What did I accomplish this week?
This week has been full of getting things done. I’ve been improving my business’s offerings through automating guest communications. I watched some Unity tutorials on concepts I’ll need to know. And I’ve begun planning for my gardening project.
Monday
Sleep
I really didn’t sleep well last night. I had an impossible time falling asleep. As usual I woke up like an hour before my alarm is set to go off and couldn’t fall back asleep. Of course, the roommate ended up sleeping in, so that gave me some solitude.
Bots
Finally got another new user, but once again, it appears to be a bot. Strangely, this one created an account then did a password reset. I wonder if there’s some kind of exploit that it was trying to use. . . So, I did what I always do and deleted the account. It is possible that this was a real person, and if it is and you’re reading this, “I’m sorry.”
Gardening
So today I went to the local hardware store to see what seeds I could get. They didn’t have quite the selection as I’d like, but I did get about half of what was on my list. So I sent off a list of what I was missing to my brother in the hopes he’ll actually find them and bring me a packet when he comes to visit in a few weeks. Course I’m not ready to do any planting yet, but soon I’ll do more. Still need stuff like pots and soil.
Hmm, after more research I may have made a slight mistake. Not a big deal though. I purchased beefsteak tomato seeds, and I think I should have gotten roma instead. I’m pretty sure there were roma seeds, so I can always go back and get a packet of those when I’m ready. I really want to be able to make my own tomato basil soup from scratch using ingredients I grew myself.
Bank Day (Tuesday)
Tortola
Time for another trip to the bank. As usual I caught the 9:30 ferry and had no issues. During the trip I watched some kids movie that was entertaining. Once on island I headed straight to the Watering Hole for some food and to prepare my banking.
The Bank
Once I finished eating I went to the bank and got in around 10:30. The line took a while, and the fact that I was doing a wire transfer (along with my usual deposit and withdrawal) meant the bank took forever. Of course, it doesn’t help that they no longer do wires in line, so I had to go wait for business services to do it. Because of that I got done around noon and missed the last morning ferry. I had to wait an extra hour and a half to go home.
Gardening
While waiting in line at the bank I spent some time thinking about my gardening project. I’ve updated the page with a list of what I have so far, left the list of what I want, and added a list of supplies I expect to need. Only about a week until I can start growing!
Investing
I’m really having to fight myself to not throw more money into the stock market! So instead I wait and watch. Not much to do unless some stock makes an amazing rise or my dividends pay out (which won’t be until the end of the month). I watch as my portfolio value rises and dips.
Going Home
Because I had so much time to kill I headed back to the Watering Hole for lunch. Got a dark ‘n’ stormy and a manwich (chicken, mozzarella, pesto sandwich). The drink was good and the food was tasty. But even with that I still had to hand around the ferry dock for 45 minutes to get back to Virgin Gorda. And of course it was a different ferry than the one I took to Tortola so my round trip ticket has to wait on the next visit.
Work
Once I made it back with the cash I had to meet up with a contractor to give him money. Luckily the stop was on my way home. Rolled up with some benjamins for the dude and was on my way. I stopped by the leaky pool and didn’t really see any signs of anything. Plumber is still working on it.
Working (Wednesday)
Accounting
Today I caught up on accounting. Not a whole lot to do, but I entered all the recent transactions and such. Made sure yesterday’s banking was all accounted for. Wrote a check. The usual stuff. Of course, turns out that while I was at the bank yesterday another check was dropped off, so that things gonna sit here for a couple weeks until I go to the bank again!
Home
So our furniture is being picked up from the Ikea in San Juan today and dropped off at the boat that will take it here. At least we hope it’ll come here. The boat should leave PR tonight and it might be here tomorrow, or it might be Friday. But then we’ll have to deal with customs and paperwork and stuff. Looks like we might be moving this weekend!
Then I was informed that the boat might not get here till Saturday, which means it’ll be next week before everything clears customs and we can actually move. I mean, it’s possible to move this weekend, but it wouldn’t be the same as having my own furniture and stuff. I’m really looking forward to getting in there.
WordPress
Finally making something new on the company site. I began the process of setting up a pre- and post-stay questionnaire for our guests. I’m using Contact Form 7 plugin to create a way for guests to tell us about their upcoming arrival information and to let us know how we did after their stay. The post-stay questionnaire is basically done at this point. I just need to create the template email and trigger in our rental management system. Then I still have to create the pre-stay form, email, and trigger.
Thursday
Work
Started off with a bit of a workout. Helped the handyman move a queen bed (mattress, box spring, and frame) from our old-old place to our new-new place. Very hot out there. Got so sweaty.
Home
Then, while I was there, I put together the kind bed frame for my incoming bed and put it where it’ll go. Should leave enough room for a dresser at the foot of the bed, holding a television, and a desk next to it. All while being able to navigate around the room. I also got accosted by the puppy from next door. She’s so sweet and happy all the time. I don’t think they give her enough attention.
Gardening
I also did some more planning for my gardening. I think I’m going to build some kind of over-railing clampy thing I can use to hold my hanging tomatoes while making them easy to water. Shouldn’t be too hard to build either, but it would be nice if I had some kind of miter saw. I guess I’ll have to see about buying one, or maybe a table saw. I’ve begun a blog post regarding the build that I’ll post when it’s done.
WordPress
I’ve continued the work on the company site and have now completed the pre-stay questionnaire for our guests. Very similar to the previous one, but with a few different types of components. I also added a date field that I had to play with to get the output in the right format (m/d/y). But so far it is successful. The next step will be to create the template email we’ll be sending out for these two questionnaires in our rental management system.
Work Continued . . .
Well, with the forms done, I’ve now created the automated email to our guests. The email is setup to send itself out thirty days prior to their stay. It contains a link that automatically fills in a few of the fields for them in the form I previously created. Everything looks pretty good and will definitely help us out going forward.
Game Development
I haven’t actually been doing any coding, but I’ve spent some time watching a couple of YouTube videos about implementing a drag and drop system in Unity. Originally the idea was daunting, but after watching those videos things seem much easier than I expected. That playlist will grow as I add more videos for concepts I want to learn.
Pool Day (Friday)
Pools
So, pretty much everything was normal today. My nemesis was a bit more work than normal, tons of leaves. Our old house is still in pretty bad shape so I spent a bit of extra time there working. The owner is coming soon, so I’m actually going to be working on it everyday until it’s good. I put a ton of chlorine in it and vacuumed all over, hopefully it’ll be in better shape soon.
Home
So today we had our handyman move a lot of our stuff over to the new house. Still don’t have our furniture. The paperwork hasn’t even been completed yet, so we gotta get the customs stuff done and the boat has to bring it here and drop it off. Hopefully we’ll have it Monday at the latest.
I also moved most of my stuff today. So all that’s left to move is the stuff I use regularly like my clothes, switch, TV, and computer. Those will be an easy single load. I’m excited to finish moving. I want to be out of here and living there.
Work
I finished the emails and triggers and form for our post guest stay! Tested everything out and looks good. So I turned it on and hopefully everything’s gonna be alright. Another step in the right direction.
Saturday
Pool
Since the owner is coming soon to our old house and the pool is in bad shape I’m working on it everyday. Early morning I went over there and added a ton more chlorine, then vacuumed the crap out of it. It’s still not looking great, but it’s getting better and hopefully it’ll be good by the time the owner gets here.
Warframe
My friend and I have decided to check out Warframe on the Switch. It’s pretty cool, but the systems are a bit complex. I’m enjoying the space ninja thing. Running around and slashing enemies with swords. There’s still a lot of depth I haven’t explored yet and we’re still pretty low level.
Sunday
Pool
Even on my day off I headed down to the house and did some more work. Started early, because I wanted to get it done. Added a ton more chlorine (it had already used all the chlorine I added yesterday). Vacuumed the crap out of it again. I think tomorrow I’m going to have to do a bit more heavy-duty work on the pool there though. Pull the filter and clean it off a couple times.
Warframe
Man, for a six year old game Warframe sure is buggy! Couple of times we picked up low level bounties and when we went to complete them the mobs were like twice the level they should have been. We did run around a bunch and things were fun. So many upgrades all over the place!
Featured Image
This week’s featured image is another sunset. In this one you can actually see the sun! When I looked out over the rock I just knew this was going to be a good picture.
