Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 121
May 10, 2015
May 7, 2015
The Great Iron Hunt
I've never owned an iron. You know, the kind for ironing clothes. I make it a point to buy clothes that don't wrinkle easily, and when I wash them, I take them out of the dryer pronto so they don't get all creased up. The very few times I've needed an iron, I've just used my mom's, but now I'm in Atlanta and my mom's irons are in Minnesota. I needed to buy an iron.
I started out shopping online and didn't find that many irons to choose from with free Prime shipping. At least not in the price range I wanted to spend. I hardly ever use an iron; I'm not spending $150 for one. So I went through reviews and finally found one I liked. Yea! But it was sold by a third party and priced higher than it should be. A little searching showed Home Depot had it for $10 less. Okay, so I'd run over there when I returned from MN and pick one up. No problem.
No problem until I went to check that the store closest to my house carried it. Discontinued. In a red swath across the iron I wanted, it said Discontinued.
In fact, almost every iron they had was marked discontinued. I finally found one that was available only to learn that it wasn't carried in stores. Online only. That wasn't cool since I needed it the next day. I finally found it in JC Penney, but that store is about 20-25 minutes from my house and I was recovering from bronchitis. I didn't feel like driving that far.
I started looking for a different iron. I had only a few parameters. I wanted it to be under $40, have auto shutoff, and a retractable cord.
I'd had curtain rods installed in the bedrooms and while I was able to use my curtains from my Minnesota home in two of the bedrooms, I had to buy brand new ones for my current bedroom. I went from one huge window to three normal sized ones. I also found a totally awesome sheer with a mid-century modern design. Bright colored and cool beyond measure, but in need of having the creases ironed out.
I did finally find a $35 iron that fit my needs. It wasn't the most wonderful thing ever, but it did what I needed it to do and I got my curtains up.
But honestly, I couldn't believe how hard it was to find an iron. I thought I was in the minority with the clothes that don't need ironing, but maybe I'm not. Maybe they're hardly selling any irons now? That's the only reason I can come up with for the level of difficulty this purchase presented. I suppose if I wanted to spend more money or could have waited for it to ship, it might have been a different story, but honestly, I never dreamed it would take as much time as it did.
But the good news is that the next time I need an iron--probably 10 years from now--I'll have one.
I started out shopping online and didn't find that many irons to choose from with free Prime shipping. At least not in the price range I wanted to spend. I hardly ever use an iron; I'm not spending $150 for one. So I went through reviews and finally found one I liked. Yea! But it was sold by a third party and priced higher than it should be. A little searching showed Home Depot had it for $10 less. Okay, so I'd run over there when I returned from MN and pick one up. No problem.
No problem until I went to check that the store closest to my house carried it. Discontinued. In a red swath across the iron I wanted, it said Discontinued.
In fact, almost every iron they had was marked discontinued. I finally found one that was available only to learn that it wasn't carried in stores. Online only. That wasn't cool since I needed it the next day. I finally found it in JC Penney, but that store is about 20-25 minutes from my house and I was recovering from bronchitis. I didn't feel like driving that far.
I started looking for a different iron. I had only a few parameters. I wanted it to be under $40, have auto shutoff, and a retractable cord.
I'd had curtain rods installed in the bedrooms and while I was able to use my curtains from my Minnesota home in two of the bedrooms, I had to buy brand new ones for my current bedroom. I went from one huge window to three normal sized ones. I also found a totally awesome sheer with a mid-century modern design. Bright colored and cool beyond measure, but in need of having the creases ironed out.
I did finally find a $35 iron that fit my needs. It wasn't the most wonderful thing ever, but it did what I needed it to do and I got my curtains up.
But honestly, I couldn't believe how hard it was to find an iron. I thought I was in the minority with the clothes that don't need ironing, but maybe I'm not. Maybe they're hardly selling any irons now? That's the only reason I can come up with for the level of difficulty this purchase presented. I suppose if I wanted to spend more money or could have waited for it to ship, it might have been a different story, but honestly, I never dreamed it would take as much time as it did.
But the good news is that the next time I need an iron--probably 10 years from now--I'll have one.
May 5, 2015
"It's Just Paper"
More adventures in helping my parents downsize. Or trying to help them.
With my mom not open to any logic or reason on what she should get rid of and what was worth keeping, I decided to get my dad moving. While we were both trying to convince my mom that she couldn't move everything to Georgia, she'd pointed out that my dad's basement office was packed to the gills.
She was right about that and every time she mentioned it, my dad's response was, "That's just paper."
When I suggested to him that we work on this room, he gave me that same response. My reply was that it might just be paper, but it still needed to go and we might as well tackle it now. We made it one hour before he said, "Let's go upstairs and check on Mom."
Sigh. I'm like, "But if we go upstairs now, we'll be done or the day." The argument fell on deaf ears. We went upstairs.
The second day, we made it an hour and fifteen minutes before Dad decided it was time to start dinner. To his credit, he did go back downstairs after he ate and brought up one more box to sort through, but we should have spent more time working and less time messing around. The office isn't that big and two days should have been enough to finish it. That would be two full days as in eight hours each day, not one hour or so each day.
I can't even believe this. You don't want to know how many headache remedies I used while visiting my parents.
With my mom not open to any logic or reason on what she should get rid of and what was worth keeping, I decided to get my dad moving. While we were both trying to convince my mom that she couldn't move everything to Georgia, she'd pointed out that my dad's basement office was packed to the gills.
She was right about that and every time she mentioned it, my dad's response was, "That's just paper."
When I suggested to him that we work on this room, he gave me that same response. My reply was that it might just be paper, but it still needed to go and we might as well tackle it now. We made it one hour before he said, "Let's go upstairs and check on Mom."
Sigh. I'm like, "But if we go upstairs now, we'll be done or the day." The argument fell on deaf ears. We went upstairs.
The second day, we made it an hour and fifteen minutes before Dad decided it was time to start dinner. To his credit, he did go back downstairs after he ate and brought up one more box to sort through, but we should have spent more time working and less time messing around. The office isn't that big and two days should have been enough to finish it. That would be two full days as in eight hours each day, not one hour or so each day.
I can't even believe this. You don't want to know how many headache remedies I used while visiting my parents.
May 3, 2015
25 Cleaning Hacks
I wonder if anyone has tested these hacks?
April 30, 2015
Adventures In Downsizing
I've been in Minnesota the past couple of weeks. The idea was to help my parents clean out their house because they're supposed to move to Georgia, too, but they haven't gotten very far. Keep in mind, it's been three years since I started working in Atlanta and almost two years since I moved all my worldly goods to my new home. This is also despite phone calls where my parents would give me updates on how much work they're getting done.
Um, yeah, not so much. This isn't the first time I've returned home and expected more progress than I've seen, but I actually thought that they were serious now and would actually get going. I was wrong.
When I traveled up to Minnesota to clean out the junk in my house, especially the heavy accumulation in the basement, we'd work 12 hours or more every day. My parents would come over and help me. I also went up with a plan on what we'd tackle to get the most accomplished in the shortest amount of time.
I expected this same thing from my parents last October and didn't get it, so I suggested a month ahead of time that they come up with a plan to use my time up north this April to the best advantage. Do you think they did this? No.
In fact, we hardly spent any time cleaning out the house at all. Let's talk about a typical day.
I will take my share of the blame for the morning dawdling. I'm bad about this and I know it. I like to sip my coffee and take my time, but once I get ready, I'm good to go. My parents? Not so much. They dawdle in the morning, too. Breakfast and the newspaper take forever. Okay, until around 11ish, but this is longer than it takes me.
Are we ready to get started at 11am? Of course not. Now my dad has to go to the grocery store, and of course, we can't do anything without him. He gets home around 12:45, but we can't begin working now because it's lunch time. My parents dawdle through another meal.
I make the huge mistake of saying, "The mailman's here."
Instead of leaving the mail there until later, my dad runs out to get it. This wastes another hour as they read their junk mail. Who the hell opens their junk mail and reads it?
The clock is now saying it's after 3pm and we've yet to do anything. At long last, we head for the basement. My mom won't get rid of anything. Anything!
The sequin kits she bought in the 1970s as a project to add bling to clothes? She's can't donate those because she's going to use them. Never mind that sequins on clothes isn't exactly a fashion do right now. Never mind that she's had them sitting for forty years already. Never mind that she didn't even remember buying them. Never mind that she's never been that into crafts. Those kits must not leave her possession because she's suddenly decided that she'll use them.
Same thing with the Santa craft kit and the material she's going to sew and the yarn and the rug kits. Well, you get the idea. All the crafts that she's never done in decades are now things she's going to work on once she moves to Atlanta.
Sure she will.
After about 90 minutes of arguing over everything with my mom, my dad announces we should go upstairs and start working on dinner.
That's right. It's time for yet another meal. Of course, we don't go back down after dinner to do any additional work. Why would we possibly want to do that? Variations on this theme happened every single day. Some days we didn't get more than an hour of time in. I'm still not sure how this is possible, but it explains why my parents have accomplished exactly nothing.
I have a couple more stories, so stay tuned for more fun in helping my parents downsize.
Um, yeah, not so much. This isn't the first time I've returned home and expected more progress than I've seen, but I actually thought that they were serious now and would actually get going. I was wrong.
When I traveled up to Minnesota to clean out the junk in my house, especially the heavy accumulation in the basement, we'd work 12 hours or more every day. My parents would come over and help me. I also went up with a plan on what we'd tackle to get the most accomplished in the shortest amount of time.
I expected this same thing from my parents last October and didn't get it, so I suggested a month ahead of time that they come up with a plan to use my time up north this April to the best advantage. Do you think they did this? No.
In fact, we hardly spent any time cleaning out the house at all. Let's talk about a typical day.
I will take my share of the blame for the morning dawdling. I'm bad about this and I know it. I like to sip my coffee and take my time, but once I get ready, I'm good to go. My parents? Not so much. They dawdle in the morning, too. Breakfast and the newspaper take forever. Okay, until around 11ish, but this is longer than it takes me.
Are we ready to get started at 11am? Of course not. Now my dad has to go to the grocery store, and of course, we can't do anything without him. He gets home around 12:45, but we can't begin working now because it's lunch time. My parents dawdle through another meal.
I make the huge mistake of saying, "The mailman's here."
Instead of leaving the mail there until later, my dad runs out to get it. This wastes another hour as they read their junk mail. Who the hell opens their junk mail and reads it?
The clock is now saying it's after 3pm and we've yet to do anything. At long last, we head for the basement. My mom won't get rid of anything. Anything!
The sequin kits she bought in the 1970s as a project to add bling to clothes? She's can't donate those because she's going to use them. Never mind that sequins on clothes isn't exactly a fashion do right now. Never mind that she's had them sitting for forty years already. Never mind that she didn't even remember buying them. Never mind that she's never been that into crafts. Those kits must not leave her possession because she's suddenly decided that she'll use them.
Same thing with the Santa craft kit and the material she's going to sew and the yarn and the rug kits. Well, you get the idea. All the crafts that she's never done in decades are now things she's going to work on once she moves to Atlanta.
Sure she will.
After about 90 minutes of arguing over everything with my mom, my dad announces we should go upstairs and start working on dinner.
That's right. It's time for yet another meal. Of course, we don't go back down after dinner to do any additional work. Why would we possibly want to do that? Variations on this theme happened every single day. Some days we didn't get more than an hour of time in. I'm still not sure how this is possible, but it explains why my parents have accomplished exactly nothing.
I have a couple more stories, so stay tuned for more fun in helping my parents downsize.
April 28, 2015
Manners
One of the things that took me a while to get used to when I moved to Atlanta was men holding doors for me and waiting for me to exit the elevator first. I don't view holding doors as a man/woman thing. I view holding doors as a polite thing and I have ever since I was 15 and let the door to the mall close on my mom. Do I need to mention the lecture I got since it left an indelible impression on me?
In the three years I've lived in Atlanta, I've learned to move smartly if I see a man in front of me because he will hold that door until I pass through it. It's one of the things I like about Georgia—the common courtesies are still observed.
I wasn't aware of just how accustomed I'd become to this until my latest trip to Minnesota when I got on the elevator with some man. I had been there first, so I moved over to the side with the buttons, leaving him near where the doors opened. As we approached our floor, I was preparing to move quickly when it dawned on me that he might not expect me to exit first.
Maybe I'd wait and see what happened once the doors opened. Sure enough, it never occurred to him to let me go ahead of him. Same thing with the door to the dental office. He held it so it didn't close on my face, but he didn't stand aside and allow me to enter before him.
Of course, this had me remembering how awkward I felt when I first arrived in Georgia. When I'd suddenly have to pick up my pace or leave a man standing there with the door open forever.
I'm not sure when I became used to the door thing. Long enough that I've actually stopped noticing it in Atlanta and needed an epiphany to realize I might need to hang back while I was in Minneapolis. I guess I've gotten used to more than the weather since my move south.
In the three years I've lived in Atlanta, I've learned to move smartly if I see a man in front of me because he will hold that door until I pass through it. It's one of the things I like about Georgia—the common courtesies are still observed.
I wasn't aware of just how accustomed I'd become to this until my latest trip to Minnesota when I got on the elevator with some man. I had been there first, so I moved over to the side with the buttons, leaving him near where the doors opened. As we approached our floor, I was preparing to move quickly when it dawned on me that he might not expect me to exit first.
Maybe I'd wait and see what happened once the doors opened. Sure enough, it never occurred to him to let me go ahead of him. Same thing with the door to the dental office. He held it so it didn't close on my face, but he didn't stand aside and allow me to enter before him.
Of course, this had me remembering how awkward I felt when I first arrived in Georgia. When I'd suddenly have to pick up my pace or leave a man standing there with the door open forever.
I'm not sure when I became used to the door thing. Long enough that I've actually stopped noticing it in Atlanta and needed an epiphany to realize I might need to hang back while I was in Minneapolis. I guess I've gotten used to more than the weather since my move south.
April 26, 2015
Misconceptions About Allergies
Allergies are unpredictable. They're also a pain.
April 23, 2015
Suggested For You
Google has started this new section on their News page. Suggested For You. I'm not sure I like it for a couple of reasons. First, it reminds me that they're watching where I go on the net. Yeah, I know they do it, but I prefer not to think about it. This is a constant reminder. If it were only topics I'd searched for, that would be one thing, but some of their suggestions have got to becoming from articles I've clicked through to read from Twitter or Facebook. I'm fairly sure of this.
The other thing that makes me not sure I like the feature is that the suggestions are pretty lame. I think I searched for Frozen once and ended up getting that suggested to me over and over. I clicked no, not interested, but then I clicked through on Twitter about Frozen 2 and then the suggestions for the movie were back again. :-/
Today, I had Mark Twain in the suggestions. I'm trying to think how that triggered since I can't remember reading anything about him or his work for a long time.
Before you get the impression that I totally hate it, I don't. Because I did a couple of searches to research the Work In Progress (WIP) and since then Google has offered other suggestions that I've found helpful. This is also why I haven't checked to find out if there's a way to turn this off. Having information I didn't even know I needed delivered to me is pretty awesome. I just wish it was a little easier to fine tune it.
The other thing that makes me not sure I like the feature is that the suggestions are pretty lame. I think I searched for Frozen once and ended up getting that suggested to me over and over. I clicked no, not interested, but then I clicked through on Twitter about Frozen 2 and then the suggestions for the movie were back again. :-/
Today, I had Mark Twain in the suggestions. I'm trying to think how that triggered since I can't remember reading anything about him or his work for a long time.
Before you get the impression that I totally hate it, I don't. Because I did a couple of searches to research the Work In Progress (WIP) and since then Google has offered other suggestions that I've found helpful. This is also why I haven't checked to find out if there's a way to turn this off. Having information I didn't even know I needed delivered to me is pretty awesome. I just wish it was a little easier to fine tune it.
April 21, 2015
Story Spreadsheets
Since I took my spreadsheet class, I've really gotten into making spreadsheets work for me. I have one for my budget, for my checkbook register, for keeping track of where I am on paying off my car loan. It can do some cool stuff, but I haven't found any templates for stories.
Oh, sure, there are a bunch of free spreadsheets out there for tracking word count or royalty payments, but I want one that's directly related to story. I've found spreadsheets that keep track of what happened in each scene, but I do that on the calendar I use to keep track of time in my story. I was hoping someone would have template that did more than that.
So what am I looking for? I'm not quite sure, to be honest. If I had a handle on this, I could probably create my own instead of searching the web for what other authors do.
I guess I want something that's going to help me be organized and help me keep track of details and maybe do something magical that will instantly solve my issues with keeping details in some kind of order. I'm notoriously bad about having details scattered everywhere and then not being able to find it when I need it. Even Scrivener hasn't answered all my problems.
Right now, I'll have book details in Scrivener, in my browser's bookmarks, in notebooks, in Word documents, and yes, I do have spreadsheets of my own. It's not very chaotic and I don't like that.
Oh, sure, there are a bunch of free spreadsheets out there for tracking word count or royalty payments, but I want one that's directly related to story. I've found spreadsheets that keep track of what happened in each scene, but I do that on the calendar I use to keep track of time in my story. I was hoping someone would have template that did more than that.
So what am I looking for? I'm not quite sure, to be honest. If I had a handle on this, I could probably create my own instead of searching the web for what other authors do.
I guess I want something that's going to help me be organized and help me keep track of details and maybe do something magical that will instantly solve my issues with keeping details in some kind of order. I'm notoriously bad about having details scattered everywhere and then not being able to find it when I need it. Even Scrivener hasn't answered all my problems.
Right now, I'll have book details in Scrivener, in my browser's bookmarks, in notebooks, in Word documents, and yes, I do have spreadsheets of my own. It's not very chaotic and I don't like that.
April 19, 2015
25 Awesome Body Hacks Life Is Trying to Hide From You
I heard the hiccup thing a long time ago and it works.
