What I Buy Wednesday

Well, I was about ready to say that I didn't buy anything this week. But then I remembered that the pillows that I bought from Walmart last week, came in. I love them!!

I got two of these. They were $14.00 each---just for the covers---plus free shipping. Not worth my time or gas to drive to the store!! I put the old pillows inside.

I just bought one of these for $18.00 but that's the whole pillow---not just the cover. I'll have to take a picture of them on the couch so you can see how they look. I love the texture they provide.

So now, I'm going to talk about something I got for free. Between my blog, the gift of Storyworth that the girls gave me for my birthday, and my scrapbook journaling, I do a lot of writing. A. Lot! I do love it! And, I'm pretty good at grammar and spelling, but it's punctuation that can trip me up. I'm always a little confused about when the punctuation goes inside or outside of quotes or parenthesis. So, I do what I always do---consult the internet. 

This past week, I discovered a free program called Grammarly. I downloaded it and I was off! I had no idea that it was paying attention to what I was doing and writing. After a week, I got a report. I was surprised. And then I was excited. It's really pretty amazing. I know---they say we're being tracked every which way. This shows that it's true. But hey, if they want to guess things about me based on my grammar, more power to them! Whoever "them" are!

Anyway, here's the report:

Apparently, I typed 45,110 words. I'm assuming they even counted the "a's, ands the"--every little word. Holy smokes! That's a lot of words!!! Then the report goes even further than that. It goes on the say that I was more productive than 95% of other Grammarly users. And, I was more accurate than 87% of them! Okay, that disappoints me a little. I'm used to getting scores in the 90's. I'll have to work on that. I guess I'm not quite as accurate as I've prided myself to be!

The last statistic just blows me away. Not to brag, but I always considered that I have a pretty good vocabulary. But, 99% more unique words than other users?? Wow! That's pretty good if I do say so myself! Plus, Grammarly actually COUNTED those unique words! 7,741!! What? I didn't even know I knew 7,741 unique words. Hmmm, I wonder if "unique" is one of them? 

They awarded me some sort of achievement award. I'm not really sure what that's all about. I didn't even really read about it. There were some other statistics. We'll see where it all goes. I'm finding it kind of interesting. Of course they want me to upgrade to a "premium" account. Don't know what it costs. Don't care. It's doing exactly what I need it to do just the way it is. For free! I can't even imagine what else it could do for me---maybe actually re-write everything I write to make it sound more professional or something. But, hey, with all the unique words I'm using, I'd say it's professional enough already!

I've always loved writing and pride myself on being pretty good with grammar and spelling. They were my best subjects in school. But, I did learn something this week. There was one thing that kept coming up consistently as a mistake. When I write a string of things, like, "She bought milk, eggs, bread and fruit"--it keeps coming up as a mistake. It's supposed to be: "She bought milk, eggs, bread, and fruit"--a comma before the "and." Honestly, I grew up thinking both ways were correct. But not according to Grammarly. You can bet I won't be making that mistake anymore. Actually, this is going to be really good for me. I love learning new things. Now I can perfect my grammar and spelling. That's a win-win! Ooops, I made another mistake. I wrote that "win win." Grammarly corrected me to "win-win!" 

Okay, maybe it's going to get annoying! Sometimes I write things wrong on purpose for effect. Like, A. Lot!

Can't wait to see what next week brings. And to think it's FREE! Gotta' love that!