Week 35 - End of Summer

Well, a week that starts with being stood up for breakfast first thing Monday can only get better, right? It actually wasn’t that bad. I did have to be on the road by 6:30 but that’s normal on Tuesdays and Thursdays so not that hard. But the minute I drove up to the restaurant my usual 5 minutes late and didn’t see Darla’s car (she’s always early), I knew she’d forgotten. After sitting in the parking lot for a few minutes and failing to get in touch with her, I ordered takeout and was grocery shopping by 7:30. With that out of the way, I had an easier rest of the day because I wouldn’t have to deal with after work crowds. How’s that for looking on the bright side?

One impulse buy from my early morning shopping was a gorgeous mum for $5 so when I got an email from Lorri Tuesday morning saying she was looking for volunteers to spruce up the Hansen House gardens, I said I would get 2 mums for the planters out front so headed back to Super Saver for 2 more. I picked up a trowel for <$1 at The Warehouse and planted the mums on the way home Tuesday night. Done! Fall like weather had finally arrived so it was actually pleasant.

On the getting things done front, Anne and I bought our tickets for our Norway trip in December, I scheduled a mammogram and 2 doctor’s appointments all for the same October afternoon (to save on sick leave) and I got a long overdue pedicure over lunch on Wednesday. Then the end of the work week was fun.

UNL had a kick off for a new campaign – In Our Grit Our Glory. This started with a big presentation for staff, that was standing room only, and then a free hotdog lunch behind the union. They had DJ’s and free t-shirts and Dairy Store ice cream, which was all fun and full of energy. The perfect fall weather was the icing on the cake. Then when I got back to the office, I found an envelope on my desk that had come through campus mail. I opened it to find the clothesline hanger clips that I’d lost when my neighbor’s tree took out my clothesline. I had been too cheap to $25 for them on ebay since they’re only ~$5 in the UK. Darla had bought them for me! How nice was that?

There was more nice from Darla, who I met for lunch on Friday at Tico’s (local Mexican restaurant) since Layton had taken the day off. We had a lovely lunch where I ate too many gloppy nachos (so worth the calories though) and then she insisted on paying for having forgotten me on Monday. It wasn’t necessary but she wouldn’t let me pay. Despite my overfull stomach, the afternoon didn’t crawl and I was swimming and heading home for the long weekend in no time.

With rain due Saturday evening, I got busy first thing Saturday morning and did all my laundry and most of my chores. John came and mowed that afternoon so most of my to do’s for the weekend were out of the way. The first Huskers football game was scheduled for 7:00 and the whole state was crazy excited about the new coach, Scott Frost. I, of course, couldn’t care less but it was sad when the front with the monster storms came through right as the game started and after hours of pouring rain, they changed the delay to a cancel. I was happily streaming Netflix though so wasn’t bothered. I had plans for Monday but nothing on Sunday, which is usually my chore day, so went to bed Saturday night unsure of what I’d do Sunday.

So Sunday was a leisurely morning of watching TV and knitting in my jammies. When Lorri stopped by after church, it was nearly noon and I wasn’t dressed. But she invited me to tea at her house at 3:00 so I took a shower and made myself presentable. We had a lovely time catching up over tea and cookies then walked around her garden. My empty day was salvaged and I was ready for some fun on Labor Day. Gotta love a long weekend.

Week 34 - Ribbons and Sushi

It was a good week health wise. I was doing well on my rotation. I lost 6 pounds in the first few days – mostly water I’m sure but I’ll take it. I even managed to do OK at a food day. I brought a big salad and ate that and some pulled pork and only had 2 tiny sweets. All good. I was back in the groove of Fit & Fueled too. Having to be at the gym just after 7:00 is killer and the TRX session on Thursday was brutal, leaving me sore but in a good way. Progress. It’s all about progress.

I had entered some knitting (6 pairs of socks and a cowl) in the state fair for only the 2^nd time and must have hit refresh a hundred times on Friday (the first day of the fair) waiting for them to post the results. The finally did in late afternoon. While I didn’t win the best socks in the state, beaten out by Nan from my spinning group who entered a gorgeous pair of socks knitted with her handspun yarn, I did get ribbons on everything, including one first. I was pretty happy with that because unlike in the county fair, not everything gets a ribbon at state – only the top 5 entries in each category. My friend Jill always sends me great pictures and this year was no exception. : )

With a week long bout of rain in the forecast, I got up early Saturday and did my laundry so I could get it out on the line on the last dry day. With that done early, I was looking for something to do when I got an email from Jerry (the man we met after spinning last month who was clearing out the house next to the library) saying he was prepping for the final sale and if Andrea or I wanted the sewing machines, we could pick them up before the sale. Andrea was up for a Fremont run so we headed up there at dinner time. Andrea loaded up a couple of sewing machines and then we went out for sushi. Yes, sushi in Fremont, Nebraska. I was completely skeptical but the online reviews were good so we gave it a try. OMG! The sushi was AMAZING! We got 2 – 1 basic and 1 super fancy. Both were delish. It was  so good that I think it will replace tots at Todd’s after spinning. Shocking!

With all my chores done on Saturday, I spent Sunday cooking and knitting/streaming. It was a nice, relaxing way to end the week.

Week 33 - Stress and Vegging

It was a weird week. Still no swimming, cancelled lunches and then a friend in the ER lead to stressful times.

I spent Monday lunch looking for instant polenta in Lincoln. I tried HyVee, Whole Foods and Fresh Thyme and no one had it. I’m going to have to look farther afield I guess. I last bought it at Whole Foods in Omaha, which is bigger than Lincoln’s store so there’s hope. But did I remember to check when I was in Omaha on Saturday? Nope. Grits will have to do in the meantime. Not the same though.

Darla had to cancel lunch on Tuesday so I thrifted with Cindy that day and ended up having lunch with Darla on Thursday instead. But between the two days was stress galore. Carolyn had thrown out her back and it was so bad that they called 911 and she was taken to Rhode Island Hospital by ambulance Tuesday night. I had a tough time sleeping that night and was up at 5:00 then spent Wednesday messaging back and forth with her – me at work and Carolyn on her phone from the ER. They never ended up admitting her so when she went home late Wednesday afternoon, my worry level went down. I decided on the way home that I needed beer, a hotdog and chips for supper so stopped twice in Wahoo and enjoyed a relaxing evening at home. The rest of the work week was uneventful. Yay!

Saturday was hanging in Omaha with Lori so on Friday night I got busy and loaded up the car with donations for Goodwill so I’d be ready to go in the morning. We met at First Watch for breakfast, timing it so we’d be done right at 10:00 when Penzey’s opened. From there I went to Goodwill to offload and then met Lori at The Omaha Antique Center, where she wanted another look at some end tables. Good thing the back of my car was empty because they fit right in when she bought them. We then went home and arranged her living room before sitting down to knit. We went out for Burger King in the early afternoon because Lori’s vegan and they have a good veggie burger. I chose a bacon double cheeseburger. Ha! I hit Aldi on the way home so was all ready for my usual chore day on Sunday. I was starting a rotation so did some cooking – sugar free jello, steamed broccoli and grilled chicken. Boring but it felt good to get back to healthy eating and, at the same time, take eating decisions off the table. When it’s only 600 calories, I know exactly what I’m eating. Exactly. And I’d be back in the pool and starting my Tuesday/Thursday Fit & Fueled classes in the mornings so it was all looking up.

Week 32 - Ridiculous Tree Drama

The end of closing meetings was in sight! There were only the last few and then fiscal year 18 would be done. I was more than ready. The last meeting was scheduled for Tuesday and then that night I'd be celebrating with friends.

Jessica, who used to teach Water Zumba (a wonderful class) before she got her PhD and left Lincoln for a faculty job in upstate New York, was back in town and so we were going out to dinner. The group was a mix of water aerobics people and people from her morning classes but we all are UNL old timers and knew each other. We went to Honest Abe's Burgers and Freedoms so the food was as good as the company. I left happy with a full belly and went home to be productive. Unfortunately when you're still doing chores at 10:00 pm, falling asleep is not easy. My goal was to be ready to veg the second I got home on Wednesday so it was worth it. 

With no water aerobics and being done watering at Lorri's, I happily drove straight home Wednesday. The plan was to make zucchini pasta to enjoy with the wine that was chilling in the fridge while streaming and knitting, of course. And then I drove into my garage. I looked out the window and saw this.

That is one of the branches from my neighbor's enormous tree, which has been slowly dying for years because she thought it needed a tidy stone wall around it filled with rocks. The branch had glanced off her car and brought down my clothesline and phone line. Despite being on the ground, the phone and internet were still working, which I considered a minor miracle. Mike from across the alley came over with his chain saw and Cara and I carted the wood to her defunct rose bed (wood walled and filled with rocks. Gee, I wonder why the roses died?) By the time I got in the house, I was sweating bullets and it was almost 7:00. After talking to the phone company about reattaching my line, I took a shower and ate a bowl of cereal for dinner. The pasta would have to wait. NOT the evening I'd planned.

Of course no one called from the phone company and when I called them on Thursday afternoon, they told me someone would be there Friday between 8:00 and 6:00 and I'd need to be there. I went round and round on this and they put a note on my account that I wouldn't be home until 4:00 but they couldn't guarantee they wouldn't come sooner. I'd done as much as I could and after a soul sucking meeting on Thursday afternoon, I went home to my pasta and wine. At last! It was absolutely delicious.

Friday was more drama with the phone company. When I called in the morning they said he would be there at 10:00. That was at 9:30 and I was 30 miles away. I told them to have the tech call me before he went so I could drive home. Of course he called from my driveway but he was completely reasonable, as opposed to all three of the customer service people I spoke to. Not only did he fix it without me being there - in 10 minutes no less! - he gave me his direct phone number so I could bypass customer service if I had any other issues. Hallelujah! With that settled, I happily went to lunch with Layton and sailed through the rest of the day.

Now this was my 3rd weekend with absolutely no plans and while staying home and getting stuff done is normally my favorite thing, I was feeling the need to do something. Unfortunately everyone was busy. EVERYONE. So I did spend the entire weekend at home, managing to get quite a few things done, but I wasn't happy about it. At least I finished organizing the yarn and got that all put away but even streaming some good stuff (LBJ and The Glass Castle) while knitting didn't make me happy. At least I had managed to make plans for the following weekend so wouldn't face another one at home. I was going into the next week with fiscal year done, a fridge full of yummy food and my house in decent shape. Not all bad but I was glad the week was done.

Week 31 - Just Getting Through

There isn't much to say about this week. With fiscal year end meetings in full swing, I was focused on just getting through. I was feeding cats at my feeder and covering for the Union feeder in the mornings. I was watering not only for my friend Lorri but my neighbor so had double duty after work and it was the last week of water aerobics before 2 weeks off so I was trying to swim. Book club was Thursday night too so add that in. I think I only swam once but with the days crammed full, from morning until night, it was go go go!

With no plans for the weekend, I started slogging through the spare room. I had been looking at the sparseness of my closet and thinking I had more summer shirts but since I couldn't put my finger on a specific one that was missing, I hadn't given it any attention. Well, in pulling things out of the spare room, which was really about organizing my new yarn acquisitions, I found an Ikea bag full of clothes. It was a mix of summer and winter things plus some pants that don't fit so clearly I must have folded them up and stored them last fall when I was clearing the spare room so my sister could sleep there after my knee surgery. I went through the bag and found 12 more summer shirts that fit, which I hung right up to wear in the last weeks of this summer. I also culled some for donation. All good.

The yarn ended up in bins all over my front room. While I haven't been enjoying having to clean my own house, it was nice that I could leave the bins out and not have to worry about putting everything away so the cleaning lady could clean. It also meant I couldn't vacuum so since I couldn't do all the floors, I didn't do any. How that for rationalization? All in all, it was a nice weekend with the perfect mix of productivity and relaxation so I was recharged and ready for the upcoming super busy week. That's what weekends are for these days so no complaints. Just another week and a half of fiscal year end to get through.

Week 30 - Fair and Year-end

This was the beginning of the busiest weeks of my work year, prepping for fiscal year end closing meetings. This always coincides with the county fair so is a double whammy. Adding to that was my decision to enter food in the fair, which was a first for me and brought on by a new limit on my sock entries. For the first time, you could only have 5 entries in any one category and since there's only one category for small knitted items, I had to choose wisely on knitting and would enter some baked goods to round out my entries. As usual, the goal was to earn enough ribbon money for lunch out.

I'd thawed blackberries so got up first thing Monday and baked a blackberry pie. Entries were Tuesday but I wanted to take the rest of the pie to knitting (you only enter a quarter of the pie) so made it early. It was tart but still yummy according to my taste testers. I got up Tuesday morning and made zucchini chocolate muffins with lemon chips. Normally I use peanut butter chips and would again because the lemon flavor was lost, leaving just a shot of yellow sweetness in the muffins. I brought the extra of those to work and they all got eaten, of course.

Mary was out of town for the first two days of the week so the first closing meeting wasn't until Thursday, which meant my prepping was not stressful this year. Good thing because Tuesday was a long day. I picked up a salad for lunch on the way to work in the morning and then ate a PB&J sandwich, made with the leftover baguette from lunch, in the car on the way home. I dashed inside to pick up my pie and muffins and headed to the fair for 4H vegetable check in, which I do every year as master gardener volunteer hours. Andrea picked up my food and dropped it off for judging, which she does for me every year. It takes a village.

Wednesday was ribbon night so after swimming, I drove straight to the fair to check out my stuff. I won best of lot for a pair of my socks - not the ones I thought would win but lovely ones none the less. I got one red on a pair of socks (it ended up being because I had worn them and there was a slightly felted spot at the toe) and on my muffins (no comments on food so I have no idea why) and all the rest blues. Nice! I went home to relax because closing meetings would be starting on Thursday.

The rest of the week went well with the meetings but when I was getting ready for bed on Thursday, I noticed some red in my eye. Well, when I looked sideways, it was clear that a blood vessel had burst in my eye. That had never happened to me before and freaked me out a little but it was at the side of my eye so not super visible. It faded over time. Good thing.

The heat had broken so I spent a bunch of time outside. First up was weeding the veg beds and then I kept going around the deck and even got some of the big bed done. I got the kitchen cleaned up, which of course lead to cooking up a storm. I had beets I'd roasted that needed using so made quinoa with sauteed chard (from my garden) and beets that I topped with grilled steak come dinner time. I also made summer chopped salad (my own recipe - scroll down if you're interested) and then made a beet salad with some grain mix from Aldi. I even made cabbage and sweet potatoes that went into the freezer. It's always nice to go into the work week with a fridge full of healthy food. 

When I was done with all that cooking, I went out again and mulched all around the deck with the mulch I'd bought weeks ago that was still sitting in a pile by the alley. When I was done, I went in for yummy dinner and then Lorri and her sister, who I met last summer in Portland, came over for a visit. It was a perfect weekend and I was thrilled with the cooler weather (finally!) that let me spend time outside. I was ready for my busy week too. Yay!

Summer Chopped Salad

1 cuke, peeled, seeded, cubed

1 zucchini, cubed

2 paste tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup chopped sweet onion

4 strips crisply fried bacon, crumbled

~1/4 cup of your salad dressing of choice

Put cuke in colander and sprinkle liberally with salt.  Let stand 30 minutes then rinse and pat dry.  Combine in bowl with remaining vegetables, drizzle with salad dressing, toss and top with bacon.  Wonderful served cold as either a side dish or light lunch - YUM!

Week 29 - Routine Weeks Rule

There was no easing into things when I got back to work. Monday was allocation day so that sucked up my entire first day, which wasn't all bad. I also had a custom training on Wednesday for three new business managers and a procurement meeting on Thursday that went so over time that I missed my lunch with Dodie at Panera. Well I did make it there but she'd given up and was already eating when I arrived. Next time I'll know just to cancel. Hopefully there won't be a next time for that meeting though since it was odd as all get out.

Other than working and swimming, my goal for the week was catching up and getting rid of stuff. I brought lemon meringue pie to Monday Night Knitting. Nice start to the week, right? Then I got my oil changed over lunch one day and ended the week unloading a trunk load of stuff at one of the City Mission's drop boxes on the way to Aldi, where I stocked up on groceries. Once I got home on Friday, I was in for the weekend because it was time to catch up there too.

I spent a bunch of time outside since the heat had broken and it was gorgeous. I did major clean up of the driveway and deck, which made a huge difference. It's amazing what your eye ceases to notice when junk has been sitting around for a long time. I also got the entire vegetable garden weeded and then weeded the perennial bed that goes all around the deck. It was just too gorgeous to not be outside!

That said, I cleaned the house on Sunday, which was long overdue. Not everything but my short list - floors (sweep, swiffer, vacuum/wash) and the bathroom plus a general neatize. I did a bunch of cooking too - roasted beets, cabbage/sweet potato/sausage casserole and cucumber salad, all of which meant I'd have food ready to go for the coming week. It also cleaned out my fridge. It was just nice to be home, as always. A routine week is always nice after being away. Happy summer!