Week 31 - Closing Meeting Week

Closing meeting week had arrived but it didn't look like it would be too bad. Mary was doing the meetings and they were nicely spaced out and I'd prepped most of the reports so would just be updating numbers. I had high hopes for it not being stressful.

It was also fair week (they always coincide) and I was entering 5 small knitted items, including the hat I showed in last week's post along with 4 pairs of socks, and made rugelach to fill the 6th entry tag on my sheet. There's a limit of 5 in any one class so I'm always looking for another class to enter in and this year it was food. The extra rugelach went to knitting. Perfect.

I had lunch with Helen at the Mexican restaurant in town on Tuesday, which was fun, and made a beeline to the fairgrounds after work to check my ribbons. I got blues all around and best of lot on these socks, which were my own design and I'd dyed the yarn. i almost didn't enter them but am glad I did, clearly. : )

The closing meeting prep went well and so I managed to fit lots of other things in amonst them. I had lunch with Steve and Layton on Wednesday (3/4 of the original lunch bunch from HR days), swam after work and then went on the spur of the moment to Haoya Korean BBQ with Rene after swimming. My boss had recommended it and while they were out of the pork when we arrived 20 minutes before closing, the chicken BBQ fries were delish. 

I got a haircut and my grab and go lunch on Thursday. Was I trying to make up for not eating out during the pandemic with all the eating out this week? Maybe. I also got a fry bread taco on Sunday at a bar in Wahoo when I went to the fairgrounds to pick up my entries. That's plenty of eating out for one week.

I spent some time on the weekend clearing out some of the brush pile beside the garage in anticipation of the trees coming down. It was satisfying work with some being broken up for burning in my firepit, some going to the city burn pile and some of the shmutz at the bottom going into the 2nd compost bin, which I'd emptied before I started. I top dressed my containers with some of that and will probably keep some in the garage over the winter for using in houseplants.

I ended the week with errands in Lincoln before swimming. I had a credit at Menard's so got birdseed there, which was much more expensive than at the farm store in Wahoo, and hit some thrifts. I love ending the weekend with swimming and there aren't many more weeks of that. I will need to figure out something else to do when that's over but I can put that off for a bit. Viva procrastination!

Week 30 - Enjoying the Calm

This was the last week before closing meetings started so I filled the week with as much fun as possible. But before the play, I also started attacking some long overdue stuff.

I finally called someone to take down the 40 foot tall weed trees growing beside my garage. They're technically not my trees but when my neighbors put up a chain link fence, they ended up on my side of the fence but not actually on my property. I should have chopped them from day one but they weren't mine and now I'm paying the price. A branch already tore a hole in my garage rooof ($200 to fix that) and the roots cracked my garage floor so it was time. Tim's Tree Service came and gave me an estimate of $3k. Yikes! But they need to go. It was blazing hot out but I spent a lunch hour moving a woodpile that would be in the way and pulled all the cement borders on the overgrown berry bed in the back after work. It was hot work but I was ready for them to come and that'd be one major job off my house to do list. Nice.

Wednesday was another day on campus but I made the most of it with having lunch with Dodie, spent the afternoon training a new business manager and then hit some thrifts and swam after work. Wednesdays are long days but I make the most of having to drive in.

I had lots of things planned on the weekend. On Saturday morning, Andrea and I met Lori and Michelle at Vidlak's Brookside Cafe in Omaha for breakfast. I hadn't seen Michelle since pre-covid so that was nice and I had the best chicken fried steak I've ever had. Yes, for breakfast with eggs - delish! From there we went to Imagiknit - the best yarn shop in Omaha - for their sale. We had fun and I found a few treasures (sock yarn, of course) and then Andrea and I hit Aldi on the way out of town. I was home by 2:00 and had already had all that fun. 

I had more fun planned for Sunday. Cindy and I had bought tickets to a flight of plays by local playwrights, including one that a friend was directing and acting in.

They were wonderful and we had time for a huge burger at Honest Abe's before heading to the pool to swim. So much fun and culture to boot.

So how's that for bookending the weekend with fun social events? And I had bought a skein of Woolstok yarn to go with some minis I'd found in a Goodwill grab bag. It's not superwash so will have to be handwashed but it's gorgeous yarn and I love the hat that I cast on as soon as I got home on Saturday and was almost done before bed on Sunday. There will be more of this yarn in my future for sure.

Next week closing meetings..... duh, duh, duh.

Week 29 - My Internet Woes

It was easier said than done to get over the slacker accusations from last week but I charged on determined to get over it. I talked to Lacey on Wednesday and that went a long way towards reassuring me. She is a wonderful boss and I am lucky to have her. Darla was back from her vacation on Thursday and she brings me joy so that helped too. 

Otherwise, it was an uneventful start of the week. I was super busy at the end of the week between grad fellowships and allocations but that makes the days fly so that's a plus. Because I had a busy Saturday coming.

We were doing Christmas in July at spinning on Saturday and the location and time had changed so Andrea couldn't go. It was a potluck and since I had 3 dozen eggs in my fridge - all from friends with chickens - I made deviled eggs to take. I left early enough to hit the Habitat Restore beforehand and scored a few fun things. Spinning was a small group but we had fun and I got a Vogue stitch dictionary in the gift exchange and it was over early enough that I ran all my other errands and was home in time for a cup of afternoon tea. I settled in with my fave Mexican dip and chips for supper and an evening of knitting and streaming.

At 9:07, I lost my internet and it wouldn't come back. I called Windstream and they couldn't fix it so scheduled a service call for Monday. OMG! I had allocations to prep first thing on Monday morning and couldn't sleep with worrying about it. If I went to campus I'd miss the service tech but if I waited and he came late, I wouldn't get them done. This kept my mind reeling and I got up twice before midnight to try the modem again and then to try and set up my phone as a hotspot. Failed on both and finally fell asleep only to get up at 5:30 to try the modem again. Nope. I tried to fall back asleep but gave up and got up at 6:30. My internet was back!

So that problem was magically fixed but I was exhausted. I had a minimal effort day and spent the afternoon sorting yarn that had accumulated over the past few months and needed to be put away. At least that was fun and needed doing. I also did something I've vowed to do for years and haven't managed - I started a sweater! I'm using various skeins of mystery DK yarn and will stripe them. I hope I don't lose interest and can get it done to wear this fall/winter. Here's the start of the neck.

I ended the week in the pool, then rushing home for a quick shower then a bowl cheerios for supper while watching PBS so a lovely end to the day. I was not cancelling my service call because this cannot happen again during fiscal year end. I can only hope it stays on. Wish me luck.

Week 28 - A Bad Week

A holiday to start the week is always good and I spent the 4th still in my back room, concentrating on my desk. It's more than 100 years old and was my dad's. It was in the first school he taught in in the early 1960's and was old then. They were closing the school and getting rid of everything so he took it home. It is oak and super heavy but I moved it and cleaned underneath it (disgusting) and then went through all the drawers, ending with a huge bag of excess office supplies to donate. I felt good about how I spent my blazing hot 4th of July. Independence from crap!

The end of the week put a damper on my good mood after all that progress. We had torrential rain on Wednesday, which we needed but I had water in my basement. Ugh. Then I had a talk on Thursday with my boss and asked him why I had had to make a list of what I was working on, which had been niggling at me for a couple of weeks. Come to find out, someone suggested that I might not be working very hard when I was working from home. WTF! I was livid and totally dejected. As if I could be a slacker! Guilt would eat me alive and the person who cast this aspersion should have know better. This sent me into a tailspin and later that same night someone who has been involved with Husker Cats for ~20 minutes accused me of not caring for the campus cats. That lead to phone calls and emails while I tried to figure out how to talk this person out of stopping feeding on her days. Seriously! I did not need this.

Friday was even worse. I woke up to an email from the other moderator of my sock group saying I'd messed up the tally. She'd spent a bunch of time fixing what I could have done in 2 minutes but she's in Germany so was ahead of me and needed to get it done. Then I heard that my cousin Ronnie had died. She had been in the hospital in Boston and wasn't expected to live but it was still a blow. Then later that night (much later - 11:00 p.m), I had to say goodbye to my neighbors of 17 years who were moving to Illinois. There were tears. It had been a miserable couple of days but I crawled into bed sure that it had to get better.

The weekend did wonders for my mood. I got outside on Saturday, digging up some plants that Judith said I could have and since I was planting the lilies in my front bed, I moved the hostas that were in too much sun. I'd have to keep them well watered since I moved them in the blazing heat of summer but that wouldn't be a problem. Despite the heat, I spent some time puttering in my yard and taking pics. I love this one. I makes me happy to see polinators on my native coneflowers. I should plant more natives. 

On the inside front, I tackled the last of my back room project - a big box of junk, mostly knitting notions, that had accumulated over the course of the last few clear outs. I started it Saturday evening and finished it up Sunday afternoon. When I was done, I headed to Lincoln to swim, which is always a lovely way to end the weekend.

All in all, the weekend was the perfect mix of productivity, knitting and chatting with friends. They helped me realize I should put no stock in one person's opinion because I know it's not true and so does my boss. I would try to put it behind me and go into the new week with a better outlook. We'll see how that goes. : )

Week 27 - Friends and Slogging

The week started out with gorgeous weather - 85 and sunny but not humid so lovely. I made a strawberry rhubarb pie to take to knitting and I also brought leftover sock yarn to share that a member of my Socks from Stash group on Ravelry had sent to me since I love to make monster socks. It was nice to see my friends again.

The heat was back on Tuesday so after going out for my grab and go lunch, I closed up the house and turned on the AC. Summer in Nebraska. I worked on campus again on Wednesday and ran around town over lunch looking for TVP (texturized vegetable protein, which I use in my taco salad mix and had run out of). After work, I went back to the pool, which felt great on such a hot day. I do love water aerobics outside.

Lacey is a peach about letting us out early before holiday and since it was the long weekend for the 4th, she let us stop working at 3:00 on Friday. Cindy had been having a rough week so I had chilled a bottle of pineapple wine and drove down to Waverly right after work with wine, cheese and crackers. She was surprised and we had a lovely afternoon chatting over treats. She and her husband had dinner plans but she loaded me up with food when I left - pulled pork she'd mistakenly thawed thinking it was turkey, roasted veggies and some excess produce. After a quick stop at the small market in her town, I headed home for a long weekend.

My goal for the weekend was slogging through my back room. Having to clear my desk off had lead to piles all over the place and I still had some vacation crap to deal with. So that's what I did. I went through piles, drawers, boxes.... it took days! of course there was knitting in between all this (check out the fun socks I made with a chicken inspired sock set) and talking to friends and family but mostly it was slogging. I felt good about my progress though and still had another day to finish things up. I ended the day in the pool in Lincoln. Not my normal Sunday pool on the north side, which cancelled class, but it was worth the drive further south. Swimming was a nice break from cleaning. All good. 

Week 26 - Staying at Home

After a weekend of total relaxation and recharge, I was feeling much better and was ready to get back to normal. Monday was my 9th day so I could go out with a mask but I opted to stay in and so skipped Monday Night Knitting. I did go out on Tuesday with my mask on to get my grab and go lunch and go to the bank and The Warehouse. Other than the mask, it felt OK and I had a nice work day doing monthly foundation reports, having caught up on everything on Monday. On Wednesday, I went back to work and it was a full day.

We were having a surprise 40th birthday party for Lacey so I picked roses in my garden before work as decorations. I had lunch with Steve and Layton - our first in many, many years since Steve had left UNL but now he's back and as the head of HR (we were both compensation analysts when I started in 1998.) Lacey's party was a hit and lots of fun. I had plans to meet an old girl scout friend who was on her way through Nebraska on a road trip but she was delayed so I had time to hit Aldi for much needed groceries before we met for dinner. We ate at Cracker Barrel because it was right off I-80 and practically closed it down. It was a lovely catch up. I survived the long day just fine so clearly was done with Covid. There was a bit of residual congestion but nothing else. Yay! And what a fun day.

I had zooms galore on Thursday and then spent a chunk of Friday setting up my new work laptop and screens, which was very frustrating. It was good Friday afternoon work though and I could cross that off my list. I'd have happily kept using my personal laptop but someone decided that wasn't efficient so I complied. That may be why I was asked for a list of what I was working on too. Suspect for sure but I did it.

I spent Saturday reclaiming my house. I neatized and cleaned - bathroom, floors, etc. - between episodes of Outlander and knitting. On Sunday, I headed outside, weeding my veg beds and the bed between the sidewalk and street. Camden came and mowed so things were getting back on track after vacation and Covid. Here's a picture of my abundant (overgrown to some) back bed with some of the roses I picked for Lacey. What's not to like about pink and green?

Week 25 - An Unwelcome Souvenir

With the trip pretty much over, we'd be starting the week with a LONG trip home. Little did we know how long it would be.

Monday was out last morning in The Faroes and we enjoyed another fabulous breakfast at the hotel. We were all down in the lobby waiting for our coach to the airport but it was late. Our flight wasn't until mid-afternoon so we just chatted until it arrived and off we went. The weather was not looking good though, with pretty dense fog. Well, that fog prevented our plane from landing and after circling hoping for a hole to punch through, it was sent to Norway to refuel. And since Atlantic Air only has 3 planes, we just had to wait for it to come back. The 2 other planes managed to land but we didn't end up leaving until 5:30, at which point we'd all missed out connections. The travel agent at Arena got on the phone with United and not only rebooked us but talked them out of $1,200 each in extra fees. She also booked us a hotel because now we'd be staying in Edinburgh overnight and flying to Frankfurt at 6:00 a.m. the next day. By the time we got to the hotel, it was nearly midnight and we had to be at the airport at 4:00 a.m. so we didn't get much sleep. We were both snotty and coughing too. Hmm.....

I slept the entire flight to Frankfurt (2 hours) and then we waited for the long flight to Chicago. We had some yummy pastries, both sweet and savory, at the airport and I spent the entire flight watching movies and knitting as we flew with the sun. I finished the scrappy socks with the gansey section that used the design I'd made in one of the workshop. Aren't they fun? But that's as happy as it got because when we got to Chicago, all hell broke loose.

Our flight to Lincoln was delayed but when we got to the gate to wait, we checked our phones which had come back to life. Well... all the Brits, who had already made it home, were texting to say they had Covid. I can't say I was surprised because Anne was worse off than I was and was coughing BAD. Mine was more like a bad cold. We put on our KN95 masks and sat away from everyone for another long wait. Our flight was delayed over and over again and didn't land until almost 1:00 a.m., where Andrea was waiting to pick me up. I'd warned her that I had Covid but she came anyway. I walked into my house ~2:00 (4 hours late), took a shower and went to bed. I tested when I got up and was positive. Bummer.

Having been awake for more than 24 hours after 2 nights of only a few hours of sleep plus having Covid, work was not happening. Of course, my AC decided to quit. I called my AC guy and warned him that I had Covid. He came over but stayed far away from me and got the AC going again (needed freon) and wouldn't even let me pay him. With my house cooling down, I sat like a zombie in my chair, just triaging emails and doing nothing else. I didn't even knit! Now that's sick. I forced myself to stay up until 9:00 and then slept for most of the night, although I did stuff a kleenex up my nose in the wee hours so the dripping wouldn't wake me up. SO pretty! 

A decent night of sleep made a big difference and I was able to work a bit on Thursday afternoon and slept well again. It really was like a bad cold (double vaxed and doubled boosted helped for sure) but I was coughing from post nasal drip so my boss insisted I put in sick leave for the afternoon so I did. I felt good enough to knit and made comfort food - tuna melt and tater tots. Yum! I did nothing else all weekend, vegging like a champion, knitting and eating out of my freezer. I watched the final season of Peaky Blinders and recharged.

So even with catching Covid and the hellish trip home, I was still happy that I'd gone on the trip. And part of me was relieved that I woulnd't have to worry about catching Covid for awhile. I wasn't 100% over it but I was less snotty, which meant less coughing and I had plenty of energy. I still wonder if the fatigue was all jetlag and lack of sleep and not from Covid. I guess I'll never know but cross Covid off my list. At least there's that.