The house has a showing scheduled for today and another for tomorrow. Maybe, maybe someone will like it…
I get nervous about not being in town. Last time I checked on the house, the hall way had leaves and dirt that had been tracked in by viewers. People who had viewed the house at the time said that it didn’t show well (scores of 2-3 out of 5). After I was in Tennessee last time and cleaned up the yard and the house, the overall score increased to 3-4.
It’s been warmer now and I know the pond is a been green slimy mess. It needs to be drained, cleaned, and then refilled. (Not something I’ve done before.) I know how turned off I was by the pond when it was pea soup. I can only imagine what impression people looking at the house think when they see the pond. I don’t think algal blooms count as floral decoration.
With the ever-increasing cost of gas, it becomes more cost prohibitive to make the drive to Tennessee. In January, I could spend about $125 for the entire trip. Now that figure is closer to $200 for three tanks of gas and a little food.
The pond is pretty, but it was the one thing that almost made me not want to buy the house. Other people consider it a major selling point. Funny how viewpoints change.
A lady on a mailing list I’m on asked if it was possible to have secondary header that was not used on the first page. In Microsoft Word you can use section breaks to divide page sets. Each section break can then have it’s own header and footer text. If you remove a section break, the header and footer are removed.
You create unique headers and footers in one document in Open Office Writer by using the page styles available in OOWriter. Page styles in Open Office Writer are like creating master pages in InDesign: page features (text, graphics, etc.) are stored in the style. When a page style is active on a page, the style name is highlighted in the Page Styles pane of the Styles and Formatting palette.
Header and footer text associated with a particular style is entered on a page tagged with that style.
The procedure below describes how to create new page styles, apply the page styles, and then modify the headers and footers associated with each page style. You can also use this procedure with existing page styles by starting after after the first section.
Creating New Page Styles
- Open or create a multi-page document.
Tip: To add new pages, use the Manual Break option from the Insert menu. By using this method, you can also change the page number and choose the style for the new page.
- Choose Format > Styles and Formatting to display the Styles and Formatting palette.
- Click the fourth icon in the palette’s toolbar to display the Page Styles palette. You will use this palette to create, modify, and remove pages styles from this document.
- Place your cursor on the first page of the document.
- In the Page Styles palette, right-click in the dialog and choose New… from the pop-up menu.
- On the Page Style dialog, choose the options for the page style and save changes by pressing OK. On the Header and Footer tab, make sure the options are turned on. (Text for the headers and footers is not entered in this dialog.)
Tip: You may or may not want headers or footers active on the first page of a document.
- Repeat the above steps for however many pages styles your document requires.
Adjusting Page Style Flow: Next Style
Let’s say that you want to automatically have these running headers appear on left- and right-facing pages (except for the title page):
- The left-facing page header (defined in the Left Page style) will have the document title and
- The right-facing page header (defined in the Right Page style) will display the page number.
Open Office Writer lets you define the next style that follows a particular style. In this example, the Left Page style would be modified using the Page Style dialog so the Right Page style is chosen as the Next Style.
The Right Page style would also have to be changed so the Next Style drop-down box has Left Page chosen.
Applying Page Styles
- With your cursor on your first page, double-click on the name of the style you would like to apply to the first page.
- If the style has a header turned on, enter content in the header. Once you set a page style on one page, OOWriter automatically applies that same page to each subsequent page that does not have a style assigned.
- Go to the next page in the document. Place your cursor on the page test. On the Page Styles palette, double-click the name of the next page style you wish to use.
- If headers are turned on, the header at the top of the page will be blank. Enter a new header for this page and possibly the next if you are using left-right facing pages with different header/footer content.
- Check the pages in the document. Later pages in the document should have the second page style you created. The first page should still contain the first page header contents. If it does not, return to the Page Styles palette and double-click the name of the first page style you created. The header content will reappear.
You should now be able to place your cursor on a page and apply any of the pages styles to individual pages.
These instructions were written using Open Office Writer 2.3 in X-Windows on the Mac. The steps were also checked in OOWriter 2.4 for Microsoft Windows.
Additional Resources
Trouble? Suggestions?
If you have any trouble with this tutorial, please leave a comment. I’m happy to update the document.
Edit on October 10, 2008. Updates from comments found on the
Open Office Writer forums.
WordPress 2.5 has known to be incompatible with some plugins. Unfortunately, this includes the Aniga plugin I used for my gallery.
I read reviews on WordPress’ forums and plugin sites: NexGEN Gallery came highly recommended. Fully configurable, many options… sounded great.
Now that my photo gallery has been moved over for several months, I’ve discovered one thing I really don’t like about NexGEN: comments aren’t enabled on the galleries. It’s a technical issue with the plugin, not with my own setup.
I can either change my gallery plugin (AGAIN) or can see what happens… I like having the option for people to leave notes on pictures. Moving between gallery plugins can be easy or it can involve completely rearranging the structure of image folders. Not something I want to do right now.
As of tonight, the house has had quite a few viewings after being relisted. Maybe 8 now? Not sure of the exact total. I should be hearing some feedback pretty soon.
I feel nervous about hearing back. I was so excited when I thought that maybe one couple were looking at the house a second time. It means they might have a more serious interest than other people who have viewed the house.
It’s also a little nerve wracking when you aren’t at the house and you don’t know what people are seeing when they walk in. Two friends of mine regularly check up on the pond and the house (for which I’m grateful!). I owe them big time. I never imagined that they might be looking after the house for months like this.
My friend at work keeps telling me I should shift my attitude from being pessimistic to being more positive to attract the right buyers. She’s right.
I have pictures of Isis all over my cube. Her face is the background on my cell phone. I carry several hundred megabytes worth of pictures of her every where I go on my MP3 player. It is almost impossible to express how much I miss her. It’s like having your sanity in another state…
Missing her is part of why the house not selling has been hitting me so hard. All I want is to have everything settled so I can have her here and the house sold. So the Tennessee chapter has closure instead of being in-between. I’m trying really hard to have a good attitude about the house selling but I just want my kid here (when I have the budget to properly get her here, not when I’m financially strapped because of paying mortgage and rent).
I made the mistake once of brining a horse from Tennessee to North Carolina when I didn’t have the budget to support her. I lost my mare because of it. (I’m not going in to details here because it was the most soul-wrenching thing I’ve ever had to do. I might write it up some time, but not now when the memories of those last days with Prize are still present.) I’m not repeating that mistake.
House please sell. Please please please.
Motivated seller, indeed.
The vet visit with Ambush went very well. Laura was right: the vets at the clinic in Hillsborough are excellent.
Overall, Ambush seems to be doing pretty well. He’s lost more weight (12 pounds instead of 13.8), so that needs to be monitored. We checked his urine to make sure he wasn’t in kitosis (nope, good thing). And overall he seems to be healty kitty.
He is going to start the new insulin, Vetsulin, at 1 unit twice per day using U-40 dosing syringes. He was on 5 units twice per day on the PZI using U-100 dosing syringes. (U-100 syringe units are small quantities than the U-40.) I’m not sure what the equivalent doses would be or even how to calculate them.
Laura met us at the clinic so she finally got to meet Ambush. Having Laura as a friend has made my move so much easier. She has been a wealth of information and such a good friend with everything. I feel lucky to have a cat-fanatic friend who completely understands why issues with the cats can be so stressful.
Work’s a breeze. Dealing with kitty behavioral issues keeps me up.
Ambush is schedule to go back to the vet in two weeks.
The house is seeing a lot of activity. Two showings scheduled for today and two more for early next week. One of the people who looked at the house this past week said they might do a second showing today… Maybe they did.
Here’s hoping that I get an offer soon!
The house is seeing a lot of activity this week. Two more viewings today. One was scheduled for last night, but cancelled.
I added pictures to the gallery (click Photography at the top of the page) if you want to see what the house looks like. I finally finished doing that last night.
Now that I have the pictures together, the next step is to make a flyer for posting at the house. Copious free time and all that…
Ambush is low on his insulin. He has approximately three doses of PZI left. I called the vet I visited in January and asked they said they didn’t have any more PZI. In fact, the manufacturer wasn’t producing it any more.
My friend Laura in Hillsborough has a lot of experience with cats and works closely with feral colony management and kitty rescue. She recommended a vet in Hillsborough who she has been using for years. Gotta go with people in the know. 
Ambush’s new vet has recommended that he be transitioned to a different insulin called Vetsulin. Ambush has an appointment for Monday afternoon for a checkup and to pick up the new insulin.
I called my regular vet in Tennessee to let her know about PZI. She hadn’t heard about the manufacturer discontinuing it. She said that Vetsulin is a good treatment. She was glad I called so she can study how a possible shortage/unavailability of PZI might impact her own patients.
Denis McGrath, blogger of Death Things on Sticks and writer of several Blood Ties episodes, posted a video of Mr Olbermann ranting against President Bush. (I would have posted the video here, but had trouble embedding the code.)
Fair warning, before you press play: if you like Bush, you won’t like what Mr Olbermann has to say.
I might be against the war in Iraq, but since we are there, it should be done correctly with our troops given the support they need. And part of that support means competent leadership in the White House. Some one who is oh maybe honorable and has not been on trial for war crimes?
I’m not even going to into all of implications of the Patriot Act, losses of personal freedoms, abuses of power by law enforcement using new “terrorism” investigation methods, and quite a few others.
Suffice it to say that the sound of the man’s voice makes me irate.
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