The Ink-capades (or, Head Start - ON ICE?!?)
Today was the last day of school for Paula. Well, let's clarify that. She teaches Head Start, you see, so today was her last day with the kiddies. She has the next two days as work days (because HS seems to generate about a metric ton of paper per kid) and then she's off until August. Without pay. Joy.
Anyway, on the last day of class, Paula likes to make a little "annual" for the kids, consisting of a montage (or a collage, if you will) of pictures she's taken of them over the past year. So last night, after taking care of other business, we came in and spent about an hour combing through 8-9 CDs worth of photos. Paula picked out the ones she wanted, and I arranged them (tastefully, of course) in Powerpoint. After culling through them a few times, we wound up with a 13-page book.
One problem. I have an Epson printer, a 5400 to be exact, and the ink monitor was telling me I was low on Cyan (blue). By this point, it was after midnight, and I knew all the office supply stores would be closed. Fortunately, we knew that Wal-Mart (sorry, lots42 would be open, because they're open 24 hours a day (that's where God dave us $5 a few weeks ago, remember?). So I decide to start the printer going and run down there to get a new cartridge. It would mean buying all 3 colors at once, but there didn't seem to be any other choice. Paula insisted that she accompany me and strategically sleep in the car in order to prevent me from coming to harm (because 6'4" 290 lb guys are in such danger in well-lit parking lots). She succeeded admirably because I'm still here.
Bad news, though. Wal-Mart was out of everything but black ink. We then checked a couple of other 24-hour emporiums (Kroger, Walgreens), only to find all they stocked were HP cartridges.
Crap.
So our only option was to let the printer go as far as it could, and let me go to Staples at 7:00 this morning to get new blue ink. Then I could take the printouts to Paula's friend, who could then drive them to her workplace (which is about 30 minutes out and about 90 degrees oppoisite from where I work). This was a brilliant plan, hampered only by the fact that it got through one and a fourth files before conking out.
So this morning, Paula gets me up at 6:30 and calls her friend. Guess what? Her friend has a prior commitment and wouldn't be able to help. So that left it up to Guess Who?
Crap again.
But undaunted, I drove up to Staples, bought the ink, came home, installed it, and set thinkgs running. Estimated time to complete: a litle over two hours. Which meant between running the prints and taking them to Head Start, I'd be at work no earlier than 10:00 AM!
After a little bit, I noticed that now, my yellow ink was starting to show low. I began to get a bad feeling about this.
Sure enough, after about 30 minutes, print activities suddenly ceased as the message YELLOW INK IS OUT was delivered. Not only that, the magenta and black inks were starting to get low.
Son of Crap.
It now being 8:00 AM, Office Depot was open, which was good - not only is it closer than Staples, Paula has a discount card there. I saddled up and headed out. Once there, I bought new yellow, magenta and black ink cartidges. Now pretty sure I had all contingencies covered, I headed back home, replaced the yellow, and started things up again.
Well, my foresight paid off, because I wound up having to replace the magenta (which I has just bought last week) as well. But as I did, I noted that the brand new Blue ink cartridge was again showing as precipitously low!
Surely not! I thought to myself.
Don't call me Shirley, the universe responded (the universe is a big ZAZ fan).
BLUE INK IS OUT the printer added.
Crappity Crap Crap!
I went back to Office Depot, got another Blue cartridge, came back home, and this time, FINALLY had enough ink to finish these furshlugginer things.
So what's the final tally? I spent about $65 on ink in the last 24 hours. I went through 182 pages of cardstock (196 if you count the covers). I drove about 50 miles out of my way. I didn't get to work until about 11:00.
And not only did it make my wife happy, I got to see a lot of smiling 4 & 5 year old faces. So that cancels out all the crap from above.
But next year, we're cutting back on the pages. Or at least using fewer pictures of blue things.
Anyway, on the last day of class, Paula likes to make a little "annual" for the kids, consisting of a montage (or a collage, if you will) of pictures she's taken of them over the past year. So last night, after taking care of other business, we came in and spent about an hour combing through 8-9 CDs worth of photos. Paula picked out the ones she wanted, and I arranged them (tastefully, of course) in Powerpoint. After culling through them a few times, we wound up with a 13-page book.
One problem. I have an Epson printer, a 5400 to be exact, and the ink monitor was telling me I was low on Cyan (blue). By this point, it was after midnight, and I knew all the office supply stores would be closed. Fortunately, we knew that Wal-Mart (sorry, lots42 would be open, because they're open 24 hours a day (that's where God dave us $5 a few weeks ago, remember?). So I decide to start the printer going and run down there to get a new cartridge. It would mean buying all 3 colors at once, but there didn't seem to be any other choice. Paula insisted that she accompany me and strategically sleep in the car in order to prevent me from coming to harm (because 6'4" 290 lb guys are in such danger in well-lit parking lots). She succeeded admirably because I'm still here.
Bad news, though. Wal-Mart was out of everything but black ink. We then checked a couple of other 24-hour emporiums (Kroger, Walgreens), only to find all they stocked were HP cartridges.
Crap.
So our only option was to let the printer go as far as it could, and let me go to Staples at 7:00 this morning to get new blue ink. Then I could take the printouts to Paula's friend, who could then drive them to her workplace (which is about 30 minutes out and about 90 degrees oppoisite from where I work). This was a brilliant plan, hampered only by the fact that it got through one and a fourth files before conking out.
So this morning, Paula gets me up at 6:30 and calls her friend. Guess what? Her friend has a prior commitment and wouldn't be able to help. So that left it up to Guess Who?
Crap again.
But undaunted, I drove up to Staples, bought the ink, came home, installed it, and set thinkgs running. Estimated time to complete: a litle over two hours. Which meant between running the prints and taking them to Head Start, I'd be at work no earlier than 10:00 AM!
After a little bit, I noticed that now, my yellow ink was starting to show low. I began to get a bad feeling about this.
Sure enough, after about 30 minutes, print activities suddenly ceased as the message YELLOW INK IS OUT was delivered. Not only that, the magenta and black inks were starting to get low.
Son of Crap.
It now being 8:00 AM, Office Depot was open, which was good - not only is it closer than Staples, Paula has a discount card there. I saddled up and headed out. Once there, I bought new yellow, magenta and black ink cartidges. Now pretty sure I had all contingencies covered, I headed back home, replaced the yellow, and started things up again.
Well, my foresight paid off, because I wound up having to replace the magenta (which I has just bought last week) as well. But as I did, I noted that the brand new Blue ink cartridge was again showing as precipitously low!
Surely not! I thought to myself.
Don't call me Shirley, the universe responded (the universe is a big ZAZ fan).
BLUE INK IS OUT the printer added.
Crappity Crap Crap!
I went back to Office Depot, got another Blue cartridge, came back home, and this time, FINALLY had enough ink to finish these furshlugginer things.
So what's the final tally? I spent about $65 on ink in the last 24 hours. I went through 182 pages of cardstock (196 if you count the covers). I drove about 50 miles out of my way. I didn't get to work until about 11:00.
And not only did it make my wife happy, I got to see a lot of smiling 4 & 5 year old faces. So that cancels out all the crap from above.
But next year, we're cutting back on the pages. Or at least using fewer pictures of blue things.