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Week of rest? When?
Dec. 31st, 2008 01:54 pmThe only part of making, printing and sending my cards this year that didn't cause me problems or take way too long was doing the background of the ocean and tidepools. Every other part just didn't go as planned. I did myself last and I don't like the way I turned out. It was after I'd printed them all that I noticed how I could have fixed my face so it would look more like me. Oh well.
The first half of my printing had an error on the text inside. I'd changed the words when I was half asleep and left an extra word in there. I used correction tape to wipe out the leading word so it would make sense. Some of the important people in my company got cards with the error. Thankfully, the ones I mentioned it to, so they would know I was aware and embarrassed about it, said they hadn't noticed because they were too busy examining the picture I drew. I hope that's the case with the rest!
I thought I had enough envelopes. Wrong. I was about 50 short. This was on Sunday. All the stationer's bulk supply places were closed. I knew I'd be taking my mom for a colonoscopy on Monday and I really wanted the cards to hit the mail that day, so I found a retail place and paid twice as much as I normally pay for 250. I got 60 to allow for print errors. The printer usually eats a few. They gave me a 15% quantity discount.
Trying to find the paper store I walked past a Joseph Schmidt Chocolate store... Ok, I didn't walk past. I walked in. Buy one get one free on all their Christmas stuff! I plan to go back today to get some to put in our nieces' box of goodies. I was very good by not getting anything but their catalog.
Printing the envelopes was an enormous pain in the a$$. Stamps.com didn't want me to install their software on a new computer, I had to use the existing computer which is around 7 years old. It's full. It's slow, taking around 15 minutes just to boot even after I tweaked it to get rid of a bunch of stuff in the startup. I had to:
* uninstall a bunch of games to make room - reboot
* download and install their software - reboot.
* update Office 2000 - required two reboots and finding the Office 2000 CD which took digging through two boxes of stuff.
* Data Merge into an Word envelope document. - reboot when my system locked up
* Printing envelopes one at a time, deleting the first envelope of the document to print the next x 108
* Printing the envelopes for my friends outside the USA without postage. Stamps.com demands a customs form for everything! Stupid website.
That whole process took me 9 hours from start to finish. It only ate 3 envelopes this year!
Monday
Took Mom to her appointment, envelope box full of cards and printed envelopes under my arm to work on during her procedure. We were there very early. I decided to go home to work on them in comfort. Got them all written and sealed and headed for the post office to mail them. Phone rings when I'm nearly there. No headset so I pulled over to answer. Mom is ready 30 minutes early!
There were no parking places at the post office so I mailed all the US envelopes in a drive-by mailbox then headed back out to get my mom. The non-US envelopes would have to wait until after. Got her home. She was cheerful. They didn't find anything at all to worry about. Yay!
She was still a bit woozy from the sedative so I fixed her some soup and toast and stayed until she was ready for a nap. I got back to the post office in time to use their dandy automatic machine to print the stamps I needed and pay with my Debit card! They had a clerk helping people. So all my cards were mailed on Monday. Done, at last!
I got home and the little gifts I got for my friends had finally arrived. Good timing. I needed three of them on Tuesday.
Tuesday
Prepared the gifts for my three oldest friends then met the local two for dinner. The brass colored spinning optical illusion things I so loved that I got for my mom (sunshine) and Eric (geometric design) seem to be all the rage right now. I got a small sunshine from our friend in Seattle and a large square cat one from Joyce. We now have three and they're all different! Whee!
Today
Eric and I slept til past noon. We're getting our hours all turned around. We are planning to shop today. I'd rather curl up and sleep. Oh well.
I still haven't hooked up my Wii. Maybe after we shop!
Happy New Year to Everyone!
The first half of my printing had an error on the text inside. I'd changed the words when I was half asleep and left an extra word in there. I used correction tape to wipe out the leading word so it would make sense. Some of the important people in my company got cards with the error. Thankfully, the ones I mentioned it to, so they would know I was aware and embarrassed about it, said they hadn't noticed because they were too busy examining the picture I drew. I hope that's the case with the rest!
I thought I had enough envelopes. Wrong. I was about 50 short. This was on Sunday. All the stationer's bulk supply places were closed. I knew I'd be taking my mom for a colonoscopy on Monday and I really wanted the cards to hit the mail that day, so I found a retail place and paid twice as much as I normally pay for 250. I got 60 to allow for print errors. The printer usually eats a few. They gave me a 15% quantity discount.
Trying to find the paper store I walked past a Joseph Schmidt Chocolate store... Ok, I didn't walk past. I walked in. Buy one get one free on all their Christmas stuff! I plan to go back today to get some to put in our nieces' box of goodies. I was very good by not getting anything but their catalog.
Printing the envelopes was an enormous pain in the a$$. Stamps.com didn't want me to install their software on a new computer, I had to use the existing computer which is around 7 years old. It's full. It's slow, taking around 15 minutes just to boot even after I tweaked it to get rid of a bunch of stuff in the startup. I had to:
* uninstall a bunch of games to make room - reboot
* download and install their software - reboot.
* update Office 2000 - required two reboots and finding the Office 2000 CD which took digging through two boxes of stuff.
* Data Merge into an Word envelope document. - reboot when my system locked up
* Printing envelopes one at a time, deleting the first envelope of the document to print the next x 108
* Printing the envelopes for my friends outside the USA without postage. Stamps.com demands a customs form for everything! Stupid website.
That whole process took me 9 hours from start to finish. It only ate 3 envelopes this year!
Monday
Took Mom to her appointment, envelope box full of cards and printed envelopes under my arm to work on during her procedure. We were there very early. I decided to go home to work on them in comfort. Got them all written and sealed and headed for the post office to mail them. Phone rings when I'm nearly there. No headset so I pulled over to answer. Mom is ready 30 minutes early!
There were no parking places at the post office so I mailed all the US envelopes in a drive-by mailbox then headed back out to get my mom. The non-US envelopes would have to wait until after. Got her home. She was cheerful. They didn't find anything at all to worry about. Yay!
She was still a bit woozy from the sedative so I fixed her some soup and toast and stayed until she was ready for a nap. I got back to the post office in time to use their dandy automatic machine to print the stamps I needed and pay with my Debit card! They had a clerk helping people. So all my cards were mailed on Monday. Done, at last!
I got home and the little gifts I got for my friends had finally arrived. Good timing. I needed three of them on Tuesday.
Tuesday
Prepared the gifts for my three oldest friends then met the local two for dinner. The brass colored spinning optical illusion things I so loved that I got for my mom (sunshine) and Eric (geometric design) seem to be all the rage right now. I got a small sunshine from our friend in Seattle and a large square cat one from Joyce. We now have three and they're all different! Whee!
Today
Eric and I slept til past noon. We're getting our hours all turned around. We are planning to shop today. I'd rather curl up and sleep. Oh well.
I still haven't hooked up my Wii. Maybe after we shop!
Happy New Year to Everyone!
