way. Anne had hesitantly suggested it the night before and I jumped at the chance, excited with the prospect. The museum was unique for sure and I had fun in the gift shop. The rest of the trip home was uneventful and I was home by dinner. Definitely a fun mini trip. Sunday was the usual chores to prepare for the coming week. I do enjoy a productive Sunday at home to end the week.

Week 14 - Food and Gardening

This week seemed dominated by food, which isn't all bad. It started with blondies that I made for knitting in my edge pan, which I'd bought last year at Family Thrift (R.I.P.) but had never used. They took longer to cook but the edges were fabulous. With only 3 of us at knitting, I brought the leftovers to work, where they were a big hit.

I was supposed to have lunch with Darla on Tuesday but she was home sick so I was on my own. I went thrifting, of course, and then went to a hotdog restaurant I'd been wanting to try - Fly Dogz. The menu was overwhelming so I scanned the details and ordered the first one that wasn't offensive along with some cole slaw. I went outside to wait because it was SO hot in there and didn't think anything of it when they said they had my soda inside. I hadn't ordered one so said as much and drove off. Only when I got to my desk did I see that the cole slaw was missing. I had an odd messaging exchange with the restaurant and got no satisfaction. While the hotdog was good (BBQ with crushed fritos and a bunch of other stuff), it was an expensive fast food experience - $7.50 for a single hotdog! The universe is clearly telling me something here. No more fast food! I had a taco salad for dinner. : )

I started Wednesday back at the office furniture store trying chairs again. I had done this before but they lost my order so I sat in 20+ chairs again and chose one. Since I was in the east end of Lincoln, I stopped at Le Quartier for croissants for the office. I got a pain au raisin. Delish!

Thursday was yet more food, starting with lunch with Dodie then early FAC at Tico's after work. It was a belated margarita celebration for finishing the Winter Workshop. Belated (the workshop was in February) but fun and yummy. It's fun to hang out with work friends outside of work.

I had seen on Facebook that UNL's Diary Store had fluffernutter ice cream and since spring weather had finally arrived, Nora went to get her daughter and then met Cindy and me for ice cream Friday afternoon. Of course they were out of fluffernutter but I found something else and we disbursed from there. I headed back to campus to swim. I do love ending my week with a workout and shower, ready for the weekend.

We finally had weather for gardening and I spent all day Saturday outside. I started by clearing out one of my compost bins so I could refill it as I raked. I filled my wheel barrow and then started sifting, ending up with 3 big containers of gorgeous black gold. That done, I started out front, clearing out the parking and raking the front yard. I perfectly layered the leaves with half finished compost from the other bin and things were looking good by the time I went inside in late afternoon. I felt great!

My intention was to get outside Sunday too but it was damp and dreary all morning and by the time the sun came out, I was fully involved inside. I had tons of laundry to do - mostly linens - so did 5 loads of laundry and hung them on the line. I also did some chores and cooking. A normal and lovely Sunday to end the week. I was hoping for more warmth to finish the raking, finishing the week hopeful. All good.

Week 13 - Fiber and Produce

Well the week didn't start on an up note. I slept like crap and then laid in bed for 40 minutes, unable to muster the energy to start my week. I had to get better from here, right?

I had training on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, which always makes the week fly. Otherwise it was a normal week with knitting and swimming. Until Thursday. 

Since chickens were on the agenda at City Council, we had rescheduled book club to 6:00 so we could go to the meeting at 7:00. That didn't stop me from stopping at The Warehouse, where I scored all kinds of veg, including a bunch for Andrea. It was a good discussion at book club and then, of course, no progress was made on the chickens. I was glad the next day was Friday after such a long day.

Layton was out of town so I was on my own for Friday lunch. I had been seeing ads for fish sandwiches (lent, you know) on TV and had never eaten there so decided to get take out for lunch. I stopped at Goodwill on the way there for their 99 cent sale. I did find a few shirts and several pairs of pants in my size (score!) but also found a braided hank of fiber (for spinning) on a scarf rack so picked that up. When I got to the register, the person beside me in line remarked on it and mentioned how many there were. I left my stuff and ran back for a quick scan, finding 9 more. Did I mention they were $1.99 each? Very exciting and I'd be sharing them at my spinning group.

I went to Culver's and was surprised to see that the meal was almost $10 but added cheese curds anyway, making my total for take out lunch $14.79. Sheesh! It also wasn't fast - they gave me a number to hang on my window and sent me to park to wait for my food. Since the sandwich was only OK, I won't be going there again anytime soon. But as I waited for my food, I decided to go back to Goodwill for a more thorough check. I scoured every end cap rack in the store and found 3 more, bringing my total to 13 braids of fiber. Here's a picture. I kept the purple and gray one (second from the left) but all the rest is for friends. I love sharing my thrift scores.

It was another cold, dreary weekend so I happily spent it inside cooking, knitting and doing chores. I had fun using all the produce I'd found at The Warehouse and filled my fridge with yumminess for the week. Nice but I was hoping for some nice weather next weekend so I could get outside and do some yard work. Wish me luck.

Week 12 - Sick then Productive

This week was a doozy! I was sick as a dog on Wednesday but recovered by the weekend and made up for lost time.

On Tuesday I kept telling Cindy I felt super tired, despite having slept fine the night before. I made it through the day though and headed to BW’s in Ashland, where I was meeting Andrea and Lori for their birthday dinner. I got there first and ordered my favorite beer. I wasn’t enjoying it but ordered my favorite fried egg sandwich and tots, only to not be able to eat them when they came out. Hmmm… clearly something was working on me and as the evening went on, I was feeling more and more unsettled. I took my sandwich to go and left a bit earlier than I’d have liked, making a bee line home. My intestines were in an uproar! I went right to bed and hoped for the best.

I was up at midnight so took some Pepto and emailed that I wouldn’t be in on Wednesday. I woke up once more but then slept until 9:30 – 13 hours! I took Immodium when I got up and sat like a zombie in a chair, not even knitting. That’s SICK! I took another dose at noon, napped that afternoon and was feeling some better. I wasn’t too broken up about missing UAAD at lunch but had really been looking forward to dinner at Green Flash with the water aerobics gang to celebrate Allison’s dissertation being done. Oh well. It’s not like I planned to have the runs.

I went back to work on Thursday but wasn’t 100% and was dragging. I made it through the day and actually got some energy back right before bed. Not wanting that to go to waste, I reorganized all my sock yarn. I was looking for a specific skein that wasn’t where it should have been and did find it in the very last tote so I guess it wasn’t wasted time. I slept fine that night and was feeling normal by Friday. Layton and I had Chinese buffet at lunch and I lived to tell. I then got a nice surprise when I remembered mid-afternoon that we didn’t have swimming due to spring break so I could go right home after work. Bad memory sucks but sometimes it does lead to happy things. : )

It was a dreary weekend and I spent it all at home. I had run out of time the previous weekend in my attempt to reclaim the spare room and had done zero cleaning. It seemed like every surface was covered with crap and everything else was dirty. So I spent the weekend clearing and cleaning. I made excellent progress and had stuff out the door - donations loaded in the car, junk into the trash and old produce (yes, I cleaned the fridge too) into the compost. As soon as something was cleared, I cleaned it too. Floors mostly but some counters and my hassock too. I even took down the deck Christmas tree, which until last week had been buried in a snow drift. By the time I started cooking Sunday afternoon, I was feeling good about things. And after spending hours cooking (homemade bread, bread pudding, carrot/raisin salad, turkey casserole and Brussels sprouts), I was an adult and got off my butt and did all those dishes. It was well worth the effort just to see everything looking so good after so long of looking like crap. Now to keep this up so I’m ready to head outside as soon as things dry out.

Week 11 - My Flooded State

What a week. Pie, floods and cats – so much drama! Despite Mother Nature wreaking havoc on Nebraska, it ended up a good week for me, which sounds so selfish but that’s my reality.

I started the week shopping at UNL’s warehouse for office furniture before work on Monday. Nothing like an 8:00 commitment to get my butt in gear for a work week. Nora was at work Monday but off for the rest of the week and I had a big to do list, which went swimmingly. I got all kinds of things done, including 7 hours of tedious data entry to end the week on Friday. I brought Pie to work on Pi Day because I’m all about pie (I even have a cat name Pie) and that was the icing on the cake for a super productive week.

But how can I not focus on the flooding? While it had minimal impact on me, it was so devastating and I found myself constantly checking the news and online for updates. Here’s a picture of day 1 of the floods and it’s what I encountered when I left for work on Thursday. The roads I’d normally take were under water but I was able to head north to get on the bypass and got to work only a bit late. The south roads were accessible by the end of the day so Wahoo’s flooding was done but not the rest of the area.

Fremont, where I was supposed to have spinning on Saturday, was completely cut off with water on all sides. There was no going to Omaha either, as all the bridges over the Elkhorn and Platte rivers were either washed out or under water so my attempt to reschedule my Saturday plans failed too. But I could still get to Lincoln so I put another plan into action.

I've had Jay, the husker cat who needed emergency surgery at the end of January, in my spare bedroom recuperating for way too long. Had we not had the winter from hell with snow on the ground for the entire month of February, he would have been gone after a couple of weeks. Well the same rain storm that started the snow melt and resulting flooding also made it possible, finally, to send Jay back to campus. Andrea came over after her shop closed and we took the spare room bed apart, got Jay into a carrier and released him back on campus. How's this for camouflage under a bush at the library? I treated Andrea to lunch at Green Flash as a thank you for helping me, after which we hit Aldi. All good.

With Jay no longer in residence, I began reclaiming my spare room. He'd lived under the bed for every minute that he wasn't eating or using the litter box so I started with cleaning that. The floor and the lids of the under the bed boxes he sat on were disgusting but with those cleaned, I was able to put the bed back together with fresh sheets. The rest would wait for Sunday so I settled down to watch The Matrix and crochet. Yes, I said crochet.

I was inspired by someone who bought yarn from me to start a knitted afghan. I started one with 2 strands of brown acrylic from the auction cones I got years ago and a 3^rd strand of random pastels. Because I love brown and pastels. But when I went downstairs to search in my deep, dark stash for the acrylic, I found an afghan that I started decades ago made of pastel acrylic scraps. So I brought that upstairs and decided I should finish that using the smaller balls before I do more on the knitted afghan. So I'm crocheting away. I seem to be wanting to do projects other than socks lately so this doesn't really surprise me. But it surprises everyone else for sure. Anyway….

Sunday was a gorgeous day and with all the linens from the spare bed and mine, I did 6 loads of laundry. The backyard was a soggy mess but I braved the squish to hang everything on the line. It was glorious! To celebrate the long overdue arrival of warmer weather, I dyed some sock yarn and added that to the clothesline. I am SO happy that winter is done. Can you relate?

Week 10 - Winter is OVER!

I feel pretty old getting excited about the weather but with the brutal winter we've had, I was super excited when the weather broke. There were hints of warming early in the week and by Friday it was above freezing. At last! Then on Saturday it rained and ridiculous excitement ensued. Having been stuck inside for the past few weekends, it was exciting just to go to the bank.Not even the water I had in my basement could curb my enthusiasm. 

The problem was a downspout that was frozen into a snowbank and blocked. I dug in the garage for the plastic downspout I'd bought and was able to get that under bend where it was spilling out the back then started trying to dig out the downspout. Well, I cut a hole in the top of it while trying  to chip it out of the ice and water immediately started coming out of the hole. Whatever! With that under control, I started cleaning up the basement. The shop vac was in the wet so I used a broom and squeegee to get the water to the floor drain in the laundry room. It immediately started drying up so I headed upstairs for, you guessed it, some knitting.

I never got much more done on Saturday and ended the day watching The Matrix, which I'd been thinking about lately and then there it was on Prime. Can my firestick read my mind? I'm beginning to wonder since I never googled the movie. With Saturday shot, I had some catching up to do on Sunday. The sun was shining and there was more melting going on but there was still a foot of snow on the ground so I found a solution to hot being able to get to my clothesline.

I needed the weekend to recuperate because it was not a good week at work. Everyone was miserable about the training room decision, which ended up being all the boss' idea with zero input from anyone affected, including the person everyone was blaming for the fiasco. There was a mutiny on Wednesday afternoon and the decision was reversed, which lead to brainstorming, measuring and trips to inventory. Mary and I ended the day Friday clearing out one of the storage rooms in the basement. We got rid of tons of stuff so it's down to just the stuff that must be kept, which isn't much.

I guess I didn't matter so much that I'd missed swimming Wednesday night (stayed late working on Plan B for the training room) because I certainly got a workout Thursday morning. The last snow of the year (hopefully) was Wednesday night, which left me shoveling 6 inches of snow Thursday morning so I could get to a 9:00 meeting, which I made just in time.

Otherwise, it was an uneventful week. In case you're interested, here are a couple of pics of my new office. We had fun with paint to perk up the drab gray that's everywhere. Fun, n'est-ce pas?

BTW, when is this daylight savings time crap going to end? It serves no purpose anymore and just messes with people's lives. And I for one do not need to sun to be up until 10:00 in mid summer. Time to write congress!