NKM photos: January 2014

Here is a cool Siri tip I just ran across and wanted to share.
Siri is good for adding a quick reminder to do something, or get something or, oh, I don't know, remember something ☺

Aaanyway, that's all well and good, if you cram everything into your reminders list. I happen to have multiple lists, like the Reminders list, a Home tasks list, a Packing list for travel, a Car Maintenance list, a Home Maintenance list...you get the idea--list overload. I have a slight organizational problem, but let's not get into that now.

So I could never quite figure out how to have Siri add reminders to a specific list. I tried several different ways to phrase my request only to have Siri get my request but not the destination. Here's an example:

Me: Remind me to create a blog post about reminders and save it to my NKMphotos List.
Siri: Here's your request:
"Remind me to create a blog post about reminders and save it to my NKMphotos List"
Shall I add it now?
Me: Never mind (if I say yes here it will just go to my default Reminder list--NOT what I wanted)

I tried several variations of this, but basically got nowhere. I ended up arguing with Siri and then she would give smart-allecky answers... Well, let's just say it got pretty heated. I'm totally kidding here, of course.

So, I did what anyone would do when they need to find out stuff: Google IT! - Duh! I found several answers that pretty much describe the same method. I tried it and it worked (woohoo). The trick is to do it as a two step process. Here's how:

Me: "Remind me to create a blog post about adding reminders to lists."
Siri: "Ok, here's your reminder. (it will show the reminder test) Shall I create it?"
Me: "Put it on my NKMphotos list"
Siri: "Ok, I can add this to your 'NKMphotos' list in Reminders. Shall I create it?", and the reminder is displayed again.
Me: "Yes"
Siri: "Ok, I've added it."

Check your list and...wait for it...Yesss...it's there! Problem solved.

If you have any similar 'DUH' tips, I'd love to hear them, so why not share it in the Comments?

Well, it's been quite some time since my last blog post. So, to start off the new year, I am determined (not using the R-word here) to make more frequent posts. Not that I didn't have anything to share--it's just so much easier to use other Social Networking methods, like Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, and my new favorite, Flipboard.
During one of my recent trips to Pinterest I saw a great idea for a DIY sofa table using aged boards repurposed from other furniture. I forgot to pint it or even like it, so I don't have the exact pin anymore (grrr), but if you do a search on DIY sofa tables, you'll come up with a ton of great ideas. But, since I didn't have any old furniture to repurpose, I came up with something else using--wait for it--repurposed Ikea shelving!

After measuring the walls and deciding how wide I wanted the shelves, I waited patiently (well, maybe not so patiently) for our next trip to Ikea.

...Insert Jeopardy Music here...

I love these shelves, since you can cut them to size and the brackets will hide the cuts. Once I had the shelves up on the wall, I added a shelf vertically on each side, with one end-bracket on the bottom and a small angle bracket at the top.

And that's all there is to it--tadaa, instant sofa table. OK, maybe not instant. It did take a few hours to do because, you know

a. moving the corner-sofa (with pull-out bed) off the wall to make room to work was a bit cumbersome

b. measuring everything three times because I was not going to go driving a couple of hours back to Ikea to get more shelves, and

c. Umm, I can't work quite as fast as I used to (no wisecracks about age, please)

I decided not to try to figure out how to do the corner, partly because I didn't want to make a big project out of it. So I left about a foot from the corners free and added a nice large vase and added some decorative flora.