What the Junk?!

Yes, I know I didn't post yesterday. I actually was going to last night but then I didn't feel like typing up a post, copying it for my mirror blog, and doing all that so I just skipped the entire ordeal! :P

Today, I did typical Sunday things. I also decided to download an FTP program for my Mac to log onto the files on my website. I haven't logged into the FTP in a while and it's throwing up error messages. I'm not sure what is going on. I will look into it further tomorrow. It's too late to get involved in that. It's already taken up too much of my time this evening. I was able to get in on my web host's site, but that is a lot more clunky and I prefer an FTP client. Oh well, tomorrow! It's probably a simple fix that I'm just too tired to do at the moment!

Guess who forgot to take pictures today? Me!  It totally slipped my mind. Sorry about that. My friend had a package coming today and he had it sent to my house in case it came on a workday. Of course, it was delivered today when he would have been home. It had to sign for tool ~_~; I was not amused on that part. I prefer to get my packages after they have been dropped off! 

My drive cable came today and I installed I and I now have the 13" MacBook Pro back working with the internal drive. Yay!  That was great.  It wasn't too difficult to get it done.  I'll work on it more tomorrow (Getting all the files on it, and stuff) I'll be using the 15" for most everything, but it will be great to have that backup in case anything happens.  Removing and installing the new cable wasn't too bad.  I have everything disassembled and ready to go when it got here.  I had watched a YouTube video with step-by-step instructions and played it while was doing it so I didn't forget anything. It's nice to know I know have both MBPs working with internal drives!

I didn't sleep well at all last night, so I'm hoping to crash hard tonight.  I did get a good deal of writing done and I'm happy about that. I also got notification from the library that my hold for the new Stephen King book was ready to download. YAY!  I had the Kindle book sent to my Kindle and I plan to start on that tonight. I may wait until tomorrow because I know with his books, I sometimes can't put them down! 

I actually know it's Thursday this week!  I got the hard drive returned today with my data.  They said they would put it on a drive the size of my data recovered.  I figured they would send a 1 GB drive as the stuff on it was a little less than that.  They send me a 4 GB drive with my files!  That was more than generous and I was extremely happy!  I finally cloned the drive my friend lent me and erased it to return it to him tomorrow.

As for tomorrow, we are doing a thrifting trip.  He sometimes gets off at noon on Friday and we are hoping he will tomorrow so we can do a few different places.  I'd love to make it to the Salvation Army since they were closed yesterday.  I'm also hoping to find some DS games and other goodies!  I wrote tonight and it was an emotional scene, so I only wrote a little over 1000 words. I'll probably edit it tomorrow and then write more. It was pretty good! 

I remembered that today I had an offer from Starbucks that if you did order ahead, you would get a free drink loaded onto your card for a future purchase. It was for a Grande or Venti.  Guess what my dumb ass bought? Tall. ~_~; I realized my mistake when I got home.  Oh well.  I tried another new drink.  This was the Oatmilk honey latte.  I don't think I like it.  It wasn't horrible by any means, it just isn't something I would enjoy.  It's weird though, the more I drank it, the better it got? It was weird.  I don't know. I am desperately trying to find something to fill the void left by my cascara syrup being discontinued!

I hope to do a post tomorrow night about thrifting, but I might be too tired if we go to a bunch of places. I'll try to check in any way even if I have to do a write up of all the goodies I get on Saturday.  I am planning on staying home the entire weekend, so I can get writing, chores, and other things done!

My internal hard drive came today.  I unpacked it and opened the Macbook Pro and pulled out the old drive.  Then, I found that I had to get the screws from the sides of the drive to put in the new one to securely mount it.  I, of course, didn't have the right screwdriver!  I looked online and Lowe's had one that was a multi head one and it was only $10 so I left the computer and ran over there and got it. Easy peasy getting those little screws out then and I have a tool for future use!

I get the new drive in and turn on the computer to do the disk copy.  Well, disk utility is being snarky. I look up information and see it's a glitch with Disk utility in Catalina that causes this and to go get a clone software.  Oh no! I thought, more money.  I found Carbon Copy Clone and it has a free trial. It's a fully functioning trial, In other words, you can do everything as if it's the full version. YES! Thank you, CCC!  If I ever need you again I'll be happy to purchase the full version.  I'm currently in the process of copying the external to the new internal and I'm hoping that goes well. It took some doing to even get everything to start but it seems to be rolling along now.

While I that is running in the background, my mail lady came. (The hard drive came via UPS) My new tags for my car came! YAY!!!!!!!!  I went out to put the back one on and I was NOT going to put the new tag in the damn front window so I got some tools and sat down and worked on getting the tag holder on the front. I had to go slowly and work diligently so that I didn't mess up my bumper.  I also had to bring something outside to sit on because the ground is still wet and pretty saturated from all the rains.  I got the little holder on and then I went and found (after a search)  the screws to attach the plate to the holder.  I had put them in the little compartment in the new car in a Ziploc but of course, I had forgotten ALL about that.  I finally remembered and put my tag on.  I now have a car with front and back tags.  I'm so proud of myself.  My friend kept saying he was going to do it but it's been since July, so... 

I went out earlier before I knew I needed a screwdriver.  I knew via informed delivery that my new tags were coming today and I wanted to take my car over to Starbucks one more time with the STARBUX tags.  I got a Peppermint white mocha (delicious) and I took a picture of the car with the tags and Starbucks in the background.  I'm silly, I know but I don't care!

Of course with all the stuff I've been doing, I haven't written for NaNoWriMo yet.  I guess I'll be writing later this evening.  That isn't a problem at all.  I really want to work on my other story too, but NaNo work comes first!  The video I watched to make sure I was removing and installing the drive correctly gave links to the things he used.  He has a little 'case' to put the internal drive in to make it run like an external. I ordered one hoping I can access the drive.  I don't think I will be able to, but you never know! I'm hoping.  

Here are the pictures I took at Starbucks. :)

If you are wondering what the little blob is in the first picture on the upper right, it's LSP from Adventure Time! Oh, My Glob! lol

I know I have mentioned before that I live in a river city.  Well, yesterday and today we had some really heavy rains.  The river is projected to be well above flood stage.  I rode down to look at it today and it was crazy high and it hasn't even gotten as high as it's supposed to yet.  That current was crazy strong, too!  I meant to get pictures.  Maybe I can get some tomorrow. Tomorrow is also the day my hard drive is supposed to arrive.  I will hopefully be installing it tomorrow.  That is going to be interesting! I pulled up a few videos on YouTube. (installing it and cloning the drive to have it be the boot drive) and I saved them to my watch later list so I can have those play on the television.  It's not like I can watch them on the MBP while I'm working on it!  It's going to be interesting to do this tomorrow, but I think I can do it.  It was no trouble getting into the case when I maxed out the RAM.  I think I'll be okay. I just hope everything goes well and I have a good internal drive and then I'll do a complete backup on the external!

Yes, I think my poor hard drive finally kicked the bucket. I cannot get it to mount to get any more files off of it :(  I am sad, but I did get my information from my old Macbook on here today.  The only thing that I might be missing is the pictures I have put on the MBP since I got it.  Since those are all on SD cards from my current and former phones, I think I have 98% of my stuff back.  I even was able to get the pictures off my camera because I don't delete them when I get them off. (Just for that reason!)  

I ordered a new hard drive to put in the MBP and it is coming on Friday. I hope to be able to install that, clone the external to it and be able to run my computer from the internal.  Then I'll start a weekly backup in Time machine on the external!  I am not going through all of this again. It took most of the day to get all my stuff transferred.  I got my iPod touch and my iPad mini backed up too.  I had backups on the old drive.  I was able to rip all the songs from my old classic iPod so I have all my music, too.  I'm happy to have everything almost back to normal. I even got 2000 words for NaNo!

I am going to give the internal drive another go after I take it out.  I'm not getting rid of it in any case!  I might be able to attach it as a 'flash drive' and get my files.  That would be awesome!  I'm happy with what I was able to accomplish so far.  I feel everything is back to normal!  One thing though, I was trying to send photos to the MBP via Bluetooth and it wasn't working. I could send files FROM the MBP to the Pixel phone but not the other way! I was able to use my wireless keyboard, my Bluetooth speaker, etc.  I found out that I hadn't given permission in the settings. D'oh!  They are given and I was back in business! Yay!

I went out today to find a Munzee in Ballou park that I somehow missed all this time!  I found it and while I was there, I took a picture of these two cute little trees in their autumn glory. (click on them to see them full size)

I thought they were just so cute.  I was able to finish up this weekly mission of the Zeeops and found out that there is yet another week! Hopefully I can complete that too.  It's fun and I'm getting more points and badges and things in Munzee.  Lots of fun for me and it was a perfect day for it. Sunny and just plain nice out there.

Sorry for not p0sting yesterday.  I meant to and then it got late and I never did. My friend and I rode to a few places to look at cars and we were able to go to the Goodwill in Martinsville.  We haven't been in there since before COVID, so that was nice.  I found a Dunkin Donuts mug.  As you know, I'm a Starbucks girl to the core, but this was a nice mug.  It was from 2013 and it still had the sticker on the bottom!  It is in excellent/new condition and it was a whole twenty cents!  I also found a Keurig metal rack that fits washi! Of course I have containers for my washi, so I'll eventually use this for something else.

I went out to replace some of my Munzees today that needed maintenance.  I replaced two, I archived three (these are in hard to get to locations and I figured it wouldn't be any need to replace them. I only have on more I need to replace now.  It's at a picnic shelter in Dan Daniel's park. I went there today but there were people at the shelter, so I didn't bother them.  I drove to Angler's park and replaced that one.  That was the one that was the furthest away and I figured it would be a while before I got to it.  Nope, it was fixed today!  The other one was never the River on the other side and I replaced that one too and deployed a new one nearby.

I also got one virtual Munzee at another park in the city.  I hadn't been to that park in a long time.  It has changed quite a bit. I didn't get out there, I just captured it in the car. :p. 

I took some pictures down where I fixed one of my Munzees. It is near a dock where a bridge used to stand.  I loved that bridge and still miss it!   They have a plaque and an arch near the street and you can walk down to the dock.  

This last one is from the path near the dock. You can see the arch in the picture at the top of the steps.  (there are two sets of steps)

I received a new traveler's notebook in the mail today. :P. This one is bigger than a passport size.  It will hold small Moleskine cahiers and Field Note notebooks.  I made mine into a Munzee kit!  I can use it as that and if I want to change it up, carry it as a smaller tn in the future! I like the way I set it up.  I want to get another pocket type insert.  The one I'm using cam in another thing I got and I saved it. It fits perfectly in this little TN and I can store Munzees in there.  All the extras I have in an old Altoid tin.  I can add more to the TN as needed.  Neat, yes?

Of course, I had to give it a test run!  First I drove to a place where there was a virtual Munzee and captured it, then I rode to Ballou park and drove around trying to decide where to deploy a couple of Munzees.  I have deployed several in the park.  You can deploy one within 50 feet of someone else's and at least 150 feet from your own. (Or the other way around, I forget! LOL!) Anyway!  I was able to deploy two and that was fun.  I took pictures of the TN while there since I was outside is beautiful natural light.  Here are the pictures:

This is the TN itself.  I put it in the bag my Foxy came in to carry it in my purse.  It's such a cute size!

The inside.  I have a Moleskine Evernote notebook in there.  I am using it to keep track k of the Munzees as I deploy them to keep a record. (I also have a tracker in my bujo)

The little plastic guy that I'm using for now to hold my Munzees.  I used washi tape to secure everything since it's easy to remove and re-stick.  The blue post it has a list of ones that I need to repair that I've deployed in the past.

I think this will be a neat system and I can easily toss this TN in another bag if I go out without my  purse.  I think I'm going to love it.  I found this TN on Amazon for a very good price. It comes in brown, black, and dark brown (what I have).  Very nice quality. It came with one notebook and an extra band. Highly recommended!

I have mentioned Munzee in the past, I'm sure.  I have a link in the sidebar to my personal Munzee account.  Munzee is like geocaching for nerds. It's fun and I have been doing it for many years now.  I recently ordered a 'starter kit' and a personal Munzee.  The personal Munzee came today, hopefully, the stickers (the starter kit) will come tomorrow. I thought they'd ship them together.  In any case, I have my personal Munzee I can carry with me.  I also recently printed up a stack of cards to leave places to get people to play.   Here is my personal Munzee. I am going to mod podge the tag code on it and then cover it with clear tape to preserve it because I'm probably going to add it to my keychain.  The mod podge and tape will help keep the tag from wearing off.

As usual, my silly butt forgot to take a picture in natural light, but there you go.  That is the front and back.  It acts as an actual Munzee too!  I think that is neat.  I hope the stickers come tomorrow.  There is one of the big Munzee stickers in it.  It is one of those that I saw the first time that got me to explore what Munzee is, so I am glad to have one to deploy!  I've mainly deployed Munzees in my own city, but I have several at Myrtle Beach, too!  I meant to deploy some on the last trip and never did. I definitely will in September.  I want to be more active in the game.

So, I figured out iMovie a bit.  I got the video done with a title card and a closing card.  Great right?  Wrong! I can't get it to upload to YouTube for some reason.  I'm saving a copy of it to my desktop so I hopefully will be able to try that one.  I tried to upload straight from the app, but it's not working for me for some reason.  I found some pdfs of help guides to iMovie last night and downloaded them to read and learn more about the program.  I am not sure at this point when I'll get my video up. lol . I did the 'share to Youtube' thing and I also set it to save a copy of my desktop.  So far, I haven't seen either!  I sent one to YouTube last night as a test. It said it was there, but it never showed up for me.  Weird.  I obviously don't know what the hell I'm doing. :P Hopefully I'll get it sorted out.  If by some weird chance, my video DOES upload to YouTube tonight, I'll come back and post a quick post to link to it.  Wish my luck. I'm going to need it.  Geekgirl indeed! lol

At least I'm pretty sure that is what is going on.  I am in the middle of a huge update for my phone.  I heard that my phone would get Pie during January.  I didn't know it would be the last day of the month before the update would be available.  This has to be the Pie update because the download was huge and it it taking forever!  Okay, it's done. It's Pie.  Everything looks so weird.  I'll have to get used to it, I think.  It's doing the last minute stuff.  When it's completely done, I'll play with it.  

Yes, it finally came and I love it to pieces.  I filmed myself opening the box just in case there was any issues or problmes.  There were none!  I got it turned on and it was already 'setup' with a admin user.  I wanted my own stuff, so I looked at how to do that.  Just go into the command line in the startup.  Since I've used Linux, command line is not a problem!  I got it set up for me and and it's so cool!  I have all the programs on it that I wanted to move over.  The only thing left is PhotoShop Elements and it's installing now.  I'm very happy with this MBP!  It's super fast and all the things that were so slow on my Macbook are not on here.  It's so nice!

So, I did walk today.  The laptop hadn't gotten here before I left, so I decided I should go ahead and walk.  I knew if I didn't walk and it didn't come during the time I could have walked, I would have been so upset!  I walked and was cooling down with a snack on my bed and listening for the FedEx man! lol I didn't hear him, but I got a notification on my phone from an app called Slice that said it had been delivered! I jumped up from the bed and ran to the porch. lol . It was sitting there waiting for me.  I finished my snack and then unboxed it.  Hearing that Mac startup sound was music to my ears.  It's so nice.  I'm in love.

My friend knew it was coming today, but he wanted to go eat.  He said if I could pull myself away from it long enough to eat we'd go. LOL . I told him I could and I did!  I also got him to run me by Food Lion.  Today was the last day of the sale, and I wanted to get some more of my favorite frozen dinners.  They had them for $2.50 and if you buy 5, they take $1 off each.  So I got 10 for fifteen dollars. SCORE!!!!!!  They are so good, they remind me of a restaurant quality pasta dish. 

So, he dropped me home and I came right back to the MBP and started installing PSE.  I am going to write letters tonight or tomorrow.  I finally got some stamps today. YAY!  I have so many letters.  I never meant to get this far behind.  Shame on me!

I went on Amazon and looked at different bands for the Fitbit Charge 2.  I wanted some different colors, especially a blue color.  Well, I found a cool set of them that has 12 bands.  It has black, purple, pink, blue, lime, and more.  There are several different blue colors, two pinks, a red, a grey, a white.  They look pretty cool. They were less than $20 for the entire set.  I wanted to do the $25 order with free shipping, so I went to my wish list and tossed in some washi that was on my wish list.  It's the Molshine brand and they make great washi.  I will get all this for $15, because I have a ten dollar gift card. Yay!

My MBP is now in Kentucky.  It still says estimated delivery on Tuesday.  I hope it gets here before, but at this point, I'm just happy to know it's really on the way!  I also ordered a Fossil wallet on ebay last week.  It's used, but it still looks nice and it was really cheap.  I got it for less than 12 shipped!  The outside is rosy pink and the inside is colorful.  It's pretty.  I'll probably post it when I get it. :p  

I walked today and it was so much cooler than it has been and it was amazing.  It was overcast for part of my walk, but sunny for the rest.  It was so nice to walk when I wasn't dying. lol  I didn't even sweat too much.  I wish it could be like this everyday I walk.  Oh well, I'm sure it will get back to normal soon!  I came home and relaxed a bit before doing my workouts.  I did those and my French and then rested a while before having lunch.  I was hoping to get to the post office today.  My friend had said he'd come and try to fix my brakes today, but he didn't.  My other friend 'was busy' so she couldn't carry me to the post office.

Speaking of the post office, I'm SO behind on writing letters. I'm going to have to sit down tomorrow and write letters until my hand falls off. LOL  I'm so behind.   I wanted to go to the post office and get every letter there and then get all my letters caugh up at the same time.  Maybe I'll get there tomorrow.

Here is the picture of the bands:

So, I'm still frustrated about the Fitbit situation.  Then, tonight, I went to do something on the Macbook and Chrome said it wouldn't be updating anymore unless I updated the Mac to a later version of OS X.  Well, when I had that issued the other year, I didn't fully upgrade to where I was before.  I just finished upgrading and then I had to re-download and re-install Chrome just so I could post this!  :P

I am talking to Fitbit support about the Fitbit issues.  I'm working on the Macbook more after posting this.  I want to see if there is anything else that needs updating while I'm at it.  It took almost two hours just to do the first update. Sheesh!