What the Junk?!

I'm not dead.

I haven't felt well for the last two days.  I felt like I had a slight cold or something the last few days. I feel better from that today, but I have a migraine. D'oh!  So, I don't feel like I have a cold anymore, but I'm constantly sick on my stomach because of the migraine.  I didn't start a puzzle yesterday or today!  Why?  Well, one reason was me feeling so bleah.  The other is my puzzles are running out and I am not sure when I'll be able to re-stock.  I have some 1000 piece ones and some old 500 or so ones, but I am trying to make them last.  Hopefully, I can get to the Dollar store next week.

My friend brought me some delicious food on his way home from work.  He got me a cheesesteak, fries, and a coke.  Lots of the local restaurants are doing takeout specials since they are all closed for dine-in.  It was a delicious lunch and I enjoyed it very much.  It was nice to not have to worry about fixing anything!

I hope I'm feeling a bit better tomorrow. If so, I'll run out to the post office, but that is the extent of my plans for going out tomorrow. I need to check my box and after I do, I hope to write letters.  I have two waiting for me unless any more came that didn't show up on informed delivery.

I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo! I declared my book/novella today. I am only going to put a 20,000 word count on this project, but I might go more.  I have a basic outline in my head and I've gotten pictures and information in Scrivener for tomorrow's start.

Friday!

I finished the puzzle today. I also wrote 7 pen pal letters and mailed them. I received two more in my box. Yay for more letters. I am glad to be caught up. I plan to write back soon to the ones that I got today. 

Yes, that is an extra piece to the side!

No puzzle today

Yes, I didn't start a puzzle today.  I meant to, but I was working on my Linux laptop longer than I planned.  Last night, I was going to see bout getting out my Linux laptop and putting Journey on it. It's the journal app I used on my Android phone, my MacBook Pro, and online.  I saw where it said you could download a Linux version.  I was excited so I got the laptop out last night, plugged it in and booted it.  It booted and then I got an error message about missing packages.  What?  ARGH! I used my Google Foo to look up a solution.  I went through the steps and it started loading. Yay!  But, it just kept loading. For over an hour.  I knew I wasn't going to fix it last night as it was late and I was tired, so I left it alone.

I got on it around 1:30 today and worked on it.  I went into recovery mode (something I had done last night) but I did a few more things in there, installed a few things via the terminal and rebooted.  Success!  I had to play with it a bit and then went to download Journey.  Sadly, since my Linux runs on i386 and not 64 (Bit? I forget the specs but I know the 64) it won't work.  At least I can use the cloud version!  Oh well.

So, I got my Linux laptop up and running without losing any of my stuff.  I don't have anything on there that is not backed up somewhere else, but I didn't want to install fresh and have to download all my apps and set up my personal settings again. I was happy to get this going!  As I was still playing around on it and hoping to find a way to make Journey work (I never did!) my friend texted and asked if I'd like to meet him at a restaurant that is near to his workplace. I said, sure! I went and we ate and then I drove home. I stopped by the post office and checked my box.  I got two penpal letters from regular pals and a letter from a potential new pal. Yay!

As I was leaving my house to go meet my friend, I had been waiting on a package. I checked my package tracking app before I went to my car and it wasn't delivered yet. I go out, get in my car and notice the mail truck drive down the street.  I drove out and noticed my package.  He had come right after I checked the app! lol . I turned around and went back to my house (I had pulled out of the driveway and was heading up the street before I saw the package) . I grabbed it and carried it with me.  I knew it was swag from Twitter Insiders but I didn't know exactly what it was.  I was so excited to get home and open it up!

I joined Twitter Insiders well over a year ago and I join in on discussions there and they send out surveys every so often. I got picked to win some Twitter Insiders swag!  YAY! I love swag.  I got four really nice items.  A tote bag, a water bottle, a notebook, and a pen.  I love it all and I took a picture of my goodies to share:

Nifty, eh?  I love swag!  I love that it is all useful things, too!  If you've read this blog for a while, you'll know how much I love notebooks and pens! It was a good day for mail.  Swag and penpal letters. :)

 

 

Friday?

It's another one of those days where it doesn't feel like the day it is. LOL The snow was mostly gone today when I got up. I knew it would be like that, but it was still disappointing.  There is still some left in shady areas, but as soon as it warms up, it will be gone too.  It was so pretty while it lasted.

I drove down to the post office today and mailed a huge stack of mail.  After mailing it, I checked my box.  I got a letter from a friend, a new potential penpal, and some junk mail.  The potential new pal is iffy. It's a guy, and I have several male penpals, so that isn't an issue.  The verbiage of his letter is troubling.  When a guy describes himself and says he hopes we become 'good friends' sends warning bells off in my head.  I post in my pen pal ads that I am looking for friends ONLY but guys seem to overlook that.  The few guys I do write are cool and we are good friends and they know I am not interested in all the junk! LOL!

While I was out, I ran by the grocery store and picked up a few things I needed and they were busy as hell! I was lucky and they opened another register and I followed another lady over to it.  She had a buggy full and I had three items and she told me to go ahead.  That was nice!  I was joking with her and the cashier that with how busy they were I was scared they were calling for snow again! 

I started a new puzzle today and it's pretty. It's going to be intense tomorrow.  I got the sky, tree line, and the water finished, but now I have to do the boats and the buildings.  It's very busy and colorful.  I'm enjoying working it though.  

Before I share the picture of the puzzle progress, I'd like to do an update on "What I'm Using Evernote for Today."  Well, I made a simple tracker in Evernote to keep track of all of my Fossil bags!  I have three columns, the bag, where purchased, and notes.  I can keep track of my bags easily this way and it's a great reference.  I know I've said it before but I love my Evernote!

 

Snow is so nice!

It did snow today! It snowed for several hours and it never covered the streets, but it did coat the houses, cars, and yards.  It was lovely and I enjoyed sitting in my window watching it fall.  At first, I didn't think it was going to stick at all, but after about an hour, I noticed that the ground started looking white.  It started sticking. Yay!  I took a bunch of pictures and I uploaded a few to share.  It was so nice to sit and watch the snow.  I didn't just sit idly while I was watching the snow!  I got my pen pal letters caught up!  It took forever and I mean, forever, but I got them done.  I will head out tomorrow to mail them off and check my box.  I am pretty sure I only have one letter there now.  It's from an unknown person so it could be a new penpal inquiry.  We'll see when I check my box.

After it started to get dark, I finally closed the window and started work on my puzzle.  I finished it right before fixing dinner. It's a pretty puzzle and it was fun to do although it did get a bit intense in spots.  It's a picture of a location in the Czech Republic.  It's buildings along a road and has some body of water in it. Very pretty!  Here are the snow pictures and the picture of the completed puzzle.

Not the most exciting snow pictures, but at least I was able to get some before winter is done. It will all be gone tomorrow I'm sure.  

  

Starting the month off right!

How you ask?  Well, I went to mail off my letters.  My mailbox was full but not one of the things in there was a pen pal letter. D'oh!  I left the post office and went to Starbucks. I thought starting the month off with a cascara latte would be a good thing since the syrup is going to be gone soon. I'm going to miss my cascara syrup. I'm glad I was able to get one more. I hope to get over there before they are totally out.  The Barista told me that the last bottle they have runs out on the 7th, so I hope to get one more.  I know they won't run out of the syrup because I'm the only one that orders it. lol

NaNoWriMo is at an end!

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of November and it's also the end of NaNoWriMo!  I am happy to have another NaNo win!  It was a good month of writing.

Today, I sat down and finished my letters.  I started them at Starbucks but I hadn't taken the actual letters with me so I finally got those done today.  The past few days I've had bad migraines and I was not in the mood to finish any of them.  I got those done today and plan to mail them out tomorrow.  I would have mailed them out today, but my friend wanted to go eat so I went with him and it was too late when I got home to run to the post office so I will go tomorrow.

I got my Yule tree up tonight.  I almost didn't put it up this year.  I will share pictures of it below along with my stack of pen pal letters.  I am planning to make myself go to Starbucks once a week again and get my letters done there.  If I have a dedicated day each week, I'll get them written in a timely manner AND I'll get to get Starbucks every week. It works for me! :P

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Here is the pretty stack of letters ready to go tomorrow:

Starbucks Whoo Hoo!

Guess where I am?  Did the subject line give it away? :p  Yes, I'm at Starbucks.  Believe it or not I was able to get a table!  At first, I was thinking I was out of luck.  I looked in and it didn't look like any seats were available at all.  The comfy seats at the front were the only ones empty and those are not the best for writing on a laptop. At the old location, yes, but not here.  I was happy to find a seat though and sat!  I hadn't been here 10 minutes when someone left one of the little tables.  I jumped up and claimed it before they got out the door. lol   I am in it now.  I've done today's NaNo writing and I've written pen pal letters!!!!! Yay! I've actually written my pen pal letters.  Whoo Hoo!  My hands are tired now, so you should be glad I'm even writing a blog post. LOL

 

It's been busy and slow in here tonight. After I moved to this table, most of the other ones cleared out except for my favorite one in the corner of course! LOL  It stayed pretty empty for a while and now they are rolling along pretty well again.  I am not sure how much longer I plan to stay. If I were at my favorite table, I'd probably stay longer, but I'm not, so there is that.  The guy that was sitting here left a while ago, but I didn't even turn around to see if I could grab the table.  I am pretty comfy here and this is my second favorite table. LOL    The little tables are all along one wall, there is a long table to the right of them when you are sitting at one.  If you sit at my favorite table, you have no one behind you or beside you.  If you sit at this one, you have people behind you but no one beside you.  The other two little tables have the long table next to them.

 

I just peeked, someone has claimed the other table.  Oh well! :P  I was able to get my hands on a bunch of Starbucks cards while I was here. I'm hoping I got the entire collection.  Well, except for the multipacks. You can't get those without loading them.  I got a bunch, so I'm hoping I have them all. If not, I can go and check on the site I use and see which ones I need so I'll be able to look for those.  Hopefully, I have them all!  That would be cool, cool, cool! :P

 

I'll take a picture of what I have when I get home and share it.  For now, I'm going to sit here and enjoy being here for a bit longer before I pack up and head out.  If it clears out some, I might stay a while longer and I might just head home.  I have almost finished my drink and I am not planning on getting another one tonight. :P

 

I just know it was great being able to do NaNoWriMo from Starbucks again!  I totally missed out last year and I didn't want that to happen again. :) . Now, I just have to decide what to fix for dinner when I get home and put away the clothes I washed yesterday. D'oh!  Actually, not a D'oh, I knew when I washed them yesterday that it was so late that I'd put them away today.  I was able to get some detergent yesterday after using the last drips and drops on my bed linen. I needed more detergent and I only had a dollar. I was tempted to go to the laundry and get one of those individual ones they sell.  Then, I thought about the dollar stores.  Dollar Tree would have a bottle for $1 but I was hoping I didn't have to drive over there. (at that point, I had planned to come here to write) . I went to Dollar General and found a regular size bottle of one of the few brands I use for $1.  Score!  I thought it had to be a mistake, but I checked before buying it and it was $1.  I am totally broke so I was happy to find it so cheap!  I love my dollar stores! 

 

Ahh!  I am home now.  The internet and my MBP were not playing nicely together at Starbucks for some reason.  Luckily I copied and pasted this huge post into Evernote just in case.  Good thing I did because I had to restart everything and would have lost my post.  Ahh!  I am going to post this before anything else goes wrong. ;p

 

I'm so accomplised!

LOL!  Yes, I'm still sick but I don't feel as bad as I did yesterday.  I went to bed really early last night and slept pretty well. I even took a long nap this afternoon. I'm trying to sleep away the sickness.  Even with all that, I got a lot done!

I have my clothes all washed and ready to pack.  I had to wash some of them and the rest that are going are ready.  I got all my other stuff ready to pack.  I like to try to put everything in at the same time so I don't forget something.  This time I will try not to pack the shorts I am wearing down there. lol

I also got a stack of letters done and mailed. WHEE!  I was so happy to get that done.  i wanted to get them done before the trip and I did.  It was too late to run to the post office, so I just dropped them off at a box.  I'll check my box when I get back and go from there.  It was nice to get them all done and this way, when I get back, I'll have something interesting to share!

After I finish this post, I'm going to pack my clothes and the majority of my electronics.  My friend has pretty much decided to not go around 3am and just wait until the morning. Boo on that, I say, but if that is what he wants, that is what we'll do.  I think it would be more fun to go at night and to miss all the traffic!  Plus we'd get there quicker. :P

I will, of course, be posting daily from the beach.  Hopefully a couple times a day.  I will share pictures too!  We are staying a bit further down than we did in June so it will be a bit longer walk to the pavilion area, but I still plan to go.  I want to go to the oceanfront Starbucks! :)

 

Saturday status

Well, I am feeling a bit better today.  Still not 100% though.  I got a few more things done today.  I have put away the load of clothes I washed yesterday after finally getting the clothes from Sunday out and I have my bed linen in the dryer as I type this.  I thought having clean bed linen would be nice. I usually do it every week on Sunday, as you know, but I didn't last week because I felt so bad, and I didn't do it before the trip so it's been a while   It will be so nice to have fresh clean bed linen tonight!

I took a picture of all the puzzles I got on the trip to show you and I started one! Since I had to get out of bed to wash my linens, I thought I'd work on a puzzle today.  I got a lot of it done and I'll finish it tomorrow.  I also ran out and went to the post office to check my box.  With the letters I got right before the trip and the ones I got today, I have 10.  One is from an entirely new pen pal. Yay!  That is always good.  From her letter, I think we will be great pals, too!

I am currently under the hair bonnet dryer with my hair.  I figured fresh bed linen deserved fresh hair too.  I washed it last at the beach, so you can imagine how funky it was! lol . I am glad I was able to get more things done today.  I'm taking tomorrow off from walking too.  I just want to make sure I'm ready to go again.  I think I will be on Monday. I hope!  In any case, enjoy the pictures.  First one is of allllll the puzzles I got at Myrtle Beach and the second is the current one ini progress. It is one I got at the beach.  With a beach scene, it seemed fitting as my first one back. ^_^