The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week, and showcase books and things we have received.
Don’t forget to look at my giveaways on the right sidebar. Shades of Wicked giveaway ends tonight!
Sunday, so the Internet cut out again last night. It came up this morning when I was trying to connect to my phone. UGH. I ended up going down some rabbit holes today and so I didn’t get my blog visiting finished until after dinner. It was rainy all day. I went to bed late but still got my section read for a buddy read quickly – great start to the book!
Monday, I’m getting into a better sleep schedule but with going to bed a bit later, I had less sleep. I quickly finished a different ebook before getting to work. The Internet went down again and I had to reboot the router. Would you believe I already have 1,200 posts on Mastodon? Luckily, I got a bunch of work done before my walk with Lulu. After dinner, the Internet was out. AGAIN. My daughter had to do her college homework on her phone.
Tuesday, the Internet is out again. My daughter is up early to go meet and walk the neighbor’s dogs. I’m on the phone with AT&T because no Internet. They told me it was probably out until tomorrow. I went over to meet the dogs too. One likes to walk and the other does not. They are both older. This neighbor is directly across the street. The next door neighbor who also has had multiple Internet problems came out with her dog Marley, and I went over to tell her the latest they told me. Then an AT&T truck showed up and we both went to badger him. The next door neighbor told me they were going to be traveling more for work and they were going to ask my daughter to care for their Goldendoodle Marley. So she may now have 2 pet jobs! So I’m connected thru Bluetooth to my phone. AGAIN. The AT&T guy knocked at 3pm and it was fixed. Hopefully for good now. I had phone calls to make. Then I walked Lulu.
Wednesday, well it’s a great start to the day. No barking and we have Internet. Ashley modified the plugin so the tags are in the title now so they will go to Twitter but also to CommentLuv. I’m take that tradeoff. We went out to walk the dogs. Kayla doesn’t really want to walk so my daughter took her out to the yard first. Then she & Abby and Lulu & I walked up around the corner to the first poop station. The dogs got along well and did their business and the weather was nice. In the afternoon I had a few errands. The broccoli will be ready soon. It’s one of the few vegetables that tolerated the below freezing temps day and night over Christmas.
Thursday, another good start. It’s cloudy but it doesn’t look like it will rain. Lulu & I walked with my daughter & Abby to the corner and then on to the longer route without them. This way I got some audiobook listening and to see the swans. When did KU go from 10 borrows to 20? I called or a second day to get out BCBS rewards cards. It turns out my daughter’s were on her account, they just had a new sign in for it.
Friday, I decided to move a bunch of things around with my blog posts. I have some February audio ARCs more than January ones. It’s a bit chilly so I took Lulu on a short walk, then went to Harris Teeter to pick up my daughter’s Rx.
Saturday, today is even chillier. I’m trying a new soup recipe, French onion which is made in a crockpot. I wrote a few reviews. I got my daughter some alpaca fingerless mittens and then she got herself 2 jewelry presents now that she has spending money.
How do I do it?
I’ve been researching and trying different apps to auto share my blog posts directly to Facebook, Twitter and Mastodon. I have been using dlvr.it to autoshare to Facebook and Twitter (@BooksofMyHeart). I used IFTTT to go to my personal Twitter (@Northwomn). then a crossposter to go to Mastodon from both Twitter accounts.
Now dlvr.it will directly autoshare to Mastodon eliminating a step (the crossposter). However, dlvr.it only will do 2 social accounts for free. I already have Facebook and Twitter. So I can change over to using IFTTT for the Twitter so that dlvr.it can go direct to Mastodon. I’m going to wait a bit since the current setup is working, but I would like to share direct to Mastodon instead of going through Twitter. I keep hoping IFTTT gets an app to go from RSS feed to Mastodon.
If you have any tips for me, please comment.
Things I Learned This Week:
OK if I’m asking for help, I’m also going to share the cool things I learn. You may already know them but hopefully it will help someone.
So I added an SEO plugin and it’s interesting. The one I have access to thru UBB is Yoast SEO. I’m just barely starting to figure it out. I originally looked at it as a possible solution to modifying my RSS Feed but the one which does that is All In One SEO.
Anyway, the only thing I’ve looked at so far really is Readability. We get negatives in it because our “word complexity” may be too much for a larger audience. In other words, our vocabulary is too difficult for the general population. Also our sentences and paragraphs are sometimes too long. Yes but our audience is readers and they can handle it!
Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality. These are the exciting ARCs I received this week (If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry):
My appreciation is to Berkley Romance, MacMillan Audio.
(If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry)
NOTHING.
Now the really scary one. This is all the Kindle and Audible freebies I grabbed this past week. You can see why I need to do Thrifty Thursday to be sure I read a few at least one each month.
I really meant to cut back on freebies BUT they are free so I guess that won’t be happening.
I’m not including things like reviews posted or upcoming as they are always in the right sidebar. And, my challenge status is also there.
Anne
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
Friend or follow me at Goodreads.
Oo I have alpaca fingerless gloves that I bought 7 years ago, and I still wear them. I love mine! And that necklace is beautiful!
Ugh I HATE when my internet goes out!
I love the alpaca gloves. I’d like to get a pair except honestly I’d never wear them. But she will. yes, I’m glad to have Internet for the rest of the week.
Sorry about your internet problems, that is the worst! We’ve had surprisingly good luck so far with internet up in the mountains. And there have been a couple of big storms and high winds. Fingers crossed for both of us it holds up!
yes I really hope we keep Internet up for awhile now without issues. Thanks Tammy. It’s shocking how much I use it for so many things.
The fingerless gloves are pretty! Sorry about the internet issues, that is so frustrating. I want to read Happy Place. Enjoy your books this week.
Thank you Naida. I love the feel of the gloves but I wouldn’t wear them but she will. Alpaca is really ideal being so light weight and soft too. Internet’s been working since Tuesday so yay.
Internet problems are awful! And yet we did without it when I was a teenager! How far we went Anne! PS You got Emily Henry’s book!!!!
IKR?? I lived half my life without Internet. My daughter has always had it. I use it for so many things. It amazes me that I can have a convo with people almost anywhere in the world and fairly quickly too.
I hope this really does solve the internet issues! You have been having it for weeks and I can’t imagine why ATT was struggling to keep it working. that seems crazy to me!
Thanks Samantha. It started Christmas weekend so yes 3 weeks. The freezing cold weather did some kind of damage and he replaced the cable, so I hope it’s good now.
I made the fatal mistake of forgetting to bring in some plants or cover them when we had an unusual hard freeze. Lost all of them. Guess I’ll be starting over when I get going on my yard projects.
yes Laura, it was the end of the snow peas but the broccoli has survived.
O gosh, don´t remind me of that company. My Au-Pair mom was so happy a few years ago when she finally could get out of her AT&T contract. How did we survive our teenage years without a cellphone, internet, and all the other technical stuff we use now without even thinking about it *lol* I never wore Alpaca gloves but I imagine that they feel soft and smooth. They look pretty for sure.
Thank you Vi. It’s been working so I hope it continues. For now, it is the only choice for fiber Internet but Google is coming. Alpaca is just so lovely. I’d get a pair but I would never wear them. I’m better off with socks because I actually wear them.
Those alpaca mittens look warm and pretty and I love that butterfly necklace. Internet outages are such a pain! We have a backup hotspot for when ours goes out. Mostly because my husband can’t go without internet due to his fantasy football! LOL. I’m going to have to try Mastadon, maybe this week I’ll have a look. into. it. Give Lulu a hug for me (don’t think I didn’t notice that you didn’t post a photo of her this week!)
Thanks Wendy! I love the feel of the alpaca but I’d never wear them. Lulu is actually on the edge of that photo on the couch there with her Peggy Panda. lol yes we can’t stand not to have Internet now, although I had half my life without it. My daughter is enjoying her prizes. Because of your interests I suggest romancelandia.club as a server for you on Mastodon.
Wow, it’s been too long since I have stopped in. I’m glad to see you are keeping busy. It’s cold here, in the 40s and I am counting the days until spring comes. 🙂
40s is cold! It’s warmer than that here unless you mean at night. Here it is 50-60 daytime and 30-40 at night. Except the Christmas weekend didn’t get above 30 day or night.
For auto posting your blog posts to Mastodon get Mastodon Autopost https://wordpress.org/plugins/autopost-to-mastodon/ … It will directly share your posts no added steps no need for dlvr.it or IFTTT.
WOW you picked up a lot of freebies this month. Happy Reading!
Thank you Angela! lol Those freebies are only for this WEEK.
Sounds like another busy week! Not having internet is so annoying! Fortunately, your daughter isn’t back to classes yet, right? The walking dogs, that live close by as well, is such a great gig! I tried to sign up on dlvr, but I always have trouble trying to remember how to set up my account since it isn’t a WordPress exactly. I might figure it out at some point. Need to try while I’ve got a day off this week to work on that! Hope you have a good week with no more internet issues!
Thanks Lisa. yes my daughter was back at classes Jan 5. But it’s been good since that last repair. It’s been a lot of little fiddling to get things where I want them.
I hope the Internet stays up now! Isn’t it funny how attached to it we get? And yay for Mastodon. I thought seriously about starting an account when all the Twitter stuff started.
Crock pot French onion soup sounds so good. I might have to run down some soup now 🙂
Thanks Greg. I might have some leftover soup for lunch today. Thankfully the Internet has been good since last week’s fix, which improves my stress level a lot. I do use it all the time. It’s how I found this soup recipe.
Our internet was going down with regularity last summer, but they finally got it consistently up so I get how frustrating last week must have been for you. Glad you have it back. Sounds like you and Ashley figured out some great helps for posting.
Yay for two dog gigs for your daughter.
Glad your broccoli survived the freeze.
I really dropped the ball on getting out on my walks last week. I need to to better this week. At least I was active with some of my clearing out and resorting going on.
Have a good week, Anne!
Thanks Sophia! I have a feeling you keep really busy all the time. The dog gigs are really good for her to get out and walk more too. I’m so glad to have the Internet working regularly now.
Sorry to hear about the internet problems. My internet and power went out for 3 days a couple of months ago and it was a real pain in the rear.
Thank you Mary. Basic utilities are BASIC necessities. I’m so glad things have been working since the fix.
Internet issues are so frustrating! Hope yours is fixed for good. I don’t know anything about Mastadon. Is is a potential replacement for Twitter? I guess I should look into that. I’m looking forward to the new Orphan X!
Thank you Rachel. I’ll probably get started on The Last Orphan this week. I’m so worried for Evan. The Internet has been working since the fix. Mastodon is a Twitter replacement. It’s different because there are many, many servers. For my book stuff I am on @romancelandia.club although some scifi authors are on another one. I think maybe it’s wandering.shop? You can follow people on all servers though it may be harder to find people not on your server.
Internet outages are such a pain! Hopefully, AT&T has fixed the problem for good, and you won’t have to deal with using your phone as a hotspot anymore.
I really appreciate the links to the various apps you use to autopost. I am going to check them out, especially if they can post to my blog’s FB page instead of to my personal page. I haven’t signed up for Mastodon yet. TBH, I feel overextended already, when it comes to the social side of blogging. It eats up time I would rather spend on reading, writing, and crafting. So finding some plugins or apps that I can use to auto-crosspost would be terrific.
Robin knit me some alpaca fingerless gloves several years ago, and I love them. So warm and cozy!
Thank you Kara. I ordered her some more of the fingerless mittens because she loves them so much. The Internet has been working since fixed and I hope it stays that way. I really use it pretty much all the time.
I have spent many hours trying to figure various things out so I am sharing what I know. It may not fit everyone’s needs. But yes they can post to your blog page rather than your personal one. You just have to be logged into the accounts you want to connect up for the one time connection. I chose to use my RSS feed to do the autoshare thru the apps.
Your post is the second time today I’ve seen the Horowitz Orphan book. I have the first one on my shelf and really MUST read it. Hope your internet quits being so contrary! We don’t always realize how much we rely on it these days. Have a terrific week and I hope the internet gods are with you.
Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
Thanks so much Terrie. Yes the Internet has been good now since the repair. I read the whole Orphan X series in January last year and I loved it. It kept me on edge.
I didn’t understand all the talk in the middle, LOL. I don’t have my posts automatically shared anywhere, although I can see how it would be beneficial. I also don’t have the best platform. I haven’t been getting free books lately but went crazy this week…at least they are free 🙂
If you have RSS feed it is pretty easy to set up auto share your blog posts to Facebook, Twitter or Mastodon or Tumblr or other social media accounts thru some apps.
The internet would have made me insane! Actually it would have been a big problem with work, much as it was for your daughter with school. I have a hotspot — not just my phone but an actual hotspot — that I use when internet goes down because the security protocols for work make my phone not work. I’m glad it’s fixed, did they ever explain what the problem is?
Good for your daughter – two dog walking jobs! I see she’s already enjoying the money with some treats <3 I hope it continues to go well for her.
Have a great week!
Thank you Berls. yes no Internet is a big problem for us, at least it really makes us out of sorts. They said the extended below freezing weather made a fiber cable expand and contract and break, they replaced the cable finally. I’m glad to have her reward herself with the jewelry. She normally is so undemanding. She did ask my permission even and also how I thought she should spend her money between savings, spending and helping with household costs.
I would have lost my mind by now with all of the internet problems you have had. I hope that they finally have it fixed for you. I hope that the dog-sitting goes well. Nice new reads! I think that you are the first person that I have seen that has been approved for Happy Place. Enjoy! I hope that you have a fantastic week!
Thank you Carole. I was definitely pissy about the Internet problems which now seem fixed. I’m glad my daughter has a part-time job to give her more balance.
Sounds like you have been having wet weather too. I am sorry your internet keeps going out. That would be annoying. I’m listening to the rain come down outside. It hasn’t rained as much today, but we’ve still gotten quite a bit. My posts used to automatically post to FB, but then they stopped for some reason. I need to find a new way to make that happen. I have been trying to do it manually, but I forget more often than not. I’ll have to look into dlvr.it.
Happy Place! I want to read that one. I hope you like it when you get to it as well as your other books!
Have a great week, Anne!
Thank you Wendy. yes the Internet has been working. Either dlvr.it or IFTTT should work fine. I take the blog post from the RSS feed to have it autoshare. I certainly prefer the autoshare to doing everything manually. I use Buffer for my manual shares of sales and deals and freebies.
I use the Jetpack plugin to auto share although to Twitter and Facebook and it works well. I don’t have to do anything but make the connections to these accounts intially. Good luck and have a wonderful week ahead.
yes thank you Jodie. I used Jetpack that way for the past 5 years but now they charge if I have more than 30 shares a month so I had to find another free option.
Missing sweet Lulu!
We are like minded this week with the Emily Henry & Gregg Horowitz books. I’m enjoying the Orphan X series.
What’s the deal with AT&T and your Internet outages? That’s got to be a real pain. Have a great reading week, Anne💜
Thank you Jonetta. The Internet appears to finally be fixed. Lulu is actually in the photo with the fingerless mitts. lol You can just barely see her paws and her toys on the sofa. I am SO worried for Evan.
I still haven’t messed around with my auto-sharing features. And even though Jetpack says 30 shares for free, I think I had 10 or less this past month. I would auto-share one day and then didn’t for 3 or 4 days. Angela is using a plug-in for Mastodon sharing and I plan to try that. I just need to spend some time to do it but I’m so worried I’ll mess up my blog. I am not wordpress/blog savvy and if things go sideways, I’m in trouble. I won’t know how to fix it.
I hear you Jen. That’s why I let Ashley do any of my plugin type things and pay to have her host because she deals with all the updates and backups. The apps of dlvr.it and IFTTT run outside of the blog and just read the RSS feed so there is no way for them to mess up your blog. That’s why I chose to use them. They will likely work even if there are updates where a plugin may not. Dlvr.it only allow 2 channels and technically I have 5 personal Twitter, blog Twitter, Blog facebook and blog Mastodon, personal Mastodon. I currently am using dlvr.it for blog FB and Twitter. I use IFTTT for personal. Then the crossposter for Mastodon. I may move more over to IFTTT though so I can use dlvr.it just for Mastodon, rather than using the crossposter. I keep hoping IFTTT will get a RSS feed to Mastodon app.
The alpaca fingerless gloves look amazing and I love her necklace choice! It’s so pretty. So frustrating about the internet. Hopefully it behaves itself this week. Have a great week!
Thankfully the Internet has behaved this week. The necklace and gloves have been worn often now. We even ordered more of the gloves.
Beautiful necklace.
My daughter loves it.
I’m so glad to hear you got your internet fixed FINALLY. Those AT&T bast*rds. They take forever sometimes. Nice to hear that the dogs got along for the walkies. 🙂
Thank you. I am very grateful to have consistent Internet this week. The dogs continue to do well. It rained yesterday so I didn’t take Lulu along with my daughter and Abby. She sat by the door and whined. I was like c’mon, you know you hate the rain.
I hope your internet problems are solved! My internet seems to go out every few days. It usually comes back on its own, so I just use it as an excuse to read. 🙂
yes, finally this week has been steady Internet. I read a lot of hours but I use the Internet to pay bills, order supplies, look up videos on how to replace parts in the vacuum and all sorts of stuff. I can do the videos on my phone but they’re so small then.
How frustrating with the internet issues. Glad it got fixed. The soup sounds delicious. I tried a new soup recipe last week and it turned out to be a keeper (always a bonus). Love the fingerless gloves – so pretty! Hope your week has been going well, Anne!
Thank you Tanya. I’m glad the Internet has been working this week. We liked the fingerless mitts so much we ordered two more pairs. My daughter has been wearing them every day.
Love your daughter’s new jewelry. Wish I could give you advice about the social media sharing thing, but I have nothing good to give. I use dlvr.it, but I don’t have it post everywhere. Hope you find a good solution!
yes I have liked dlvr.it. It only allows 2 social channels which are FB and Twitter. I like the jewelry too.