What the Junk?!

Guess who got a new case for her phone today? Did you guess me? Well you guessed right! :p   I love the case I had, but it got ink stains on it and I cannot get them out. I was going to order another one just like the one I had, but I thought I'd look and see what else I found. I haven't looked up cases since I first got the phone. I found some with the movable sparkly stuff and it was my color!  It's a teal blue and clear and it's so pretty!  It was pretty inexpensive, so I ordered it and it came today.  I love getting Sunday deliveries from Amazon! :D 

So, it came today and I opened it and I fell in love. It's so pretty! I tried to take a good picture of it, but I had to use things other than my Pixel and it has the best camera.  I took about 49028493284902 pictures and came up with two that I'll share. lol Here we are:

Neither picture does it justice.  You get the idea, though, right? :p  I am glad I did get the white Pixel since the top part of the case is clear. It looks so nice with the blue at the bottom of the case. I am extra, so I went in and changed the keyboard in Swiftkey from a pink one to a blue one. :p I'm silly, I know, but it looks nice.  The first picture was taken with my iPod touch and the second one was with my camera.   Neither would be as good as if I could take it with my Pixel's camera.  It's hard to take a picture of your phone in a case with the case on! :P Maybe I'll do a bathroom selfie with it tomorrow! lol

I'm so tired. I could not sleep last night.  It was after 5am when I finally got to sleep and I woke up before 10 am.  I have been yawning and useless all day! lol. I haven't written for NaNo yet but I will write at least a few lines.  I have my word count and I'm almost done with the story, but there is more to go.  I'm just too tired to write much.  If I write tonight it's no telling what may come out! :p

My 'new' MacBook Pro is all set up now. I moved everything over and I got my music on here today.  I also went ahead and made backups of my iPods and my iPad Mini.  I opened all my Scrivener works and made sure to save them to the backup folder.  I don't want to lose those again!  I don't remember if I mentioned it last night, but while I was waiting for Catalina to install on the MBP, I put my yule tree up.  I got it up and put the lights on but left the ornaments for today.  I put those on today and they looked nice.  Sadly though, I am missing a small box of ornaments.  It's a little box with four glass ornaments that I got from Family Dollar several years back.  They were only a dollar, but I love those four ornaments.  I can't find them!  I am not sure where they are, I looked tonight but didn't find them.  I'm not giving up though. I know there are here somewhere!  I'll try to remember to show a picture of the tree tomorrow.  I DID remember to take a picture of the laptop in the daylight.  Here you go:

This is my desk where I sit to write.  It's a nice spot to work on my writing or whatever I'm doing.  It's nice being able to see better with this bigger laptop too.  When it arrived, the seller had put a hard case on it similar to the one I have on the 13" one.  I popped it off out of curiosity to see what condition the actual laptop was in.  My 13" was scratched and banged up pretty badly when I got it.  This guy is FLAWLESS.  The only minute scratches I see are on the bottom.  The top is mint.  It looks like it just came from Apple and it's 8 years old!  I'm glad whoever had it before me took good care of it.  My nice laptop bag is too small to fit it.  BUT!  Some time back, I saw one of those laptop sleeves at Goodwill. It was brand new and it was pretty big.  I bought it knowing it was too big for my 13" MBP but I figured I could use it for something. It fits my 15" MBP perfectly!  My messenger bag that I used to carry to Starbucks to write pen pal letters is big enough to hold it, too! I will probably get a laptop bag in the future, but this will work well for now. The sleeve is well padded and the messenger bag is sturdy and it will still have room for other stuff and the laptop.

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!

Sorry about last night.  I was doing things and had totally planned to make a blog post and then I realized how late it was.  I just decided to show the completed puzzle and call it good. :p   I didn't sleep well again last night.  I've been so tired all day, but I would not let myself take a nap.  I'm hoping it will help me sleep tonight.  We'll see!

I had to run to Dollar General to pick up a few things I needed, so I went to the one where I knew they had the puzzle I wanted.  I bought it.  I also bought some cute Halloween goodies.  Two pair of socks and a little jack o' lantern container.  They don't have a lot of their Halloween stuff out yet, but they do have some.  I'm hoping to get some jack o' lantern mugs! 

I saw something in Dollar General that I'd heard of but hadn't seen yet.  They have really cute planner supplies now!  It's a little display that has undated weekly pages and undated monthly pages. They also had dividers, clips, sticker strips, magnetic bookmarks and more. Everything was $1 each! So cool! It's for a small ring binder planner.  I have one of those that I bought many years ago. It's still in excellent condition. Now I can fill it cheaply.  The inserts are cheap, but they aren't cheap.  Does that even make sense? LOL . In other words, they are nice inserts, they are just inexpensive.  You can't beat $1 for supplies.  I purchased three packs of the weeklies, two packs of the monthlies, a pack of the clips, and a pack of the magnetic bookmarks.  I meant to get a divider and forgot.  

Oh, I have a story to share.  I have been playing a game on my iPod touch for many, many years. It's called Virtual Families and I love it.  When I got my iPad mini, I backed up the game on my iPod touch and transferred it over. I never deleted the game on my iPod, but I haven't played it on there.

So, last night, I go to open Virtual Families on my iPad and it has reset to the beginning. OH NO! This happened once many years ago and I just had to start over and I was not happy.  I contacted their support last night hoping they can get the game back.  I figured they probably could not.  Then, I remembered that the game was on my iPod touch. I went through a ton of programs before I could find one that would back up the game on the iPod and then transfer it to the iPad. It worked!  Of course it's not the same family I was on in the iPad version, but I had gotten most of the extras in the game already so I won't have to start over and start collecting all that again.  Thank goodness. I am never going to delete the copy of the file I put on my computer in case this happens again.

The game has trophies you earn throughout play. I have almost every one.  I also need to collect two more things and get their trophies and that will give me the rest and I'll have them all.  When my game reset the last time, I had everything but ONE thing to finish.  Ahhh!

Okay, before I go, here are the cute Halloween goodies I got!

Well, just a little. I have four different bingo apps on my iPad mini. lol . I started with Bingo Bash on my iPod touch a long time ago.  I found that they had the version for the iPad and I started playing it again.  I had also tried Bingo Blitz some time back because an in app thing in another app . (You download the app and play to a certain level and then get stuff in the other app.) . So, I played both of these on my iPad and liked them.  I wanted another to try since I played so much I ran out of the 'tokens' to play! lol 

I now  have Monopoly Bingo which is really fun.  I love Monopoly and I love bingo so it was a good choice.  I also have Bingo Win.  They are all pretty fun!  I will probably try a few more before it's all over.  Each app had it's good points and bad points.  I love the bigger screen for playing too.  When I played on the iPod touch, I could play four cards at a time, but I had to scroll.  On the iPad, I can see all four at once.  It's easier to play more cards at once.

I got my confirmation today that the replacement iPad Mini shipped! Let's hope this one is perfect and works and lasts for many, many years.  I am so ready to get it and set it up.  I think I've found a way to get my app to the new iPad.  I just have to have it with me to try it. I've been researching.  If I can get that one app over, I'll be a very happy camper!  I also found the way to see what apps I've ever downloaded.  I know there have been times when I got some free apps via Starbucks.  They used to give cards out in stores that you could get a free song or app. I wish they still did that. I got some great apps that way.  Some of them that I download, may have not been compatible with my iPod since the iOs on it is so old. I'm sure anything that I find that I want to use will be okay with the iPad because it will upgrade to iOS 12.  I know it will because I did that with the one I sent back.

I walked today and it was a bit cooler than yesterday.  There were no short sleeves today!  It was sunny for the most part though. It did cloud up a little, but it didn't rain, so that was fine.  I was glad to get home though as I was tired and a bit chilly.  It was after 4 am when I finally got to sleep last night and it's affected me all day.  This morning, I was trying to make coffee without putting coffee in the Keurig. LOL!  

This evening, I did my January habit tracker in my new bullet journal.  I also did the first week of 2019 in there.  I have printed out a calendar to trace and make the other side of my January habit tracker page.  I want to get it set up. I am ready to move into it now! LOL . I love it already.  

Todau, the sun was out on my walk and it was in the 60's! It was warm enough to walk with short sleeves on. Much nicer than yesterday for sure!

I came home and changed and then went to Family Dollar to get first of the month essentials, I then went to Food Lion and got groceries. I got a lot of goodies, loaded them up, and got back in my car. The car didn't want to start and did the same thing it did that night at Target. The time of the day it was, it was bad for me because my friends were all at work. A nice man pulled in near my car and I asked him if he had jumper cables. He did! He got my car going again. Thank you random stranger!

I got home and put away my groceries. I was in the process of that when my friend texted me and said he was bringing by a couple of hot dogs. I was happy since I wouldn't have to worry about fixing lunch. He brought me two chili hot dogs and a Mountain Dew. Yum! It was nice to sit and eat and just enjoy.

After eating, I paid all my bills and now I'm broke again! I had two extra bills this month. Personal property taxes and the rent on my post office box . Two extra bills did not help!  I still need gas in my car and I need to buy postage stamps. I am so behind on pen pal letters and I will be sending out some holiday cards this month. Luckily, I already have two new boxes of those, I only need the stamps!

My iPad was delivered back to the seller today. Hopefully they'll send the replacement out soon. I'm so ready to set it up and use it. I've been looking at things to add to it online and I found an article that might help me get that one last app over to the iPad! Yay! I hope so. That way, all my favorites will be on the iPad. The screen is such a difference with the iPod touch! Lol

So, I didn't really post yesterday.  I had a stressful day.  I found an iPad mini 3 for a really good price.  I didn't want a regular sized iPad as I feel they are too big.  The mini seemed to be the right size for me.  I ordered one and it came yesterday.  I had ordered a case for it and it arrived yesterday too.  I opened it up and got to setting it up right away.  The iPad was refurbished and it looked brand new.  I got the apps from my iPod touch transferred over to it.  I was able to get all but one of them on there and working.  I upgraded it to iOs 12 and was loving it.  Then, I noticed a red spot on the screen when it was dark.  I didn't like that, but as long as it wasn't visible, that was okay.  Well, then, the screen got tiny vertical lines across it and below those lines, the screen went all weird.  I looked up the problem and it seems that the LCD was bad. I was extremely disappointed as i had been so looking forward to this and using it.

I sent it back to the seller and then will send me a replacement when it gets to them.  I hope the new one is in nice of aesthetic shape and I hope it works well! It was so frustrating to get it all set up and upgraded just to have to reset it to factory and send it back!  That had been so upset and frustrated yesterday that I didn't feel like doing anything.  Hopefully it will get to them and my 'new' one will be on it's way to me soon.  I really want to use it.  If I could get that one last app transferred over, that would be amazing.  I backed up my iPod touch so I could use that app on the iPad but since it's no longer in the app store, it won't let me open it.  That is weird, because there are a few other apps that aren't in the store anymore and those opened and worked!  Perhaps I'll find a way in the interim.

Remember how I said the new Stephen King book would probably be ready for me soon?  Well, I downloaded it to the Kindle today and read it already. lol  It was good, but I'm still digesting it.  It was super short and didn't take me long at all.  I read in just a few hours.

Yes, I hit the half way mark with tonight's writing.  I was not looking forward to writing either.  I belong to a regional group at NaNo.  My area doesn't have any write ins within driving distance, so I was able to join NaNo Virginia elsewhere.  Last Monday there was a Facebook live event.  I was late to it because the reminders on my phone didn't alert me fast enough. I still participated.  Then, there was one tonight.  I got in on that one from the start and got writing.  We did three sprints.  One five minute, one fifteen minutes, and one thirty minutes.  I ended up with a few less than what I wrote today. I had to add a few more words as I was in the middle of a sentence when the sprint ended. :P . All in all, it brought my count to 25,000! Yay! Go me!

I had planned to walk todaqy but the weather had other ideas!  It was only 32˚ when I got up.  I noticed it was overcast.  Not bad I thought, that doesn't mean it's going to rain.  It rained.  LOL It rained a lot.  I decided to skip my walk since it was going to be both cold and wet out there.  I should have gotten on the treadmill, but I ended up being a lazy butt! :P

I wouldn't have left the house at all today, but I had to pick up my prescriptions.  They couldn't wait until tomorrow.  It was cold, and nasty out when I went to pick them up.  I do not like to drive in the rain at night.  It's hard for me to see at night in good weather, rainy weather makes it worse.  Bleah!  Oh well, I got my scripts and came home.  

I spent the day trying to get the iPod touch to load to the MBP.  It's done it plenty of times before. It's my old, old iPod touch and I use it for loading audiobooks to listen to on my walk.  It would not load.  I tried it with my old Macbook and it recognized it right away.  Weird. I was able to load something on it so I'll have that, but I need to get the MBP to recognize the iPod.  It worked fine just a few days ago.  Weird.   I reset the touch to factory and it still wouldn't work.  Luckily, I had backed it up in July on the Macbook so I was able to put sync it back to the way it was then.  The only thing is, I have Cell and it was on the old touch.  It didn't sync back to it and I can't find it.  I'll have to go and see if I can re-download it from Audible. I got it during a trial on Audible.  I just found it and was able to re-download it. Yay!

Yes, I think it is.  I haven't slept worth a damn lately and I've had a low grade migraine for days.  I need to get myself some sleep and some caffeine. :p . My iPod touch case came today.  I did have a case on my iPod touch, but it got a crack in it.  I used washi tape to hold it together until I could order a replacement.  The one I had I got on Amazon and was going to order another just like it.  They are not longer available, so I checked ebay since I had some cash in my Paypal account.  I found a cute one that is black and pink for $3 shipped.  It came today and it's nice.  I think the other one did well to hold up so long.  I had it for four years.  

So, it's Sunday and it's my regular day to do my bed linen.  I have that in the dryer now.  I'm pretty sure it's ready to go back on the bed, I just need to get it out and do that.  I got in a smaller walk today.  I didn't go as far as yesterday as I didn't want to be walking after dark again.  I could have actually stayed out longer, but oh well! Tomorrow, I plan to walk earlier in the day as I need to go by the bank.  I got a small check and I want to cash it.  It's a whole $3.42! LOL  Not too exciting, but  was totally  broke before this, so at least I can get a few things while I'm out.

I got in my workouts on time and then relaxed a bit before fixing lunch.  After that, I waited just a little bit and then went for my walk.  I played Pokemon Go for some of my walk.  I caught a new one and I also caught a Pikachu in a witch hat.  So cute! :) I was hoping to catch more new ones, but I was happy for what I got!  I will probably play tomorrow when I walk to the bank.

Oh yesterday's walk, I started listening to the audiobook of The Stand.  I tried to pick up where I left off yesterday, but it didn't want to play correctly.  It would be going along just fine, and then just skip way ahead in the recording.  Weird. I didn't want to have to mess with that while walking, so I just switched to Cell.  I have the Audible audiobook of it, and it's all one long recording.  It wanted to be bitchy too!  It started part of the way in the recording.  I finally got it to behave and listened to that on my walk.  Crazy iPod issues! :p

Well, as usual, it means I go to Starbucks!  This week's trip was cut a bit short though. :(  I got there a little earlier than usual.  I was able to get my favorite chair from the start.  I got my drink and sat down and started writing letters.  I got four done and was starting on number five when a friend called.  They wanted me to drop by and eat some leftovers so they could clean out the fridge.  I went, even though I wasn't ready to leave Starbucks yet.  I got there and they had cupcakes! @_@; I may have had one.... or two. ^^;  I ran an errand for them and I also picked up my prescriptions while I was out.

I did get in my walk today.  It was HOT.  I came home from my walk and did my workouts.  I ate lunch and relaxed for a few minutes before going to Starbucks.  I finished the letter that I started over there.  I have all the letters all ready to go out in tomorrow's mail.  As soon as I post this, I'm going to relax until bedtime.  I want to play SpellTower. :)  It's this addictive game that I got some time back as a free app of the week at Starbucks.  I've had it on my iPod ever since.  Today, I bought the Android version.  Now I'll have it on my phone too!  It's so fun and it's so addicting.  I love word games!