Week 33 - To the Beach

Another beach week was here. I was flying on Thursday and had things to get done before then, of course.

I was still dealing with leftover yarn from the sale but moved it all the front room so it was all in one place and took empty totes (yay!) to the basement. I'll deal with the rest later. I had decided to enter things in the state fair and went big, prepping 12 items and getting them entered online, printed tags Tuesday night when I was the library for a board meeting and all attached and packed to drop in Omaha on the way to the airport on Thursday. There was packing too and getting the cats ready to be inside for 13 days, which meant there was no point in doing any cleaning.

Of course I had a jam packed Wednesday. I was having lunch with Dana, Lana and Cindy to start then had the slow leak in my tire fixed so I wouldn't come home to a flat tire in the airport parking lot. Then it was Zesto with Anne for the first peanut butter soft serve of the season (it's their fall flavor) and then I dropped donations at Stuff. I did the final laundry and finished packing and was pretty much ready to go.

I was worried about the Southwest flight, which would be my last since they no longer do free luggage so what's the point? Anyway, I had seen posts about their passenger of size policy and was worried they'd give me grief. I lost sleep over this. At least I had an assigned seat on the flights there (I used almost all my points for a free ticket but didn't have enough to get an assigned seat on the way home.) It wasn't an issue but my first flight was delayed enough that I wouldn't make my connection in DC so my only option to get there on Thursday was to rebook through Midway with a 3.5 hour layover. They were asking for volunteers to check their luggage for free because the flight was full and I jumped at the chance. Nice.

I was fine with hanging at Midway and found a nice table to sit at in a food court where I could see the flight board. I streamed and knitted then walked to the big food court for a Chicago hotdog for supper. Then the gate fiasco began. I was back and forth between the A and B terminals 3 times as they changed gates. I was a hot mess by the time I got on the plane but had a row to myself. Good thing I wasn't dragging my suitcase that whole time. I got in after 9:30 and stayed up chatting with Carolyn until midnight. I had made it to RI and was ready for fun.

Carolyn and I hung out chatting in her dining room on Friday morning. Matt was out and about so after he got back home, we went to a bakery near Carolyn's for croissants. I treated and $20 didn't cover 3 pain au chocolats! RI is super expensive compared to Nebraska. Anyway, from there we went to a burger place in East Greenwich (the town I grew up in) and got the best fries I've ever eaten. Carolyn agreed. The burger was tasty too but those fries were amazing. We went back home and hung out all for the rest of the day, having our pastries late afternoon, mine with tea, of course. Much to Matt's dismay, we weren't hungry so skipped dinner then streamed something and went to bed. It's been a long time since I've had face time with Carolyn so it was a great day.

Carolyn makes the best scrambled eggs and knows I love them so made them for breakfast on Saturday. We hung out until John picked me up at noon then we headed right to The Crow's Nest for my favorite fried clams. Delish! With full bellies, the next stop was Trader Joe's for some groceries then it was time to check in a the cottage. By the time we unloaded the car of luggage and groceries, unpacked it all and made beds, it was time for supper. Good thing John had some Thai leftovers because we hadn't bought anything at TJ's that would work for supper. Ha!

We remedied that Sunday morning with our first stop at the farmers market across the pond near Galilee. We got some fresh produce then hit Stop & Shop to fill in all the gaps in our groceries. The remote for the awning over the deck wasn't working so John drove back to town for a battery, which didn't solve it but he googled how to reset it and got it going again. The deck knitting with tea and hermits (a New England molasses cookie with raisins) began then we played scrabble on the deck (John smoked me, as usual) and had steak and date/celery salad for supper.

We were all settled in and it was time to start planning for the week ahead. The weather was going to be perfect and I was looking forward to seeing all my RI friends. Let the visiting begin!

Week 32 - A Recharge Week

This was not a super productive week for me. I was out and about a bit but also spent lots of time recharging after last week's yarn sale. And that's OK.

I woke up at 4:30 on Monday and there was no falling back asleep so I got up and made pancaekes. I was heading to Helen's to hang out, which is always fun, and stayed so long that I didn't have time to cook so ordered a pizza for supper. I then grabbed yarn and headed to knitting, taking the yarn that I'd decided to donate so my knitting friends could have first dibs, of course. They took a few, which made me happy.

Tuesday was a catch up day. I cleaned out the fridge (long overdue) and cleaned up the kitchen. That done, I always want to cook so made chicken and rice for supper. I had time in there to read and was enjoying Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng that Carolyn had recommended.

I had driving duty on Wednesday morning taking Anne to get a cortizone shot. It took longer than I thought but I was knitting in the waiting room so it didn't matter. Anne was loopy and almost fell off the curb but I got her settled at home and then met Dodie for lunch. I made a beeline home afterwards without doing any stops and spent the afternoon reading, finishing Our Missing Hearts. I highly recommend it.

Thursday was a social day. I talked to both Carolyn and Deanne then went to pick up a couple of book club books that needed returning (long story) and ended up talking to Jackie, a new member of the book club, for 1.5 hours. I went to the shelter to love on Louie since I was out then went home and finished all the work with the yarn, ending with even more to donate. It won't count until it's out of my house but at least it's sorted.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time on Friday dealing with an attempted hack of my Fidelity retirement account. I had gotten a text saying I'd requested a dual authentication code and I hadn't so I called Fidelity. But they wanted my account number, which I didn't have because everything is electronic and I couldn't sign in. I finally got authenticated and they confirmed that nothing was gone and reset my account and locked it. They wanted me to call Verizon and have them figure out who called and to block that account. Verizon had no way to figure that out but I still spent an hour on the phone with them. Then I called Huskertech because Fidelity wanted my phone "cleaned", which made no sense because I've never logged into Fidelity from my phone. They were super nice and helpful - gotta love the UNL phone gurus. I was on and off the phone all day and figured it was 4.5 hours total. I did go out to do the cats at the shelter and moved all the yarn totes to the basement but what a day! The good news is no one got to my money.

I ran Wahoo errands Saturday morning, picking up The Correspondent at the library to prepare for the rainy afternoon. We got .6" (every bit of rain is a gift this summer after it was so dry for so long) and I enjoyed reading the afternoon away. The zinnias in my garden are loving the rain too and they're attracting some nice butterflies. I'll take it.

My neighbor a few doors down was working on my next door neighbor's yard on Sunday and had a chainsaw for the weed trees. I asked if he'd be willing to cut a limb off my crapapple that was hitting my roof and blocking light from my front room. He did it in 5 minutes and then took the limbs away. I made some banana bread as a thank you and delivered it while it was still warm. Goodwill towards neighbors is important. I finished The Correspondent that evening. Another fabulous book that I read in 2 days.

So a busy enough week with the yarn all sorted and mostly put away so the sale work is done. I had some socializing and got lots of reading done, which I'm enjoying this summer. I think of reading in the afternoon as a winter thing and look forward to that this winter but it also works when it's blazing hot outside so I'm hiding inside in the AC. Fall cannot come soon enough for me this year.

Week 31 - Fair and Sale

The week started out with blazing heat and humidity but a storm came through on Wednesday with 1" of rain and a temperature drop. Not that I got to enjoy the cooler temps because it was all about the county fair and prepping for another yarn sale on Saturday.

I spent Monday morning prepping my entries for the county fair. I had lots of socks, of course, but also my temperature blanket and my huge crocheted granny's daughter afghan. I had room for one more entry on my sheet so decided to make a peach crumb pie since they only need 1/4 of the pie so I took the rest to knitting, where it was a big hit. Heidi was fresh from her trip to Alaska via Canada so brought the President's Choice mac & cheese boxes that I'd requested and had OMG's to share, which are my fave Canadian candy. Yum! Then Andrea offered to take my fair entries so I didn't have to leave early. It was a good day.

Tuesday was another scorcher but I was busy inside. I finished sorting the yarn I'd already pulled and moved it to the front room, all ready for the sale. But I wasn't done so pulled sock yarn from my Ikea to sell. Yes, selling indie dyed sock yarn since I have more than I can ever knit. There was more pulling, pricing and packing on Wednesday, which was a rainy day. 1 inch! It was done raining by the end of the day when it was time to check my ribbons. At long last, I won best in county! My temperature blanket won! I was pretty happy to have finally won after 2 years of getting runner up best in county. My thrown together peach pie also won best of division, which means best baked good in the county. That was a surprise.

Thursday was a full day. I had a scheduled phone call about the Emeriti/Retirees Association membership data then met Lorri at Chip's for the BOGO burger special, after which I hit the bakery and The Warehouse. I always go to the bakery so close to closing that there's very little left but I got a handpie and had it with tea before heading to Lincoln. Anne wasn't swimming but had given me some cone yarn she didn't want so I added some of mine and dropped it at Stuff before going to the pool. Of course I found more sock yarn there. Good thing I'd been culling my stash for the sale, right?

I loaded the car in the cooler weather on Friday, worried that all the totes wouldn't fit. Well, not only did they fit but I had more room. Of course I pulled more yarn and still could have fit more but I was done. I got pizza for supper and made blueberry/chicken salad to take for lunch at the sale. I went to bed confident that I was ready for the sale.

Andrea was going with me again so I picked her up at 7:00 and we headed to The Bagel Bin to get breakfast and were unloaded and set up with time to spare. Based on the many requests I had for acrylic when I did this sale in February, I had brought pretty much all the acrylic in my house, which is bigger and sells for cheaper, so I wasn't expecting to make as much money (I made $900 before). Well, I broke $700 in profit so was pretty darn pleased with that. I dropped a bagel at my friend Lorri's before getting home and collapsing. It was well worth the effort because as I always say, gone is good and the kind of gone where you make money is even better.

After chatting with my friend Dee Sunday morning, I ran to the fair to pick up my entries and then went to scoop poop at the shelter. Then it was time to unload the car and decide what to do with all the yarn that didn't sell. I had to figure out what sold and mark it as such in my Ravelry stash but I also went through everything that didn't sell and marked lots of it as gone and put it in the donate bag for Stuff. I figured that if it didn't sell at two sales (mostly single skeins of very nice yarn), it was time for it to go. I talked to my sister on the way to Lincoln and swam for the last time this summer.

So, what a great week! I finally got my best in county rosette and the sale was a big success. The fact that the ridiculous heat had broken was icing on the cake. Now to deal with the yarn that didn't sell or get donated and get ready for my next adventure - my annual Rhode Island beach week. Life is good!

Week 30 - Dehydration for Yarn

I was looking forward to this week because my calendar was relatively clear and the heat was going to break. I hate the unrelenting heat of Nebraska summers so any reprieve is wonderful.

It was 101 on Monday. Ick! It was wonderful to start the day with a zoom catch up with Cindy and then I got busy in my bedroom, which was the only room I didn't clean in preparation for Connie's visit. I went through lots of clothes and loaded up some donation bags. That felt good. Andrea brought lemon meringue pie to knitting - a nice end to the day.

Tuesday was the day Kinetic was supposed to come fix my internet but when I checked the app, it showed them coming Wednesday instead. I called to confirm and they assured me they would not be coming on Tuesday. I had passed on two fun things thinking I'd be waiting at home for the tech but was able to reschedule one at the last minute. Lori and I were going to The Odyssey in Omaha. Did I love it? No but it was worth seeing. I went to Imagiknit on the way home because they were having their inside sidewalk sale. I only bought 2 skeins and neither was sock yarn so I called that a win. I got home to find that my internet was back on at half speed. They were going to send a line tech on Thursday to get it up to full speed but at least I didn't have to use the hotspot on my phone anymore.

The Thrifty Artist Garage Sale where I'd be selling yarn again was a week from Saturday and it was about time I started sorting the piles of yarn in the front room. I ran some Wahoo errands in the morning, stopping at the shelter to love on the kittens (one of them - Louie - is just the sweetest thing) before picking up a personal pan pizza for lunch. All that done, I started sorting but got distracted after not very long. I have had a box on the bar for ages of letters I wrote home during my junior year abroad. I'm not sure what got me going on that but I went through them all and sorted then in date order, which took some time. I was looking for a letter about my time in Devon at Christmas time but didn't find one. I made a nice dinner and called it a day.

I was going to Lincoln on Thursday to take Dodie to a belated birthday lunch at Green Gateau so had a list of many, many stops to make both before and after lunch in the order I needed to do them. We had a lovely lunch and finished with our favorite lemon cream cake. I dropped Dodie back on campus and proceeded to go through the stops, ending at Stuff dropping donations and, of course, finding some yarn to buy. I was nearly home when I realized that I'd forgotten to pick up the book club books and book club was that night. It was on my before lunch list but I'd run out of time and only did the after lunch list. Damn! I was 25 miles away from Lincoln and turned around to go back when I remembered that someone from Wahoo works at the Library Commission. I called them and they tracked Gabe down. He was willing to bring them to the library, which saved me 2 gallons of gas and an hour. Yay! At book club, we had a good discussion about The Forgotten Home Child, which I'd thoroughly enjoyed. It was another good day.

The weather had been mild since storms broke the heat wave Monday night and I'd happily opened my windows. It was only 76 on Friday but the humidity was crazy and since I was sorting yarn, I gave up and turned on the AC. It was going to have to go on on Saturday anyway because the heat was coming back. I got lots of sorting done in comfort and joined an AARP movie night after supper. The movie was called Lonely and was a total downer. Enough of that!

Earlier in the week, Andrea had sent an email about an auction in Fremont that had lots of cone yarn. I forwarded it to Anne and she wanted to go so I went along. We got there just after 9:00 for the 9:30 auction start. I should have taken pictures because there were insane amounts of yarn, fabric, knitting machines, sewing machines... anything you could think of to craft. It was blazing hot (101 but felt closer to 120 with the humidity) but luckily the craft stuff was under the shade of a huge sycamore so we were out of the sun. Still, the facecloth I took to mop my head was soaked through within a couple of hours.

Most of the people were quilters bidding on the fabric so the yarn wasn't going. There wasn't much sock yarn there and I'd consolidated some of it when I found stray skeins in other boxes. I won all 4 boxes. Anne was bidding on cone yarn and when the high bid was $1, I scored several boxes of Brown Sheep yarn. 28 skeins that retail for >$400 plus a tote for $1. Can't beat that. It would go right to the yarn sale next week. Anne scored a tall storage rack for cone yarn, also $1, and not a single knitting machine sold. Her CR-V was loaded to the roof and between us we'd only spent $66! We left just after noon and were super hot and dehydrated. We got an ice cream cone at Zesto on the way out of town. We unloaded my stuff into my front room and I immediately drank 3 huge glasses of water and kept drinking. I was super dehydrated and felt like crap for the rest of the day. Anne did too. Was it worth it? I'd say yes and Anne would agree.

The actual temp on Sunday was 103 again with the feel like temp near 120. I went to do the cats before lunch and was there longer than usual because the kitten cages, which are in the quarantine room, needed cleaning so I did those too and then loved on Louie, who was doing better but now has ringworm. Poor baby. I sorted yarn all afternoon and blocked all the socks I'd be entering in the county fair on Monday. With the blazing heat they dried quickly at least. I drove to Lincoln to swim that night and it felt great.

So much for my quiet week! I was out and about a lot and was sorting yarn whenever I was home. The dehydation was a drag but all the yarn was great. The cooler weather was nice while it lasted. Just a couple more weeks until I'll be at the beach in Rhode Island, where it will hopefully be cooler. I can make it.

Week 29 - Hanging with Connie

This week was all about Connie's visit. She was coming for her daughter's 50th birthday party, which was a catered affair at Robber's Cave and I was her plus one. She would arrive Monday night and leave Friday morning to drive to Toronto to see her daughter and family. That's a shorter trip than her usual.

Despite having cleaned like a banshee for days, I still had more to do on Monday. Vacuuming and bathroom I think plus it was laundry day, which I hung outside as usual. Connie left her house super early so arrived at 5:00 despite losing an hour between mountain and central time. I had made tetrazzini for supper and she brought all the produce from her fridge so I made brocolli to go with it. Yum and great chat over supper. Connie wanted to go for a walk since she'd been in the car all day and I thought the path from the park to the lake would have more shade. It was hot but OK in the shade but even at 8:30 at night, it was too hot when we were in the sun. We walked for maybe 30 mins and gave up. 

We had registered for an election event in Omaha on Tuesday with Pete Buttigieg stumping for Denise Powell, who is the Democrat running for Congress in Nebraska's second district. The doors opened at 11:15 so we headed to Omaha and waited in line in the blazing sun, only to see a sign at the entrance that there was a clear bag policy. We went back to my car to drop Connie's huge purse and my wallet and by the time we got back, the line was gone. It was standing room only but they had some seats saved and they asked us if we wanted to sit. Yes please! The event was great. We knew Pete was a great speaker but so was Denise. I will be voting for her and hope she wins. We were in southeast Omaha so headed further south to hit a thrift I used to love when I was buying Corelle, hoping we'd find somewhere for lunch on the way. We didn't so headed further south, which put us in Bellevue and I know nothing of that area. We ended up at Applebee's for lunch and it wasn't bad. We went home from there because Connie was going to Lincoln for dinner with her daughter while I'd be at a library board meeting.

Rachele's party was Wednesday night and Connie's car was loaded with decorations, which meant we'd be on the set up crew. With nothing else planned for the day, we went and got pedicures at the nail place in Wahoo. After a tea break at home, we headed to Lincoln. There were others on set up duty and we had fun putting up bunting, posters, balloons (had to blow those up) and such. Rachele has a diverse bunch of friends, some of whom came from far and wide. We hadn't planned to stay until the end but we had so much fun that we did, which meant we were on take down duty too. It was a great time.

Connie had committed to meeting in Lincoln for breakfast so we were up and out first thing on Thursday. I sat next to someone I'd enjoyed chatting with at the party and had breakfast nachos, which was a huge portion, even half was too much but I took it home to eat again. We went straight back to Wahoo and in an attempt to entertain Connie, who doesn't seem to be able to just veg, we did the stores in downtown Wahoo. I even took her to pet the kittens at the shelter, which she didn't seem to enjoy. We went back home and she made salmon for supper, which we had with all the salads I'd made that we hadn't eaten much of all. Connie tried to take a walk in the neighborhood after supper but was back almost immediately because it was just too damn hot. We watched a movie that night and of course I had troubles with my hotspot because I was still 6 days out from the service call to fix my internet. Ridiculous. We didn't stay up late because Connie was leaving the next morning to drive halfway to Toronto.

I made bacon (yummy cherrywood smoke maple bacon from the Wahoo Locker) and eggs for breakfast on Friday so Connie would have some protein to start her travel day. She set off and I got busy stipping beds, organizing the fridge, which was full of half eaten salads and such, etc. Then I sat down to enjoy some alone time in my house without worrying about entertaining anyone. Nice.

Saturday was Christmas in July for spinning group, which had been moved from a park to Nan's house because of the blazing heat. I made some tortilla roll ups, using up various things from the week, then wrapped my present for the gift exchange - a yarn bowl filled with unspun fiber from the Brown Sheep factory. I got a lovely skein of Malabrigo, which will make a beautiful hat. There was lots of leftover chicken so I grabbed a couple of pieces for later and hit Aldi before heading home. It was a fun day.

On Sunday, I had cat duty at the shelter in the morning and drove to Lincoln to swim in the evening and did not much else in between. I did chat with a couple of friends and knitted, of course, and I'm sure there was streaming too. I was happy to have a normal week coming up and after one more blazing hot day on Monday, the forecast for the upcoming week was much cooler with highs in the 70's. Can't wait for that.

Week 28 - Finished Temperature Blanket

I didn't have much on my calendar this week, which was a good thing because my focus was doing major cleaning in preparation for Connie's arrival next week. I also managed to finally finish my temp blanket, which was huge.

First thing on Monday, I cleared the table my laptop sits on and ended up with lots of admin from it - paying bills, making calls, etc. That done, I ran Wahoo errands and potted up what I hope are the last plants for the season. I pulled out my 2025 temperature blanket and took it to Monday Night Knitting to weave in ends, which is easier on the big table there. I got about half of what was left done at the library and decided to stay up late to finish. It was way past my bedtime but I did it! Now for the border.

I had put the chicken bones and bits in the crockpot overnight so picked that Tuesday morning and made tetrazzini that night. Delish! I also did laundry and hung it out, finished cleaning the spare bedroom and started the border on the temp blanket. That's a good day in my retirement life.

It was blazing hot on Wednesday so I stayed inside, cleaning the kitchen after my cooking then neatizing the spare room bureau so the room was ready for Connie. I started the book for book club and was instantly sucked in so knitted and read for a chunk of the day, which is always nice. I finished the socks I'd cast on for the drive to Rhode Island for Auntie Margaret's funeral. Another productive day with some chiling too.

I finished my temperature blanket on Thursday while watching my favorite knitting YouTubers. Isn't it fun? It's now ready for the county fair. Yay! I also started the actual cleaning in the rest of the house, starting with cobwebs, chunky dust on the fan blades and I organized the front room. Then I was off to Stuff and swimming. Stuff is only a mile from the pool so it's easy to stop and donate on the way to water aerobics. Of course I found a skein of Lazy Bee sock yarn that's self-striping for $4 (retail is $38). Score!

I had a doctor's appointment on Friday so of course I loaded up the day, starting with breakfast at Cook's with my new(ish) friend Mary, who is the sister of my friend Kate who died. Someday I won't feel the need to explain the connection. Promise. We chatted for hours and then I headed to the cancer center for yet another appointment with my oncologist. Afterwards, I picked Anne up and we went to a thrift shop I've heard great things about that's in an old doctor's office in Syracuse. It was lovely but I didn't find much, which was OK. We hit a couple more thrifts out that way and I had Anne home for soccer by 2:00. I stopped at the market for produce and got home to no internet. I called Kinetic and they couldn't get anyone out to fix it for 12 days! Ridiculous and I'd be using the hotspot on my phone. Not cool.

After that full day, I was home for the weekend. There was more knitting and cleaning plus some cooking so we'd have easy meals the next week - sloppy joes and potato salad. I did the cats at the shelter on Sunday and spent extra time loving on the 2 kittens. 

I was ready for Connie, who would arrive Monday evening. It was a good week of productivity (mostly long overdue cleaning), cooking, knitting, reading.... all good. Now for some fun with  Connie.

Week 27 - Neighborhood War Zone

It was another blazing hot week. So hot that all the knitters cancelled for Monday Night Knitting. Welcome to summer in Nebraska. At least it meant the house was shut up to limit the noise from the war zone that was my neighborhood. So many fireworks. Hate them. I got out of town as much as I could. 

I went to Omaha on Tuesday to see Disclosure Day with Lori. Loved it! Tuesday is $6 movie day and you get free popcorn so I hope this is the first of many movies. When I left the theatre, I drove across Omaha to get a rotisserie chicken at Sam's. I've been wanting one for ages so it was worth the trip. It's a lot of chicken for one person though.

Wednesday was a Lincoln day. I had lunch at Cultiva with Lana, Dana, Cindy and Philippe (the computer guy). It was great to catch up and I went to Buresh Meats then Dairy Sweet for a lemon soft serve to kill the time until a talk on US/Iran relations, which was very interesting. After supper, my last book club on Common Sense went well and we talked way past closing time. Unfortunately Tot was spooked by all the fireworks and didn't come in that night. I worry less about her than the young ones but it still made for a bad night of sleep.

I had lunch with Lorri at Chip's in Wahoo on Thursday and other than swimming, the only other thing I did was water at my neighbor's. She always goes away for the 4th. Other than continuing to water there, and a bit of weeding by the retaining wall, I spent the weekend holed up, knitting, streaming, talking with friends and reading while trying to ignore the noise.

I was thrilled when the 4th was over but there were still stray fireworks on Sunday. Have I mentioned how much I hate fireworks? I hate the noise and trash of it (I will be picking up fireworks debris in my yard for months) and can't help but think of how much money is being spent that could be feeding hungry children. Rant over. And so are the fireworks. Until next year.... As usual, I swam Sunday night in Lincoln, which is my favorite way to end a summer week. Enjoy a picture of Goodie on the deck during the day, which was the only time it was quiet. : )