Week 17 - Just Catching Up

I started the week with Drew leaving. I got up at my regular time and got ready before waking him up, which took a few tries but we were out the door at 8:00 as planned. I was dropping him at a Starbuck’s in Omaha where he would while away the morning waiting for his ride to pick him up. Having just been off for a week, there was no way I was taking another day so he’d just have to tough it out. I bought him breakfast and a coffee and left him with a $10 card to keep him fed and caffeinated all morning then left for work. I arrived at 10:00 and plowed in to catch up post vacation. The day was over in a flash.

I worked a bit late so was only running into the house to get my project bag on the way to pick up the pizza for knitting. I was only out of my car for 3 minutes and foolishly left the windows open. Well, the damn neighborhood cat got into my car and sprayed on the front passenger seat. I did the best I could quickly – blotting, washing and febrezing before heading to Pizza Hut. I knew it’d smell but hoped it would be short lived, figuring it’d bake out when I parked in the sun in the newly warmer weather. Only when I got to knitting did I realize that he’d also sprayed my purse and book bag. #&$*!@#&%*$!& I transferred everything to grocery bags for the time being and happily knitted away. I left the book bag outside pending a weekend load of wash and got out the orange clean, hoping the smell wouldn’t have sunk into the leather. Damn cat!

The purse still smelled in the morning but I didn’t have time to transfer everything to another purse (I LOVE this purse so nothing else in the cupboard was going to work) so doused it with Febreze and headed to work. I stopped at the Hort Club sale on the way in and so started the day buying plants, which were gorgeous and reasonably priced. It was an uneventful day, which worked for me. It was nice to just be home alone.

I was watering seedlings for Lorri Urban so had to stop at her house on Wednesday and Thursday after work. I had planned to swim on Thursday but was worried that it would do my knee in and I needed to be mobile on Saturday so I didn’t go. I was completely absorbed in the book I was reading (Dust by Hugh Howey, which is the 3^rd book in the Silo Saga) so happily went home to read instead. 

Campus was a ghost town on Friday (It was Arbor Day – Nebraska’s state holiday that no one else celebrates. Every state seems to have one.) but I had a productive day while it was so quiet. I went thrifting on the way home and hit the mother lode at Goodwill, scoring 43 skeins of yarn for only 99 cents each. There were lots of fat quarters too so I ended up spending $92, which is a record for me but was well worth it. Here are some pics. : )

Saturday was a busy day. I set my alarm for my workday time because I wanted to get my bed stripped and the sheets washed and hung out before heading out for breakfast with Darla, which was delicious. We met at Penelope’s Café, which is new and near Darla’s house. It’s always fun to hang with Darla. I had half an hour between breakfast and meeting Nora at 10:30 at her kids’ school to help with a plant sale soI  popped over to Anne’s to drop off some yarn. Since I hadn’t been swimming, we had lots to catch up on so I ended up dashing to get to the school. The plant sale was perfectly pleasant. People had pre-ordered plants so I just checked to make sure they took the right plants and answered a few questions here and there. I was scheduled for a double shift but it was so slow that I left an hour early and headed to St. E’s. Anne Marie had had baby #8 on Friday night so I spent a couple of hours with her and little Philip then headed home. It was a long but pleasant day.

I had been doing laundry all week and hanging it out because Sunday was going to be rainy, which it was – thunder storms early then delightfully light, spring rain until mid-afternoon. This meant I only had neatizing and some kitchen stuff to do on Sunday. I had thought Lorri would stop by after church to pick up her key. She didn’t but I got everything done in the morning just in case, which left me with the afternoon wide open. I had hoped to get some cooking done but somehow that didn’t happen. Other than knitting, not much got done but oh well. I can live with that. At least I’d gotten plenty done before Sunday afternoon. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway. No matter how much I get done, there’s always more. That’s life!

Week 16 - My Week Off

Well, my vacation plans were not working out as planned. I started the week with another miserable night’s sleep because of the worst cold I’ve had in recent memory. I knew I wasn’t going to be getting much done so made a list of errands in town and did all those. That was it. I spent the rest of the day endlessly blowing my nose and feeling like crap. So crappy that I didn’t go to knitting. That’s bad.

I felt better on Tuesday so got busy on my now shortened list of must do chores before Drew arrived. Number one was reclaiming the spare room, which was mostly taken over by badly organized yarn and knitting stuff. I actually had fun sorting my yarn and bagging it up so it would stop disintegrating when I was rummaging. It took a couple of hours but was done. Unfortunately when I stood up from the bed, my knee was a mess. It hadn’t hurt when I was sitting but wouldn’t straighten and was painful as all get out. Great! Just what I needed.

It was time to call in the troops if I was going to get anything done. I called Anne Marie and arranged to pick up her 2 oldest girls at 4:00 to do some raking. Yeah, that didn’t really work out either. They worked for an hour and it was clear they had no idea how to rake. Seriously. I took them home just after 5:00 and went out to rerake everything they’d done with my knees locked. Here’s a pic of what I raked from the supposedly already raked beds. Sheesh! Unfortunately I wasn’t going to be able to bend to pick the leaves up so could only do where I could leave the piles, so the front parking strip was still a mess. Oh well. I tried.

My knee was some better on Wednesday so I did what I could in the house in the morning and emailed my neighbor at work to see if I could hire her daughter to pick up the piles in the yard. She said she’d have Emma call so I got to enjoy the afternoon. Darla came by after work for tea and we sat and chatted for hours. It was great to see her again. Emma called and said she had too much homework. Huh? What’s wrong with kids today? I would do anything for money when I was young but these days kids have zero motivation, almost no skills and don’t seem to need money. I just don’t get it. Anyway, Emma came over after her mom got home from work (forced for sure) so at least the leaves were done. All but one pile and I had plans to put my nephew on that.

I met Helen for breakfast on Thursday morning (it was great to catch up) then finished my Drew prep and headed to Omaha with Andrea for a quick shopping run. I needed some groceries since a 20 year old boy/man was coming. We did a quick route, ending at Aldi where I bought a ham for Easter dinner and various and sundry other foodstuffs. Then it was home to wait for Drew’s call. When I finally gave up waiting and called him, it was to find out he wouldn’t be getting to Omaha until nearly 11:00. I watched some Hulu and then headed to pick him up. It was a long night by the time I got to bed. Clearly Drew was younger and had more stamina.

Drew slept in much later than I did on Friday. Go figure. I cooked bacon and eggs and then we headed to the SAC Museum because Drew’s into planes. When I mentioned the museum, he seemed thrilled. Did I mention that this museum is 2 enormous airplane hangars full of planes? On a bum knee. I managed to gimp through the first hangar but opted for sitting on a bench after half of the second. I so wished I’d brought my knitting. But Drew enjoyed it so I was the good auntie, right? From there we headed to Lincoln for the all you can eat Chinese buffet in my lame attempt to fill his bottomless stomach. Then I took him to campus, where we ended up going to the movies at The Ross. I’d already seen The Grand Budapest Hotel but I was being the good auntie so…. At least I could sit. I was done eating after the Chinese food but Drew was hungry again so he snacked his way through the frig when we got home before heading to bed earlier cuz auntie was tired. : )

After another home cooked breakfast, it was time to head to Helen’s farm. Drew wanted to see the horses. I sat in the car. After a bit, Helen came over and suggested that Drew stay and help and I could come back later and get him. Yee ha! I was off the hook. My knee was much happier at home than sweating in a car cuz it was pretty darn warm. I relaxed the afternoon away, picked Drew up later and then we both got cleaned up because we were going to Farmer Brown’s with Helen for prime rib. Yum! We were there when they opened at 5:00 so were home by 7:00, full and happy. I then continued good auntie mode and watched Caddy Shack. Yikes!

The weather was supposed to suck on Sunday so I’d declared it stay at home day. Drew had brought some homework with him so dug into that after breakfast. Since the rain was holding off, I went out to prune my roses, which I managed to do without my knees getting worse. It still wasn’t raining so I planted my early veggies (1 bed out of 4 done, yay!) while the ham cooked. Drew moved the last pile of leaves and set up my hoses, which required kneeling, before dinner. We ended up eating in separate rooms – Drew out front over homework and me in the back while watching PBS. It was not a particularly festive Easter dinner but fine for a heathen and a Jew. Nora stopped on her way through town and dropped off some yummy carrot cake. I went to bed, giving Drew strict instructions to pack before bed because we’d be leaving the house at 8:00 come hell or high water.

So, it wasn’t the super productive week I’d planned but I did get some yard work done, had social time with Darla and Helen and spent a nice weekend with Drew. He seemed happy and I’d gotten enough done despite being betrayed by my body at every turn. I’ll take that.

Week 15 - Prepping for Vacation

Everything this week was about getting ready for my week off. I wanted to make sure nothing would get in the way of a week of peak productivity. Yeah, that worked. Ha!

Early in the week, my nephew Drew called and asked if he could come for Easter weekend. You could have knocked me over with a feather. He goes to University of North Dakota and could bum a ride to Omaha with a friend. OK. I’d be on auntie duty at the end of my week off so would just have to get everything done before he got there. Doable.

The week flew by and it was Friday before I knew it. The new cleaning ladies wanted to switch my week to work better with their schedule but I asked them to fit me in later in the week so they wouldn’t be coming on my week off. They agreed to come on Friday so I got home to a clean house with nothing broken for the first time. No awful smells either. Nice.

I had been sniffling for a few days and had runny eyes so chalked it up to allergies and went to bed with dreams of productivity. I woke up at 3:10 so congested that I couldn’t breathe or sleep. It was so bad that I got up to take a Claritin D. I never really fell back asleep so got up early and prepped for the Friends meeting at 10:00. I went to that then hit the bank and was done. I felt like crap and was exhausted. I had invited people over to knit on Sunday afternoon but felt so bad that I cancelled. I sat like a zombie waiting for bedtime. Not a good way to start my vacation.

Of course I felt much better Sunday after getting a better night’s sleep. I still had the cold though so didn’t impose my germs on my knitting buddies, who were knitting at Lori’s after my cancelation. I spent another day sitting and knitting, hoping laying low would help with my cold. I still had hope for the beginning of the week. I was going to not count the weekend as “vacation” in hopes that Monday, my first official day off, would mean a fresh start.

Week 14 - End of Leisure

Work was super busy this week, which made the time fly but I was dragging most afternoons because I wasn’t sleeping well, mostly just whackadoo dreams. It probably doesn’t help that I haven’t been swimming (no endorphins) but we got news that the pool was operational again on Thursday so this was my last week of leisure. I’ve enjoyed going right home after work like a normal person. The weather wasn’t warm enough for yard work so I can’t say I got much done with all that extra time. Some extra knitting but that was about it.

Other than knitting on Monday, which is always fun, especially since we’ve added pizza and beer, the only social thing I did all week was movies and dinner on Thursday. We saw The Grand Budapest Hotel at The Ross, which was good and reminiscent of Moonrise Kingdom. I checked when I got home – same director. Anyway, since I hadn’t seen Nancy in person since the fall so we had a good catch up over sushi at Hiro 88, the new restaurant in the entertainment district. It was a late night but since it was the only one that week, it was fun rather than debilitating like last week. And the next day was Friday.

I had no plans for the weekend and was looking forward to it big time. The only thing I absolutely had to do was my taxes. And chores. There’s always chores. Since Saturday was the better day weather wise, I did my laundry then so I could hang it outside. Love it! While I was at it, I did all of my chores, which would leave Sunday for taxes. Yee ha! Lori did come over just as I was sitting down to tea. She had picked up sweaters from a woman from the unravellers group on Ravelry who was downsizing and needed to offload some sweaters. We sorted through them and immediately went out on the deck to start the unraveling. I had started dyeing some yarn before Lori came and finished it up after she left. I hadn’t dyed in a long time and it was a nice end to a productive day.

So, tax prep day. Not fun but it had to be done. I finished at 1:00, which worked great because Andrea and I were headed to Lori’s to knit the afternoon away. We had a lovely afternoon and I got home just in time for dinner and TV. I even managed to finish Anne Marie’s socks, which are for her to wear during labor. She’s do later this month but is HUGE so I didn’t want to take any chances. They were my last deadline knitting so now I can relax and knit something at a leisurely pace. That’ll be a switch. Now to decide what’s next. But since I'll be back to swimming next week, my extra leisure time will be gone. The endorphins will be worth it, right? That's what I'm telling myself. : )

Week 13 - My Fun Overload

It was spring break so campus was deserted. Work was busy but manageable, which was a good thing because by the end of the week, I was ready to crumble. It was all because of too much fun.

Somehow I ended up with something scheduled every night Monday through Thursday. It was all fun and involved spending quality time with friends. I had knitting on Monday, a concert at the Lied on Tuesday, a potluck with the water aerobics gang on Wednesday and book club on Thursday. It was just go go go and I was exhausted. On top of all the fun, I had some other stressors going on to compound things.

I worked late on Tuesday on a project for the Vice Chancellor after training all afternoon then met Andrea at the Chinese buffet before the concert. The Soweto Gospel Choir was so much fun and totally uplifting. I left the concert on a high feeling totally energized and I was going home to a clean house. I walked in at 10:20 and took a big breath, thinking I’d smell clean. But underneath the awful febreeze cleaner the new cleaning lady uses was a funky undertone. I could swear it was boy cat. Then I walked into the back room and found Pretty Boy (that’s what I call him anyway) – one of the neighborhood cats. An unneutered male IN MY HOUSE! I was livid. So much so that I couldn’t sleep despite taking a shower to cool down. At least I scored some brownie points by responding to my boss’ email after 11:00. I was still awake at midnight and slept like crap, waking up worried that he’d sprayed all over the house. With the awful lingering febreeze smell, I couldn’t be sure. I did not need this this week!

I was getting more tired with every passing day and by Thursday morning I felt like I could cry at any minute. When Pixel came in with muddy feet and jumped onto my unmade bed, I nearly did. But I had my emotions under control by the time I got to work and being busy helped. I trained all afternoon and when I was done I asked if I could leave early. It was exactly what I needed. I was able to get my swap handmade nearly done before book club and then had a nice time discussing Water for Elephants, which I’d reread and loved just as much the second time. Best of all? I’d made it through and not only was the next day Friday but I had nothing planned after work. At last!

Friday flew by and after a quick stop at the market, I was home and it felt great. I sat and knitted, thrilled to just be sitting. Saturday was going to be another long day so I needed it.

Saturday was the annual garden event in Council Bluffs. I used to go for master gardener CE’s but since I don’t need them anymore (yay me for quitting!) I was going just for fun. It was a fun day of knitting while watching slide shows of plants and listening to speakers talk about plants. What’s not to love? And my last commitment of the week was over. I had a relaxing evening once I got home too. Nice.

Sunday was gorgeous and the wind they forecast held out until late afternoon. I had all more chores done by lunchtime and started cooking. By the time Andrea popped by for tea, I had filled my frig with food for the week and Andrea left with some too plus a bag of scraps for Lori’s chickens. She was headed there on her way home. By the end of the night, I felt recharged and ready to face the coming week. Let’s hope I don’t have another overscheduled week like this one anytime soon.

Week 12 - No Sister Time

It was a very relaxed week, which is always nice but leaves not much to write about. Yet somehow I’ll manage. : )

For the second time since the pool was redone two years ago, the pump went out so water was moved to the shallow lap pool pending repairs. Since I’d been having knee troubles already, I decided not to tempt fate and so will not be swimming until the deep pool reopens. This meant I could go straight home after work, which lead to lots and lots of knitting. I did bring workout clothes on Friday with the intent of exploring other options (I was thinking recumbent bike or super circuit) after work, only to receive and email that day that the weight room and circuit would be down for the next four days while they were being moved. Clearly the workout gods were against me but it probably worked better for my knee anyway.

I did manage to cross a few things off my to do list during the weeknights before the sitting/knitting began. Unclogging the floor drain was one thing I was happy about. It took an entire bottle of Drano and two kettles of boiling water but at last my furnace could drain back where it was meant to. I also finished the socks for my co-worker’s daughters and she took me to lunch as a thank you. And I won tickets to the Soweto Gospel Choir on the radio so there’s some culture coming next week. And free to boot!

Saturday started on a sour note. The phone rang early and I thought it was Carolyn but it was my sister Ginny. She was calling to say she wasn’t coming in April after all. The trip had been a quick one so when the airline cancelled her flight home with the only alternative either a really long layover in Atlanta or leaving a day earlier, she took the refund and cancelled. Keep in mind, this would have been her first time to Nebraska (I’ve lived here almost 18 years) and the first solo trip since she met her husband. I had been so looking forward to it. And her alternative was that the two of them would drive out this summer. NOT THE SAME THING! In addition to him being there (total downer), summer is my busy time at work and when I’m not working, I’m holed up in the AC because Nebraska summers are hotter than Hades. And when I suggested she look for a weekend she could come in the fall, she actually quoted sub budget problems in her district. This from someone who calls in sick all the time. So, it’ll probably be another decade before I see her in Nebraska. Bummer.

The rest of the weekend was lovely. I’d invited knitters over on Saturday afternoon because Lori has another commitment for 6 weeks and said she was missing the social knitting. It ended up just being the two of us but we had a nice time, chatting and drinking many cups of tea. The added bonus was it made me get all my chores done before she came at 3:00 but that was late enough in the day that I was able to knit a bit, do a chore, knit some more, do another chore…. That’s a great way to do chores, don’t you think?

Sunday was my belated birthday play date with Helen. She was picking me up at 10:30 (11:00 in Helen time) and I was ready to go. Unfortunately I tweaked my knee just before she came and couldn’t put any weight on it when I got in the car. Luckily, as has been the case recently, just sitting for the ride to Lincoln fixed it. But I didn’t want to push it so we skipped the breakfast for lunch I was wanting in favor of Applebee’s, which was the first restaurant we passed that didn’t have a huge wait. From there we went to Starbuck’s and on to Paint Yourself Silly. I had never been but it’s a fave of Helen’s and we had fun. I painted a yarn bowl in orange and purple (shocking choice!) and Helen did a plate. I’m excited to pick them up but that won’t be for two weeks. Then we stopped at Brenda and Michael’s to see the baby. He’d completely changed since I saw him in the hospital (go figure) but was fussy when we got there. I should have brought my knitting because we just sat and chatted for a couple of hours while Carter slept in Helen’s arms. Oh well. I got home after 7:00, ate some pancakes and called it a night, sitting down for some TV before bed. If there are any watchers of The Good Wife, what did you think of that? Yikes! Big shocker, just like CBS said. : )

So that was my nice week. Somewhere in there was the official start of spring but the weather here, except for a freaky warm day here and there, is still cold. There is some green showing in lawns and I found one lily in a sheltered spot coming up in my garden. It’ll only get warmer from here and I’m all about that. Right?

Week 11 - It's Always Something

This week was just one thing after another.

To start, am I the only one who has trouble with the spring time change? It seems to get harder and harder every year. I didn’t get a full night’s sleep until the middle of the week and so, like the rest of the world, was on low energy. That didn’t help at all.

My new cleaning lady was starting Tuesday and I was thrilled when I opened the door to the smell of cleaner and a spotless kitchen floor. The house looked great! She’d worked extra since it was so dirty but she clearly was doing a much better job than the last cleaning lady. Yay! Then I went into the bathroom and saw that one of the globes on the light fixture was gone. She had left me a message saying it had come down and smashed when she tried to dust it. First off, can I say how thrilled I am that she even thought to dust up there? My last cleaning lady apparently never looked up because dust was thick on anything above eye level and let’s not even discuss the cobwebs. I assured her it was not a problem (I remember doing a crap job of installing it and thinking 2 out of 3 screws would be fine when I couldn’t screw the third one in – then again…) and that she didn’t need to pay for it. I’d just get another of the same or two new ones if I couldn’t match it. No biggie. The fact that the bulb on that side was flickering was a bit worrisome but I hoped it’d just need a new CFL. But later that night, when I was wiping off the top of the sink, the facecloth caught on something. Apparently when the globe broke, it dinged the top of the sink and took a chunk of enamel off of the side. At least it was only on the far side against the tub so wouldn’t be visible from the doorway. And I was sure I could get a little bottle of enamel paint at Menard’s when I got the globe.

Not so much. A sink repair kit was $17! And the shelf with the globes? Bare. I left Menard’s with nothing to address either issue but I did get a bottle of Drano for the floor drain in the basement. That was clogged again (I’d had it roto rootered not too long ago after the wet kitty litter as cement fiasco) and since it’s where my furnace drains, I’d been letting it drain into a bowl that I’d been emptying every day. Since the cat boxes are in that room, I was waiting until the water level was down enough so I could add the Drano and still have it below floor level. I’d bailed as much as I could so now it was up to evaporation. As of the end of the week, I’m still waiting….

And have I mentioned my knee? My GOOD knee started bothering me last weekend and since then it’s been snapping and popping. It was no better but no worse until Friday after lunch. I’d spilled a 20 ounce glass of water on my leg at lunch so went to see Cheryl to commiserate and ended up sitting and chatting a bit. Well, when I went to get up, I couldn’t put any weight on my leg. WTF! Cheryl and Susan took my keys and went to get my cane from my car. I hobbled back to my desk and after sitting for a bit, it was like it never happened. Still not right but at least I could walk again.

But wait! When they brought me the cane, they reported that the key wouldn’t go into my driver’s side door nor the trunk. Now I’d had it to the Honda dealership not too long ago for the trunk lock, which they said was just dirty (not!) but now the driver’s side too! It looks like I’d be making another appointment at Honda.

All that said, life is good. I did manage to find the exact same globe later in the week at, you guessed it, Menard’s but I didn’t go get it until they’d found it and put it aside (it said online that it was available in the store but I’d just been there and not seen it.) In the paint department I found a little bottle of touch up Rustoleum with a brush in the cap, which was exactly what I’d envisioned buying. $3. I had a wonderfully productive weekend of knitting, cooking and baking, finishing off the weekend with a quick trip to Lori’s to drop off a big bag of chicken food (trimmings from all my kitchen efforts) and pick up a dozen eggs. I’d made a nice birthday cake for Andrea to take to knitting and was nearly finished with my 2^nd pair of socks for the month.  And spring is in the air! The two lots of snow we’d gotten were both gone before the end of the next day and the extra hour of light, while not good for my sleep cycle, was pretty nice after work. And I even had some yarn fun on the deck, enjoying the gorgeous weather on Saturday while organizing all my sock yarn into under the bed boxes. I finished just before the cold front whipped through and dropped the temp like a rock. But it’s still winter so I’ll take the warm weather when I can get it while I patiently (ha!) wait for spring.

So despite the laundry list of inconveniences above, I’m still smiling. Are you? I hope so.