Hey, how about that?
I didn't go two weeks between posts! :D
Good week with no major complaints, what can I say?
My performance review re-energized me quite a bit. That, and sitting through a seminar on "Managing Your E-mail Mess" which didn't really teach me much, just how to set up rules so you can have e-mails sent from specific senders into a separate folder than your inbox. Which is quite useful, as I subscribe to a list-serv that cacn clutter my inbox, which is now shunted to it's own folder and I can go through it at leisure to sort out what's useful or not.
But one thing very new to me that the instructor brought up was something called One Note, which really has nothing to do with e-mail. It's offered as part of Microsoft Office Suite, but I never really knew what it was. It's more or less a project management tool. Once he showed it to us, I set it up on my work computer and I absolutely love it! I've set up all kinds of notebooks, with multiple sections and pages. You can link from One Note to Outlook and vice-versa. You can imbed e-mails, documents, tasks, to-do lists, all kinds of stuff. It's one of the reasons I've been so productive this past week. One of the things I've started doing is dumping e-mails from the boss that have some kind of task in them, I flag them and then they show up in my Outlook task list to keep me up-to-date on what I need to do. Then I can move the e-mail out of my inbox to declutter it, but I still have something to remind me of what I need to do. I foresee getting rid of my dayplanner totally.
I told my boss how much I like it and she overheard me talking to another coworker about it. She suggested I hold some training on it during one of our staff meetings. :D Made my heart all warm and fuzzy, because one of my co-workers said I should have taught the e-mail seminar since I seemed to knew more than the instructor. I was always volunteering stuff after a topic, because he'd get questions he couldn't answer on some topics, so I'd offer tips on how it could be used and how to use it. Well, I did used to teach some computer classes in the Navy. Stuff much more complicated working with operating systems on mainframes, so I figure teaching this kind of stuff is child's play.
The roommate is doing much better. Still some problems sleeping, but she's been setting up appointments with the VA and social security, etc., which is a step forward. She's spending more time awake and doing things around the condo, so I think things are leveling out for her and getting closer to something resembling normal. I have to admit, I get on her occasionally, but she acknowledges she needs a little kick every now and then and that I don't take any shit off her.
Her ego really took a hit from her family and she frequently asks me why I like her. I told her because she was the one who wanted to be friends with me and has always been so generous. We've become an old married couple. Last night we were trading off "do you want the last one of these" and "I'll swap you one of these for one of those, I know how much you like them." She said "this must be love" and I went "yep." So, that's part of why I like N., but I told her, too, that she keeps me from staying in my head too much. We watch TV together (taking turns to watch something the other likes), we plan on having "date nights" (or days), where we make sure we do at least one thing together outside of the condo. And, no, we're not a couple that way. :) It's just what comes of knowing someone for 28 years and really caring about them. I often say that N. is the sister I never had, but always wanted.
Anyway, tonight is the annual "birthday dinner" for those of us in the family with late September/early October birthdays. These days it's my nephew (the 2nd), me (the 6th) and my dad (the 9th.) Unfortunately, the nephew is out of town until early November, but the rest of us will all be there. It used to include my mother (Sept. 21st), but we celebrate that in Milwaukee the closest weekend to her birthday (which we did Sept. 22nd this year.) Trying a new restaurant, tonight, with a trip to the art museum on campus beforehand. It just sounds like a pleasant way to spend the day.
Oh! And at work I got the requisite $5 worth of lottery tickets for my birthday. We have a system worked out where the person who had a birthday last buys tickets for the current birthday person. And we pass it on. I'll buy tickets for the next person in line. If anyone wins, we split the pot. Usually, it' something like a $5 prize, so we just buy more tickets from it hoping we hit a big one. :D
I've been doing much better with parking off-campus and walking to work; not spending money on parking. I walked 11 miles each in the past two weeks. Haven't been doing as much Pilates as I like, especially this past week, but I'll blame that on a strained left shoulder from carrying the bag I filled up at the Farmer's Market last week. Sucker must have weighed 20 pounds, I swear. Even with switching it from hand to hand, it was too much. I had to take Aleve for a couple days to reduce the pain and swelling. :( Having arthritis in that shoulder just makes it much more susceptible to injury. Sucks growing old.
Haven't watch any movies lately. Rewatched season 1 of the BBC Sherlock with the roomie. Looking forward to finally watching season 2, even if I have been spoiled to hell about it since it's been out for over a year. Ah, well. On current TV, I'm enjoying Sleepy Hollow. It can be quite creepy and makes me jump every now and then. Ichabod is just a little too Mary Sue, I think; the only thing that makes him interesting is his lack of current history. It feels very similar to Supernatural to me in the way it has an over-arching theme of Apocalypse with a MoW thrown in to keep it interesting. I'm particularly drawn to Abbie Mills, who appears to be the Dean of the show. I've honestly gotten bored of the recent seasons of Supernatural and I predict it will be the same with Sleepy Hollow (especially since it's an Abrams, Kurz, and Orci production and I quit on Alias, Lost, and Heroes well before the final seasons of those.) But for now, it's fun exploring the new world (in both senses of: show world and new world for Ichabod, who came from what we literally consider the time of the New World.)
So, that's it for now. See you next week. Maybe? Earlier if my last four lottery tickets win something tonight. One Mega Millions last night that didn't win anything, the rest is four Powerballs to be drawn tonight. $86 million, if I win!
Good week with no major complaints, what can I say?
My performance review re-energized me quite a bit. That, and sitting through a seminar on "Managing Your E-mail Mess" which didn't really teach me much, just how to set up rules so you can have e-mails sent from specific senders into a separate folder than your inbox. Which is quite useful, as I subscribe to a list-serv that cacn clutter my inbox, which is now shunted to it's own folder and I can go through it at leisure to sort out what's useful or not.
But one thing very new to me that the instructor brought up was something called One Note, which really has nothing to do with e-mail. It's offered as part of Microsoft Office Suite, but I never really knew what it was. It's more or less a project management tool. Once he showed it to us, I set it up on my work computer and I absolutely love it! I've set up all kinds of notebooks, with multiple sections and pages. You can link from One Note to Outlook and vice-versa. You can imbed e-mails, documents, tasks, to-do lists, all kinds of stuff. It's one of the reasons I've been so productive this past week. One of the things I've started doing is dumping e-mails from the boss that have some kind of task in them, I flag them and then they show up in my Outlook task list to keep me up-to-date on what I need to do. Then I can move the e-mail out of my inbox to declutter it, but I still have something to remind me of what I need to do. I foresee getting rid of my dayplanner totally.
I told my boss how much I like it and she overheard me talking to another coworker about it. She suggested I hold some training on it during one of our staff meetings. :D Made my heart all warm and fuzzy, because one of my co-workers said I should have taught the e-mail seminar since I seemed to knew more than the instructor. I was always volunteering stuff after a topic, because he'd get questions he couldn't answer on some topics, so I'd offer tips on how it could be used and how to use it. Well, I did used to teach some computer classes in the Navy. Stuff much more complicated working with operating systems on mainframes, so I figure teaching this kind of stuff is child's play.
The roommate is doing much better. Still some problems sleeping, but she's been setting up appointments with the VA and social security, etc., which is a step forward. She's spending more time awake and doing things around the condo, so I think things are leveling out for her and getting closer to something resembling normal. I have to admit, I get on her occasionally, but she acknowledges she needs a little kick every now and then and that I don't take any shit off her.
Her ego really took a hit from her family and she frequently asks me why I like her. I told her because she was the one who wanted to be friends with me and has always been so generous. We've become an old married couple. Last night we were trading off "do you want the last one of these" and "I'll swap you one of these for one of those, I know how much you like them." She said "this must be love" and I went "yep." So, that's part of why I like N., but I told her, too, that she keeps me from staying in my head too much. We watch TV together (taking turns to watch something the other likes), we plan on having "date nights" (or days), where we make sure we do at least one thing together outside of the condo. And, no, we're not a couple that way. :) It's just what comes of knowing someone for 28 years and really caring about them. I often say that N. is the sister I never had, but always wanted.
Anyway, tonight is the annual "birthday dinner" for those of us in the family with late September/early October birthdays. These days it's my nephew (the 2nd), me (the 6th) and my dad (the 9th.) Unfortunately, the nephew is out of town until early November, but the rest of us will all be there. It used to include my mother (Sept. 21st), but we celebrate that in Milwaukee the closest weekend to her birthday (which we did Sept. 22nd this year.) Trying a new restaurant, tonight, with a trip to the art museum on campus beforehand. It just sounds like a pleasant way to spend the day.
Oh! And at work I got the requisite $5 worth of lottery tickets for my birthday. We have a system worked out where the person who had a birthday last buys tickets for the current birthday person. And we pass it on. I'll buy tickets for the next person in line. If anyone wins, we split the pot. Usually, it' something like a $5 prize, so we just buy more tickets from it hoping we hit a big one. :D
I've been doing much better with parking off-campus and walking to work; not spending money on parking. I walked 11 miles each in the past two weeks. Haven't been doing as much Pilates as I like, especially this past week, but I'll blame that on a strained left shoulder from carrying the bag I filled up at the Farmer's Market last week. Sucker must have weighed 20 pounds, I swear. Even with switching it from hand to hand, it was too much. I had to take Aleve for a couple days to reduce the pain and swelling. :( Having arthritis in that shoulder just makes it much more susceptible to injury. Sucks growing old.
Haven't watch any movies lately. Rewatched season 1 of the BBC Sherlock with the roomie. Looking forward to finally watching season 2, even if I have been spoiled to hell about it since it's been out for over a year. Ah, well. On current TV, I'm enjoying Sleepy Hollow. It can be quite creepy and makes me jump every now and then. Ichabod is just a little too Mary Sue, I think; the only thing that makes him interesting is his lack of current history. It feels very similar to Supernatural to me in the way it has an over-arching theme of Apocalypse with a MoW thrown in to keep it interesting. I'm particularly drawn to Abbie Mills, who appears to be the Dean of the show. I've honestly gotten bored of the recent seasons of Supernatural and I predict it will be the same with Sleepy Hollow (especially since it's an Abrams, Kurz, and Orci production and I quit on Alias, Lost, and Heroes well before the final seasons of those.) But for now, it's fun exploring the new world (in both senses of: show world and new world for Ichabod, who came from what we literally consider the time of the New World.)
So, that's it for now. See you next week. Maybe? Earlier if my last four lottery tickets win something tonight. One Mega Millions last night that didn't win anything, the rest is four Powerballs to be drawn tonight. $86 million, if I win!