Week 11 - Fun Between Snows

It was another week with huge temperature fluctuations and the clocks changed so we had the extra hour of daylight. As usual since they changed the spring forward to earlier, it was way too early to start spring clean up. I did find some things to do outside though.

It was 82 degrees on Monday and not too early to prune my roses, which I did in record time because the roses on the east side of the house got pruned and moved in the fall. So far no sign that any of those survived the winter in the raised veg bed I planted them in. Time will tell I guess. The rest of the roses got pruned and I drove the pokey branches to the city burn pile. I made tetrazzini that afternoon and talked to my sister, who invited me to visit for a sisters' thrift trip but it's when I'll be in Europe so that didn't work. Monday Night Knitting was cancelled because so many people weren't coming.

Tuesday had actually spring weather that worked great for another small town day with Anne and Rene. This time we were heading southwest of Lincoln to Fairbury and Hebron. We puttered through Fairbury then had a great lunch in Hebron. As we do, we went home a different way and explored all the little towns along the way. We got back to Lincoln well before dinner time so went to the new Buresh Meats on the northwest side of Lincoln and then went downtown to hit Lincoln Running Company's 50th anniversary sale. Anne and I both got new sneakers, which was on my pre-trip list so check that off. I bolted home and had just enough time to scarf a piece of quiche before heading to the library for a board meeting at 7:00. It was a long but fun day.

I woke up to snow on Wednesday morning! It was heavy, wet snow that didn't stick to pavement and it was 49 later that day so it didn't last. That's my kind of snow. I spent the day inside and had a frog party. Frogging means ripping out projects (rip it! rip it!) and I had many I knew I'd never finish - 2 blankets, 2 shawls and the start of a sweater. I also packed up an entire scarf project with the half done scarf, pattern, yarn and needles to donate. Frogging has been on my list for months so it was great to get those done and off my mind.

It was back in the 70's on Thursday and that worked for me. I did cat duty at the local shelter in the morning and then had my hair cut, which was with a different stylist because mine was out and I desperately needed a pre-trip cut. It takes my hair a couple of weeks to realize it's short and play nice. I had scheduled dinner with Darla in Lincoln when I had something else to take me there and when that was cancelled, I decided to do dinner anyway. I did some thrifitng, of course, and scored some indy dyed sock yarn from a Connecticut podcaster who I watch . I also dropped a bunch of yarn off at Stuff (gone is good) and then had a fun dinner at Tico's of gloppy nachos and margueritas with Darla. Well worth the drive.

My contractor (same one who did my bathroom last summer) came on Friday morning to do some last measuring for my basement wall project. I was thrilled when he said he could in fact do it while I'm gone, which means no noise to deal with and the cats will be inside so won't be getting in the way since there's a door to shut off that end of the basment. Yay! I made roasted veggie pasta for supper and baked a peach pie.

Saturday was the annual celebration of Lori and Andrea's birthday. Their birthdays are a week apart so I always take them out to lunch on the weekend between and this year it was a repeat of my birthday last month - Imagiknit to use the birthday discount and lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant in the same plaza. Andrea had a fancy dinner that night so we shopped for yarn first, enjoyed a yummy lunch then went to Lori's for presents and birthday peach pie. Lori had leftover chocolate cake from her sister so we had a bit of each. Yum! We left relatively early so we could stop at Aldi, which was a mob scene (weather related), and get Andrea home before 4:00. It was another fun day.

The reason for the grocery store mob scene was the blizzard that was coming on Sunday. It wasn't going to be particularly cold but with snow and 60 mph winds, they were telling everyone to stay home. I had cat duty so got there early, which was creepy because I was the only one there and all the lights were off but it was worth it because I was done by 11:00, which is right when it started snowing. The wind was crazy and out in the country where there was nothing to stop the snow blowing, it was whiteout conditions and they closed the highway east of Wahoo. I was cozy inside knitting and steaming and made a comfort food dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and carrots. The nice thing was it was slightly above freezing so the snow wouldn't last.

Some week, right? We had all kinds of weather, which is typical for late winter 2026, and I had some fun, did some long overdue frogging and got good news from the contractor. I'm calling it a good week and am starting to make the pre-trip list so I can get prepared early and not stress. Just another week and a half before Anne and I will be heading to Europe. Yay!