This weekend is the California International Marathon (CIM) here in Sacramento, the marathon I ran last year. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year, and I am having a little FOMO, if I am honest. I’ll be sharing some more belated thoughts on my first marathon next week, but on Sunday, I’ll be going for a nice 10k morning run, and then I’ll be spectating and cheering on my fellow runners who will be taking on the distance. It looks like it will be a chilly, but dry race day again (just like last year).
* * *
I met up with two of my former coworkers for a Happy Hour earlier this week, and it was great to see them again after a few months. I’ve known them for 20 years, and it’s just comfortable to be around them. It still feels strange that they’re gone from the office. I asked them about their decision to leave the federal workforce (they both seemed happy with the decision), and they asked me in turn how I felt about staying. I don’t think I gave myself the option to even think about leaving.
* * *
I’ll be heading out for a field trip next week and will be gone from Monday til Friday. The fieldwork was originally supposed to happen in October (but we were shut down), then we tried to go out in November, but the weather was so bad (= wet) that we had to postpone again, and so this is the third attempt (and it looks likely to happen this time). I am going out with one of my favorite colleagues (who is still around!), and it should be a fun trip, but I also wish it didn’t have to be during the holiday season. The time is so short as it is, the days are short (because of limited daylight hours), and I’d rather be at home in front of my fireplace in the evenings, instead of a hotel somewhere, but I’ll make the best of it.
* * *
Just a friendly reminder: if you signed up for the Secret SANta Swap, please plan to send your package in the next few days! I am so excited for each of you to get a little surprise in the mail this holiday season!
* * *
I’ll leave you with another iPhone hack. Michelle asked if I had any hacks for automatically filling out the name, email & website in the comment form? And yes, I do! Commenting on blogs from your phone is a pain in the bu**, but I know many people read blogs on their phone (including me). You can make the whole experience a little bit more user-friendly if you set up shortcuts for your name, email, and URL.
Let me show you:
You go to Settings > General > Keyboard and then scroll down to Text Replacement
There, you create shortcuts for your name, email, and URL, like so
and you do this for each shortcut that you want to set up.
You can use any shortcut you like, but I set mine to xx, yy, and zz because those are short and not likely to be used for anything else.
So now, when you get to the comment section of a blog, and you need to fill in your info, you can just type xx and hit space, and it will turn it into your “name”, and so forth. (Also works on the iPad btw.)
Did you know this hack? What are your weekend plans?
Elisabeth
December 6, 2025 at 12:28 amI did not know this hack. I hate commenting from my phone and might be too set in my ways to start now, but this makes it so much more reasonable in terms of the process!!
Also, I have been using the Shortcut/Resize hack you recently posted and it is amazing!
San
December 6, 2025 at 10:16 amI am so glad the hacks are useful. Honestly, I prefer to comment on blogs on my computer (still), but it’s nice to have the option if I am not near a computer to make commenting a little easier. BTW, voice to text, for the actual comment, is a lifesaver too!
Sarah
December 6, 2025 at 4:44 amGreat hack! I aspire to be someone who goes on a 10K run most days– working my way up from 5K :)
San
December 6, 2025 at 10:17 amYou’re doing the work, Sarah. Soon you won’t be leaving the house for less than 10 k LOL
Nicole MacPherson
December 6, 2025 at 6:18 amI didn’t know that hack! That’s very helpful. I can never comment from my phone, maybe this will be the key for me.
San
December 6, 2025 at 10:17 amI still prefer commenting from a computer, but in a pinch, these little hacks can be useful ;) Also. voice to text. Just sayin.
J
December 6, 2025 at 7:56 amYou know, I use auto inserts ALL THE TIME at work, and it never occurred to me to use them IRL. Excellent.
I hope your 10K goes well, and I’m glad you were able to get together with some old coworkers. Good luck on your field work, I hope it is fruitful and interesting.
J
December 6, 2025 at 7:59 amOK, I just set mine up, and I’m testing it here. No need to set up a replacement for J, since it’s so short. EXCELLENT! Thank you.
San
December 6, 2025 at 10:17 amYay, so glad it’s working for you, Julie! ;)
Suzanne
December 6, 2025 at 11:17 amThis is an amazing hack, San! Thank you!!!!
Kim
December 6, 2025 at 2:07 pmI’d be feeling FOMO on the year anni too! I hope you have a good 10K run.
We had a bunch of old coworkers come in this week and the ones who weren’t retirement age and left are wishing they hadn’t. One was even asing about coming back :( I am glad your friends are feeling better about it! I never considered leaving either. I have my 17 year anniversary Monday… yay?
Ooo that is a good hack! I use that for misspellings iPhone does!
Melissa
December 6, 2025 at 6:33 pmI love spectating at marathons. I’m sure you’ll have a blast! That must have been an interesting meeting up with your former colleagues. I didn’t know that hack, although I don’t usually comment when i’m on my phone.
Daria
December 7, 2025 at 4:09 amThat is a great hack!!!
On leaving the current field, be it federal or state (mine), or any other. I admit, I have thoughts of leaving teaching many times. There are days when you feel helpless, since you cannot force the pencil into a students’s hand, you cannot open their brain and insert knowledge into it, all you can do is deliver good lessons and hope- HOPE- the I formation sticks. I have some students (not all!) that prefer to just sit there, doing very little. And that is discouraging.
But then there are days when students are learning, and taking risks with the language, and asking questions and extending the material and it’s, like, amazing.
Plus, not to be materialistic, but state employment has good benefits, good salary, stability (still but who knows), and plentiful time off. I don’t think I can work in a job that doesn’t have two months off (although we don’t get paid). Spoilt.
ernie
December 7, 2025 at 6:50 amI love that you met up with your coworkers, and I especially appreciate how you said you feel comfortable with them. That’s amazing and not at all surprising after working with someone for 20 years. I’ve never worked in a job that long, but my guess is those people feel like family.
I did not know that hack. I hope I can figure it out, because it seems very helpful.
Michelle G.
December 7, 2025 at 6:57 amThank you so much for the awesome hack, San! I will definitely be using it! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since your marathon. I remember reading your training posts and thinking how amazing it was.
Stephany
December 9, 2025 at 7:45 pmThat’s such a great hack! Since I do most of my blog reading/commenting from my computer, I found an extension I could add to Google Chrome to do the same shortcuts on my laptop. Woohoo! You’re killing it with all the great hacks lately.
Lisa's Yarns
December 11, 2025 at 6:55 amThat is a great hack! 90% of my commenting is done on my phone so I am going to see up those shortcuts! Thank you!
I am glad you got to see some former coworkers and that they are doing well. I hope your field trip is going well. This is a hard time of year to be gone! Had I not had my accident, I would be in PA this week – I am so glad I’m not! Next year I am going to try to block December from travel because it’s a terrible time to be away between inclement weather (we’ve had SO MUCH SNOW!!) and all the holiday events and such.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
December 29, 2025 at 2:25 pmI feel you on the business trips in December, I had to travel to Hamburg twice. And Dec 19 to Dec 20 which as a weekend. Sigh.
I have set up the iPhone hack back in 2015 or so and never looked back. makes commenting so much easier and also works from the desktop.