Week 25 - All About Cherries

That title is a bit misleading because while I did spend time with cherries this week, I did lots of other fun stuff too. Here goes....

Monday was uneventful with laundry, washing glassware from the garage that had been on my driveway since I did some garage cleaning weeks (months?) ago and having to leave Monday Night Knitting early because of storms. But I did take a long overdue step and called Windstream to drop my landline. Yes, I am now cellular only. Saved $40/month for something I rarely used. About time, I know.

Tuesday was my York trip with Darla, which was rescheduled from the day in March when the state was shut down by a blizzard, which had lots of snow that melted in a day. Before I met Darla for our afternoon, I stopped at the home of the Yarn Charm (a closed Lincoln yarn shop that still has an online shop) owners to pick up some yarn for my temperature blanket. I had tried 3 different ways to contact them but hadn't heard back so took this drastic step and it worked. Craig was home and went to his basement and got me the 6 skeins I needed. I had cash but he wouldn't take it, instead taking my email and saying he'd have his wife email about paying online without shipping. Update: it's been almost 2 weeks and still haven't heard from them so it's time to send a check I guess. How last century.

I met Darla in the Tractor Supply parking lot, where we left my car, got Arby's to eat in the car and headed out. We went via Seward and had fun in their 2 thrift shops before taking backroads to York. There's a shop there that Darla loves but neither of us found any treasures there. We hit their messy Goodwill and I did find a couple of skeins of yarn there but then we were done. Our plan had always been to eat supper at Chances R - a local restaurant people rave about. It wasn't even 4:00 and I wasn't hungry at all but we went anyway. This is the third time I've eaten there and there's absolutely no reason to ever eat there again. 

It was cool on Wednesday morning so I went out first thing and did some gardening. I potted up the 2 plants I'd bought recently in Fremont (why?) and dug out the eggplant plant I found growing in my mandevilla and potted that up. A gift from mother nature. The last thing I did outside was pick a bunch of cherries - more on that later. I then ran Wahoo errands and drove through BK for lunch. It was still cool enough to enjoy tea outside on my bench, which is rare this time of year and it would be the last cool day for awhile. I can't complain about the spring we've had though, especially all the rain that is slowing chipping away at our drought. 

Thursday was a busy day built around another lymphedema appointment so of course I didn't sleep well. First stop in Lincoln was East Campus for BBQ with work friends. Having time to kill before my appointment, I hit all the thrifts and found lots of cheap yarn, which was mostly in $1 bags. Those are plentiful these days because they are marking yarn so high that the bags don't ever sell and so get marked down after spending weeks in the store. So stupid but I scored. After my appointment, I went to my cousin's to hang out for an hour, leaving to head to swimming. Well, the pool was open but they'd cancelled water aerobics due to the holiday and hadn't told anyone nor posted online. There we dozens of us unhappy at being turned away. Oh well.

Friday was cherry day. I went out first thing to water and picked another bowl of cherries before the heat set in. I planted the cherry tree when I bought the house 25 years ago but have never done a thing with the cherries. This is the first year there have been enough to bother with (OK there was one other year but I was in Europe when they ripened) and I was determined to make jam, which is what I intended to do when I planted it. I loath fake cherry flavor, which reminds me of the bathroom cleaner at the Kent Theatre in the town I grew up in, but love cherry jam and pie. 

I garden organically so don't spray, which means there's a worm in almost every cherry. So I had to cut each cherry open, pull out the pit and remove the worm, cutting away any damage too. I spent most of the afternoon prepping cherries - 2.5 hours! I wanted to be done with cherries but put on my big girl pants, cleaned up the kitchen and made a batch of jam. I still had some cherries leftover and may make a small pie with those. It felt good to finally have homemade cherry jam and I was ready for the weekend.

Go figure - my big plans for the weekend were to stay inside with the AC cranked knitting and streaming, skipping my spinning group because I had zero interest in the program.  I did talk to a few friends and Anne and I decided not to drive to Winnipeg next week, opting instead for a day trip to Lawrence, Kansas. That makes way more sense. I did some chores on Sunday and hit HyVee before swimming for their big produce sale before swimming to end the weekend, which you know I love.

Like I said, I did plenty beside cherries but that was the highlight of a busy summer week that had plenty of fun otherwise. Now that summer heat has set in, I'll have to come up with a plan so I don't spend this summer sitting on my butt knitting. Wish me luck.

Week 24 - Super Social Week

I don't think I've had this busy a week since I retired. I was out and about every single day, which sounds like a lot but I had tons of fun.

I had a bone scan at 11:15 on Monday in Lincoln (yes, more cancer stuff due to the estrogen blocker that I'm on possibly causing bone loss) so planned social stuff while there, of course. The scan was quick so I picked up pizza and treats at the nearby HyVee and took it to Darla's. She goes home at lunch to let out her dog so we had a nice lunch in her living room. I hit some thrifts when I left and scored some sock yarn, which is my #1 favorite thing to thrift but is wicked rare (went Rhode Island with that wicked). I stopped at 2 different flooring stores and yet again found nothing but gray and tan. Nope. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and was the last cool one so we knitted outside at the library. It was a good day.

Tuesday was a cleaning day, spurred on by the upcoming trip on Wednesday where Anne and/or Rene might need to come in to use the bathroom. I did laundry, floors and cleaned the bathroom. It was getting toasty but I wanted one last night to sleep with the windows open so toughed it out. I had a library board meeting that night and stayed late working on the puzzle with Ana and Denise, who is the library director so we stayed past closing. This was my quietest weekday.

Wednesday was the first road trip of the summer. Anne, Rene and I were heading to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa to go to Growing Up Lulu Fiber Arts - a fun local yarn shop. I'd stopped there once on the way back from Sioux Falls and must have talked it up because Anne and Rene wanted to go. We went up highway 77, stopping at Uehling for their thrift shop and in Oakland, which is the Swedish capital of Nebraska and sells Swedish things in their grocery store. I scored some cardamom bread and some cookies to eat in the car. Lulu's was fun and we all found some yarn (yes, mine was sock yarn) and then had lunch in a cafe in town before heading home on the Iowa side of the river. We stopped in Missouri Valley for soft serve and crossed over the river there so came back through Blair and Fremont. Despite being done with planting, we stopped at Kaw Valley for their 50% off sale and I bought 2 more plants - a beautiful petunia to plant in a container where one of my geraniums died and a double impatiens that I'd find someplace for. It was another fun day.

Thursday was my busiest day of the week. I started with a bird feather presentation at the lake at 9:00 and then went straight to campus to drop my work laptop with Philippe so he could do the migration that had failed the night my internet was down. I had another lymphedema session at 11:30, which was the only available time when I scheduled. I had planned a late lunch with Layton, who was RIF'ing (reduction in force, aka firing) people all morning so he'd be calling me when he was done. I thrifted my way towards the restaurant we'd be meeting at. On the way, I scored all kinds of yarn in bags for $1 because they were so overpriced that they didn't sell for so long that they marked them down. I parked under a tree across from the restaurant and sorted yarn until Layton was ready. I had a yummy burger but Layton was too keyed up to eat. I had to go back to campus to work with Philippe to test the migration but he wasn't ready so I knitted in the car until 4:00 then worked with him until 5:00. I then hit the grocery store to kill time until swimming at 6:15. Long day but productive and fun.

I had some much needed downtime on Friday morning so chatted/zoomed with friends, watched my favorite knitting YouTubers and ate lunch. Andrea gets out of work early on Fridays and we were headed to Abie for their church's rummage sale. But since we were heading west, I wanted to go via David City to hit Buresh's Meats, which always has good deals. From there we went to the sale and then Andrea's boyfriend met us at Abie's Place for fish supper. Andrea paid this time and Mike paid the last time we ate there so next time is on me.

Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day but the Monday Night Knitters hadn't planned anything. I have been following the Omaha Knit Night group on Facebook for ages and even met their leader at Fiberpalooza this spring but have never gone to one of their meetups. Well, they were having a picnic in Elmwood Park in Omaha and I wanted to go Nebraska Furniture Mart on my flooring search so I took some banana bread to share and a sandwich for myself and headed out. The people were nice and there was not only plenty of food there but they had a swap table. I took some of the bulky acrylic I'd scored on Thursday, which all went, and I scored some sock yarn leftovers. I went to the mart where I failed again (so much gray and beige. Am I the only person who wants fun flooring?) and then hit Floor & Decor too. Failed again and officially gave up. I hit a couple of thrifts and was home by mid-afternoon. The air was on and it was hot so it was time to hunker down.

I spent Sunday bleach testing all of the yarn I'd found in the past week (wool dissolves in bleach but nylon doesn't and I want yarn I use for socks to have nylon) and did some baking to use up bread - strata and bread pudding. I streamed Sugar on AppleTV and cast on shorties in my favorite pattern with some of the sock yarn I scored from the swap table on Saturday. Only at the end of the day did I suit up and head to Lincoln for swimming. It's a wonderful way to end the week in the summer. I shower when I get home and settle in for PBS.

So, a super busy week but all kinds of fun. The heat had set in and with a heat wave in the forecast, I'll need to come up with a new summer routine that includes more than knitting and streaming. Wish me luck.

Week 23 - Water and Work

It was an interesting week that started with no water, included more work than I've done since I retired and was supposed to be the first week of water aerobics but weather nixed that.

Monday started normally and I was looking forward to seeing Lori, who was coming to Wahoo for an appointment and would be having dinner at my house then going to Monday Night Knitting. Then I flushed the toilet mid morning and it didn't refill. I called the city utility department and they said there was a water main break at the end of my street and they didn't know how long we'd be without water. I immediately headed to the library, knitting and toothbrush in hand. I went back home at lunchtime and talked to the workers on the street, who said they couldn't find the leak. Still without water, I told Lori we'd need a plan B and headed back to the library, where I spent a lot of time working on the community puzzle. Lori met me there and we headed to Adelita's for Mexican food and then back to the library for knitting. I was thrilled that the water was back on when I got home.

I was not so thrilled Tuesday morning when the water was turned off again. I headed back to the library and also ran errands in Wahoo. It came back on mid-afternoon after they found and fixed the leak. Yay! I happily made turkey korma for dinner (a jar of sauce from Aldi that I was trying for the first time with cooked turkey from the freezer) and had Ana come over to pick some up. 

Wednesday was a gorgeous day and would have been perfect for gardening but I needed to get all the things done that I couldn't do without water - laundry, dishes, etc. - so didn't get any gardening done. Oh well. 

Thursday was a Lincoln day. I had an appointment with a lymphedema specialist at the Cancer Center that afternoon (yes, I have lymphedema in my breast - the latest in my cancer journey. Sheesh!) so had scheduled lunch with my new friend Mary. We went to Heoya, which I'd been to before with my old boss, but I couldn't remember what we ordered and what we got was nothing special. Korean fries was what we should have gotten. I thrifted my way south, had a good massage session that immediately relieved the swelling and left with exercises to do at home. I went to Lowe's and found the perfect sink and light fixture for my bathroom remodel, hit Aldi then stopped at Ernie's in Ceresco looking for flooring, which was a total fail, as had been Lowe's. It should have been the first water aerobics class but since it was in the 60's all day, I'd decided early on that I wouldn't go. Turns out they cancelled class anyway so it was a good call.

When I got home, I had an email from Brook about helping out with some work. Dana, my replacement, had to jump on a plane to Jordan because her dad died so Brook needed some help. We talked some things out but I needed help from our computer guy Philippe before I'd be able to run queries. I spent time with him Friday morning and then worked all afternoon, putting in more hours in 2 days than I'd worked in a long time. I got through the entire list Brook had sent except for one thing that I declined to help with. Of course it was a top 10 gorgeous day and I spent it at my computer. Bummer but I'll call the money I earned yarn money for when I'm in Europe in July. I was tired after working all afternoon.

Despite working just a few hours, I was ready for a quiet weekend. Then I got a text from Helen on Saturday morning inviting me to dinner that night from Brenda's (her daughter in law) birthday. It took ages to decide but I did end up going down and it was fun. Sunday was rainy and cold at only 67 degrees so I spent the day knitting (socks, of course, but I also made my tenth charity hat of the year) and roasted some tomatoes that needed using. No water aerobics again but I wasn't complaining because summer heat and humidity would be coming soon.

So nothing normal about this week, right? Water, working and weather messing with my long awaited return to the pool. Next week, I'm hoping for normal.

Week 22 - Filling My Calendar

Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer and I took that to heart and got busy filling in the fun on my calendar.

As a retiree, the week starting with a holiday doesn't mean much. I have no family graves to visit so it was just a regular chore day, complicated by loosing my landline and internet. With no appointments in Lincoln this week, I had to convince myself that it was OK to leave town for groceries so I headed to Lincoln on Tuesday morning for errands and groceries. I was home by 12:30 so didn't kill the whole day. Nice.

I had called Windstream to schedule a service call and it wouldn't be for another week! Not having internet was cramping my style big time. I could use my phone's hotspot for basic internet but not streaming so I ended up watching Star Trek on one of the geezer over the air channels. And of course this was the night my computer needed to be on for the migration from unl.edu to nebraska.edu. The hotspot wouldn't cut it so I put it on the wifi, which was dropping constantly, and hoped for the best. It did not work so I struggled on Tuesday morning, doing the manual migration steps (my internet had somehow fixed itself but my landline was still dead) and hosed it up even more. I cut bunches of weed trees in the afternoon and went out to dinner with my new friend Ana.

I woke up Thursday and decided it was time to schedule some fun. I started by adding in water aerobics, which would be starting next week on Thursdays and Sundays. Then I set up lunches with the work gang for all the Thursday BBQ's on East Campus. I added a lunch the next week with another new friend, the day trip to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa with Anne and Rene and then went to lunch in Placek Park in Wahoo with my friend Lorri. I ended the day with a trip to Omaha with Anne to go to the grand opening of the Scrap Store after they relocated. They didn't have much yarn so we didn't get much but got a yummy ice cream at Coneflower Creamery to end a fun day.

I was pretty happy with all the fun I had added to my calendar but it wasn't over.  I called Anne on Friday about something or other and she asked if I had any interest in going to Europe this summer. She'd gotten an email from the travel company she uses with last minute deals. She shared her screen and we found a Danube River cruise from Budapest to Prague in July. Before you know it, we called an agent and booked it! The cruise itself, which is 14 days, was only $995 and when we added round trip airfare (from Lincoln!) and insurance, it was only just over $3,000 - score! Talk about unexpected! I am confident this will not be my last cheap, last minute trip with Overseas Adventure Travel. 

I happily headed outside for an afternoon of gardening, which included some of the last easy jobs like marking daffodils that didn't bloom this year so I can find them to split in the fall (I used plastic knives) and planting a tomato in the upside down tomato planter I had bought at a yard sale. It was a happy day.

Despite not doing any heavy gardening on Friday, I woke up Saturday with my lower back in knots and I couldn't stand up straight. I was bent over when I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast then managed to change my sheets and do laundry before heading to the basement where it was cooler because I didn't want to turn the AC on yet so I could sleep with my windows open for one last night.

My back was fine on Sunday. No clue what that was about. I talked to Carolyn, Ginny and Lori before heading to Cindy's in Waverly. Cindy had called me from Goodwill on Saturday morning because there was all kinds of good quality yarn and, of course, I had her buy me most of it. I had tomato plants for her and was excited to get the yarn so drove down in the afternoon. Get a load of this yarn haul, which is full of sock yarn. I think it all added up to $22 and that would be the cost of a single skein of indy dyed socks yarn. Yay!

What a fabulous week! As if my calendar additions weren't enough fun, adding a dirt cheap Europe trip and ending the week with a yarn haul were the icing on the cake. Happy happy happy!

Week 21 - Time Spent Gardening

Be careful what you wish for from the weather gods! After last week's crazy weather, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction but that was fine by me. Beyond that, it was a quiet week of getting stuff done at home.

I woke up Monday morning to 1.5" of much needed rain in the gauge. There was more rain due at the end of the day so I got my butt outside and planted the 3 empty veg beds so they'd get watered in. I made banana bread and tetrazzini that afternoon. By the end of the day, there were tornado watches in effect and talk of big storms with hail so we cancelled knitting. Luckily we just got rain so my seeds got plenty of water to start them off.

It was 57 degrees on Tuesday so a full 40 degrees less than a week ago. I asked Ana if she wanted to come over for lunch and a movie but she was sorting boxes of her brother's stuff so suggested I go to her so I could knit while she sorted. I took lunch but didn't stay very long because she had a deadline and wasn't getting much sorted while I was there. I ran errands in town then went home to knit and stream. 

I had bought a 3 pound chub of frozen hamburger at The Warehouse so planned to do some cooking on Wednesday. First I went outside and did some weeding and puttering. I also talked to Connie, who I was happy to hear did not need me to help her plant her garden, which I'd suggested I might be willing to do because she was worried about being able to garden after her knee replacement. That saves me driving 9 hours each way and now I can concentrate on my own gardening. I made meatballs and meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli then settled in for the Survivor finale.

Thursday was a busy day. For a retiree. I reclaimed the kitchen from all my cooking, ran to the vet to pick up flea stuff, got a haircut and was back for a 2:00 zoom with Paul from The Ripples Project. After a cup of tea, I went outside to plant a few more things and had book club that night. That's plenty busy for me!

It was a rainy day on Friday but I planted before the late morning rain then was back out to repot amaryllis before the 2nd round of rain. I was out again on Saturday cleaning the deck, setting up a plant stand for all the amaryllis and then dug a new wildflower bed and planted that. The hardware cloth is to stop the cats for digging in it. On Sunday I did some cooking, including a rhubarb upside down cake for Tim, whose son mows my yard. He had hinted that he loved rhubarb but hadn't had any since his grandmother died. I also planted the perennials I'd bought at Spring Affair, which were truly the last planting for this season. Unless I buy more plants. : )

I'd call that a good week. Weather was better, I got plenty done and had some fun. I'll take a few more of those please.

Week 20 - Desoto Bend Visit

The week started out super hot, which had me hunkered down, followed by 2 days of 50 mph winds. Crazy spring weather but there was lots of cooking and some fun to end the week.

It was 87 on Monday but I'd put the AC on on Sunday so the house was nice and cool. I finished watching The Pitt on Max (good show if you haven't seen it) and went to the library for knitting. I was the only one there at first so was working on the puzzle while I waited to see if anyone else would come. They did and joined me and Ana around the communal puzzle and worked on it until 7:45 before finally starting knitting. Ha!

Despite the heat, I decided to work on the messy corner in the garage on Tuesday morning. It was cool enough in there in the morning but I didn't finish so went out after lunch and by then it was broiling. I did finish it though and got right into the shower when I went in because I had a library board meeting so had to clean myself up and put on going out of the house clothes. At least it was done.

I had finally heard from the plumber that the contractor needed to look at my bathroom before he could give me a quote and he was coming at the end of the day on Wednesday so I did some cleaning before heading to the dentist at 2:00. The plumber came and I felt better about him than the contractor but still wasn't convinced he was the person to hire so after he left, I arranged for another contractor to come on Thursday late afternoon. The heat had broken overnight so I spent Thursday morning in the kitchen and had so much food that I invited Ana for lunch, which was fun. The new contractor came at 4:15 and no contest, he's the one I'll be hiring. He gave me a ballpark figure that was less than I thought it would be and said he have a quote to me soon.

Friday was my Lincoln day and I'd be having lunch at Helen's. I started downtown picking up book club books at the library commission, ran a few errands and spent the entire afternoon chatting with Helen and looking at her latest decorating projects and her garden. I stayed so long (nothing unusual there) that I gave up on any further errands, just stopping at HyVee for a few groceries before heading home.

Saturday was spinning and we were going to Desoto Bend National Wildlife Refuge for a program. In 1865, a supply boat had sunk in the Missouri River and was silted over for 100 years before it was found and excavated. Except for turning everything red, the silt had kept everything in fabulous condition, including fabric and knitted items. They were doing a special program for the spinners, pulling out items to display and asking us for any knowledge we could share on them. 

The wind had subsided after 2 crazy high wind days Thursday and Friday so a few of us decided that morning that we should bring a picnic for before the program. I packed up lunch for Andrea and me and we headed to Iowa, which was about an hour drive. Sure, the wind was less but it was still too windy to eat outside so we found a table inside. I did a quick buzz through of the museum, which is part wildlife and part displays of the things that were found on the boat - The Bertrand. The program included a power point that gave us the history of the sinking and then we got to get up close and personal with the textiles. We couldn't touch them but they had people with gloves who would turn things over and such when we needed to see more. It was fascinating.

On the way home, Andrea and I hit the Goodwill in Blair and then a Nebraska Passport stop in Bennington, where we got ice cream and a passport stamp. We then hit Aldi in Fremont and went home. It was a fun day. Sunday was my regular old chore day and some work on hoses, which are a project every year of fixing broken ends, finding the right attachments and snaking them under the deck to hook them up. That required a trip to the farm store for parts so of course I bought more flowers, which means there will be more container planting coming up.

So it was a good week. I had some bouts of productivity, made progress on hiring someone to gut my bathroom and ended the week with culture and friends. Hopefully the weather won't be so crazy for a few more weeks. Rain would be nice but not 90 degrees in mid-May please. Are the weather gods listening? Here's hoping

Week 19 - Planting My Containers

I was in full spring mode this week and spent most of it planting flowers. But what would a week in my 2025 life be without a medical appointment but I rewarded myself on that day, as usual.

I started the week working with Cindy for an hour. Lacey did say I'd be on call for life. I did some laundry and planted more containers, helped along with Lorri bringing some plants over. The Monday Night Knitters opted for the year end band and chorus concerts in the parking lot at the school instead of the library. It was hot in the sun but good entertainment plus we had yummy cheeseburgers for supper.

Most of the rest of the week was spent planting my containers, which I love doing every year. I planted all of my flower containers and even planted tomatoes in kitty litter bag lined milk crates on the driveway as an experiment because they'll get lots more sun there than in my veg beds. Those milk crates were full of sticks though so I had a fire Tuesday night to burn them all, which was fun. I haven't had a fire in ages.

On Thursday, I decided to book my ticket on Southwest for my beach week, taking advantage of their sale. I got a ridiculously cheap ticket for $264 round trip but was confused when it said I'd still get 2 free bags, which they'd been all over the news saying that was over. I went onto my Southwest account to investigate (tickets purchased before May 28th still got free bags) and noticed that it said I had a $243 credit. I dug in on that and come to find out, it was leftover credit from the Christmas 2021 ticket that I'd cancelled. Now I'd used $400+ of that credit and have flown Southwest a many times since then but didn't remember the additional credit. I called them and got that credit applied to the ticket I'd just bought so paid $21 for a round trip ticket for my beach week in August. Score! 

That night, Lorri and I went to the Southeast Community College dinner that had been postponed from February due to a blizzard. It's for culinary students and is their final project. They plan the menu and run the kitchen. It was middle eastern and absolutely delicious. Well worth the delay.

I had an appointment with my oncologist on Friday at 10:15, which was uneventful - mostly to get my Rx for the estrogen blocker I'll be on for the next 5 years. My reward was lunch with Dodie at Costco. She works from home on Fridays and lives right near there so I picked up a few things on her membership and then we ate there. We usually get a slice of pizza and ice cream but I switched it up and had a footlong hotdog. As usual, we talked for ages and had a great catch up. I stopped at Anne's for a bit then hit Goodwill, where I found a skein of sock yarn, which is a rarity and the my favorite part of thrifting. I had Costco chicken for supper then tore it apart and put the bones in the crockpot and went to bed.

I had a nice, quiet weekend that started with picking chicken bones and making soup but otherwise was knitting, streaming and doing some chores. While being retired means every day can feel like a weekend, I seem to find myself getting things done during the week and enjoying down time on the weekend. Works for me!

My containers always take a few weeks to start looking good because they're mostly geraniums and lantanas that I overwintered so they look bedraggled for a bit. So here's a pic of my first fire of the season. I hope there will be more and that I'll have friends over for s'mores instead of solo in the driveway. : )