Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 28

Maybe a Little Too Quick

When I last blogged about my virtual races, I mentioned doing some quick ones to balance out the seven months it took me to finish the north coast of Scotland. Maybe the race I picked was a little too quick.

The default time frame for a race is 8 weeks, IIRC. I didn't change the default and I should have. I believe I finished the challenge in less than a week.

Angkor Wat is the shortest of the Conqueror Challenge races, so when I said quick, I meant it. This might have been a little too fast. This race had Street View, but I flew through it so fast, I really didn't get to see much of anything.

Despite this, I signed up for the next shortest race for my next challenge. The English Channel. I expect this one to fly by, too.

I don't want to sign up for anything too long, not yet, so after the English Channel? I don't know. Maybe something else short and then try something more medium? I guess we'll see after I finish that one.

That Escalated Quickly

I decided to organize two dresser drawers. Just two. Mostly because I'd bought some new clothes and it impacted those two locations and it was difficult to find anything in the one drawer.

It started out pretty well. I went to YouTube and found videos to fold in a space-saving way. It would take up less room than the current way I fold and I thought it would be a piece of cake.

Like I said, it started out okay.

The problem was that the new clothes meant I had to remove things from the drawer that no longer fit even with the new method of folding. No problem, I thought, once I handle the second drawer, there will be plenty of space.

There wasn't.

I now have clothes stacked on top of that dresser that currently have no home. What I need to do is clean and organize all my drawers. Donate some clothing. Trash the worn out stuff that I don't wear. I mean I have clothes that I wore in college and I'm pretty sure there are lots of available opportunities to prune the collection, right?

Where it becomes an Argh! for me is that I don't have time to do two dressers, a closet, and all my shelves inside the closet. Hell, I'd probably need to do the bathroom vanity, too. Somehow, my simple, quick, two-drawer project escalated into a complete wardrobe organization overhaul. Gah!

The North Coast

If you were wondering if I'm still doing these virtual races, the answer is most definitely yes. The reason I haven't shared in a while? Because I was doing the North Coast of Scotland and it took me nearly 7 months to complete the 500 mile walk.

Seven months was getting a little long, but it actually wasn't as bad as it might have been because the scenery on Google Street View was beautiful! It made me want to go to Scotland--in the summer--and take a look at the north coast myself.

In the picture I screen captured from my phone, you can see one of the views I saw. The ocean is in the background.

I like the races that have the Street View more than the ones that don't. Some of the races, though, are trails (I think) and since Google couldn't get a car in there, no views are possible. I believe Easter Island was one of these as was the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea.

I chose the shortest race available at Conqueror Challenges for my next medal. I think I'm going to focus on a couple of quick ones for a change of pace before going back to some longer ones. Although maybe not 500 miles...for a little while.

Medal Front

Medal Back

Medal Sash/Ribbon

Series Bible Follow Up

I bought a third Notion template. This one is specifically a series bible template. The other two were not. One was for the business side of being an author and the other was more for one book only.

As I was searching, looking for some kind of series bible that didn't have a ridiculous price tag ($45, really? For a template? Gah!), I stumbled across one from the same person from whom I bought the author biz template and they'd sent me a coupon!

So I picked up their series bible and took it for a test drive.

I mostly like it. It's helpful and the layout is good. Transferring over four books of data is not working for me, so I'm working from my spreadsheet, OneNote, and Notion.

Of course, the template isn't perfect and I want to tweak it. My problem? I don't know Notion well enough to mess around too much.

I did duplicate the template so if I mess up, I still have the original in pristine condition, but I've been playing around with my copy. I'm learning some things. Watching videos on my down time. Trying things out and undoing them when they don't work. I've looked for something like Notion for Dummies, but there aren't many books available.

The videos I've found have been helpful to a degree, but not exactly what I need to figure things out. I'm sure if I keep watching, things will eventually start becoming clearer and I've always been good with computers.

But this is a hell of a lot of work to go through. I can see the potential Notion has to be an awesome resource for a wide variety of things, but very little feels intuitive to me. We'll see where this goes, but wow.

Lunch Bag Quest Follow-Up

When I blogged about my quest for a lunch bag that didn't take up tons of space in the refrigerator, I added at the bottom that I'd chosen the snack box.

It wasn't a bad choice, not exactly.

It's good on days when I bring those egg cups you can buy in the dairy section of the supermarket. When I add a cup of yogurt, it's tight, but it still works. So I can squeeze in an egg cup, a yogurt, a wrap, a baggie of lettuce, and a baggie of deli chicken.

The problem? There is no way this snack box is wide enough to accommodate overnight oats, which is what I normally take for breakfast. Even if I switch containers to something narrower, I don't think it will fit. Not if I want to bring everything I need.

Here's a shot of the snack box from the side, so you can see just how little width there actually is.

I'm definitely still going to use this on the days where I bring eggs for breakfast, but I had to try a second option for oats day. It's supposed to be delivered today. Fingers crossed that this next option isn't too big and bulky.

Right now, all I can think is please don't make me have to learn to sew my own lunch bag. I'm this close to having to make my own tote bag, but that's another online shopping saga.

Paladin League Series Bible

I've always had trouble creating my own series bibles because I've always been at a loss for what kind of information I'd want. At least until several books in and I'm rereading like crazy, trying to find the factoid I'd forgotten. That's why I bought an Excel spreadsheet series bible created by another author to use.

I actually really liked it. I tweaked it to fit what I needed, but overall, I was so happy with it. I was even able to include it with the manuscript when I sent it for copy edits.

For the first three books of the Paladin League series, I was elated at how well it worked. And then I hit the fourth book.

It wasn't that the spreadsheet suddenly stopped working. It was more like it was so full of information that it became clunky to locate what I needed. The All Characters and Settings sheets were particular nightmares for me.

And then I started working on Wicked Persuasion, the fifth book in the series. All the problems I struggled with in Wicked Deception were there and now it was compounded by there being another full book's worth of data. OMG.

I'd played around with a free website/software called Notion in the past and I circled back to it again after doing some online searches. My original problem remains--there is a steep learning curve and I don't have time to go through enough tutorials.

I purchased two different templates and downloaded a few free ones. And while someone else did the heavy lifting, I still need to figure out how to use what they provided.

For example, one of the templates has a countdown for release day. Cool. I enter the release date for Wicked Persuasion, but the timer doesn't change. After much clicking, I get a widget page on another website that says it's been deleted. I surmise that I must create my own account here and my own countdown widget. Now the information about the release date and the countdown timer are misaligned and it's driving me insane. Not that I'm obsessive or anything.

It would have been nice if the template had come with instructions like: You will need to create your own countdown timer and insert the code in this box. I didn't see anything to explain what to do and the entire template is like this. Can I figure it out? Of course, I can. Do I have time to do this for section after section after section? Absolutely not.

So of course, I went looking for more Notion templates, hoping one of them would do what I needed it to do and have enough instructions that I could just use it. Not having much luck yet. Maybe I need to do more searches for how to do a series bible.

Say What?

After Christmas, I needed to return something to Amazon.

It was a cute pink rug that I thought would be awesome only when I received it, the color was more muted than I expected. That I could live with. What I couldn't live with was how slippery it was. My elderly father lives with me and the last thing I need is for him to slip and fall. So the rug had to go back.

Their return system is mostly slick. You click on return, get a QR code and bring the item to a UPS store to get shipped back for free.

What I don't like about this system? The receipt you get doesn't have the actual tracking number used for the package when it's returned. And secondly, once you hand it over to the UPS Store, it is completely out of your control.

Which is why the email from Amazon with the warning in it just gets me all mad. The warning? If they do not receive this product back, I will be charged for it.

My dudes, once I hand it over to the UPS Store and they scan that QR code, it should be considered 100% returned. I have zero control from that point on. If UPS doesn't return it, it's on them, not on me. Don't be sending me warnings and threats about charging me for an item that I returned following your instructions. For real.

I almost never return anything. I even thought about not returning this rug, but then I was like, what am I going to do with something this potentially dangerous?

Also, while I'm complaining about Amazon returns, what is with their drop down menu for why I'm returning the item? DID NOT LIKE was not one of my options. It should have been available. I had to pick some random reason that wasn't particularly accurate.

The thing that's crazy about this rug? It has tons of reviews, mostly 5 Star. And while I know some sellers game the system, it was several thousand reviews. I figured the rug would be fine. Not one person mentioned how slippery it was. I can't imagine that some kid hasn't been running and taken a header after losing traction on it, so huh?

Anyway, FYI Amazon, I did not appreciate your warning. Thank you very much.

2023 Tasks

Changing to a new year can be exciting, but it also takes some work. Not only do I have to get my new planner ready with birthdays, anniversaries, etc, but I also have to get my spreadsheets ready for the year.

Instead of keeping a paper check register, I have an Excel spreadsheet with a sort-by-date function. But the person who created it suggested not keeping years of data on one sheet because of potential issues. What I've done to keep things simple is start a new workbook at the first of each year. So far, so good.

I also have a register of credit card charges I make. That way, I can look at the total and look at my bill and know in a glance if everything matches. Or not. This is a free spreadsheet I found on Vertex 42 and updated to work for me. I have a tab for each month and I have all my regular auto-charges on the sheets when I start the year.

I'm trying a different budget spreadsheet for 2023 because the one I was using took too much work and I lost steam in September. I'm hoping this one is easier, but I'm still setting it up. Oops!

The bill tracker for 2023 is ready to go. This is another new spreadsheet I bought because there were things I didn't like about the other ones I tried. Third time's the charm? But I want a bill tracker because I don't want to be surprised when I get the car insurance bill...like I was in 2022.

My final year-specific spreadsheet is one I created myself and used for the first time in 2022. It's where I keep track of my business expenses. I had a different spreadsheet that I created, but it was extremely simple and very difficult to print out for the tax guy. This one is more condensed and sharper in appearance.

I have a small spreadsheet addiction, but it's how I keep myself on track. I even have my Paladin League series bible in a spreadsheet!

In Search Of

You'd think buying a lunch bag to bring to work would be a quick and easy thing to do. Of course, I did have certain requirements.

Small. It needs to fit in the fridge at work without taking up too much space.

Stable. I don't want my overnight oats to be tossed around or end up on its side.

Attractive. This is the least important, but could I please not have something brown or gray or navy? I prefer loud patterns and exciting colors.

I've been using a plastic bag from the grocery store which is neither stable nor attractive, but it is compact. I wrap it around my lunch/breakfast food and it takes up almost no extra space. It kind of works, but as I said, my oats get tossed around and I really would like to not use a grocery sack.

I began my online shopping excursion optimistic and thinking it would take like a minute or two while I decided on colors.

By the fifth page of search results, I knew I was going to have trouble.

My search was "small lunch bag," but the bags that came up were too big. I have lunch bags these sizes already and I don't use them because they are too big. I'm not bringing a ten-course meal to work for heaven's sake.

The second search was "really small lunch bag." I did have a couple turn up that were smallish, but not that small.

Currently, I'm contemplating something called a snack box. It's small. I'm just concerned it might be too small. The bowl my oats are in might be too wide for this box thing. It would be perfect, though, on the days I do eggs instead of oats, so I might pick it up even if I only get part time use out of it.

I don't know. I never expected it to be this difficult to find something compact.

Edited to add: I went with the snack box. Fingers crossed that it's just large enough.

Duster Update

Remember when I blogged about the duster-length sweater I bought that ended up hitting me at my ankles? I'm going to give a quick update.

I love it!

Okay, so the length does not work for wearing it at work or wearing it outside the house, but it's absolutely perfect for inside the home. Wear it with pajamas? It's a robe that keeps me warm from neck to ankles.

Wear it with regular clothes? It's a warm sweater that keeps me toasty from neck to ankles.

What was originally a massive fail has become an incredible win.

Instead of turning up the heat, I put on my duster. I've never been a big fan of robes, but it's a different story with this sweater. So my fellow short people, I highly recommend buying a sweater duster and wearing it around the house instead of a robe and instead of turning up the heat. Who'd have thought it would be this awesome?