Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 66

Prince

In April 2016, Prince died at his Paisley Park home. This will be forever tied in my mind with my mom.

My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in December 2015. In January 2016, we got the test results back. It was triple negative which meant there were no drugs they could use to treat it. The doctor's recommendation was hospice. He predicted she had about six weeks to live. Mom only made it six days.

This was utterly devastating. I still miss her all the time. It's also why I'm adamant about women getting mammograms.

We're from Minneapolis, but my job transferred me to Atlanta and my parents were spending the winter with my when my mom died. My dad and I went back to Minnesota in April to start going through her things. The plan was that he'd live with me, so we needed to clean out the entire house. Going through Mom's things was emotionally devastating and so hard. We donated a lot of things and we had boxes and boxes of things to bring to Georgia. Too much to fit in my car.

A couple of days before we were going to drive back to Georgia, we were standing in line at UPS when I saw the news that Prince had died. Already emotionally tender, this was one more blow.

You see, Prince was a Minneapolis kid, too. I had some of his CDs, I saw him in concert. He was so talented and he'd stayed in Minnesota, creating Paisley Park not that far from where I lived. I'd grown up listening to his songs.

A few months ago, I listened to a podcast that talked a little bit about Prince's death and I teared up right away. For a moment, it puzzled me, and then I realized what I said at the beginning of this post. Prince's death is forever tied in my mind and my heart with saying goodbye to my mom as we sorted through her things.

Raindrops Keep Falling

In fall of 2017, I moved into a new house and it had a rainfall shower head in the master bathroom. I'd never had one of these before, but they're supposed to be great, so I was like, cool, I'll try it.

And in the beginning, I loved it. It was so relaxing!

But then it started to get annoying. It took forever to get the shampoo out of my hair, and while the rainfall was relaxing when I had plenty of time, it was stress inducing when I was trying to get somewhere on time. Like to my day job.

It reached a point where there was one day a week that I enjoyed the shower head and six days where I was irritated by how much time it was taking.

Finally, I decided that I needed a shower head that had more oomph to it. I found one with six different settings and had the handyman install it. OMG! I love it! It's still a water-conserving item, but the shampoo is gone like lightning and I get out of the house faster.

It makes me wonder if most people move faster in the morning than I do. I am a dawdler. When I don't have to work, it can take me hours to drink a couple of cups of coffee. In fact, I have to restart my coffee maker so the timer doesn't shut it off before I'm done with my java. It's two hours before the auto shutoff kicks in--does this show how much time I can waste?

Anyway, it's amazing how awesome it is to be able to shower fast again and take my time when I want to, not because the shower head is dictating my speed.

A Trip Back in Time

I was looking back at pictures from Minnesota today and saw all these flowers. I had all kinds of flowers planted and loved the bright pops of color in the yard.

I haven't planted any flowers since moving to Georgia. Part of me doesn't want the extra work because I'm stretched too thin as it is and am struggling to find enough hours in my day. But then I see these pictures and I miss them. I'll have to mull.

Picture to left is at my mom and dad's house in 2009.

This picture to the right is a tree lily that I had in my backyard. this is also 2009.

This picture was taken in 2007. It's my Minnesota house with flowers on the front porch. This is the only year I did annuals because they're more work than perennials.

Review: Fitbit Inspire HR

***I received no compensation of any kind for this review and paid full price for my Inspire HR***

In April, I switched from a Fitbit Zip (it is basically only a pedometer that you clip to your clothes) to the new Fitbit Inspire HR. This one has all the bells and whistles--heart rate, sleep, exercise tracking. But it's been a little difficult to transition.

The first difference is that the Zip runs on a regular 3 volt battery so no charging required. If the battery level gets too low, I just swapped it out and kept going. The Inspire is chargeable. Allegedly it has a 5-day battery life, but the most I've ever made it was three days, but I usually charge every other day because I'm one of those people who has to fill up early.

I also struggled to get used to having something on my wrist. I haven't worn a watch since the early 90s. It took a while before this stopped being annoying. The Zip just clipped onto my pocket and mostly stayed out of my way. The Zip was also virtually invisible inside my pocket while the Inspire is out there for the world to see. With it's silicone band. I thought about buying a leather band, but...

The Inspire is waterproof. A leather band means taking it off before I shower. Not a big deal at home, but kind of a PITA when I'm at the gym. I also am not fond of the dampness under the band--either from the shower or from sweat when I'm working out, but the convenience outweighs this.

 The two features I thought would be cool leave me wondering how accurate they are. For example, the heart rate monitor told my my Beats Per Minutes was 121 while I was sitting. That made me go OMG! and put my fingers to my neck to try to time my pulse. It was not 121 BPM. Later that same day, I'm working out and I can feel my heart throbbing and the heart rate monitor read 89. Um, I don't think so.

The sleep monitor has also shown me asleep when I know I was awake or vice versa. I wonder if being still and trying to fall asleep confused it?

The other frustration is that it will nag me for 250 steps an hour. That's not bad because I tend to sit in one position for too long and this helps. The frustrating part is that the app won't record all my accomplished hours. This is apparently a known bug that hasn't been fixed in a really long time because people have been complaining about it on the Fitbit forums. The other thing that's frustrating is that the device doesn't always nag me when I don't get my steps in for that hour and then I've messed up my perfect day because I lost track of time. Why doesn't it nag me every time?

I do, however, really like being able to tell it I'm on the treadmill or using the weights. The only quibble here is why isn't there an elliptical option? I spend half my gym days on the elliptical. One time it self-identified the equipment, but other times it's labeling the elliptical as running.

One other annoyance is that when I turn my wrist to look at the device, the screen doesn't always light up. I often have to prompt it. Except at night when it's dark in my bedroom, I'm trying to sleep, move my arm and the damn thing lights up like Times Square at New Year's Eve. Gah! There's also a laser light on the bottom that is really noticeable in the dark.

I bought the lavender color and like that since it makes the information on the screen look slightly purple. The band seems secure, an issue I know others had with some of the earlier models of other Fitbit devices.

Overall, I do like the Inspire although it's not perfect by any means. I'd give it a qualified thumbs up.

Cell Phone Shuffle

My cell phone is a company phone and it is standard to get the lowest amount of storage possible. When I got my iPhone, it was 16 GB. That's right, I'm trying to survive on 16 GB. Gah!

I have almost no apps on the phone and even then Apple has offloaded most of them. As soon as I listen to a podcast, it's gone. It doesn't matter if it's something I might want to listen to again or not. I can't afford to lose the space. My Audible app is routinely offloaded. I load it back when I want to listen to a book. My meditation app? Yeah, I stream everything because I can't download any of the sessions.

Even with all this, every time Apple updates iOS, I have to find more things to delete or offload. It's so frustrating to constantly play this game of shifting things on and off my phone.

On the other hand, I'm extremely grateful that I have a phone. I never thought I actually needed a smart phone...until I got one. Now I don't know how I'd live without one.

Directions and traffic? The phone.
Podcasts? The phone.
Audio books? The phone.
Meditation? The phone.
Music? The phone.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure y'all know this firsthand.

I'm hoping to get a phone with more memory this fall because I sure need it. In the meantime, it's the iPhone shuffle.

Review: The Incredibles 2

***There might be spoilers. You've been warned.***
I saw this movie as part of my Netflix subscription, so no compensation to me of any kind.

With the disclaimer out of the way... I recently watched The Incredibles 2. I'm not sure why it took Pixar so long to make the sequel, but they finally got around to it.

If you've seen the first movie, you have a general idea what this one is about. A couple of superheroes get married and have kids with superpowers, but superheroes are outlawed and they're forced to be normal. Whatever normal is. :-) You know all this from the original film. In this movie, a billionaire approaches the Incredible family and wants to have Elasti-girl help get superheroes legalized again. Mr. Incredible is forced to be Mr. Mom which is mostly okay with his older two kids, but baby Jack Jack is coming into his powers and can't control them.

I'm not a diehard fan of The Incredibles, but I did enjoy the first film enough to want to see the second one. I kind of felt the same way at the end of The Incredibles 2. I liked it. It was good. I might watch it again in a few years if there's nothing better to do.

There was nothing I can really complain about with the film. The villain was fairly predictable, but this movie's audience includes kids so I usually don't subtract points for things like this. Other than that? I thought it was fine.

I loved that Elasti-girl was the one who got to do the superhero work while her husband played Mr. Mom. They didn't even play that up for too much humor because Mr. Incredible wasn't an incompetent father. His biggest problem was lack of sleep. Baby Jack Jack apparently has insomnia. His other big problem was the baby has incredible (no pun intended) super powers and can't control them.

The other scene I really liked was when Mr. Incredible left Jack Jack with the costume designer. She didn't seem like she could handle a baby, but she did it with seeming effortlessness and she designed a costume for Jack Jack that could help with his super powers. I would have liked more of her!

Overall, I enjoyed this and would recommend it as a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

4 stars.

2019 Craft Goals

My goal for 2019 is to not buy any new yarn. (Outside of my monthly yarn club delivery, of course!)

I have a big problem with seeing a new pattern, buying all the yarn for it, and then letting it sit because it's above my skill level. Or at least I believe it's above my skill level. I have a few mosaic knitting projects with the yarn in a bag, waiting to go when I know what I'm doing. Only I started a mosaic shawl back in March and I was able to do it without any issues.






The project is farther along than this now, but I haven't taken a more recent picture. Also, forgive the bad lighting. The color that looks purple is really a dark blue. When I finish, I'll try to get a shot in natural light so the real colors are visible. I hope.

Anyway, when I start a new hobby, I tend to throw myself into it full tilt and usually end up obsessively buying supplies. Like yarn. I went from no extra yarn to far too much yarn. As I looked around and saw sealed plastic bags with yarn and patterns, I realize it was time to stop hoarding and start knitting what I'd already purchased.

Another resolution I made was to finish projects I'd started and then put aside. After I finish this mosaic shawl, I'm going to return to the sweater I was working on, rip out the sleeve that I messed up, and start over again. I want to finish this!

I also have a blanket I started for my cousin's son that I abandoned because the same stitches over and over became boring. Ditto for the cool looking shawl that is literally the same four rows over and over and over. There's the shawl that I started and put aside (only four rows done!) and the shawl I started as part of a knit along and put aside after section one because of the designer's quirks.

My biggest issue is that I don't have much time to knit. I work full time, have errands and household chores to take care of, and there's writing and promoting and everything else that goes with being an author. This will slow down my completing projects, but it's also another reason not to buy yarn for any additional patterns. It's hard not to buy yarn because OMG, so pretty! But I'm determined to make it through at least one year without growing the stash.

So far, so good!

Desk Chair Update

I have my gaming chair that I'm using as a desk chair. It took two hours to assemble although people in the reviews said it took them an hour. I guess my dad and I work slower. Also, the video instructions didn't match my chair even though I clicked the link on the manufacturer's website that allegedly led to the correct video.

Overall, though, assembly wasn't bad. We had one hiccup, but it was obvious quickly that we'd made a mistake and I figured out the correct way pretty easily. I'm calling this a win.

I ordered the version with the footrest because I thought it would be cool to kick back and write sometimes, but it only took a couple of hours to hate it. What bugged me was that when it was supposedly stowed underneath the seat, it would slide out and hit the backs of my calves. All the time.

Overall, though, the chair is more comfortable than my old chair. I had to ditch the lumbar pillow that came with the chair and replaced it with my old backrest cushion that I'd ordered when the other chair became too much to deal with. But again, that's minor.

The only thing that I hate about this chair--so far--is that it smells horrible! I'm hoping that the odor will dissipate over time. It might already be doing this because I used to be able to smell it walking down the hallway to my office, but I can't any longer. It's still pretty strong, though, and I'm not sure anything smells worse than fake leather. :-(

If the stink goes away, then I'd give the chair a thumbs up, but right now, my response is meh.

Shower Shoes and Glue

I was listening to an audio book and one of the sections talked about treating yourself as if you matter and that there's a difference between being cheap and being frugal. She had a bunch of examples, but suddenly I had my own light-bulb moment.

I've been going to the the gym for two years now, and when I first joined, I bought a pair of shower shoes. I didn't go with flip flops because I don't care for them. The pair I chose were a slide and I really liked them. However, one of the sole beds loosened from the shoe and it would flop around when I took them on or off. I meant to glue it down, but forgot.

For weeks, I'd been living with the sole bed flopping around and then it became completely loose from the shoe itself. I noticed it on Friday and meant to glue it down over the weekend, but again, I forgot about it.

Until I was at the gym on Monday.

I was going to make a note to myself to fix it over the coming weekend, but then while I was on the treadmill, I heard the author of the audio book talk about cheap versus frugal.

The shower shoes were not expensive. They lasted almost 2 full years, so I got my use out of them. Why didn't I just buy another pair instead of trying to glue the sole bed down? Some of the shoe itself was beginning to show wear and tear, too, so I would have to buy a new pair eventually anyway.

So I ordered new shower shoes. It feels ridiculously extravagant.

And a couple of hours after I wrote this post, I received an email cancelling my order. Glue it is.

Streaming Creativity

***I received no compensation of any kind for this blog post and paid for my membership.***

A little over 2 years ago when my anxiety was out of control, I decided I wanted to see if learning to crochet would help settle me down. I tried to find lessons locally, but there was nothing in the search results of my browser. There was, however, an online site called Craftsy. I decided to give it a try and amazingly enough, I was able to learn crochet. I also learned to knit from that site.

Fast forward and Craftsy was bought out by a big company and started a streaming service where users paid a monthly fee. This wouldn't work for me because I don't have a lot of time. It's different when you buy a class and it's yours forever, but streaming? I wouldn't get my money's worth.

I resisted the lure until January. They offered $10 off the annual subscription price and 12 classes that you could own forever for free. I took the annual price, divided it by 12 classes, and came up with around $6.00 a class. That's cheaper than any sale Craftsy ever had. I caved, deciding that the cost per class was worth it.

And I discovered I want to try all the things. I watched half of the learn to sew class, toyed with actually learning to sew, then slept on it and realized I didn't have the time. Besides, I wanted to so the learn to pencil sketch and learn to draw with colored pencil classes and that desire was stronger than sewing. I've also watched classes on brush lettering, cutting with vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo, and a class on how to arrange flowers.

Yes, I now want to do all the things. I didn't expect Bluprint to be this addictive.

And now I kind of want to stay subscribed even after my year is up. I know, right? This is clearly what they were hoping for when they cast their lure in my email pool. The thing is that I'm normally not crafty and I barely have enough time to knit. Where am I going to find time for the other things, too?

Guess I'll be figuring out what to do and what to drop over the next few months.