Friday, December 22, 2006

The Last Day of Work for 2006


Glass M&Ms 1, originally uploaded by CraftyGuy.


"Hazah!" and "Booyah!"

Today is the last day of work for 2006, and I'm outta here right after lunch! This camper is most happy.

Between today and tomorrow the rest of the shopping will be wrapped up, and then comes Christmas Eve day and Christmas itself, and then a relatively sane week at home.

I'm hopping to post at least one blog entry of substance between now and New Year's but we'll see how things go.

"Merry Christmas" to you all!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

The Great Photo Fiasco of '06


Family Pics, originally uploaded by CraftyGuy.


Look what we finally have!

That's right, me shutterbugs and bugettes, we finally have the photos from Wal-Mart! After many, *many* phonecalls to Wal-Mart (some polite, some not-so polite), the folks at Wally World agreed to refund us the cost of all the prints, plus reprinted the missing photo cards at no charge. Now we can get on with the harrowing task of addressing a whole lotta envelopes to send out our cards.

Understandably, this isn't Wal-Mart's fault per se (the blame is shared between Fuji labs and the online ordering system), but still they could have managed the situation better.

All in all, the photos came out pretty damn good if you ask me! Not bad for the first time out doing portraits.

Just the same, walmart DOT com will not be seeing any more of my business. And don't even get me started on Fuji...

Monday, December 11, 2006

Another Whacked Monday


100_1817_edited-1, originally uploaded by CraftyGuy.


I don't like Mondays to begin with; I also don't particularly like mornings, and Mondays are the morning of the week. But this Monday just seems to be particularly whacked.

First, I'm still waiting for the proper hardware at work so that I can do my job properly - testing new software on what will soon be unsupported hardware really isn't going to help much. I've been told that the equipment I need will be available sometime in the first half of January. Lessee, that would put it about 4 weeks after I need it!

Next, I'm still waiting for some photos that I ordered online from Wally World (aka Wal-Mart). Nothing that should have been too strenuous - some 8x10s, 5x7s, throw in a few wallet-sized prints for good measure, and a whole bunch of photo Christmas cards. They were ordered on November 25th, and should have only taken about 5 days to arrive.

Part of the order arrived in the expect time, but the wallet-sized prints and the Christmas cards were missing. Fuji Labs, who does the offsite photo processing for Wal-Mart messed up the order. The very courteous person at the photo counter would request that they re-process the order correctly and would have it ready by week's end -- at no charge! Ok - I'm a happy camper thus far.

That, however, was about a week and a half ago, and not a darn thing to show for it. I'm getting more than a little annoyed with this - mainly because I'm anxious to see how the prints turned out. You see, these are no professional photos being done this year. Yes, me little shutterbugs, these are photos I took - my first foray into anything even remotely resembling portrait photography! And I just can't wait to see the result!

While I am "more than a little annoyed" at the fiasco that is walmart DOT com, Patti is downright livid - and with good reason. It is now December 11, and we still don't have our Christmas cards to send out. While in the grand scheme of things, this may not be a big deal, it is still a major irritant, especially given all the other chaos that ensues around the holidays.

Suffice to say, walmart.com will NOT be getting any more of our business.

A whacked Monday in a whacked December in a (thus-far) whacked holiday season. Appropriately enough, I have included a whacked - courtesy of Photoshop Elements - self-pic for today's blog.

I'll keep ya posted on the "Great Photo Fiasco of '06".

Saturday, December 02, 2006

In With the New


Blazer1, originally uploaded by CraftyGuy.


Now that I've shown you our old vehicle, lemme now introduce you to our new vehicle. A 4-wheel drive 2000 Chevy Blazer. This is one sweet piece of automobile. And it is a fantastic shade of blue!!

I'm almost looking forward to the first snowfall of the year...

...almost...