Happy New Year!

Happy 2024 to all!

I've been trying to find a fun way to express the year.  What I came up with:

(2^10)+(10^3)

The ^ indicates exponent. 2^10=1024, and 10^3=1000. You should be able to do the rest of the calculation.

You may have noticed the blog background is different. New year, new look. I removed my picture. (I'm not sure if I want to include one or not.) I also added a subtitle per the prior post. 😁

Thanks for continuing to follow Mainely Tracy... or Mainely Derf!

Fivety

At work today I saw a check for $50.00.

The check-writer entered "Fivety" on the legal line.

Onety

Twoty

Threety

Fourty

Fivety

Sixty

Seventy

Eightty

Ninety

Tenty

These things amuse me.

😏

A Cool Date

You may have seen that today's date of 12/02/2021 is both a palindrome and an ambigram.

Ignoring the slashes, 12022021 reads the same from both the left and the right.  That's the palindrome part.

The ambigram part makes the most sense when seeing the numbers like they are displayed on an adding machine.  If you look at the numbers upside-down, it reads the same.  Try it!

I love stuff like this. Geeky!  😁

Checkbook Challenge

Dad's checkbook balance has been off for a few months. He knew he had more than his checkbook reflected, so no worries on overdrawing at least.

I told him I would figure it out for him. My plan was to back into what his balance should be over the next couple months.

But then Dad told me that I wouldn't be able to figure out where the errors were made.

So my plan quickly changed to figure out where the errors were made.

And I did it.

He said I couldn't do it, but I did it!

Challenge presented. Challenge met.

Tomorrow is Pythagorean Theorem Day

Tomorrow — Wednesday, 12/16/20 — is Pythagorean Theorem Day!

12-squared + 16-squared = 20-squared.

I have a tee shirt to wear to work tomorrow in order to celebrate.

Happy Pythagorean Theorem Day!!!

🤓

Hooray for Long Weekends

I have a three-day weekend because of the Labor Day holiday on Monday.

I plan to do the three Rs:

• Reading. Hopefully lots of reading. Maybe an Agatha Christie mystery.
• Writing. I'm going to write a letter to send to lawmakers. Time to open the nursing homes back up for family to visit. Enough is enough.
• Arithmetic. Pay a few bills and get my checkbook caught up.

Actually I'm going to do the five Rs... the three above and some much-needed R&R!

Tomorrow!

I am so excited about tomorrow.

It will be 02-02-2020.

The same forward as it is backward.

A palindromic date.

What a wonderful day for people who love numbers. (I am such a person.)

I know a lot of people are excited about tomorrow because it's Super Bowl Sunday. (And maybe some are excited about Groundhog Day.)

Yes, I am looking forward to watching the game.

But I'm not nearly as excited about football as I am about the date.

02-02-2020.

I will enjoy it while it lasts!

🤓

Happy Birthday to Mom

My mom turned 81 years old today!

I told her she could say her age is "9-squared" or "3 to the 4th."

She'll probably just go with saying "81."

But what a fun age, don't you think?!

5678

My fun math trick for this past year was to tell how old I was by holding up both hands, with all fingers extended. For those of you that need further explanation, each hand represents a digit. So, I'm 55.

But tomorrow is my birthday, so I had to come up with a new math trick. Here it is: 5678.

Explanation: 56 = 7 x 8.

Yes, I am a little geeky.

Another "Just Because" Gift

Kim presented me with a gift last night.

It is a celebration of my geekiness, and I love it! 

Thank you, Kim!

Project Complete :)

I completed my big project at work yesterday!  I e-mailed Version 2.0 of my spreadsheet to my colleagues that need to use it.

I already have determined some cosmetic changes that I'd like to make, but I am waiting for more feedback before sending out Version 2.1.  The calculations already work properly, which is really the most important part.

Maybe I will get another Excel project soon. I had great fun with this one!

Project Update

My mind has been distracted all week with the project I was assigned last Friday. (See my post, I Get a Project.)

I worked on the project quite a bit on Monday.

Tuesday morning I showed my preliminary efforts to my supervisor. After we met I made some additional changes.

Tuesday night I hardly slept at all. I couldn't stop thinking about ideas to make my spreadsheet work even better.

Yesterday (Wednesday) morning, I immediately started implementing all of my new ideas. My supervisor had set up a late-afternoon conference call with some other colleagues to introduce my spreadsheet, so I was working under a deadline of sorts. When she came in my office midday, I threw my arms over my monitors and said, "Don't look yet!" (She laughed.)

I had something ready for the conference call, after which I began adding even more enhancements to the spreadsheet. I was at work until after 7PM, but I was able to send out a revised version.

Then today... oh, today... more and more ideas going through my head.... But I couldn't do anything with my ideas because I had to get caught up on some of my regular work.

Tomorrow, however, is a new day. I can hardly wait to get back to my project!

I really am a crazy person!

I Get a Project

I was given a project today at work that is going to be fun for me. It involves building an Excel spreadsheet for my colleagues to use for a specific task.

I love figuring out how to get spreadsheets to do what I need them to do. And I try to make them "slick as snot" to work with. ("Slick as snot" is a technical term that my husband often uses.)

I am truly a geek!

Embracing My Geekness

I am so excited for tomorrow, I can hardly stand it!

You may be asking, "What's so special about Tuesday, August 15, 2017?"

The date of 8/15/17 makes it Pythagorean Theorem* Day!

I bought a special t-shirt for the occasion, and I even got permission to wear it to work. (I work for a technical school, so it wasn't that hard a sell.)  😊

I hope that everyone is at least half as excited as I am.  I love this stuff!


*If the month and day — 8 and 15 — are the lengths of the smaller sides of a right triangle, then the two-digit year — 17 — is the length of the hypotenuse. The Theorem: The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Do the math!

Two Out of Three

1/ Lew's and mine: Done!
2/ Matt's and Emily's: Done!
3/ Dad's and Mom's:

Last Saturday I finished two sets of 2015 income tax returns. I have one more set to go, but I'm still waiting for the information (hint, hint).

Here's my approach to tax return preparation:

• Collect the tax data needed.
• Put data into an Excel spreadsheet.
• Using spreadsheet, calculate what I expect the tax liability to be.
• Put the data into TurboTax.
• If results differ from what I expect, figure out why.
• Electronically file the returns.
• Celebrate!

I love using TurboTax. A lot of the detail carries over from the prior year's file, so it saves a lot of data entry. Plus it's accurate in calculating the tax. When the final result is different from what I expected, I know that I need to do some research. I like to understand what's going on, especially since I have a couple "clients". There's always something to learn.

The word on the street is that I may receive a packet of data this weekend. Once that happens, it won't be long until "Tracy's Tax Return Preparation Service for Select Individuals" will be closed for another season.

(Dad.... you know who you are....)

More Power "Two" Ya!

The Super Bowl is over. Peyton won. Congrats!

After having the "I'm catching a cold" blues on Friday, I had a relatively low-key weekend. I never did go to the conference on Saturday. I did make it to church yesterday and to Emily's birthday lunch. But I never really felt too well. I decided to stay home from work today, which has proven to be a really good thing. Resting and taking it easy is doing a world of good.

I was kind of bummed when I realized I had missed a good blog post idea last week. I don't write on Thursday's (Derf's day!), but I could still have made mention of that day's date: 2/4/16. The month squared was equal to the day. The day squared was equal to the year (the last two digits of the year anyway).

After a time of "bum-ness" I then realized there was another great day coming up: Today!

2/8/16:

• The month multiplied by the day is equal to the year.
• The month raised to the third power equals the day. The month raised to the fourth power equals the year.

I lead a full and fascinating life.  :)

Brief Commentary on "The Job"

I haven't written too much about my new job yet. I just finished my fourth week, so I think it's safe to now say that it's a "keeper."  I'm really enjoying the work and I like all my co-workers. I would go so far as to say that it's kind of fun.... Yes... I like bookkeeping! I like things to add up right, and I like proving that they add up right.

I have learned so much during the past four weeks, and I still have much to learn. But it's going well.

Hooray!

Happy Birthday to Lew!

With Lew's birthday today, we have entered an interesting phase in our marriage.  Until my next birthday, our ages are the following:

Lew = 8 squared
Tracy = 7 squared

(I do hope that I am not the only one that finds this fascinating!)

We went over to Matt, Emily, and Eli's house for Lew's birthday dinner.  The meal was scrumptious, and then we had chocolate cake.  :)

There were balloons, too!!

Eli and Grampa.
It's Grampa's birthday!

My Novel... Or Lack Thereof

I have not worked on my novel since last Wednesday.  My word count has been stuck at 22,657.

In order to meet the NaNoWriMo challenge, I need to be at 50,000 words before the end of the day on November 30.  I won't get anything done tonight, so I effectively have only nine days left.

I just did the math.  I will have to average 3,039 per day in order to make it.

Can I do it?

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....

17,410 Days

A devotional reading that I did today was based on Psalm 90, verse 12:

"Teach us to number each of our days
so that we may grow in wisdom."

I realize that the point is not how many days.  But being a lover of numbers, I was intrigued by the idea of determining my age in days.

I am 17,410 days old as of today.

And if you include the day of my birth, I have been alive on 17,411 days!

What exciting information!  :)