A whole week off from work! Well, of the paid variety, anyway. 🙂 While I do check email once a day, I do not have to go into the office. It is a much-needed break, let me tell you! It actually is more like ten days off, as I also took last Thursday off, and I don’t work on Fridays…
So what have I been up to? Well, last week, nieces B and C and their Mom came up for a flying trip – B had college orientation Thursday. So they arrived Weds. eve, we had supper together, then I took B and L up to the school,and C and I spent the day together. Of course, that included a meeting for work, but then we got some good shopping in at Grasshopper (www.grasshoppershopofellsworth.com) and Rooster Brother (www.roosterbrother.com). We also took in the really cool art at the Courthouse Gallery (www.courthousegallery.com) before heading back up to meet up with B and L and go for some ice cream at Gifford’s(http://giffordsicecream.com). On the whole a great day! B loved orientation, and they bought lots of t-shirts and some text books at the bookstore so she is good to go. They went off to see their dad Thurs eve, then left for home early Friday morning. I am guessing we will have a lot of trips like this over the next 5 years, and I am looking forward to them, and to having B a wee bit closer than CT.
Friday I spent doing laundry, and chopping vegetables for the DEAN donor appreciation dinner, which was Friday evening. Attendance was low, but it was a good event – in a church basement, so relatively cool, until we started running the dishwasher – then ugh! Too steamy.
Saturday, A and her sister S and I went off to see Mom and B, and B’s visiting son J. J and Mom fixed us the most amazing brunch – wow! Eggs Benedict, home-made blueberry muffins – using the good wild Maine blueberries, and fresh fruit, with strawberries from the garden. It was yummy and looked beautiful. After visiting with them, we went shopping at Pen Ventures in Rockport – it is a small paper craft store, with some different things than the big box stores carry. S and I each got some fun things, although very different. I got a few copic markers to try them, and some fancy metallic powders to use with embossing paste. S got some bargain cards and pens.
Sunday it was ridiculously hot and steamy (and it has been ever since!) but I did some more of my pool excavation project – I am determined to have that ground ready and the pool filling before this vacation is over. It seems to be never-ending, this rock extraction. In the afternoon, A’s sister L came over for a short visit – she is off to visit S Korea for a few weeks, with her sons, so we had a few things for her to take to D and A in NY on her way.
Monday – first real day of vacation – woo hoo! I worked on the pool in short bursts, too hot to do much at once. In between, I processed strawberries that A had gotten and de-hulled. They are for jam, but it is too hot to make it now, so we are prepping the berries and freezing them until it cools off, or we run out of jam. It was so stinking hot, I have to say, I spent a lot of time sitting on the couch under the fans, knitting. Finished a silk/mohair beaded scarf that took longer than I expected, but is really pretty, I am glad I took the time to add the beads. I had intended to go to the lake for a swim in the afternoon, but of course, around 3, when I decided to head over, thunderstorms rolled in, so, more time on the couch.
Tuesday was a lot like Monday, except that I did a few errands and made a point of getting to the lake for lunch and a swim. Had an interesting episode at Subway. The young clerk rang my sandwich in at 25 cents higher than the price on the sign. Now 25 cents isn’t much, except that I only had enough cash on me to pay the price on the sign. We had a really ridiculous conversation that included such things as “you will have to take it up with Subway” and an offer to let me have the sandwich for about a dollar less than it cost. I could not seem to get through to her that I wanted to pay for the sandwich, but I wanted to pay the actual price on the menu. Her parting shot to me was that she would give it to me for this price “this time”. I truly almost lost it. Pardon me, but you will give it to me at that price every time, as long as that is the price you advertise! Sure wish there had been a manager there with some customer service skills. I am not sure that she was not the manager…
Wednesday, the 4th – too hot and humid for life! However, we managed to get through it. I started painting the walls in A’s office – remember the last vacation, in April when I spent a week painting the trim? Well, I haven’t touched it since, and she has been very patient, but wants her office back. So I started on the walls, with a lot of help from the curious kittens. It was so muggy that even just running the tape along the top of the baseboard made me perspire. But I got about half the walls done, with their first coat. Today I will do the ceiling (thankfully the same color) and the other two walls. And I will start to work out the logistics of painting the trim around the skylight over the stairs. Note to self: if we ever build another house, put the skylight in the ceiling NEXT to the stairs, not over them. We also did the big grocery shopping for the week, and had our own little cookout – pineapple burgers on the grill. Then we sat in the living room under those fabulous ceiling fans.
Today is more painting, a trip to the dump, more digging, maybe a trip to the lake, although it seems to be a rainy cloudy day. And of course, knitting. I have already knit a hat for the pile, and last night, I picked scraps from the stash for another one – it will be crazy stripes. I have lots of little bits that I want to use up.
Other things I have gotten done this week: Hung sheets to replace the curtains that we took down when we got the kittens. Learned it was a good choice to remove the curtains, the kits LOVE the sheets moving in the breeze, they tumble around them for hours. I also put up my new clothes line – between the two decks, with reels, so I can load it from either deck. This is much more useful than the retractable line that ran across the big deck. So I have done lots of laundry and hung things out to dry. As long as I pay close attention to the clouds, it works well. We have had lots of “pop-up” showers this week, so I have raced the rain a few times. I also got the old metal grille off the fancy floor vent unit that I have moved around for three years now, since Mom moved and I grabbed it out of the barn. I scrubbed off a lot of the paint and rust, and sprayed the rustoleum primer on it, which gave me an idea for a new craft project. The negative space left on the plywood I sprayed it on is so cool that I am going to prep a canvas, then when I spray the final coat on the grille, I will do it on the canvas and make two pieces of art at once. I also dug out that lace shawl that hangs over my head – only one half of a pattern repeat to go before I have to figure out the edge pattern… Maybe I will finish the center rectangle this week too – wouldn’t that be amazing??? Maybe I will take some photos of all of these projects to show you all the stuff I have gotten done this week, too. There is just no way to tell. But if I don’t get off the computer and moving, then nothing will get done.
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