I’ve been tracking my mileage using a Google spreadsheet since March. I actually had it in Excel prior to that, but quit it for a few weeks and decided to start again from scratch. I was just looking at the spreadsheet and was actually pretty proud of it. I’ve got a second sheet that tracks all the non-fuel costs (oil changes, tires, etc…) and then I calculate the cost per mile to drive the car too.

I know… I know… but it’s fun!! And once it’s set up, it only takes about a minute’s worth of effort to enter the date/odometer/gallons/cost info from the fuel receipt. The sheet does the rest!

The other thing I’ve been doing lately on my lunch hours, is editing my dad’s book. I’ve been through it once or twice before for rough passes, and this time I’m going through with a fine-toothed comb. I hope to have it ready to publish w/in the next month or two. Fun!! It’s a pretty good story too. And I’m using Google Documents instead of Word or Pages. 🙂

A couple of the best similes I read today (dad liked similes):

“Melissa vanished like a five point lead in overtime and left only a vacuum which sucked up the remnants of Hank’s life…”

“He developed an unhealthy pallor, which he attempted to disguise with a beard. It was spectacularly unsuccessful, causing him to look, by the holidays, like an emaciated Santa with an advanced gastrointestinal disorder.”

“Hank doubted this strongly since it appeared Mr. Eugene Brown was as dead as the Cleveland Browns Super Bowl hopes.”

And… my favorite from the first 5 chapters so far…

“The sky was like melted lead, dripping down to meet the brown flat Ohio horizon.”