Week 13 - Reward for Productivity

What a productive week! (I wish I could say that more often.)

On Monday I left the house early to drop my car at Williamson Honda so they could fix the rattle from something they botched last time I had it in. Since Williamson is WAY south in Lincoln, there's nothing convenient about going there but I had no choice if I wanted it fixed free. I took the shuttle to campus and then bummed a ride back from Dodie, who lives right near the dealership. After I left Williamson, I stopped to food shop and hit Wal-Mart for watch batteries before going to Natasha's.

Natasha had invited the water aerobics gang over for a party and what a blast it was! She had tons of wonderful food, gave us a tour of her very interesting house (it has lots of art from her family's travels and Latvia, where she's from) and we all ate, drank and laughed. It was a fabulous time and we encouraged her to do it anytime. I left after 10:00, thereby guaranteeing I'd be tired on Tuesday, but enjoying the warm glow of fun with friends and the kir royale (Chambord and champagne) we'd ended the night with. I set my cruise control at the actual speed limit rather than 4 miles over and headed home. Well, I was just outside Wahoo when I got pulled over for speeding. He wouldn't tell me how fast I was going (I explained that I had the cruise set for 65) and just gave me a warning. I called it my lucky day and went straight to bed. It had been a wonderful evening.

I had stress dreams all night and was tired Tuesday but not as bad as I'd anticipated. I went to the pool, figuring I'd go right home, veg and go to bed early because there was no swimming on Wednesday (spring break week) so I'd have that night to do my taxes. I don't know where the energy came from but after dinner I started my taxes and kept plowing through until they were done. I crawled into bed late again but feeling good that they were finished and confident I wouldn't have stress dreams again.

I left work right at 5:00 Wednesday and after a quick stop for milk, was home by 6:00, which is a rarity. I went downstairs immediately to start on the last of the craft room organization. But after 30 minutes, I went upstairs to make dinner and watch Survivor. I was pretty tired so was ready to sit, feeling good that I'd done anything productive on my free night. But at 8:00 I turned to ABC to watch Modern Family and it wouldn't come in because it was windy. For some reason I have trouble with channel 7 upstairs but the old TV with rabbit ears and a converter box in the craft room gets it just fine. Figuring this was a nudge from the gods, I went back downstairs and started slogging again. I worked for another hour before calling it quits, jumping in the shower and going to bed early. I was pretty proud of myself for not taking the night off.

Thursday was another dead day on campus. While it was good for productivity, the deadness was starting to get to me so I was glad when the day was over and I could hit the pool. After a fun time, I headed home for dinner and well deserved vegging. I nuked sausage and peppers and watched 1 show when the craft room compulsion hit me again and I headed downstairs for the 2nd night in a row. Before the end of the night, I was done. Every tote, bag of fabric and box of crap had been gone through. The wall unit was organized and had several empty shelves. The fabric was sorted. Would wonders never cease? After years of being a crap depository, my craft room was finally fully operational and ready for crafting - sewing, quilting, you name it. Why I waited to do this until gardening season was about to start I can't say. All I can do is hope for rainy weekends so I can get some crafting done. If only I were one of those people who can take mental health days. Alas....

I woke up Friday to 4+ inches of heavy, wet snow on the ground. I was taking Tot the the vet at 8:00 to get her stitches out so actually got to sleep half an hour later, which was nice. I got to work at 9:00 so the morning flew by and it was time for lunch with Layton. We were headed to the Red Fox on West O when I passed a cop, oblivious as usual. He came out, lights flashing and pulled me over. I was sure he'd see the warning I got from the state cop on Monday and issue me a ticket for sure. I was bitching up a storm as I sat there, with Layton being supportive in a pain in the ass kind of way, when he handed me back my license with another warning! I was floored and very happy. Clearly their systems don't sync or I'd have gotten a ticket for sure. What a break!

Friday afternoon seemed endless! If I’d thought campus was dead before, I knew it was for sure on Friday. I was so happy when 5:00 came and made a bee line home. I made a big patch of pasta with veggies for dinner and sat down with a glass of wine to enjoy some TV. But you guessed it, I couldn’t stay away from the basement. Now that the organization was done, it was time to chose fabric for my first projects – little coin purse type things I’d found tutorials for online. I went to bed exhausted and set my alarm (yikes!) because I had an all day master gardener program on Saturday.

Lorri and Barb Hart were at my house at 7:10 Saturday morning. We got to Council Bluffs early and spent the day in sessions. Most were good and I’d brought knitting so got through the less interesting ones just fine but it was a long day. I got back home ~5:00 and sat like a zombie for the rest of the night. I did make a chore list and it was clear I had a lot to do on Sunday.

Well I can’t say I got many chores done but I did have fun. I did the bare essentials (laundry, litter boxes, trash) but spent the rest of the day downstairs crafting at last. I tried 3 different projects, starting with a small zipped bag for my knitting accessories. It came out so cute that I couldn’t stop, making a red corduroy boxy tote. Not stopping there, I made a coin purse. They were all with scrap fabric and old zippers and rick rack from my stash, which just added to the fun. I just had to show someone so drove over to Andrea’s for show and tell. She liked them too, which made me feel good. I’ll clearly be making more of these. Can’t wait!

Week 12 - Productive and Fun

It was nice to start the week with a day off. And since I’d accomplished my goal of getting the laundry room in order, all I really had to do was chores. But somehow I found myself downstairs again and before I knew it, I was slogging through stuff in the craft room. I spent all morning down there, finally coming up for lunch at 1:00, which was really noon so my stomach was still on old time. I spent the rest of the day alternating between chores and knitting. It being so light out messed me up and I missed getting to the post office before closing. I also had to slam to get my pie made to bring to knitting, being that it was Pie Day (3/14 for 3.14 – get it?) After knitting I brought the rest of the pie to Donna’s and went home to prep for the work week.

I had no trouble falling asleep – exhaustion will do that – so it wasn’t horrible getting up on Tuesday like it usually is after the clocks go forward. Work was busy all week so it flew. I had to force myself to go to the pool. I don’t know if it was the fact that it was so light but I just wanted to go home. It’s a good thing I went Tuesday because that was the only night I swam. Wednesday I went thrifting with Darla and then knitted at Village Inn. It was good to see the gang again. On Thursday I called my hairdresser and she was able to fit me in at 5:45 so I made a bee line to Wahoo. My hair had bypassed the Bozo look and gone straight to Albert Einstein so it was wonderful to get it all cut off. On Friday I skipped my normal food shopping and went straight home. I’m going to have to work on getting to the pool more next week.

On Saturday, I was taking Andrea out for her birthday – her choice of place and time. Spinning was on Saturday afternoon but she wanted to go to Personal Threads, our favorite yarn shop in Omaha, but they close at 3:00 so we skipped spinning and headed to Omaha after Andrea’s shop closed at 1:00. I had had another productive morning in the craft room so my backseat was loaded with Goodwill donations. I also brought my print from England that needed to be rematted so I could drop it at the framers below the yarn shop. We bought our yarn, picked up my picture (it looked MUCH better!) and headed to lunch at The Farmhouse Café, chosen because it’s next to Mangelsen’s, our next stop. They were having a yarn sale so I bought more. Sheesh! Then we dropped the Goodwill donations and did a bit of shopping. There was a mid-century modern bookshelf-ish thing for $15 but I decided against it. We hit 2 more Goodwills on the way home and I got home just before 7:00. It was a fun day and I still had Sunday for cooking and chores.

I had stayed up late on Saturday watching Survivors (a British post-apocalyptic miniseries) so slept late on Sunday. Between talking on the phone, Andrea stopping by and reading the paper, the morning was over in the blink of an eye. I had intended to spend the day cooking but ended up downstairs again. I don’t know where the motivation was coming from but I wasn’t stopping. Before you know it, phase 1 of the craft room was pretty much done but I had a bare wall, which I hadn’t anticipated. That made me think of the mid-century piece at Goodwill. I called and when they said it was still there, I got in the car and drove to Omaha to pick it up. I drove there, bought it, drove home and unloaded, cleaned and put it in the basement all in 2 hours. It’s a bit rough and will need a coat of paint (orange!) but it’s perfect for under the window and will hold lots of stuff. After a bit more arranging and a final sweep of the floor, I called it good and headed upstairs for a quick dinner of leftover frozen pizza and some TV. I hadn’t cooked a thing and had only managed one load of laundry but the craft room was well on its way to operational so I’m happy. It’ll be another week of eating out of the freezer but there are worse things. Hopefully my productivity will continue for the coming week. If it does, there’s no telling what I’ll get done. I live in hope.

Week 11 - Making a Dent

So, this is how I started my week. It was snowing Monday so the drive in was frustrating – mostly trying to dodge people driving too slowly in the passing lane and blocking my progress (when the road’s clear, there’s no need to drive 40 mph!) When I got to Lincoln I stopped at Starbucks and saw immediately that the manager was there because she doesn’t work the front despite it being the morning rush so there’s just one cashier and one barista. Can we spell BIG LINE? So I’m waiting, trying not to be too impatient when I swing my purse onto my shoulder and the man behind me is standing so close that my purse hits his phone, which he must have been completely absorbed in, and knocks it onto the floor where the case breaks. He stares at me dumb founded and all I can think is PERSONAL SPACE! I picked it up, expressed concern (see, wasn’t I being good?) and then bought him a coffee. Sheesh!

The day at work was one to be gotten through (I was tired and fighting cranky) but knitting was fun and I finished the last of my gift knitting when I got home. After another night of bizzaro dreams, I was tired Tuesday and decided early in the day to skip the pool and head home. My Knit Picks delivery would be waiting on my step and I was excited to start 2 at a time socks on 2 circular needles - exciting stuff if you’re a knitter. Really. I had pancakes for dinner (Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Pancake Day – all names for the last day before lent) and enjoyed a night of knitting. Plus I felted the last of my gifts and they all came out great.

Wednesday was supposed to be knitting at Village Inn, which we’d scheduled a month ago without consulting a calendar so had no idea it was Ash Wednesday. When most people weren’t going, we postponed until next week and I got to go home after the pool for another night of knitting. Yay! By this time I’d already decided I would take Monday off so I’d have a 3 day weekend to get stuff done. The week was looking up.

The work days flew by and I managed to mail one of my packages (sock yarn, a felted pod and felting needles, yarn and instructions for Debbie.) After having some kitty bonding time when campus was dead Friday evening, I food shopped and headed home for my long weekend.

I had dropped Tot at the vet Friday morning for spaying so needed to pick her up Saturday morning after running errands in town. It’s always a good thing to have a reason to be up, dressed and out to kick start the weekend. When I got home, I started going through paper and reclaimed my desk and bar, loading up the recycling bin in the process.

Sunday found me downstairs putting the laundry room back in order. I had totes of Christmas decorations and sundry other stuff that had been in the middle of the floor for a LONG time and had stuff piled on top of them. (I thought of taking a before pic but was too embarrassed.) By the time I was done, I had gone through every box and tote plus the storage shelves, the floor was clear and I had boxes to donate loaded in the car. I scrubbed the floor twice (and it could use another round) before I collapsed into a chair. I still had my chores to do but my goal of reclaiming the laundry room so I could set up my grow light and table for starting seeds was done. I ended the week, which started in iffy mode, on a high note – productive, happy and tired, but in a good way. Let's hope this productive stint stays around. I have lots more on my to do list. : )

Week 10 - Another Normal Week

It was a relatively normal week – at last! I knitted on Monday, swam on Tuesday and Thursday and food shopped on Friday. See? Normal.

All this normal wore me out. I was feeling completely exhausted on Wednesday, so much so that I was worried about my new blood pressure meds, which I’d started taking on Saturday. So I left work early and headed to the doctor’s office, only to learn that my BP was near perfect. The fatigue was just a side effect of the new meds and would only last another week or so. It was probably exacerbated by a couple of nights without enough sleep so I made an effort to go to bed early Wednesday and the next morning felt like a new woman. It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do.

I talked to my cousin Debbie this week and she told me she had made 4 pair of socks since I helped teach her to knit in October. I was shocked and immediately said I’d get together a care package of sock yarn from my stash. I then decided I needed to introduce her to felting so caked some 100% wool and bought her some big needles. But I couldn’t send her the makings for a pod without making her one so I cast on yet another pod. As soon as I was done with that, I started another felted project for my friend’s birthday next week. I was also finishing mittens for my friend’s husband, who fed the campus cats for me when it was so cold in February. After spending all weekend knitting for friends, I swear I’m going to finish Deanne’s present and knit nothing but stuff for me for a long time. Can’t wait!

Lorri and I did an Omaha run – Penzey’s, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s – after Friends on Saturday, which was fun. Then I ended up at the Vet’s Club, supposedly to keep Donna company while she had no customers. But by the time I got there, she was in the throes of party prep for a family birthday at the bar. I stayed for bit, knitting, of course, and then headed home for sweet potato gnocchis and wine for dinner and an early bedtime. I never left the house Sunday, getting tons of knitting done and fitting in a few chores and some cooking. All in all, it was a nice weekend after a “normal” week. Now I just need a few more like this.

Week 9 - Nice and Easy

It was another crazy week. Work was constantly in crisis mode and Carolyn was at Disney so I had to get through it without my sounding board. That’s a bit dramatic but I really did miss her. There were countless times during the week when something happened that I would have shared with Carolyn and couldn’t. Woe is me! At least it was warm so most of the snow was gone by the weekend.

One fun thing I did was finally break out the bento box Carolyn gave me for Christmas. I’d have to say it was a roaring success. I packed it with healthy, pretty food that totally filled me up and was satisfying. I had bento Monday and Tuesday and was pretty pleased with myself. Could this be the thing that finally breaks my sandwich habit? Here’s hoping.

Other than work being nuts, it was a pretty easy week. Because the library was closed for Presidents’ Day, we knitted at Andrea’s store, which was a nice change, and a reporter from the local newspaper interviewed us on knitting. I’m interested to see the article, which should be in this week. Tuesday was the pool followed by a Tupperware party at my scrapbooking friend Sandy’s house. I had time to kill between the pool and the party so Anne and I went to Panera for soup. It was nice chatting with Anne when we weren’t in the pool.

It was snowing on Thursday and Dale, who’d left early, called to say the roads were awful and I should leave. So I started home and it took a long time to get to the highway because there was enough snow on the roads that every stop light was a challenge. As I was driving north, it became clear that there was less snow. I was thrilled to get to Wahoo and find that we’d gotten NOTHING! There wasn’t even enough on the ground to call it anymore than a dusting. Then I got to my door and my swap box from the Ravelry Color Swap was waiting for me. And the best part was, it was full of wonderful orange things - yarn, roving (for spinning), candy, a book, tools, etc. plus a wonderful handknit cowl. What a nice surprise! I was glowing as I made dinner and headed to the library for book club, which was fun with a lively discussion of The Color of Water.

Friday was another stressful day at work so I headed straight home, skipping my usual Friday food shopping. I had no commitments for the weekend and was looking forward to staying home. It was a nice weekend. I did something I haven’t in awhile. I cooked up a storm. I started out making sauce for lasagna, thinking I’d bring a pan over to Donna, who is struggling to get around and is waiting for a date to have her replacement knee replaced. That lead to making taco salad mix and a big pot of beef barley soup. When I went to put the lasagna together on Sunday, I didn’t have noodles and so opted for rigatoni and just made it lasagna style, ending up with enough for Donna plus small ones for Andrea, me and a couple for the freezer.

I also got lots of knitting done, finishing (hopefully) my felting frenzy. But maybe not. I went over to Andrea’s on Sunday afternoon to pick up her felting stuff (I’m the designated felter for the group, having a top loader with an agitator) but also picked up more 100% wool from the auction. I needed more of the lavender to finish the bowl I was working on but also took lots more. Andrea and I had some tea while waiting for Donna to get home so we could drop the lasagna and rugelach that Andrea had made. By the time I got home, it was dinner time. I ended the night staying up way too late to do the felting load. It was a nice weekend – relaxing but productive. I need a few more of these.

Week 8 - Lots of Visiting

What a week! It had it all – a visit from Connie, beautiful weather, work days that flew by, a wedding and some blessed down time.

When I left for work on Monday, I didn’t know if it was just Connie coming or her and Gordy, her new love interest. This meant I had to do a lot more neatizing than I would have for just Connie. The last thing I did was empty all the trash and wheel the trash can to the curb. In my nightie. In the dark. Well, I didn’t see the ice at the bottom of my driveway and was on my butt before I even knew I was falling. I scrambled to my feet and ran in to get dressed, knowing I’d be sore later. At least no one saw me (I hope!) Of course I was running late so parked at a meter.

Connie called mid morning to say she was coming alone. What a relief! I ran errands over lunch – everything I’d hoped to get done before work. I mailed my swap package and ran to the locksmith and market. Connie would be chez moi by 6:00 and her daughter Rachele was coming for dinner. She was bringing a salad and I was making asparagus and goat cheese pasta. We all three arrived within 5 minutes of each other and the pasta was ready in 15 minutes. We cracked a bottle of chardonnay and enjoyed settled in for good food and company. Since I wasn’t going to make it to knitting, Donna stopped by to pick up some yarn and the rugelach I’d made for Valentine’s Day and stayed for a quick glass of wine. Rachele left relatively early and Connie and I stayed up talking. It was wonderful to have some face time with Connie at last!

I saw Connie for only a few minutes on Tuesday morning but we were supposed to meet for lunch at the Indian restaurant near campus. When Connie called to say she was having lunch with Betty’s son before the funeral, Darla and I grabbed lunch. Connie called as I was leaving the pool to see if I wanted to do Indian for dinner but I declined. I’m OK with spending $10 for lunch on food I’m not particularly fond of but not twice that for dinner. So I went home for a quiet night of TV and knitting. Connie got home at 9:00 and we talked until midnight.

Needless to say, I was exhausted on Wednesday but I hugged Connie goodbye and headed to work. It hadn’t been a good sign when I saw UNL’s online directory on the morning news. I spent the day slamming to figure out how to fix the data on the coaches I’d seen on the news. Sheesh! I was running on empty but Anne guilted me into going to the pool, which ended up being a good thing. I went home, nuked dinner, watched Survivor and went to bed early. I slept like a baby.

I had a 3 hour meeting on Thursday morning and was leaving at 2:30 for a podiatrist appointment so the day flew by. I was happy when I left the doctor’s since I didn’t have a plantar’s wart. It was 70+ degrees so I got a frapuccino and sat outside while I had my oil changed then met Darla at the theatre to see The King’s Speech. What a fabulous movie! I was home by 7:00 to prep for scrapbooking Friday night, which was no small task since I’d thrown everything willy nilly into the spare room closet when Connie called.

Friday brought more identity management data problems and it was nuts all morning. I went to lunch with Layton and then returned to Crazy Town for a few more hours of stress. At least the day flew. I hit the market and then went to scrapbooking. I wasn’t as tired as I’d thought I’d be but that was probably because I was still drinking my morning coffee at 4:00. Sheesh! Alas, I wasn’t as prepared as I’d hoped. I hadn’t worked on my album since the fall and didn’t have enough pictures printed. But at least no one else was very motivated either. I only got 2 pages done but it was fun to catch up with everyone. I got home at midnight and fell into bed.

I had wisely decided not to go to spinning earlier in the week so the only commitment I had on Saturday was to go the bank before noon and drop a check at the library. I’d already stripped all the beds and hung the sheets on the line so I was free to sit and knit once my errands were done. I don’t know if it was the gorgeous weather, just having a free day or a combo of the two but I was in a fabulous mood. The afternoon flew by and I enjoyed every minute of it. I sat down to watch Inception Saturday night, having been warned I needed to pay attention so I didn’t knit. But the laptop was right in front of me and I ended up surfing for patterns online and missing important parts of the movie. Sheesh!

On Sunday, four of us from water aerobics went to Betsy’s wedding (she was one of our instructors.) It was in Hallam, the town about 30 miles south of Lincoln where I helped with tornado clean up in 2004, so I was interested in seeing how they’d rebuilt. The wedding was at 1:30 so I had to leave for Lincoln at noon. It was sweet – six bridesmaids and six groomsmen in the village auditorium. After a yummy piece of cake, we headed back and I got home in time for a cup of tea. What a nice way to end the week.

Week 7 - A Maniacal Weekend

It was a strange but productive week. I didn’t swim (don’t ask) and so had lots of time after work to get things done. I could get used to that but won’t think about it because I’m headed back to the pool this week.

I spent most of my extra time last week knitting. Go figure. Knitting and shopping that is. I am participating in a swap on Ravelry (an online community for knitters) so was on the hunt for things for my swappee in her designated color. I also had to include at least one handmade item so, of course, I made three all within the last week. I also had baby booties to knit for a shower on Sunday. Add all the shopping trips looking for presents and I was pretty busy. For example, on Monday I was at Wal-Mart before work, Baker’s Candies over lunch and Dollar Tree after work but before knitting. Despite calling my swap box done after that, I still kept shopping, just not as maniacally. Wednesday was knitting at Village Inn, which was fun because I hadn’t been since before Christmas.

Work was busy too. I slammed through a couple of priority projects (those never seem to stop), spent an entire morning with the consultant testing the identity management system and spent the end of the week drafting a response from the BPI (business process improvement) team on the facilities module. Blah, blah, blah. That's my job! It certainly made the week fly by though.

The weekend was going to be a busy one so I started my chores on Friday night, getting the laundry out of the way before going to bed early so I'd be fresh for getting tons done Saturday. Just after falling asleep, I was awakened by the sound of a cat scratching, which is never a good sign. The boxes needed changing and that was first on my list for Saturday. I got up and checked the navy sweatshirt that had fallen on the floor and seeing nothing, threw it onto the pile of clothes on the chair. Fast forward to the next morning. I was attempting to eat a bowl of cereal but the kitten was in my face so I put the bowl on the arm of my easy chair and reached to throw the kitten down. Somehow the kitten ended up on the floor and the bowl of cereal was in my lap, with milk everywhere. I peeled off my sodden nightie and jumped into the shower, earlier than I'd planned but I tried to see the bright side that I'd be up and dressed early because I had a lot to do. Well, I pulled a t-shirt from the chair over my head and smelled pee. Yes, Tilde had peed on the navy sweatshirt and I then threw it onto a pile of clean clothes on the chair! ICK! Luckily the shirt just smelled and wasn't actually wet so I washed up a bit, got dressed in fresh clothes and started laundry AGAIN. Two loads later and I was ready to get busy. The day could only get better.

The Wine & Dine was Sunday night and par for the course, I had left my projects until the last minute. I had to gather pictures for a slide show of the Friends' accomplishments and print the place cards. I thought the place cards would be a 5 minute job but had trouble finding the right files and then merging them in the new version of word. By the time I got those done and headed to the library, I had less than an hour to gather the pics and cut the place cards. After breaking the library's paper cutter, I headed to their computer where I only found a few pictures (we had expected more) so I headed home to slog through every pic on my computer since 2004 looking for library pics, knowing I had quite a few. That sucked up hours of my afternoon! I then dropped the flash drive and cut up (using my scrapbooking cutter) place cards at Denise's and went to the market. By the time I got home it was dark. Somewhere in all this, Connie called to say her friend Betty had died and she'd be heading south for the funeral and asked if she could stay at my house. I said of course and started another to do list. She said her new boyfriend might come too, which would mean a different level or neatizing. Oh well, that's what friends are for. I made a late dinner and started knitting yet another thing for the swap box. I found a cute pattern for stocking hat pins and knitted up a bunch. They are so cute!

Sunday was busy again. I had more neatizing to do, still not knowing if I'd have just Connie or her boyfriend too. I also had baking to do for Valentine's Day. I made rugelach, using this super yummy recipe, and sugar cookies with fiori di Sicilia for my swappee. At 2:00 I was sitting outside in a t-shirt eating a grilled cheese for a late lunch. All the baking was done, the housework was nearly done and it was 60+ degrees out. Yay! I was on the road to the shower by 2:15, stopping for a gift bag on the way. There was lots of good food but I tried not to eat much since I'd have prime rib at the Wine & Dine. I went from the shower to home to shut the windows I'd left open and then was on to the Wine & Dine, arriving at 6:00 when dinner was supposed to be served but this is Nebraska where nothing ever starts on time. So I had time to grab a single glass of wine and then it was time to eat. I sat with Karen Boop (a friend of the library I only know slightly) and her husband and his brother, who had just moved to Wahoo from RI. What are the chances? We swapped RI stories and it was fun. The food was fine (nothing special) but it's a fund raiser after all. I even won a door prize, having also won a game at the shower. Anyway, I was happy to get home. I put together my swap box so I could mail it in the morning and went to bed late. It was a long day but fun and I was in the home stretch, looking forward to a normal week with gorgeous, warm weather. Life is good!