What the Junk?!

I am suffering from cool notebook syndrome.  My little Moleskine Cahiers are so nice I don't know how to go about using them! LOL! I have this issue with a lot of my notebooks.  I really want to make my TN a TN for learning French.  I just have to decide how to go about it.  I was thinking of one notebook for notes while taking lessons.  (Words I have trouble with, things I didn't understand, etc.) and the other two for certain things.  I just haven't decided on those things yet!  I DID put an address label in one of the cahiers.  Progress, I guess? 

In other news, I have been writing on my fic every day.  I figure it's good practice for NaNo.  I do need to do some more prep for NaNo but not too much.  I have the idea of the book in my head.  I just need to decide on what the main thing will be.  If my male skater is hurt, I have to research that.  If I do the stalking story, that will be easy peasy.  I read and watch enough true crime to have that one in the bag. LOL!  I will probably do the stalking and the injury in another book.  Who knows with me?

I have been playing Munzee every day for the past couple of weeks.  They have a Zeeops event going on and I've been able to do everything so far.  Tomorrow is the last day of this week's tasks.  I hope I'm able to do it and get the bonus. If you complete every day you get an extra perk at the end.  It's been fun and I've had a lot of fun deploying Munzees.  

I thought I would use a Traveler's notebook to enhance my French language studies and this is what I came up with.  I love it!  I'm using my latest TN in an A5 size with three Moleskine cahiers inside.  I hope to have something in each and use this to advance my learning.  I made it all Paris/French themed throughout.  Check it out here:

French inspired Traveler's Notebook

7 new photos · Album by Ann Thornton (AnnDroidGirl)

No puzzle today! (the title in French above)

Yes, I skipped puzzling today.  I will start the castle one that I got at the thrift store next.  This one is hopefully complete!  I didn't start today because I decided to give myself a break day.  I went up to my friend's house for a bit and was there when I got a text from my other friend to come outside with my shoes on.  I had to text him and tell him I wasn't home. LOL I walked down the street and he was trimming some of the plants in my yard that have gotten bigger than I can handle.  He also went in the basement to get the information off of the water heater.  I couldn't locate the manual, so I'm thinking that I never got one. When the people who installed it put it in there, they didn't do as we asked, they didn't dispose of the old one, and they were generally unhelpful.  I think they probably left the manual in the box and tossed it. >_< Boo on them!  

I carried a bunch of branches to the street and that wore me out. I got way overheated.  I was dripping when I came in.  I was able to clean up, dry off, and cool down.  I didn't go back out after that!  I washed a load of clothes very late last night.  I just put those away.  It was too late to worry with it last night so I figured I would just do it today.  A quick tumble in the dryer and they were ready to go.

All I need to do now is relax until bedtime.  I washed my hair after doing the yard work as it was sweaty and gross. It's almost dry and should be completely dry by the time I go to bed. I'm going to try my best to NOT be up past 4 am again tonight!

How I'm using Evernote today: I took screenshot pictures of every regular US Starbucks card and put them in notes in Evernote.  I can check off the ones I have and keep a look out for the ones I don't have.  It will be a great way to keep up with them. :)  Again, if you'd like to try Evernote, use my link below!

Try Evernote for Free!

So, here it is Sunday and I'm posting to my blog.  I haven't been out of the house all day.  I'm tempted to go out and just drive around the block after posting this. lol I have washed my hair and my bed linen is in the dryer.  I've done my French, finished my puzzle, and straightened up a few things.  It's been a productive day for me not to have really done anything.  I read the book The Hidden Cave last night in one sitting.  It was as good as I remembered it.  The only thing about it is, I wish it were longer and more detailed.  Yes, it's  a kids book and they would probably be bored if it were too long, but there you go!  It was nice to re-read it.  Like visiting an old friend. ^_^ 

The only thing left on today's to do list is to create next week's layout in my bullet journal. i already know which washi and which color Mildliner I'm going to use, so I just need to do it.  I also had NaNo on my list of things to do today, but I'm really far ahead.  I might just do a few of the pups in the story.  I have character pages of the three main Corgis.  My main characters male Corigi, his pup, and his mate.I might go and do little bios for each pooch. :) . I only have six more of my human characters to do profiles for.  It's amazing how hard it is to think of 61 last names for characters!  It will be nice to have them all named and described.  This will go into my books edits at some point, too. 

I have all my book stuff in Scrivener.  The templates I'm using for my characters are actually Evernote templates!   I have been saving my characters in Evernote too.  That way if I'm on the go and think of something to add about a character, I can add it to Evernote and then add it into Scrivener later.  Very convenient! Plus, my friend's son, the one that lives up the street, is inspiration for one of my characters.  I read him the description of his character that I copied into Evernote and we laughed a lot.  He knows he is in the book so it's all good.  I made him as true to live as possible. He is an introvert like myself.  He loves cats, and his character takes care of all three of the compounds kitties! He is a gamer in real life, so he is very pale.  I described him as "Pale as milk" and we both cackled.  It was fun! lol . 

Anyway! I guess I'll close.  I will share a picture of the completed puzzle below. It's pretty. It's a bunch of colorful paper lanterns.  The lanterns themselves weren't hard to do, it was the other parts of the puzzle that took the longest. It's done now and I'll pick another one out to start tomorrow!

So, it's been a day.  I didn't get to sleep until after 4am last night but at least my Fitbit woke me up today.  I got up and had my coffee and did my morning routine. Then, I had breakfast and lay back down for a bit.  I still don't feel great.  I wasn't sleeping, but I think I was close to it when my phone beeped.  I had a text.  It was from my friend's son (the one who is 21 and also a friend) He wanted to know if I would come up and hang out with him for a while.  I figured something was up, so I agreed even though I didn't want to get out of bed. lol

He was having relationship issues and I'm HOPING it's truly over this time.  I stayed up there for a looooong time.  I got there about 2 and didn't leave until after 9:30!  He drove us to Arby's to pick up lunch for us and his grandmother.  We ate and played Skip Bo.  We used to go to Starbucks all the time when he was younger and play card games (and board games!) . His mom was taking night classes and we'd go hand at Starbucks to wait for her. It was so funny because at one time, one of the baristas thought he was my son. LOL

So, anyway! We played Skip Bo and it was so funny,  We both had forgotten how to play.  We had to re-read the rules and we were good.  That was fun.  When his mom got home, she had go to a doctor's appointment so I stuck around with him until she got back. Then, we went to Starbucks. Whee! lol It was 50% off so we did that.

I went back and spent a little time with them.  My friend's husband and I got talking about books again.  I finally left and came home to fix some dinner.  I really needed some dinner since it had been a long time since lunch! lol . I didn't do anything for NaNo today, but that is okay. I'm actually ahead.  I also didn't get to work on my puzzle at all today.  I thought about getting it out when I got home, but I decided to just put it off until tomorrow.  I had to do my French and post here, so I knew I would be rushing to do everything.  

Hopefully tomorrow I won't have to leave the house.  That would be ideal! :) . Of course, I won't say no if anyone wants to take me to Starbucks. LOL!  I'm on a star streak and got 50 bonus stars today.  I was able to do it because my friend's put the money on my card for their drinks so I got the stars. ;D

So I couldn't sleep again last night.  I'm getting used to it.  What I am not used to is oversleeping!  I must have been pretty deep when my Fitbit alarm went off because it didn't wake me up at all!  I happened to look at the clock at one point and it was 12:47!  I usually get up at 10:30.  I got up as soon as I realized what was going on. lol . It threw me so off.  Hopefully tonight I'll get to sleep at a decent time and wake up at the right time tomorrow.  We'll see.

I did a little more on the puzzle today.  I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I'm pretty sure I'll finish it tomorrow. It's going to be pretty.  I'm running low on backup puzzles.  I really need to get to the Dollar Tree!  

I did something really nutty last night. It was a few minutes after 2am and I was hungry.  My happy ass got up, got dressed, and drove to Cookout. LOL My car did horribly.  I'm glad I went since I know not to drive the car during hours when there will be a lot of people on the road.  I was able to get there and back without impeding any traffic, but my car was not happy!  I was in line for a long time down there too.  You would think after 2am it wouldn't be busy, but you would be wrong! lol  I only got a small cheeseburger and an order of hush puppies.  They have some awesome hush puppies.  I felt silly going for food at that time of the morning, but you do what you have to do. LOL

I finished my French lesson and did today's NaNo before posting this.  I only have a few of my characters profiles to do.  I need to go back and add some things to some of the ones I've done.  I want to have a list of who has what animal.  I remembered to do it for a few characters, but forgot on the rest.  

Yes, I finished that crazy puzzle today and it took a lot longer than I was expecting. lol That last part of all the purple flowers was killer.  I got it done though.  I am going to try an easier puzzle for my next choice. :p

I've already done my NaNo and my French for today.  I am going to do some organizing in Evernote once I post this.  I am creating more notebooks in there and collecting everything in Evernote. Yes, I'm still going to do a big Evernote post.  I love it.  One of my favorite things is the Evernote web clipper that you can add to your browser.  (I have mine on Chrome) If I see something I want to save for later, I just use the web clipper and it saves it to Evernote. It's so handy!

I went to the grocery store tonight to get a few things that I needed.  I had coupons from prior purchases and 'shop and earn' coupons.  I got a lot of stuff for not a lot of money.  That is always good.  The only bad thing was when I came out and tried to start my car. Guess what wouldn't start?  I had purchased cold stuff, so I did not want anything to go bad.  I got out and tried the jump box my friend lent me.  It worked well and I was able to get it started. Yay!  I came right home and put my stuff away.  I was happy that it worked so well. It was easy to do, too!  

So, I started a new puzzle today.  Since the last puzzle I did had a lot of flowers in it and it wasn't too bad, I figured this one would be either. WRONG! lol . This one has a lot of the same flowers throughout the puzzle.  It's going to be a challenge.  I got the sky and mountains part done pretty easily, though.  I will work on it again tomorrow.  I had a lot of things I needed to do so I got that top part done and then set it aside.  

I still need to do some for NaNo, and I need to get my bed linen back on the bed.  I already washed my hair and did all my other things for today.  I'm getting close to finishing the book I'm reading. It's really good.  I've been checking all the emails I get daily for free/cheap ebooks and found five or so ... well, some from those and two from being an Amazon Prime member.  I found one zombie book that was offereing the third book.  I clicked on it to look and saw that book two was free too.  I looked for book one and found that I had downloaded it to my Kindle sometime ago.  I don't remember reading it, so I'll check it out.  I went ahead and 'bought' books two and three.  I love free ebooks. I find new authors this way and it's fun!

I am still loving Evernote. I've been organizing it and adding stuff to it.  I found a YouTube channel last night where a guy does Evernote tutorials.  I found out tonight that he has a whole bunch of videos on Evernote.  I just added one to my Watch list and I subscribed to his channel last night. 

I plan to use Evernote for my French learning too!  It's just so darn useful. I will be doing an entire Evernote post soon.  Look for it! For now, enjoy the little bit of puzzle that I got done. ^_^

I just finished my pages for NaNo and my French lesson.  I finished that crazy puzzle today too. It was ridiculously hard.  Why? Most of the pieces were shaped exactly alike and it was hard to put everything where it was supposed to go.  I finally got it done.  Thank goodness! lol   It's late and I have a few more things to do tonight, so I'll leave you with this:

It has been one of those weeks!  I got up today and I was so tired.  I didn't get to sleep last night until way later than my bedtime.  I just didn't have the pep to get up and go for my walk.  I stayed in and relaxed and might even have taken a nap. :P

This afternoon, I thought about going to the trail to walk.  There was a children's festival down there today until 4pm and I didn't want any part of that!  I waited until almost 6 and went down there.  I walked on the trail on the part that is open.  It was covered in dirt from the last big rain we've had. Luckily, none of that part was blocked.  I didn't go to look to see if they had put a bridge back up. I figured they haven't done that yet.  I wish they would! I prefer the walk in that direction.

I got through walking and headed home to relax a bit before dinner.  I was too tired and hot when i got home to think about cooking, so I sat and relaxed a bit before fixing something.  I did that and then sat down to get my blog post in.  I haven't done my French lesson and i plan to do that after I post this.  I didn't start on a puzzle today as it was so late when I got back from my walk.  I'll start one tomorrow!  I finished listening to Cell on today's walk and went to the library and borrowed The Mist to listen to starting tomorrow.  The library has a very limited number of Stephen King audiobooks and they are all usually checked out.  I was glad to be able to grab The Mist.  I own Cell. It was the book I got when I did a free trial of audible.  I really should do the audible thing again as much as I love to listen to books on my walks!

Here are a few pictures I took on the trail this evening;

I got up today and took my walk.  I came so close to skipping it and staying in bed.  I prevented myself from backing out and staying home by taking my bed linen off the bed and throwing it in the washer.  That way, my bed wouldn't be much fun to get back into.  

It was nice to get back to it.  I wanted to go to the post office, but I figured since it was my first day back to walking in almost a week, I should just skip that part. I did run into Dollar General on the way back and picked up a few things I needed.  

I came home and was happy to relax!  I played some bingo on the iPad.  I washed my hair and my bed linen.  I just need to put the bed linen back on the bed.  I've already done my French lesson, too.  I finished my current read last night and I'm starting a new one tonight. 

I hope to get to the post office tomorrow.  I really need to go.  I have some things that I need to pick up that I know are there.  I have informed delivery at my post office box and at home!  It keeps me from going when I don't have anything in my box. :)  

Oh boy is it snowing here.  When I went to bed last night, it hadn’t started.  I was thinking it wasn’t going to be that big of a deal. I was wrong. LOL!  It is crazy out there.  Here is a picture I took on my iPad.  The camera on it isn’t as good as on my phone, but it’s not too bad.  I have pictures on my phone, too, but I’m typing this up on the iPad. Here is a picture of the backyard.

It’s pretty deep out there and it’s still steadily snowing!  I am watching it from my bedroom window as I type this. So pretty.  I love snow so much.  I may go out in the yard later and see how that is. I might not though. It’s so deep, I might get lost. :p

I just finished my second cup of coffee for the day and I’m ready for another. :)
 

I just hit 6538 at a word count!  Day three of NaNo and I'm already at 6500! Go me.  I actually could have written more tonight, but I have been gone and busy for most of the day so I have a few things I need to do before bed.  I figured where I stopped was a great place to stop for tonight.  I did that and then updated my count.  I got the email that I'd hit 5000 word badge. Yay!

I walked today and it was good to get back to it.  As I was coming back into my neighborhood, my friend pulled over and said, "Hop in, we are going to Starbucks!"   I told them I needed to go home first.  They told me to hop in and they'd carry me.  I said, nope, I'm going to finish my walk! LOL! I did and was able to use the bathroom and grab my purse.  I didn't really want to go to Starbucks right then, but I'm ALWAYS asking them to go so it would be hilarious if I said, nope! :P

We went and I got another caramel brulee.  So good!  My friend tried one too.  She said she liked it and then she didn't like it!  Sheesh!  Oh well, hers was a Venti and mine was a tall.  They were both holiday cups, so I got her to give me hers after she drank it. :p . I went to her house to see all her animals.  I had to love on Cocoa and I even got to see my favorite cat, the demon kitty! <3 . My friend I went to eat lunch together as we don't get to go do stuff together much.  She works until 6:30 on most days. When she has a day off, she is usually busy running errands for her mom, so today we were able to just go out and enjoy lunch.  We ate at one of the local Mexican restaurants.  It's one of my favorites.  I haven't been in ages.  My other friend, the one I go out and eat with all the time, doesn't like Mexican, Chinese, or other good ethnic food, so I was glad to go!  

I finally got home and then relaxed for a little bit.  Being around people stresses me out.  I got myself together and then wrote myself a list and went to the grocery store.  I got a lot of goodies, but not nearly as much as I wanted to.  My favorite frozen dinners were on sale.  Two for five dollars and if you buy two, you get one free.  So technically three for five.  I was planning on getting a LOT of them.  They had a total of three. ~_~; I got those though!  I also got creamer and then remembered I hadn't gotten coffee.  That wouldn't do!  The store went through a remodel a few months back and I still don't know where anything is. lol I totally missed the coffee on my first trip through.  It used to be on the very first aisle!  So, I got groceries, I brought them home and put them away.  I did a few things I needed to do.  I washed a ton of dishes and then ate some supper.  After that, I sat down to write.  I got over 2000 words written tonight so I was happy about that.  I just have my French to do online and then I will get off of here and get the other things done that need doing. ^_^

So, it was almost sometime around 4 am last night when I finally got to bed.  I was not feeling it today at all!  I got up at my regular time and did my regular routine though.  It's ridiculously hot.  We had a few days where it wasn't too bad and I was thinking, good, fall weather is coming.  Nope, it's still full summer here. UGH!  I hate to come home soaked to the skin with sweat.  It's gross.  

I took a rest and cooled off after I got home and then did my workouts.  I was working on my French when my friend texted and said we were going to eat.  I figured I could do my French later. :P . We at at a local Italian restaurant that we really like.  It's great food and it's not expensive.  We usually share a pizza.  My half is alway pepperoni. YUM!  After that, we swung by his house.  He had some frozen sandwiches to give me and he ordered a key for my treadmill and it came today.  He also had a houseplant on his porch! 

His stepdad died a week or so ago and his place of work sent a plant.  He let me take it home. Yay!  It's got Pothos, Peace Lily and three other plants in it.  It's very pretty.  I just have to find the perfect spot to put it in.  He came in with me to make sure the treadmill worked.  It did! Yay! I only got on it for a few minutes for a test run.  I don't have any fans in there yet and it was stifling hot in there.  I hope to get some fans next month on end of the season sales!  I really need some anyway.  It would be nice to have some for other parts of the house so I'm not dying in them.

I hope it's is a little cooler tomorrow for my walk.  It's just brutal out there.  It makes me want to just stay home in my air conditioned room and never leave!

And I thought yesterday was bad.  Today was worse.  It was just way too hot out there.  It was in the 90's and the humidity was high.  It was not a good day to walk, but I did it.  I was extremely happy to get home!  I had to take off my clothes and completely change.  Everything I had on was soaked through.  So gross. :p

I relaxed and cooled off until time to do my workouts.  I did those and my French.  I was going to get my squat done, but I got distracted and didn't. I'll do them later.  Today's won't be so bad.  I finished the book I was reading last night.  It was pretty good.  Now I have to decide what to read next.  Either true crime or something else.  Who knows? I don't. :p        

At this point, I'm not sure if I'm going back out today or not.  I need to go get a case of water, but I may wait until tomorrow.  I need to check a few places that are close to see if there is any on sale.  I'm so broke that I need the cheapest price I can find.  I am also out of stamps, but I don't have the money to get any of those. :(  Phooey! I meant to get a book at the beginning of the month and then didn't.  Maybe I'll get lucky and find a ten dollar bill on tomorrow's walk! lol