Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 133
July 31, 2014
One Year
It's been just over a year since I officially moved from Minnesota into my new home in Georgia. Last July, I was stressed to the max as I closed on one house (my beautiful MN home), and then seven days later, closed on a second (my new GA home). I thought I'd share a few thoughts.
My new house is on top of a very steep hill. I like this when it rains because I don't have to worry about flooding. Everything is going away from my home. I do not like it, though, when I have to roll the garbage can out for pick up. I keep it in a death grip, worried that if I lose my hold on it, it's going to roll wildly down my driveway and into the pond across the street.
The new kitchen has a lot of counter space and cabinet space, which I really like, but because I no longer have a basement, I've had to store my good dishes in the island. This means I actually have less space.
I also miss having pullouts in the lower cabinets (I loved those!) and I miss my two bread boards that were built in to the cabinets. I did install some after market pullouts in one cabinet. There's some wasted space since they're not custom, but I'm going to put them in two more cabinets because I practically have to crawl in to reach the things in back.
Still in the kitchen, I'm not wildly in love with the granite used on my counters. I can't see crumbs really well because of the color. I've also been unable to find the tan twisty wire things that come on bread because of how close the color is. The dark inclusions also look too much like bugs. That said, because of the huge amount of counter space I have, replacing them with something I like better is too expensive.
The pantry is also a little small, although it is much bigger than the one I had in Minnesota. So it's a gain, but I wish it was a walk in with really nice shelving.
Also strongly in the do not like category is the scorpions. I've found seven in my house since I moved in. There are no words for how much I loathe any bug, but those are extra prehistorically creepy.
I have a formal living room that I have no use for. I'm sorry, but if I'm inviting someone to my house, they're going to have to hang out in the family room. Because I needed the space, I have boxes of my books up there plus my scrapbooking supplies. The ultimate goal is to get some screens up to block it off because the dining room is right there as is the front door.
This house is on a smaller lot than I had in Minnesota--much smaller--but it has as much (if not more) privacy. I credit my hill with that. When the house was built, they basically cut into the top of the hill. I still have a rise in land on three sides of my house, and with the trees fully leafed, I don't even know I have neighbors. The house is also blissfully quiet. I don't usually hear my neighbors either. Total win.
I also credit my hill with the lack of casual doorbell ringers. :-) You have to really want to see me to make the climb.
Great outdoor space! I have fabulous outdoor space in my new home. A nice, large covered back patio that I plan to have screened in and a good sized front porch. I had a large front porch in MN, too, but that one was square, making it difficult to consider a true outdoor space. I have a rectangle here and could actually fit chairs and a table out there if I wanted. But I've had some wasps out there, so, yeah, no.
I still hate the commute down here. I'm like twice as far away from my job as I was in Minneapolis and I hate that. I get two hours later than I used to--partly because I start an hour later, but the commute is the reason for the other hour. At least I have my van pool which saves me money, wear and tear on my car, and makes the trip faster with people to talk to.
Sticker shock. The general belief up in Minnesota is that it's cheaper to live in the South. The other truism is that Minnesota has high state income tax. Neither is true. It's much more expensive for me to live in Georgia.
*Sales tax is just about the same
*State income tax is just about the same. ($5.00 higher in MN)
*Property tax is higher and there's no property tax refund down here
*Electric is much more expensive
*Gas is at least double what I paid in MN
*Water, OMG, the cost of water down here is unbelievable. 3 times higher. What I pay for one month in GA, is what I paid in three months for MN.
*Housing is not cheaper either because I couldn't afford a house with a basement down here.
*Don't ask me about the ridiculous amount I had to pay to get license plates for my car down here. It was criminal!
So, bottom line, just like living anywhere, there are pluses and minuses. Some things are better, some worse, so I guess it all comes out about even.
My new house is on top of a very steep hill. I like this when it rains because I don't have to worry about flooding. Everything is going away from my home. I do not like it, though, when I have to roll the garbage can out for pick up. I keep it in a death grip, worried that if I lose my hold on it, it's going to roll wildly down my driveway and into the pond across the street.
The new kitchen has a lot of counter space and cabinet space, which I really like, but because I no longer have a basement, I've had to store my good dishes in the island. This means I actually have less space.
I also miss having pullouts in the lower cabinets (I loved those!) and I miss my two bread boards that were built in to the cabinets. I did install some after market pullouts in one cabinet. There's some wasted space since they're not custom, but I'm going to put them in two more cabinets because I practically have to crawl in to reach the things in back.
Still in the kitchen, I'm not wildly in love with the granite used on my counters. I can't see crumbs really well because of the color. I've also been unable to find the tan twisty wire things that come on bread because of how close the color is. The dark inclusions also look too much like bugs. That said, because of the huge amount of counter space I have, replacing them with something I like better is too expensive.
The pantry is also a little small, although it is much bigger than the one I had in Minnesota. So it's a gain, but I wish it was a walk in with really nice shelving.
Also strongly in the do not like category is the scorpions. I've found seven in my house since I moved in. There are no words for how much I loathe any bug, but those are extra prehistorically creepy.
I have a formal living room that I have no use for. I'm sorry, but if I'm inviting someone to my house, they're going to have to hang out in the family room. Because I needed the space, I have boxes of my books up there plus my scrapbooking supplies. The ultimate goal is to get some screens up to block it off because the dining room is right there as is the front door.
This house is on a smaller lot than I had in Minnesota--much smaller--but it has as much (if not more) privacy. I credit my hill with that. When the house was built, they basically cut into the top of the hill. I still have a rise in land on three sides of my house, and with the trees fully leafed, I don't even know I have neighbors. The house is also blissfully quiet. I don't usually hear my neighbors either. Total win.
I also credit my hill with the lack of casual doorbell ringers. :-) You have to really want to see me to make the climb.
Great outdoor space! I have fabulous outdoor space in my new home. A nice, large covered back patio that I plan to have screened in and a good sized front porch. I had a large front porch in MN, too, but that one was square, making it difficult to consider a true outdoor space. I have a rectangle here and could actually fit chairs and a table out there if I wanted. But I've had some wasps out there, so, yeah, no.
I still hate the commute down here. I'm like twice as far away from my job as I was in Minneapolis and I hate that. I get two hours later than I used to--partly because I start an hour later, but the commute is the reason for the other hour. At least I have my van pool which saves me money, wear and tear on my car, and makes the trip faster with people to talk to.
Sticker shock. The general belief up in Minnesota is that it's cheaper to live in the South. The other truism is that Minnesota has high state income tax. Neither is true. It's much more expensive for me to live in Georgia.
*Sales tax is just about the same
*State income tax is just about the same. ($5.00 higher in MN)
*Property tax is higher and there's no property tax refund down here
*Electric is much more expensive
*Gas is at least double what I paid in MN
*Water, OMG, the cost of water down here is unbelievable. 3 times higher. What I pay for one month in GA, is what I paid in three months for MN.
*Housing is not cheaper either because I couldn't afford a house with a basement down here.
*Don't ask me about the ridiculous amount I had to pay to get license plates for my car down here. It was criminal!
So, bottom line, just like living anywhere, there are pluses and minuses. Some things are better, some worse, so I guess it all comes out about even.
July 29, 2014
Spam Attack
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed a huge increase in spam the past few weeks? Even accounts that I never had spam on before are suddenly getting two or three or four spam emails a day. My writing account? Forget about it. Spam is almost out of control.
It made me curious enough to do an internet search and after some browsing, I found an article with graphs showing that spam is at the highest level it's been at since October 2010. This article is from May 2014, so I guess I'm lucky that it took until July for the spam increase to catch up to me. Even so...sigh.
I've also gotten a good look at what kind of attacks have been directed at my website.
Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while might have noticed that I switched back to Blogger. I used to have a WordPress blog attached right to my website, but after it was hacked four or five times, I decided that was enough. I'm very computer savvy, but nothing I tried protected my blog.
I also switched to a new web host around the same time. Not because of the hacking, but because my old host had raised their prices dramatically. My new web host has different programs to look at stats and I was suddenly able to see what kind of assault my site took every month. And by far the vast majority of the attacks were aimed at finding WordPress or one of it's vulnerable plug-ins.
Yikes!
It really makes me glad I ditched WordPress even though I loved the flexibility and features it offered. I'm just sorry that some people out there have to ruin the web experience with spam and hacking attacks.
It made me curious enough to do an internet search and after some browsing, I found an article with graphs showing that spam is at the highest level it's been at since October 2010. This article is from May 2014, so I guess I'm lucky that it took until July for the spam increase to catch up to me. Even so...sigh.
I've also gotten a good look at what kind of attacks have been directed at my website.
Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while might have noticed that I switched back to Blogger. I used to have a WordPress blog attached right to my website, but after it was hacked four or five times, I decided that was enough. I'm very computer savvy, but nothing I tried protected my blog.
I also switched to a new web host around the same time. Not because of the hacking, but because my old host had raised their prices dramatically. My new web host has different programs to look at stats and I was suddenly able to see what kind of assault my site took every month. And by far the vast majority of the attacks were aimed at finding WordPress or one of it's vulnerable plug-ins.
Yikes!
It really makes me glad I ditched WordPress even though I loved the flexibility and features it offered. I'm just sorry that some people out there have to ruin the web experience with spam and hacking attacks.
July 27, 2014
July 24, 2014
Adventures With Jewelry
I have this sterling silver pendant that I wear almost every day, but the sterling rope chain has had tarnish issues. No matter how often I clean it, it just doesn't last. I finally decided to buy a stainless steel chain, even if I had to get one of those medical alert chains. As it turned out, stainless steel jewelry has come a long way since I last shopped. They had a very nice 30 inch box chain that I bought.
The only problem I discovered was that the clasp was rather large for the width of the chain and it wouldn't fit through the jump ring on the pendant. I tried squeezing the clasp, I tried squeezing the ring to make it more oval. The clasp still wouldn't go through and now I had a gap where the ring joined.
I didn't want to risk using a real pair of pliers so I bought jewelry pliers. With an incredible lack of skill, I opened the jump ring farther. Okay, I thought, so instead of trying to thread the clasp through the ring, I'll just open it far enough for the chain to slide through and then seal it up again. This should be easy. Or so I thought.
Forcing the ring open with the pliers was hard, but I did manage that. The problem came when I tried to close the ring again. It had become an oval and I couldn't get the two edges of the ring to match up. I know have a sharp edged piece of metal holding my pendant to my chain.
After messing around with the pliers and my pendant for way longer than was reasonable, I decided to search online for instructions. I found a video and guess what? The instructions said not to use pliers to pull the ring apart. Using two pairs of pliers, I was supposed to twist it open and then twist it closed again because if you pull, you can never get the circle back. Um, yeah. Great.
Clearly, the answer was to find another jump ring since I'm risking scratching my skin or tearing clothes with the jagged edge. They sell them online in packs of 100. Gah! I don't make jewelry, but the price was cheap--less than $4--so I bought them.
And I bought another pair of jewelry pliers because the instructions said two pliers and the rings are only 6 mm so I can't use a regular pair of pliers from the garage. Now I'm thinking, wow, since I have all this equipment, maybe I should try making some jewelry. It might be fun! I'm not kidding. Creative outlets that are not writing usually help the writing flow better and why not jewelry making?
All because I wanted a chain that wouldn't tarnish.
You know, I could see the snowball start to roll downhill, but I couldn't manage to stop it. :-/
The only problem I discovered was that the clasp was rather large for the width of the chain and it wouldn't fit through the jump ring on the pendant. I tried squeezing the clasp, I tried squeezing the ring to make it more oval. The clasp still wouldn't go through and now I had a gap where the ring joined.
I didn't want to risk using a real pair of pliers so I bought jewelry pliers. With an incredible lack of skill, I opened the jump ring farther. Okay, I thought, so instead of trying to thread the clasp through the ring, I'll just open it far enough for the chain to slide through and then seal it up again. This should be easy. Or so I thought.
Forcing the ring open with the pliers was hard, but I did manage that. The problem came when I tried to close the ring again. It had become an oval and I couldn't get the two edges of the ring to match up. I know have a sharp edged piece of metal holding my pendant to my chain.
After messing around with the pliers and my pendant for way longer than was reasonable, I decided to search online for instructions. I found a video and guess what? The instructions said not to use pliers to pull the ring apart. Using two pairs of pliers, I was supposed to twist it open and then twist it closed again because if you pull, you can never get the circle back. Um, yeah. Great.
Clearly, the answer was to find another jump ring since I'm risking scratching my skin or tearing clothes with the jagged edge. They sell them online in packs of 100. Gah! I don't make jewelry, but the price was cheap--less than $4--so I bought them.
And I bought another pair of jewelry pliers because the instructions said two pliers and the rings are only 6 mm so I can't use a regular pair of pliers from the garage. Now I'm thinking, wow, since I have all this equipment, maybe I should try making some jewelry. It might be fun! I'm not kidding. Creative outlets that are not writing usually help the writing flow better and why not jewelry making?
All because I wanted a chain that wouldn't tarnish.
You know, I could see the snowball start to roll downhill, but I couldn't manage to stop it. :-/
July 22, 2014
Massive Fail
Yesterday I saw a quiz on my Facebook timeline. Can We Guess Who You Are In Only 20 Questions? It sounded intriguing, so I did the quiz. According to this, I am a 30-year-old male who's recently become a father.
Massive fail.
As I discussed this on Twitter, a couple of us found the quiz questions problematic. The ones that I found particularly bothersome was how long do you spend getting ready? And how many times do you cook per week?
I retook it and changed my answers to the three questions I found most sexist. I figured if I switched my choices and this time it guessed I was female, I'd have my smoking gun so to speak.
This didn't happen. In the quiz's favor, this go-round made me a teenage male. Still a massive fail, but at least these three questions alone weren't the determining factors.
The quiz invited people to post how accurate it was in the comments. I wanted to check them out so I could talk about it here, but I can't find any comments. It might be my computer. I have it personalized far past what most people do to their systems and I might have a setting that blocks me from seeing comments.
I also saw on Facebook from a different friend that it was a massive fail for her as well. So far I know one person who found it accurate and three of us going, huh?
Massive fail.
As I discussed this on Twitter, a couple of us found the quiz questions problematic. The ones that I found particularly bothersome was how long do you spend getting ready? And how many times do you cook per week?
I retook it and changed my answers to the three questions I found most sexist. I figured if I switched my choices and this time it guessed I was female, I'd have my smoking gun so to speak.
This didn't happen. In the quiz's favor, this go-round made me a teenage male. Still a massive fail, but at least these three questions alone weren't the determining factors.
The quiz invited people to post how accurate it was in the comments. I wanted to check them out so I could talk about it here, but I can't find any comments. It might be my computer. I have it personalized far past what most people do to their systems and I might have a setting that blocks me from seeing comments.
I also saw on Facebook from a different friend that it was a massive fail for her as well. So far I know one person who found it accurate and three of us going, huh?
July 20, 2014
July 17, 2014
Facebook Annoyances
There are so many things about Facebook that drive me nuts. It's especially annoying because they don't allow any easy way to fix them.***
For an example, someone I'm not friends with invited me to three events! Three! Someone I am NOT friends with. Why does FB allow this? Who knows? Can I put this woman under block from sending invites? Hell, no, I can't because I'm not friend with there. WTF?
I don't know if complete strangers can send event invites because this woman is an author and--of course--we have many mutual friends. Maybe this my friends friends thing applies here. It doesn't matter. I hate it.
Why can't Facebook let me turn off ALL event invitations? Authors continually use the event function to spam their friends.
I'm also tired of FB dictating what I see in my news feed. A post from two days ago that I read and have no interest in was at the top of my feed again today because others commented on it. I don't care. Seriously. I'd rather see what my friends are posting today. I'd also don't think Facebook knows what I want to see or from whom.
And don't get me started about those stupid games. Those I have blocked, but Facebook throws a bazillion ads for them in one of my feeds. Every other post has another ad stuffed after it. Facebook, I'm not going to play any games. Stop bugging me with those ads.
I'm also tired of seeing every single person my friends have friended or page they've liked. I'm friends with a lot of authors who friend a lot of people. Many, many authors are also notoriously bad with computers and they don't turn off this notification being sent out far and wide--probably because they have no clue that you can, of if they do, how to do it.
I know why Facebook likes this feature--it might help people find mutual friends--but damn is it annoying. BTW, I do have this turned off so none of my friends see when I friend someone else. If only all authors would do this.
And while I'm complaining, Facebook, why the lag time when I'm scrolling down the news feeds? It's not a brief hesitation, it's many seconds before it finally goes. The farther down the feed I want to go, the slower the script is to let me scroll. So annoying.
There are many, many other things about Facebook that annoy the hell out of me, but I'll stop here.
***Edited to add: Facebook is now letting me block invites from people right when I delete their invitation! This is how it used to be and I'm glad to see it back. This will make it so much easier, even if I still have to block one by one.
For an example, someone I'm not friends with invited me to three events! Three! Someone I am NOT friends with. Why does FB allow this? Who knows? Can I put this woman under block from sending invites? Hell, no, I can't because I'm not friend with there. WTF?
I don't know if complete strangers can send event invites because this woman is an author and--of course--we have many mutual friends. Maybe this my friends friends thing applies here. It doesn't matter. I hate it.
Why can't Facebook let me turn off ALL event invitations? Authors continually use the event function to spam their friends.
I'm also tired of FB dictating what I see in my news feed. A post from two days ago that I read and have no interest in was at the top of my feed again today because others commented on it. I don't care. Seriously. I'd rather see what my friends are posting today. I'd also don't think Facebook knows what I want to see or from whom.
And don't get me started about those stupid games. Those I have blocked, but Facebook throws a bazillion ads for them in one of my feeds. Every other post has another ad stuffed after it. Facebook, I'm not going to play any games. Stop bugging me with those ads.
I'm also tired of seeing every single person my friends have friended or page they've liked. I'm friends with a lot of authors who friend a lot of people. Many, many authors are also notoriously bad with computers and they don't turn off this notification being sent out far and wide--probably because they have no clue that you can, of if they do, how to do it.
I know why Facebook likes this feature--it might help people find mutual friends--but damn is it annoying. BTW, I do have this turned off so none of my friends see when I friend someone else. If only all authors would do this.
And while I'm complaining, Facebook, why the lag time when I'm scrolling down the news feeds? It's not a brief hesitation, it's many seconds before it finally goes. The farther down the feed I want to go, the slower the script is to let me scroll. So annoying.
There are many, many other things about Facebook that annoy the hell out of me, but I'll stop here.
***Edited to add: Facebook is now letting me block invites from people right when I delete their invitation! This is how it used to be and I'm glad to see it back. This will make it so much easier, even if I still have to block one by one.
July 15, 2014
Bait and Switch
I've been using Office 2010 at home for years now, but I never felt the need to customize the ribbon. Then we got 2010 at work and I continually hit the wrong icon in Word. The answer seemed easy--take the icon I didn't want and wouldn't use off the ribbon.
Confident--I knew exactly where to go to fix my ribbon--I soon found out that my brilliant plan wouldn't work. Why? Because Microsoft does not truly allow you to customize their ribbon.
I could create a brand new ribbon, but I was not allowed to remove anything, not a single, solitary thing from the ribbons they created for Word 2010. Really, Microsoft? Really? That's your idea of customizable? Because it doesn't fit my definition at all.
All I wanted to do was remove the Increase/Decrease Font Size icons. I didn't want to cause anarchy.
Microsoft, though, doesn't seem to really want to let its users do much customizing. For example, there is no way at all to turn off the your-email-has-no-subject pop-up. I tried. I even did an online search because I couldn't figure out how to do it. Only to learn that you're not allow to turn that off. Gee, thanks, Microsoft.
Confident--I knew exactly where to go to fix my ribbon--I soon found out that my brilliant plan wouldn't work. Why? Because Microsoft does not truly allow you to customize their ribbon.
I could create a brand new ribbon, but I was not allowed to remove anything, not a single, solitary thing from the ribbons they created for Word 2010. Really, Microsoft? Really? That's your idea of customizable? Because it doesn't fit my definition at all.
All I wanted to do was remove the Increase/Decrease Font Size icons. I didn't want to cause anarchy.
Microsoft, though, doesn't seem to really want to let its users do much customizing. For example, there is no way at all to turn off the your-email-has-no-subject pop-up. I tried. I even did an online search because I couldn't figure out how to do it. Only to learn that you're not allow to turn that off. Gee, thanks, Microsoft.
July 13, 2014
What Your Sleeping Position Says About You
I'm a freefaller minus the outgoing and confident parts. :-)
July 10, 2014
Wasted Space
I'm not a bath person. Strictly showers for me, thanks. And because of this, the tub in the master bathroom is nothing except wasted space.
I can't afford to redo my bathroom. I wish I could. I'd have the tub taken out and I'd have an awesome walk-shower installed. My current shower is walk-in because it's a separate tub/shower thing, but it's smallish and has fiberglass formed to look like fake tile. It's adequate, don't get me wrong, but I'd like a gorgeous, House Beautiful shower.
In my dreams, I also have the counter replaced with quartz or granite and have under mounted sinks. And I'd slip another closet in there--maybe where the old shower was. I seriously need a bit more storage.
But this isn't affordable for me at this point and so I'm faced with a tub-sized space in my bathroom that does nothing except collect dust.
I posted about this over on Facebook and asked for some suggestions. Some were doable, some weren't, but there were a lot of good ideas. I'm just not sure I'm ready to commit to any of them. Maybe because I'm too busy imagining the bathroom renovation I'm wishing for. :-)
I can't afford to redo my bathroom. I wish I could. I'd have the tub taken out and I'd have an awesome walk-shower installed. My current shower is walk-in because it's a separate tub/shower thing, but it's smallish and has fiberglass formed to look like fake tile. It's adequate, don't get me wrong, but I'd like a gorgeous, House Beautiful shower.
In my dreams, I also have the counter replaced with quartz or granite and have under mounted sinks. And I'd slip another closet in there--maybe where the old shower was. I seriously need a bit more storage.
But this isn't affordable for me at this point and so I'm faced with a tub-sized space in my bathroom that does nothing except collect dust.
I posted about this over on Facebook and asked for some suggestions. Some were doable, some weren't, but there were a lot of good ideas. I'm just not sure I'm ready to commit to any of them. Maybe because I'm too busy imagining the bathroom renovation I'm wishing for. :-)
