Q&A | Piano music, auto-feeders, photo books, + more

I’ve been enjoying hearing your Instagram posts playing the piano. I’ve gotten in a rut with my piano music and wondered if you would consider a blog post sharing some of your favourite piano music/books to play through?

Ahh, that all depends what mood I’m in.

Generally, I’m looking for something that’s not too hard to play, though; when I’m playing just for fun, I’m not trying to learn a college-level classical piece!

Sometimes I pull out soundtrack books (I like Pearl Harbor and The Piano!), sometimes I pull out classical pieces that I’ve learned in the past, and I’ve mentioned recently that I downloaded Gibran Alcocer’s collection of Ideas.

Show tunes can be fun (and usually pretty easy) to play.

I also have a couple of books that are collections of classical music from various eras, and those are nice because I can thumb through and pick out whatever era I’m in the mood for.

I don’t know what level you play at, but if you want something quite easy, Martha Mier and Margaret Goldston both wrote a series of student books in a romantic style, and those are handy if you want a low-effort, high-reward session.

(my piano students loved those books!)

Is there a way to get notified when someone responds to my comment?

-Maureen

Sadly, no. There were some plugins for this back in earlier days of blogging, but since comment sections on most blogs have died down, the relevant plugins have not been updated for newer versions of WordPress.

In short, I’d love to have that functionality, but I don’t know of a way to do it, other than having someone build something custom for me.

But, here is a workaround to reduce scrolling time when you look for responses: you can use your browser’s search function. On Windows, if you are on a webpage, you can just hit ctrl-F and a little search box will come up.

Then you can type in your name, and you’ll be taken to that spot on the webpage.

You can use the little arrows to go to the next instance of that word.

I know that’s not ideal, but hey, it will at least take you to your own comment a little faster.

I believe you can hit “Command-F” on Macs to get the same search feature.

I remember reading a comment on your recent DITL about cat feeding. Do you recommend an automatic feeder? I was thinking it would be great for both weight management and small weekend trips, cutting down on needing a cat sitter.

-Andrea

Yes! This has been the only surefire way we’ve been able to get Shelley to a healthy weight. She was overweight when we adopted her, and without the feeder, we never managed to be consistent enough with her feeding amounts to get her to lose weight.

I think for a small weekend trip, it would be very helpful too, as long as you have sufficient water set up as well.

This is the one we’ve had for several years, and so far I have no complaints about it.

Are you interested in continuing your education after nursing school?

-T

Well, I definitely will get my bachelor’s degree once I have my R.N. (which is just an associate’s degree at my school.) I can do that part-time while I’m working, though, and it’s likely that my hospital will help pay for that.

Beyond a bachelor’s? I don’t know. Right now, there’s still a lot of school standing between me and a bachelor’s!

But perhaps down the road, I will consider getting a master’s degree so that I can teach in a nursing school.

One step at a time, though. Right now, my focus is on getting through to next May. 😉

Do you still like AdoramaPix for photo books? The most recent blog post that came up when I searched your blog for photo book was from 2018 and featured AdoramaPix.

Ahahahah, well….my life really went off the rails in 2018, and never quite got back on track.

At least, not on the old track!

While I am in a new normal now (and I like my new normal so much!!), it’s not really a kind of life that lends itself to making family photo albums.

So, all of that is to say that I have not used any photo-book-making service in quite some time, and I honestly don’t know if I will.

However, AdoramaPix (now named Printique) is still an elite photo-printing service, and if I were going to make a photo book, they are 100% the company I’d go with.

(Not affiliated! I just think my books from them are so beautiful.)

All that said, their books are definitely not the cheapest option out there, so if super-high print quality doesn’t matter to you, a Printique book may not be worth it to you.

Readers, do you have a good current photo book suggestion?

And feel free to chime in on any of the other questions as well.