Droppin’ it to Dropbox

I’m sure many of you already know about this, but I ran across this really cool program a few weeks ago and just have to tell you about it because I am loving it. Here’s the thing: I’m a knitter. I’m a knitter who knits all over – on the bus, on the train, in line, at restaurants, at work, etc. Sometimes, I’m a knitter who forgot to bring the pattern with her, or who printed the pattern but somehow left the most important page of it at home, or who is improvising and needs a guideline to work from RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE. I have an iPhone so I do have access to the internet, but this only works while I have decent cell coverage and sometimes web browsing speeds are painfully slow. And sometimes, I just don’t want the hassle of searching and browsing for a pattern on the itty bitty screen. (I do not have an iPad, nor do I have plans to buy one.)

Enter Dropbox. This handy-dandy program acts like a “My Documents” folder that I can take with me, and the best part is that it auto-syncs between as many devices as you want! I downloaded the program on my laptop at home and signed up for an account (it’s free), dragged a bunch of knitting patterns in PDF and MS Word format into the Dropbox folder on my computer, and VOILA! All those patterns are now hosted magically somewhere out in etherspace and by launching the app on my iPhone, I have instant access to all those PDFs and Word docs. Or I can log on to the internet from anywhere (at the library, for example) and add or retrieve files from my Dropbox.

This works for photos, too – so I can take pictures on my iPhone, pull them into Dropbox, and they magically sync so that I can access the photos on my laptop at home without having to plug in my phone or deal with email transfers. This is extra handy if you are traveling, as it acts like a backup of your stuff in case something happens to your phone or iPad. You can also do all kinds of cool backflips like linking to Twitter or Facebook, or using a Public Folder to share your stuff with other people. Or you can just take your knitting patterns with you to the local yarn store to make sure you buy enough yarn for your next project.

Dropbox gives you 2GB of space to start with, and you and I will both get a bonus 500MB if you sign up through my referral link. Do it. It’s free!

Here’s a screen shot of the app on my phone so you can see how clean and simple the layout is:

Multicolored

I cast on a pair of socks for June (I’m doing a pair a month this year, and am a little ahead) – this pair is a frankensock kind of thing; I’m using scraps in several colors. The yarns so far are coordinated but I will have to pull more scraps from the stash and there’s no telling what I’ll find.

(simple socks, 56 stitches around)

In other news, my old umbrella broke and I took advantage of this unfortunate event to visit a super cute new store right on 1st and Pine near the Pike Place Market – Bella Umbrella (their website is geared towards rentals, the retail store has tons for sale). They have an awesome selection of good quality rain domes, and I had a hard time choosing. This one has lots of ribs to make it sturdier / more resistant to wind (though I don’t bother with an umbrella in the wind) and I like the bit of color.

A.W.O.L.

What happened to Australian Toaster Biscuits??  I loved those things, and they disappeared from the grocery stores several years ago. I keep searching, hoping someone will have them but no, just regular English Muffins… There is a crumpet shop near my office, but that’s not very convenient (or cost-effective); I just want to buy a pack of Australian Toaster Biscuits to enjoy at home, with butter and honey.

Pay it off quicker

With my mortgage refinance in the works, I figured today would be a good day to share a simple tool for calculating how you can, by paying just a little extra on your monthly mortgage bill, pay it off sooner and save tons of money in the process.  I’ve always rounded up our payment to the nearest hundred dollars – for the past few years, that means just $35 a month extra – but while that seems a rather insignificant amount, over the course of a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage that would knock SIX YEARS off the end of my mortgage period. Six years, and some seventy-thousand dollars in interest payments.

Working on my new mortgage terms, I wanted to see how I can pay it off sooner, like in 20 years instead of 30, and so I pulled up a handy-dandy calculator in Excel that lets you play with the numbers. For me to shave ten years (and save over $80k in interest payments) I would have to send in an extra $300 a month – but on my new terms that is still less than what I was paying so it’s very doable, and would save me so much money…

If you want to give it a try, here’s a link to an Excel worksheet that you can customize with your mortgage balance and interest rate, and lets you play around with other info (like the extra payments): Home Mortgage Calculator in Excel

If you are not an Excel fan, you can do this kind of thing online as well; here’s a link to a very simple one:  Mortgage Payoff Calculator

Free lunch

I love that saying, that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. I think it all depends on your perspective and what you are willing to do / put up with. There are quite a few companies, mostly restaurants, willing to give you free stuff if you look and agree to get their emails from time to time. Granted, their incentive is to get you to spend more money, but that’s not usually a requirement. Quite a few offers are just free and clear. I, for one, have no problem taking them up on these offers.

Birthday clubs, for example. A lot of companies want you to ‘register’ or ‘set up an account’ – in return for tracking your purchases they will send you periodic emails with sales or coupons or whatever.

I pick the ones that I sign up for and only get offers for those companies that I would actually go to. This year, here’s my running tally of free birthday stuff, some of which I’ve already used:

• A free burger at Red Robin. Yum!
• A free steak dinner at The Keg. This is my favorite, and makes a great date night.
• $10 to use at World Market.
• A free slice of pie at Shari’s restaurant.
• Any drink of my choice at Starbucks.
• A Beauty Insider gift from Sephora (often makeup, this year it’s bath products).
• A free scoop of ice cream at Baskin Robbins. They also gave me a $3 coupon to use on an ice cream cake.
• A BOGO coupon for ice cream at Cold Stone.
• A BOGO coupon for Blizzards at Dairy Queen.
• A $.25 coupon from Chicken of the Sea. This is one of the lamer ones, but whatever – I put it in my coupon caddy.

There have probably been other offers that I didn’t pay attention to, but you get the idea. I love birthdays – celebrating another year just makes my day, and doing so with some freebies makes it even better. The food offers are great ‘excuses’ to go out to eat or get a special treat that I might otherwise pass over.

Cupcakes

A plug for a friend of mine, who makes the most scrumptious cupcakes ever – and they are non-dairy (if that matters). This is her picture, which I stole because it’s so beautiful:

And her site: Crazy Cake Recipes

Try one. They are a.ma.zing.

Pig truck lunch

The quest for lunch today brought me past the Maximus Minimus bus – a pig-shaped BBQ truck with awesome food. While the selection is small, that’s never an issue: I get the grilled chicken sandwich with chipotle mayo. mmmmmmm

Twice as good

When you love something, seeing a BOGO for it just adds a certain sparkle to your day.

Soaps on sale!

It’s the perfect time of year for an Inventory Reduction Sale — now through February 12th use coupon code InvRedSale and get 15% off your total order from my site: RainDance Soaps. Some items have very limited quantities, so don’t wait too long!

Sock octopus

When you knit socks, you inevitably need to find a way to launder them. The washing part has been manageable: we toss handmade socks into a mesh lingerie bag and they are washed along with regular laundry (most of the socks I knit are with superwash wool – any socks knit with regular wool are hand-washed. But nobody looks forward to washing socks by hand, so I try to stick with the washable fibers). The problem comes in at the drying stage… I like to air-dry them so they last longer (less fuzzing, no shrinking) but having socks draped all over the house is not exactly tidy.

Enter the sock octopus! Found at IKEA for under $5, this eight-armed gadget will dry sixteen socks if hung singly as shown, or I could hang two per clip and double the sock drying power. Of course, to dry that many at one time would mean that I have some knitting to do…