Tag: me

I went through a big phase of reading about bullet journals in autumn 2024, and really liked the idea of making “quilts” using the dotted pages as reference. I made one for my energy levels, and one for my training status. Here are the final quilts:

The energy was a pain to track. I’m not one to get out the markers very often, so I was often coloring in a month-plus at a time. And at some point, I started questioning what “average” even meant. If my sleep got better near the end of the year (it did) and that was my new average, what even was “best ever”?

And filling out the training quilt became difficult because, well, training became difficult near the end of the year. (Ironically at the same time my sleep got better.) Eagle eyes will note that I didn’t finish December. At least that information is kept on my Garmin app, making it easier to access when I finally sit down to “quilt.”

I’m bringing these back next year. Energy will have categories that are: getting things done, maintaining, resting, under the weather, not tracked, and I have a system built now to track those and update the calendars more frequently.

One mistake I made for 2026 was assigning the same colors to both quilts. I like the visual difference of the 2025 quilts using different colors.

One of my yearly letters has me take and print a picture of me to include. This was taken for the end of 2025 letter.

But once I took it, I realized I also had this picture I texted someone to let them know that it was cold in the house. I ended up using this one.

Since transitioning to a digital-only subscription to the Oregonian in the twenty-teens, I have been reading the newspaper through their app, which gives you the newspaper’s normal print layout. I greatly appreciate this feature, as it allows me to continue to take in the news as I have my entire life. Digital sites have me reading forever, but the printed newspaper ends.

In all those years, I haven’t seen such an egregious error as this right-hand column, where someone forgot to fill the placeholder with a story.

I also got a great score in the Film Reveal game! Top 5% of players.

Alas, we cannot see which actor/category was such a winning combo for me, because I neglected to take a picture.

It’s budget meeting season at work, which means time for me to do some Zentangling while the meetings happen.

It had been some time since I tangled, and I had to remind myself how to do a few of the tangles.

It was also Election Day!

I transported ballots from the Northwest Library again. This was the last election at this location of the Northwest Library. They are opening a new larger location in January on NW Pettygrove.

It was fun to watch the ballots come in for the last 15 minutes people could turn them in. There were more than 10 ballots that appeared in the book return. Apparently turnout was very low overall (we only had a parks bond renewal to approve or reject—the easiest ballot I’ve ever cast), but it didn’t feel like that while I was waiting for the polls to close.

We only had to drive to the Elections office on Belmont (rather than the Yeon building, like the 2024 election) so I didn’t make a ton of overtime, but the money is just the cherry on top. I would transport ballots for free.

Back in October 2016, I got a new driver license (pictured below on the right) because it had been eight years, and my current license was going to expire. A few months later in 2017, I was told I needed to get another new driver license and soon, because the Real ID was going to be needed for travel.

“Pah to that!” I said, and got a passport so I could use my not-Real ID license for its full time period.

Well, the deadline to travel with a Real ID was extended and extended, and if I’d been a May birthday instead of an October, I could have used that license for the full eight years because May 2025 was the real, true, final deadline (although I read that they would let people through if they didn’t have a Real ID after May…).

I didn’t do any flying between the real, true, actual deadline in May and today, and so I met my goal of getting the full eight years out of my license.

Here’s to the new one on the left. So very shiny and Real ID.

New Seasons sends me a sheet of coupons now and again. Unlike most coupons, which are for things I don’t buy, these ones are actually good deals for things I like.

So I put them prominently on the refrigerator.

And then, as the weeks tick by, I cut them off one by one because I have not gone to New Seasons, because I have gone to New Seasons and forgotten the coupon, or because I have gone to New Seasons and brought the coupon but forgot to use it.

And eventually, there are no coupons on the refrigerator.

And then the cycle begins again.

You can see full-on before pictures, an update including new items, and the last day of blue walls. And now, here is the picture of the green walls, with (nearly) all the things returned to their places. Or holding a place, while I wait for a few things to arrive (ahem, Murphy Bed, ahem).

Here’s the closet door angle. You can see the soothing green color and that my desk area has been reassembled, nearly unchanged. My closet has not yet been put back together (a very large undertaking, given the three shelves that have to be reinstalled, plus I have a lot of things on the walls in there).

The rolling file cabinet has been sold, and the cat tree has been put out for someone to grab it. I’ve moved one of the Billy bookcases into the room, grabbed one of the storage ottomans to serve as a bedside table, and my mattress is on the floor because I gave away my bedframe.

I bought a new duvet cover. The other one was bloodstained due to Antares’s open wound lump, and I also needed a change. This may be temporary bedding. The bedding came with two pillowcases, and I needed two more for laundry purposes. Ikea didn’t have any in the same pattern, so I grabbed a package of orange. Turns out Ikea sells their pillowcases in singles. I had to go back and get another one.

You can also see the above-bed shelves that I would knock my head into once or twice a year are gone as is the wall-mounted reading light.

While I have taken down the curtains and pulled the bird diamonds off of them, I have not yet finished the valance that will replace them. Though I did get the curtain rod back up.

Here you can see that the postcards are back. I was able to reassemble the lower curtain wire with no trouble, but the top one sags. I will buy a replacement and change it out the next time I rotate postcards.

The drying racks are back on the wall, but the fun hanging desk is gone (via OfferUp) and has been replaced by the Ikea folding table. The two black lumps are my sewing machines. I have plans to make new covers.

Outside the door, you can see my dresser upside down. The rails for the bottom drawer broke, and I ignored it long enough to have the sides of the dresser start to come apart. I have hammered and glued things back together, and asked my neighbor Leo if he can make new rails.

One more look at the other corner. I hadn’t realized until today that three of my four walls have doors in them.

Now we wait for the Murphy Bed.