Monday held more fillings. These were in the back of my mouth and needed freezing. It only partially froze my pallet and that felt really weird. There was almost no pain after my fillings, which is unusual for me, but it was welcome!

Unable to sleep any longer on Tuesday due to eating too much kimchi, I began my move from Blogger to WordPress. For now, I would use the “free” version of WordPress once again until my finances would allow for the self-hosted one. I hoped there wouldn’t be too much fixing needed in order to get back up again. It was a quiet activity I could do in the early morning hours before 6AM. If you’ve been with me for a bit, you’ll know I used to be on WordPress. I don’t regret trying Blogger out, but I do regret having so many things tied to my Google account. There were always things about Blogger I didn’t like including the lack of a real template option. I could have some words automatically input for a post, but they weren’t formatted, so it didn’t actually save much of my time. It didn’t have spellcheck. Usually I’m fine without spellcheck, but I seem to constantly forget that Miscellaneous has two Ls. Another issue I had with it was that the Blogger app often didn’t work well. The one thing that Blogger did have was ease of adding photos since it was linked with the Google account where photos were automatically going. But, some people have noticed that the photos sometimes “disappear” on older posts. They’re obviously there somewhere because they all came over in the move, but it’s like Google archives them and then they aren’t showing on some older posts.

The move hasn’t been without issues. I had to change settings on my web host side. It’s not completely free or I wouldn’t be able to use my domain name that I pay annually for. I had to fix issues with the featured images because they aren’t showing up as they should on the first page. I’ve also had to do changes to the template I chose to go with in order to get it more to my liking. I still have a lot to check and correct, but I’m doing a little bit each day. Oh, also, a lot of the images did port over inside the posts, but they also ported into a draft post format and weren’t in the actual media gallery. I did some testing and it was safe to delete all the strange draft posts. Yet to be decided is whether or not I will spend the time and energy to have featured images for all of my past posts because I had to save images from the posts then upload them into the gallery to be able to use them as a featured image. That would be a lot of work since I’m over 1000 posts.

The goals I wanted to focus on for this week were the reno and just generally catching up around the condo. For the reno, I made progress on my reno destruction phase. There was one drawer left and a bit of the cabinet because it got too late to make noise. I had repaired the drawers several years ago with some pieces of new wood, so I wanted those bits back in case I need to do framing for the subfloor. I needed to assemble the cabinet to be able to mark where backsplash would eventually go. This would also help me know how much drywall to replace with tile backer board. I finished the removal of the cabinet on Wednesday before work and discovered something unique; a really old Mountain Dew can was hiding beneath the cabinet base. After doing some research, I learned that it was likely the second can design they ever used as it goes back to when they were transitioning away from their original hillbilly branding to attract outdoorsy young people. I decided I will start a collection with this piece. It’s from my home and was my mom’s favourite soft drink. There is some tile glue to clean off of it and a tiny spot of corrosion. Not bad for its age at all especially given where it was all this time!

 

 

One of my goals needed to happen this week. I planned to start my free Apple subscriptions on February 1st and I needed floor space to use Apple Fitness+. I was really excited about this free fitness option that came with my phone. I get three months of Fitness+, News, Arcade, TV+, and Music. If I decide I want to keep more than one of them, it’s cheaper to just keep them all. The cost is low and my storage would be upgraded to 2TB along with it. I know it seems like I’m trading one evil for another. Such is the way of capitalism. But I’m getting so much for less hassle and it’s all pretty inexpensive, so I’m excited about this change. My only option was to clear space in my bedroom for the time being because my living room would be temporarily hosting my reading chair. Again. Tiny Condo is 520 square feet, so reno projects really disrupt things. I feel like I’m living in a hoarder house and I hate it. I haven’t really gotten a chance to use my reading chair. It seems that every time I am about to, I need to move it to another location to do other things. I had initially thought I would put my fridge in my living room, but the dining room is way closer and much easier to move a couple of things out of temporarily. Someday I’ll be able to just enjoy my condo!

I got the sink’s cabinet put together. I spent some time on Friday figuring out much of the rest of the reno including what cabinets to get from IKEA, what countertop, the backsplash, and a list of materials to get on Saturday. I still had destruction to do, but I wanted to have the next items ready.

My Fender Play subscription was refunded because I wanted to change the email address on the account and they technically had no other way to allow me to do this. I decided to wait a couple of months before I bother with it and use the cash towards my current expenses. I’ll try free options in the meantime like the books I have and other sites. It was often only showing me small pieces of songs rather than the whole thing, so I might be better off without it. Other really old things I learned about this week include Martin Employee Ukuleles. There are kits one can purchase and I fully plan to do my own custom ukulele someday. It may be a baritone when I do since I have two sopranos and a tenor. The bridge is slowly lifting on two of them, so I’ll eventually have to repair them.

Also refunded was a piece of art I ordered that never arrived from China. The parcel update was that it was probably lost, so I requested the refund. Between it and Fender Play, I’ve saved about as much as I need for wall repair and painting in my kitchen!

On Saturday, I got a bunch of renovation related tasks done. I got materials for the first wall work and while I was there, I saw that there is a thinner tile backer for the flooring. This is good to know for the future. Later, I got my fridge moved. The old floor I had put in was terrible for it because it was too soft, so the fridge didn’t roll until I almost had it out of the kitchen. Lesson learned that kitchen flooring should be harder. I misplaced two tools during all of this. One, I really need to find as it’s the only chisel I have and I don’t know how I can get the old tile up without it.

I began Apple Fitness+ with a meditation and some yoga. Yoga was recommended by my massage therapist to help finish my rotator cuff healing as I’m still lacking some flexibility there. Regular movement along with an exercise that targets the stubborn remaining bits.

Thought of the week: It was a light crafting week with other things on the go. I did happen to see someone in one of my crafting groups looking for anti-Orange-Clown patterns. I get that everyone copes differently, but why spend a bunch of time and energy on something you hate instead of putting it towards something you love? I’d rather fill my walls with things that fill me with the joy he sucks out of the world. Just my two cents that no one asked for.

 

For more details, please visit my Trello here.