Footle and Grok

If you see someone doing something well, let them know. It will make a difference to the person in ways you will never guess.

I have had many jobs where the only way I knew I was doing a good job was that the boss said nothing. Every problem was mentioned but never the positives. Silence was the complement.

Things are different at my current job. I get told all the time by both supervisors and co-workers when I do something well. Because of those kind words, I love coming to work and I make sure to complement others so that they can feel the same.

We hear negative things all the time. Why not add some positive to the world by complementing others. This is one case where silence is not golden.

Deadlines are remarkable things, especially when there are consequences if you miss them.

We had to have the U-Haul back by 5 p.m. yesterday, and I started work at 4. Also, my car was in long-term parking at the airport and needed to be sprung. So we had to have the 15-foot truck emptied by 2 p.m.

We had marvelous friends help pack the truck in Washington, but we were on our own here and didn’t even have a furniture dolly.

But with the threat of paying more fees to U-Haul we got that truck unloaded. Thank goodness for deadlines. It didn’t matter if we were tired or sore. We kept at it and made it to the airport, the U-Haul place, and work on time.

Now, I have a new deadline. Much of what we removed from the truck is in my front yard. Rain is predicted for Friday so I have to have everything inside by tomorrow.

Hooray! Another deadline to meet.

We drove all day yesterday and arrived at our new home at 1 a.m. Eighteen hours is a long time to sit behind a wheel, but it was worth when we stopped.

Needless to say, we’re bone tired.

Today, we unpack the U-Haul so it can be returned before five. Tonight, I work, but then I can sleep.

Opening boxes can wait until we’re rested. So can researching fun facts for a blog post.

Thanks for understanding and being a loyal reader.

P.S. The cats traveled like champs, but they are glad to be stopped too.

Happy meme Monday.

I have arrived in Montana, and now I have to unload the truck so we can return it today. I also need to do some unpacking and decide where things go. I work tomorrow, so I want to get as much done today as I can.

That’s not true. I just want to be a goat. I like having moved, but moving is crazy. Being a goat sounds good, especially eating what I want.

I hope you are having a great weekend. I’m pretty sure I am stressed, tired, sore, and wanting to throw everything I own away.

That’s right, I’m am moving my husband, cats, and possessions to Montana today. Hubby is helping but I’m sure the cats are making my life diffcult. Wish me luck.

Labor Day is over, so many people are done camping for the season. I hope that is true because I live on a highway that leads to Yellowstone, and it is a lot easier to get to my turn-off when the traffic is lighter.

However, it is always the right time to watch a video about other people camping, or in this case, other dogs. That’s right, Crusoe, the Celebrity Dachshund, and his sister Daphne went camping, and they made a cute and relaxing video.

Crusoe and Daphne make me laugh so hard. This video was no exception. I can’t decide which scene was my favorite, but finding a new bird was too funny.

Enjoy summer memories by watching this fun video, and check out the other videos on Crusoe’s Channel. He’s my favorite celebrity dog.

I’ve talked in the past about finding which type of clutterbug organizer you are. There are four types, and it depends on whether you macro or micro organize and whether you like your stuff where you can see it or hide it behind doors. I am a cricket, so I like to micro organize, and I like my stuff behind doors. If you want to know your organizing style, you can take the quiz here. (Cas also has a great YouTube channel about organizing. I never miss her videos.)

However, Cas is not the only online organizer who has a quiz. You can find out what type of coffee organizing style you are and what type of bird your organizing style is. I am an espresso, which means I like no-frills, strong organization. I am also a puffin, but I don’t know why. I need to read more about that answer. I think it has something to do with my home being organized, but my life needing help. I took the test twice and got the same bird both times, so it must be true!

I like taking tests because, like horoscopes, I often learn that I am a certain way. Do I like no-frills, strong organization? Absolutely. Does my personal life need organizing? Sure, but I have just moved, so that could be why. 

I still think the Clutterbug types are the easiest to understand. I realized that I like my job because I have to be highly organized in a micro way. Everyone says I do a great job putting stuff where it belongs. That makes sense since I am a cricket.

If you would like to get insight into your organization style and strengths, I have listed links to the tests below. Perhaps you will discover you are also a cricket espresso puffin. I belong to an organizing group on Facebook, and it seems I’m in the minority. Let me know your type in the comments. It’s fun to organize. 

Clutterbug test

Coffee Organizing type test

Bird organizing type test

Happy Teddy Bear Day.

I found a lovely Vlog Brothers video (one of my favorite YouTube channels) about Margaret Stieff, a remarkable woman who turned stuffed animals and teddy bears into an lasting industry. I encourage you to watch this video (6 minutes) in honor of Teddy Bear Day. 

That’s right. There used to be a 27th letter in the alphabet, and today we get to celebrate it.

Happy National Ampersand Day.

It took me years to write this symbol properly, and I actually practiced a lot. Now I like using this symbol whenever I can.

In previous posts, I talked about how the symbol “&” has been found at Pompeii in 79 AD. The symbol is a smashing of the letters “e” and “t” because the word “et” means “and” in Latin. That is somewhat logical, but why do we call this symbol ampersand? That is one crazy story.

In the 1700s, the alphabet poem that children recited was a little different than it is today. After the letter Z, children listed “&” as the 27th letter. The way they said it was like this, “…X, Y, Z, and, per se, and” Per se means “by itself”, so they were saying “& by itself is and.” That sounds crazy, and the kids must have thought so too because over time, “and per se and” became ampersand. Ta da!

A spoken or sung phrase that is mispronounced is called a mondegreen. A famous one is “all intensive purposes” when the phrase is “all intents and purposes.” Lots of mondegreens never stick, but ampersand did.

We no longer have twenty-seven letters, but this useful symbol does get its own holiday. Happy Ampersand Day!

I have seen more movies in the past month than I sometimes see in a year (pre-COVID). Of the four movies I’ve seen, three of them were wonderful, and one was horrible. I only talk about positive stuff on Footle and Grok, so I won’t list the ten reasons why I disliked Snake Eyes (I do have that list.) Instead, I want to talk about the three other movies I saw and why you should see them too.

I already talked about The Jungle Cruise. It was a fun movie and well worth watching. It is the third-best movie I saw in this grouping.

Last weekend, I saw Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings. It is a Marvel movie, so I had high hopes, but it had plot similarities to Snake Eyes, so I was nervous. But I had no reason to be. It was wonderful. If you have seen all the Marvel movies, you should watch this one because they took my number one least favorite “villain” and redeemed him. He’s still a moron, but at least he had a purpose in this movie (I can’t say who it is, but if you have heard me rant about Iron Man 3, you know who I’m talking about.)

If you don’t have any interest in the Marvel Movies, Shang-Chi is still worth watching. As a friend of mine said, “It is a great Disney movie.” I felt it had hints of Frozen II, Tangled, The Last Airbender (not a Disney movie), and Aquaman (also not a Disney movie.) However, Shang-Chi did it better. The fight scenes were well done, the entire audience laughed at times, and the villain was everything a villain should be. Also, the cast was perfect. Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings is the second best movie I saw.

So what movie did I see that was number 1? Free Guy!!! Oh my gosh, this movie was amazing. Yes, it was one more movie where the video world and the real world mix, but Free Guy did it best. If I were in charge of handing out Oscars, Ryan Reynolds would get one for this movie. He played the role perfectly. He was not quite human and yet totally human (to the point that I cried when bad things happened to him.) The other characters were great, too, and the story was funny, intense, and heartwarming. I understood the villain’s motivation, but I held my breath during the climax because of his actions. Well done. Everyone should see this movie. It is about as perfect a movie as I have ever seen.

If theaters are open where you are, I encourage you to see a movie on the big screen. No TV in the world (unless you have a movie screen in your house) compares. Plus, It helps keep theaters operating, and I would be sad if I could never go to the movies again.