What the Junk?!

I'm up a bit late, but I didn't sleep well again, so there you go. I went out to take a few pictures. As you can see it's sunny and beautiful again today!  Hot and lovely.  I'm not sure what we are doing today. I'd love to just stay here and relax.; I can go out on the balcony after it gets shady out there and spent the day. We have plenty of food.  I have sandwich stuff and leftover pizza.  Here are the pictures I took to share. I'll post again later today. Either this afternoon or this evening, Possibly both! :P

I started this post before noon, but I was having issues with the pictures uploading to my Mac, so it's a bit later, lol

I'm sitting on the floor on the balcony with my laptop, mini, and phone. It's nice out here and finally shady enough for me to be out here! lol On the balcony, the ocean is very sunny and nice. I'm enjoying the breezes. I took a couple of pictures with the Mini to share. Enjoy until my next post. :)

Going to head out in a few. It's brightened up some outside.  I took a few pictures to share but they are not being received to my MacBook so it may be a bit later when you see them. :P I'll post now and put the photos up later separately. And just like that, they start sending!

I am at home, I haven't left for the beach yet.  I woke up a bit ago and I got up to use the bathroom and grabbed a few last-minute things. I thought I would make my coffee and have it ready to drink when I planned to get up (7:20) because it will still be hot in my tumbler for several hours.  Then, I realized a few things I didn't pack.  After that, I knew it was useless to try to sleep anymore so I grabbed my 13" MBP, and here I am! I thought I could start the day with a quick blog post.  See you later on from Myrtle Beach. If I thought my friend was up and ready, I'd dress and go! :p

Finally, we are heading to Myrtle Beach tomorrow! :D  I just finished packing! LOL, I am usually done way before this. I have my things all ready. I only have to put a few things from the kitchen in a bag (coffee, creamer, etc.) I'm ready to leave now! :p  I wrote a bunch today and yesterday and I plan to write some more before putting my laptop in the bag to carry it. I always put my laptop in my suitcase with the electronics, but this laptop is too big so I'm going to use the laptop backpack that I bought at Office Max.  I think I got everything I need for the trip ready to go. I still can't decide on which bag to carry. I want to carry one of my cute little Fossil bags but I want to make sure it's the right size.  I don't like carrying my regular bag with me to the beach.  I usually pick one big enough for my trip journal to fit, but I am thinking if we are going into a restaurant, I can just carry it in with me.  I wouldn't carry it in a store.  The little Fossil bag I got last summer is so cute and I've not been able to use it because it was smaller than I thought it would be. I think I'll probably use that and just carry the trip journal.  Ah, I wish we could go tonight! I'm ready. I wasn't this morning, but nows that everything is packed, It's a go! I will try to post several times a day from the beach as I usually do.  The room we have is a two-room, room.  In other words, there is a bed, desk, dresser, tv, closet, and SINK! in the first part, then a kitchen and bathroom in the middle, and a two-bed bedroom with all the things in the first room (except the sink) and a table and chairs.  I can set my MacBook up at the desk.  I will try to do at least two posts a day and possibly three.  I will be sharing beach pictures and I'll try to take pictures of some other interesting things as I go. I'll also be posted to Insta. :) I have not used any money on my Starbucks card all month and I have several freebies so I'm set on that too.  I just finished the kitchen stuff, I've laid out my clothes, I just need to load this laptop in it's bag and load my friend's car.  No Goontz this trip. I drove him for a bit tonight so he wouldn't feel left out. :p

I meant to mention this last night, but I was fighting time to get a good post out so I made a note to myself to mention it tonight.  Last night, when I got home, my computer was being extremely slow. When this happens, I give it a reboot.   I did and it did the startup bong sound but the display was black.  I was freaking out. I listened and I could hear the drive working.  I kept waiting for the display to show up or the keyboard to light up but nothing.  I rebooted a few times and the same thing so I went looking for help on my phone.  Someone said they had this problem and they shone a flashlight through the apple on the back of their mac and they could see the screen loading and when it got to the password screen, they put in their password and the display came up.  Well, I tried this.  I could see the computer was booting. All I could see was the Apple logo that shows on the screen.  I watched and hoped. Before I could get to the login, something must have kicked in and my screen came back.  That was the weirdest thing. I've used Macs since 2003 and I've never seen anything like this. I am truly happy that one guy had a similar thing happen. I would have never thought to sign a light through the Apple! I guess it's a good thing this is an older Mac. The newer ones from 2015 on (I think) don't have the light-up Apple.  My computer is working fine today and has worked well all day. I won't be rebooting again until I have an issue, so I don't know if this will happen again.  If it does, I know just to wait.  Phew. That was so scary! The weird stuff that happens to me! :p

Yes, I just hit 50,000 words for CampNaNo!  Yes, I plan to go on.   I actually wrote like crazy today and got over 4000 words!  I was on a roll.  I wrote earlier today. I wasn't going to leave the house today, so I had plenty of time to write. I could write more, but I'm going to give myself a break until tomorrow.  I didn't do a lot more than writing today.  It's been a slow day. I've been at my desk on the MBP since I ate breakfast.  I need to run out and turn off the water. I turned it on to wash off Goontz yesterday and forgot to turn it off. We are under a freeze warning tonight! I don't want my hose to break.

I took another picture of my 'new' Fossil bag. It's not a great shot, but it's much better than he one I took last night! Here it is:

I have plastic bags in it to give it shape while it's not being used. It's so supple and nice. I'll probably save it for fall/winter time.   I just checked the weather on my MBP and it's currently 48˚!   It is pretty chilly inside, too. I am going to have to put on a sweater or a hoodie in a bit. I already put away my heater for the year and I'm not getting it back out.  I could just be lazy and get on my pajamas and snuggle under the covers in my bed.  That sounds pretty nice, actually! I think I'm going to organize my Starbucks cards and then crash on my bed and relax.  I have the cards that aren't the regular size ones in two disk boxes.   I would like to have them sorted by year like I do the other ones.  Here are the two file boxes and the cards:

These work great! The little one is for the smaller ones that are on a single card, the bigger box is for the weird-sized ones. It works out well! They stay organized and dust-free, too! I just finished organizing them. They look better and they are all in order.   

All the thrift trips lately have made my bedroom look like a thrift shop!  I got to work today and got the room all cleaned and cleared.  I have everything put away neatly and I'm so happy. It looks so much better in here!  I put the little cabinet that I got yesterday next to my nightstand.  It fits in the spot well and I can organize a lot of things in it and on it! I love it.  I have all my thrift finds to put away except for that box of jewelry-making stuff. I did organize the beads and things in the containers. I just have to figure out where I'm going to store all of these things and I want to add the stuff I already had with it.  I just need to figure out where all that is going to go!  

I didn't do a lot else today.  That wore me out! lol I did write a bit portion for Camp today. I am now about 2000 words from 40,000 so I just revised my goal to 50,000.  I know I'll hit it easily. :). I was on a roll and I had to make myself stop writing as I was starting to get tired and my writing wasn't as good there at the end.  I stopped so I could pick up tomorrow when I'm fresh and write much better.  I'm actually typing this post up on the 13" MacBook Pro.  I have a place for it in the new little cabinet, so I can use it when I'm not at my desk. Very convenient. I am going to try to crash a little early tonight as I'm really tired.  I didn't sleep well last night and then I did all that cleaning. I'm hoping to sleep like a log tonight. :p

So, I thought my friend and I were not going to thrift today. He had the day off and didn't mention it so I was settled in at my desk ready to spend the day on my Mac and write and just enjoy my day.  He had texted me earlier this morning and didn't mention going, so I thought that was that. He texted around 2 this afternoon and mentioned going. I really wanted to just stay at home, but I agreed to go.  I dressed and went out and washed off Goontz.  It's pollen season and my Goontz had a layer of yellow/green pollen all over.  I got that done and then waited for my friend.  He came and we went to Reidsville. He ate at Bojangles and then went to the Salvation Army store.  I found a Sony clock radio for $2, a pack of Post-it note page flags, (Well two packs), and a package of pretty napkins. Don't judge me! lol  We went to the Goodwill and I only found one item. It's a Jack o lantern metal candle holder that originally came from Bath and Body Works. It was very cute and caught my eye so I got it.

We then went to the Goodwill in Walkertown NC. I found a little purple jack o lantern candle holder in there.  I also found a very nice little cabinet/stand. Here is a picture.  It still has the letter stickers from where it was assembled and the price sticker.  It was only $8 and I am not sure where I'm going to put it, but it's in excellent condition. The drawer works well and the shelf is adjustable.

It will be a nice addition to my house.  I just have to figure out where I'm going to use it!  We went to Mayodan after that and I only found two things.  A disk holder and a sleep mask.  The disk holder is a Fellows brand and it was for computer disks back in the day. It will be perfect to hold my specialty Starbucks cards.  I was going to search for one of these for that purpose and this one was there so I got it. It's in great shape, too! Speaking of Starbucks cards, several I ordered on eBay arrived today!  I was happy to get them. I only have one thing that I'm waiting on now and that is a Starbucks tumbler.  I saw it in-store when I went to the 'new' Starbucks in Greensboro and I knew I wanted it.  I decided to look on eBay. I knew I'd have to pay more for it, but I found one that was only a few dollars more with free shipping so that saves me trying to find it at the local Starbucks. :)

I forgot to mention that I found a Fossil purse at the Walkertown store but I had to pass it up as it was priced pretty high.  I was short on funds. My friend got the little cabinet for me. He would have gotten the purse too and let me pay him back for both, but I'm still doing monthly payments on the Docs! We went back to Reidsville before heading home and ate at Carmela's. 

So I was sitting at home on the laptop and my friend texted and asked if we were going to Reidsville today. I said sure if he wanted.  I got dressed and then went over to his house. He pulled up right after I did, so that was great timing.  We got on the road after he went in for a few and went to the Salvation Army store first.  I found a few things in there.  I found a removable purse organizer (can also be used for bullet journal organization), a clear zipper pouch for a binder, a puzzle,  a little Post-it note dispenser, and I think that was it.  My friend found a nice car phone holder and bought it for me.  We left there and went to Pete's to eat.  After Pete's, we went to the Goodwill. Wait, he ran by a music store first, and then we went to Goodwill.  At Goodwill, I found a Fossil bag, It's one of the Key.Per bags.  It still had its key and little 'charm' thingee, too! I also found a little wooden 'basket' with jack o lanterns on both ends, I got a mini lunchbox with snowmen on it, and a nice Kitchen Aid kettle. I've been meaning to buy a kettle and I saw this one and it's in great shape and the inside is very clean.  We left there and went back to Pete's and got ice cream before heading back to Danville.  We went to the two Goodwill stores here.  We went to the regular one and I only found one thing. It was a cute ceramic Jack o lantern.  We went to the other one.  Now, for this store, we went once several years ago and they were rude and really pissed me off and I haven't been back since. I decided to give them one more chance and we went tonight.  Luckily it was different people working and much nicer ones, too!  I got TWO Fossil bags!  I also found a CD, a little package of Jack O lantern bags/envelopes, and a little thing of notes that are shaped like A's, and the little container that holds them has A's on it too.  Very cute  It was a good thrift trip! I wasn't really expecting it. I thought he would want to skip it but he didn't.  I am glad he didn't. Three 'new' Fossil bags! :)  It seems like I am forgetting something but I can't remember what it is! I did write today. I actually got in a little over 2000 words! I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to do CampNaNoWriMo this year and if I do, what I'm going to do for it.  I don't have a lot of time left to figure it out!

I just remembered the other thing I got tonight. The GW I gave another chance to had clothes hangers 10 for $1 so I got one pack. I seem to always be out of hangers! So, that is it, the accounting of my day.  I am home and I'm going to get off this laptop as soon as I post this. I am going to relax a bit before bed and re-read what I wrote today.  I have two packages that I hope are coming tomorrow. One package has two DS games that I found on eBay and the other package is a set of styluses for it. The first order never came and the seller refunded me so I ordered another set on Amazon.  I know Ill get those!  The next thing I want to get for it is a replacement bottom screen and then a clear case for the outside but those can both wait.

So, my friend wanted to walk today. I did not! lol, I went anyway.  We went to the Riverwalk trail.  We didn't walk as far as we did last time, but we did get in a nice walk.  I only took one picture to share!

I like the colors in this.  No filters, that is just the way it looked.  I would have taken a few more pictures, but I wasn't feeling great as we were heading back.  I just did make it to my car! Sheesh.  After I dropped him off, I went and got food. I think that was the problem. I usually eat before we walk, but I didn't because I thought he was coming right from work and of course he didn't. ~_~; Oh well, I got something yummy and got a little extra goodie to heat up and eat later.  I went to Burger King and got a combo and saw that their cheesy tots are back. I LOVE those things so I got some and I have them for later. Well, minus one, I had to have one.  So delicious! Just as good as I remember them, too!

I did my French and wrote some before I went. I plan on writing more.  It's great that I got the 13" MBP going.  I was doing updates to the 15" last night and I knew it might take awhile, so I wrote on the 13" in a new Scrivener file and was able to copy it to my regular Scrivener file.  I did some editing on it earlier and then added it to it.  I have more to write tonight so I'm going to do that.  At least that is the plan!

I want to wish my favorite anime character of all time a very Happy Birthday today! I'll do a separate post for that after this one, but Happy Birthday Nuriko! ^_^.

I didn't take a single picture today. Sorry about that. I did wash a ridiculous amount of dishes, washed my hair, washed my bed linen, and put away the laundry I washed yesterday. The only thing left to do is to put the bed linen back on the bed and I'm done for today. The box of printer rolls came today. There are two rolls that have sticker paper that prints in blue ink, one roll of sticker paper with black ink, and three rolls with colorful borders. A purple one, an orange one, and a green one. I tested different rolls and I'm happy with them.  With the roll that came with it and these, I'll have plenty for a long time.  

What else did I do today?  Well, I watched YouTube videos, I wrote a little over 2000 words and re-installed Catalina on the 13" MBP.  I had it on there yesterday and then was going to clone the drive from the external to it but it went screwy.  I figured I would just do a clean install of Catalina on it and stick with that.  That way, I have a working Mac, and all my files are on my main one. I can use the other one if needed. It will be nice to have a  working, fast backup in case anything happens to this one.  I'll have backups made of this one and put them on my other external drive for safekeeping. This way, if I'm on the 13" MBP and I need a file, I can just plug the external HD in and grab it. Easy peasy!  I don't have the desktop and documents folder on this one synced to the cloud because I have so much stuff. I'm going to do the 13" one though so that anything I do on there, I can grab from iCloud on here. I have Evernote on both, so I'm set! :)

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! 

What a thrifting trip that was! We started in Reidsville and went to the Salvation Army store and Goodwill. I found an Apple-branded cover for my iPad mini in there. It's light blue and I love it.  At Salvation Army, I got some cards, a snowman pin, a wallet, a CD, a cheese grater, and two packs of those cute little animal cable protectors.  We went from there to Wentworth NC and ate at a place called Mom's Kitchen.  We were looking forward to it. It was not great.  It was just.... I don't want to be mean, but it wasn't good. We won't be going back there.  We went from there to the Mayodan Goodwill that we recently discovered and I found a few things there.  A small Keurig k-cup holder (It fits under the little brewer in my room! LOL), a case (that will fit an external HD), a set of Tetris magnets, and a cute little Halloween ceramic thingee with a ghost, a tree, and little jack o lanterns.  We went on to a 'new' Goodwill in Walkertown NC.  I found a Sak bag exactly like the one I wanted at Myrtle that I bought on eBay. This one is the same bag but instead of being black, it's teal. I absolutely LOVE it.  I got that, a bit metal jack o lantern, a S'well bottle with donut design, a purple zipper pouch, a box of Ticonderoga pencils, and a Homer Simpson shirt! I can't wear it, it's way too small, but I had to have it! Lol

We left there and were heading to the Goodwill in Eden but we ended up going right past the one in Mayodan. They are constantly putting stuff out there so we stopped back in. I found some stampers and a cute crab plush.  I love crabs! He is red is so cute!  We then went to the Goodwill in Eden and I found a DS game! They had quite a few, but there was one that I was pretty sure I'd love. It was Crafting Mama!  I always adored the Cooking Mama games so I got this. It was still in the original case, too. That was $4. I was so happy to finally see some DS games and one I actually wanted! I'll try it later as I haven't been home long and I've been working on my writing.  I'm too tired to do it justice tonight so I've just been editing.

After Eden, we headed to our last stop, Martinsville, VA, and to the Goodwill there.  We ate again in Eden at a drive-up place.  That was much better than our lunch!  At the Martinsville Goodwill, I didn't find anything!  That was okay because I had already spent plenty.  I love all my finds. I'm so happy that I found that purse! I adore the black one so much and this is the same purse only in a cooler color. This once still has the Sak dangle thingee on it, too!

The CD I found in the Salvation Army in Reidsville is from the Vince Guaraldi Trio. It's all the music from the 1965 A Charlie Brown Christmas special  I just happened to see it while I was in line and snatched it up!  I've already ripped it to my MacBook Pro so I can enjoy it on here and on my iPod. I love the music from it.  

I just looked up the cover I got for the iPad Mini. It sells new on the Apple store for $39.99! @_@; I got it for $4.99. SCORE!!!! lol  I am pretty sure this will also fit any iPad Mini so if I get a newer one, I should be able to use it with those too. :) It was a good thrifting trip. I'll try to remember to take pictures tomorrow.  I need to move everything off my bed so I can actually sleep in it tonight. Plus, I want to try Crafting Mama!

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!