Search Results for: Work from Home Diary

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Work from Home Diary: 7 Months Later

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Good morning everyone, welcome to October and the start of Q4 (aka the Holiday Season).  7 months ago, I started sharing my thoughts regarding working from home in a series of Work from Home Diary posts.  It’s been more than 3 months since my last diary post (Work from Home Diary: Eating in Restaurants & Sunburns at the Beach (SoCal Update)), but I thought it would be fun to share what working from home is like, 7 months later.

First off, Laura and I are very fortunate that our families have stayed healthy and safe throughout the Coronavirus Pandemic and that we are both still employed (*knock on wood*).  Even before I first became aware of COVID-19, I worked from home 2-3 days a week.  Since March 1, I transitioned to working from home 5 days a week.  The transition process was pretty easy since my home office was already set up.  As long as a I have an internet connection and power to charge my laptop, I can work literally anywhere in the world.  Thunder and lightning storms, power outages, and smoke from multiple nearby fires has made me feel a little uneasy the last few months.  Every time I think to myself, “Oh 2020, how can things get worse?” something undoubtedly new pops up to remind me that life is truly unpredictable.

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Work from Home Diary 12: Eating in Restaurants & Sunburns at the Beach (SoCal Update)

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Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  I started sharing my thoughts regarding working from home in a series of Work from Home Diary posts.  Feel free to share your work from home feelings in the comments section below.  I apologize that it’s been more than a month since my last update in early May titled Work from Home Diary 11: My Thoughts on TWG Turning 7 Years Old Today.  For today’s update, it’s not about work, but about my roadtrip from Northern California down to Southern California to visit my parents.  I haven’t seen my parents since the end of February and I had to cancel my last trip down to visit for Mother’s Day Weekend (read PSA: Don’t Cancel Airline Reservations through Citi ThankYou Portal; Cancel Directly with the Airline).  Laura and I have been staying safe the last few months and so have my parents, so we felt like now was a good time to visit.

I’m not sure about the state you live in, but in California, every county has different rules regarding the Coronavirus Pandemic and which businesses can open.  In Sonoma County (where we live), restaurants have only be open for takeout and delivery, but in Orange County (where my parents live), restaurants are open for dine-in, takeout, and delivery.  It’s probably been 3+ months since I last sat in a restaurant and I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much (I got used to eating every meal at home and cooking dinner most nights of the week), but boy was I wrong.

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Work from Home Diary 11: My Thoughts on TWG Turning 7 Years Old Today

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I started sharing my thoughts regarding working from home in a series of Work from Home Diary posts.  Feel free to share your work from home feelings in the comments section below.  For today’s update, I wanted to let you know that Travel with Grant (the blog) turned 7 years old today!  Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 7 years since I started blogging in May 2013.  Back then, I talked about Award Wallet, ITA Matrix, Credit Karma / Credit Sesame, using BA Avios to fly to Hawaii, converting Hawaiian Airlines miles to Hilton points, $500 Visa Gift Cards at Office Depot, and much more.

I thought about sharing my 7 favorite blog posts or top 7 most read blog posts, but thought I would share my thoughts on blogging and my continued goals as a blogger.  Back when I started my blog, I was a ferocious reader of Frequent Miler (still am), Million Miles Secrets, The Points Guy, Frugal Travel Guy, Mile Value, and Travel Blogger Buzz (love you George).  These were blogs that I looked up to and admired for their content and entertainment.  I’m not a full time blogger (and never have been), but the dream of working on a secluded beach with a laptop on my lap and big floppy hat on my head always made me smile.

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Work from Home Diary 10: Jigsaw Puzzles Make Me Happy

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Good afternoon everyone, long time no blog.  I hope you had a great weekend and your week is off to a great start.  I started sharing my thoughts regarding working from home in a series of Work from Home Diary posts.  Feel free to share your work from home feelings in the comments section below.  For today’s update, I wanted to share my obsession with jigsaw puzzles.  When you spend most of the day / week / month inside, there is only so much TV you can watch.

Laura and I received 4 puzzles as Easter gifts so I decided to spend a few hours over the last 2 weeks working on the puzzles.  The first 2 puzzles had 300 pieces and took about 2 hours to finish.  The third puzzle had 500 pieces and took about 3 hours to finish.  I just started the last puzzle which has 1,000 pieces and it should take me 7-10 hours to finish.  I started with the easy 300 piece puzzles and liked the flowers, birds, and butterflies in this puzzle.

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Work from Home Diary 9: My Judgmental Exercise Bike

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  I started sharing my thoughts regarding working from home in a series of Work from Home Diary posts.  Feel free to share your work from home feelings in the comments section below.  For today’s update, I wanted to talk about my judgemental exercise bike.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the strange things I recently purchased on Amazon.  Since we knew we would be staying at home more during the next few weeks, we decided to purchase an exercise bike.  My wife was interested in a Peloton exercise bike, but I talked her down from $2,000 to $200.  After doing some research, we decided to purchase a Stamina Wonder Exercise Bike from Amazon (the price has actually dropped from $200 down to $180).  The Stamina exercise bike did not have all the bells and whistles of top of the line Peloton bikes, but it had pretty good reviews, could be folded and moved easily, and the price was right.  We also purchased a floor mat from Amazon to protect the floor underneath the exercise bike.