Calendars, Spreadsheets and Frustration

Now that it's August, we're starting to accumulate 2023 appointments. My dad has doctors' appointments in July, in February, etc. And of course, I don't have my 2023 planner yet.

Yes, I've entered the appointments in my phone's calendar, but I do better with paper. My planner does have a little two page thing to write 2023 events in, and it's okay, but it's not as awesome as a monthly calendar.

I went looking in my templates folder. I was sure I remembered seeing a spreadsheet calendar that was perpetual as in I could enter the year and it would auto update.

And I found a free calendar I'd downloaded in 2015 and it does everything I want a spreadsheet calendar to do. As in I can enter information on the page and it will auto populate the year overview for me. Perfect! I'll just update the year.

Yeah, no. It doesn't update. It's 2015 or nothing.

Okay, I'll go back to the website I got it from and get one for 2023. No dice. The owner of the website is apparently updating to Shopify and has one more step to complete. And has had this step to complete for about a week now. I keep going back to check. Honestly, I would pay for the the version of this calendar because the other templates I've found don't have all the features that this one does.

I began searching online, hoping she was selling it somewhere else. I found an Etsy store. Yea! I clicked over there, but she'd closed her store. Sigh.

I know this move to Shopify has to be fairly recent because this is the same site I bought my budget spreadsheet from, the one I love and use, and the site was up and running then. I'm guessing this was earlier this summer, so it's a matter of months.

The picture above is from a spreadsheet calendar I was trying to create. It's okay, but the tutorial I followed went so fast and I got lost somewhere along the way. While I'd like to know how to do more in Excel, I also realize that if I can buy/find a template that does what I need it to do, I don't have to reinvent the wheel. But when you can't even buy the perfect template, it gets frustrating to not have the skills to do it myself.

Tropical Paradise

I'd ordered a calendar and some research books from BN.com on Dec 30th and they just arrived yesterday, which I thought was a really long time since I had the three day shipping option selected. But I digress. Anyway, this year's calendar theme is Tropical Paradise. I loved last year's Greek Isles calendar so 2008 has a lot to live up to.

It was another tough writing day yesterday. Not only was I my usual Monday tired, but I had to make a difficult transition in a scene. It was something that would have given me fits anyway, but on a Monday.... Especially a Monday where I was busy at the Evil Day Job and not mentally calm when I went to write on lunch, it was extra tough. BTW, I was so busy yesterday, that I was late leaving the EDJ and that almost never happens.

My last amaryllis flower bloomed Sunday. I hate to see the flowers wilt and dry up because I've loved having the red and green in the house. Okay, I loved it after I dosed the dirt enough to get rid of the gnats. But I'm not ready to be flowerless. Sigh. At least I'll still have my poinsettias. The red one doesn't look too great, but the white one is beautiful. When's spring coming?

It's New Calendar Time

I overslept again this morning. Sigh. Worse than yesterday and that's why this is posting later. I was working on edits and didn't get to bed till after 11pm. They were going so well, I hated to stop, but I knew I'd pay the price today--and I am.

Last night, I had a spend $40, save $10 coupon from Barnes & Noble, and since I needed wall and desk calendars, I decided to check out if they were on sale online. I confess, I wait till they're 50% off to buy. I was planning to hit BN this weekend, but if I could avoid a trip to the mall, that's a good thing. Luckily, most of the calendars were marked down.

The wall calendar ended up being really easy. The featured item had pictures of the Greek isles and the images were gorgeous! Usually, I go with Scotland or Ireland and last year I had New Orleans (proceeds of the calendar went to Katrina relief), but this year I wanted something different. Greece is definitely different.

The desk calendar was a little more difficult to pick out. I usually go with the French Impressionists, but again, I wanted something different. I found a really cool Japanese art calendar and I was going to order it, but the description didn't say whether or not it's spiral-bound. I want my desk calendar to be spiral so I couldn't risk ordering it. I went with one of Italy instead.

Then, to make up my $40, I picked up the Lonely Planet guide to Tahiti and French Polynesia. (Yes, my Polynesian heroine is still hanging around, but she won't talk to me until I'm ready to work on her story. A good thing, too, since I have to concentrate on Creed and Maia.) Lonely Planet has fab pictures (I have their guides to Australia and Ireland already) and good info and it's a research book. I was all set now to check out.

My Italy desk calendar was out of stock. Sigh. I had to pick a new one. (I wish they would have told me that before I was ready to buy!) I dithered a little, but finally went with a Zen calendar. I haven't been meditating the way I should lately, so hopefully the pictures and text will encourage me.

The Zen calendar, though, was cheaper than Italy and now I didn't have $40. I had to find $5 somewhere. I almost bought a Lonely Planet guide to another part of Polynesia, but didn't want to spent that much money when I don't know my heroine's (or hero's) heritage for sure. Polynesia covers a lot of ground. I ended up going with a Susan Andersen book that I'd missed earlier this summer. Susan Andersen has been a must-buy author for me since Baby, I'm Yours and I read Head Over Heels so many times, I had to buy a second copy. This new one (the title escapes me) has another showgirl heroine and Andersen does them so well. If I only had time to read...

I also discovered a textbook on Polynesian Mythology. It was $75. Gah! But I actually found it at the publisher's website for half price--new edition must be coming out--so I'm going to order it from there. It sounds like it's exactly what I'm looking for.

The weather yesterday ended up being much ado about nothing, but it was nice to have extra time to drive into work. It's amazing how much calmer I am when I don't have to rush.