It's that time once again when my thoughts inexorably turn to...

Kinkos.

I started with high hopes for this Family Calendar Season. I even got a 20% off coupon from Kinkos good through December 15. Too bad their calendar maker interface sucks so bad. I had the fleeting thought maybe this year everybody could collaborate by picking a month or two and uploading and laying out their own photos. So I went to start a new calendar under my account so I could tell them how to get there. Sounds simple so far.

Some things never change. But why does it always seem to be the bad things?

First off, Kinkos' online calendar creator still doesn't support the Mac. But luckily, my PC was already on since Ikea's kitchen planner also only runs on Windows. (Argh!) So I pop over to my PC, which naturally is running Firefox. Strike two!



Ok, fine. I launch IE and start to remember all the other things about Kinkos I learned the hard way. Like, there's no obvious way to sign-in, and they don't force you to until it's time to pay. So if you want to come back to your project later (or let other people work on it), you have to be on the same computer.

So I figure out how to log in (seriously, the interface still really sucks -- I have complained to them about this at least two years in a row) and find there is nothing saved in my account. Fine, who cares. Just because Kodak still has the calendar I created there back when they were Ofoto doesn't mean I actually need it, but somehow it does give you a warm fuzzy feeling I could really use about now. I mean, do I really have to add everybody's birthday year after year? And am I really signed in? It's so hard to tell. I click on Update My Account and get this confidence-building message:



Yeah. Merry fucking Christmas.

Anyway, I also have a 20% off coupon for Kodak. Their interface is WAY better, but their coupon expires November 20. If anybody wants to make a personalized 12 month photo calendar, I can give you the coupon codes.

Speaking of print jobs, the guy who's doing my kitchen and bathroom put together this nifty folder of information for me. Although I admit I might have been even more impressed if he spelled my name right. And the name of my street. Oh well, what the hell does that matter anyway? Although it did throw me to read one of the items I'm supposed to furnish is any and all "wayne's scott." Who? What? Luckily he mentioned it before I had to ask. As soon as I heard him pronounce it I knew what he meant. Ha! That's cute.



p.s. - I'm still looking for a handyman boyfriend. Good spelling not required, haha.

Mark tipped me off about these earrings. I can't wait until they arrive!

Paypal, you are a pal indeed.

Potential kitchen layout plus/minus some details the Ikea Kitchen Planner couldn't deal with. Still a pretty impressive layout program. It even calculates how much this layout would cost in my choice of Ikea cabinets.


Potential kitchen materials if I went with a cabinet dealer I can't afford. Oh well.


I'm tempted to get one of these antique Asian kitchen chests for the pantry. Not as practical as built-in cabinets, but looks cool. We'll see.


I'm pretty sure about this engineered glass tile for my bathroom floor.


And this crazed blue tile is on a massive close-out sale, so I think my shower enclosure could look a lot like this. Except white on the top (not that peachy color). And probably not all those transitional pieces. They look expensive.

But I still want to use the water-blue mosaic tiles for the border, and shower floor.

Ok, I've got to get back to it. Just wanted to see how it looks.

p.s. - I miss my [inlink]twisted,134[/inlink] fire chicken kitchen, even though I had it for less than a year, and I've basically been w/o a kitchen ever since. Is there something about me that refuses to enjoy something I've worked hard to get? Don't answer that.

p.p.s. - I've recently come to the same conclusion my friends have been pounding into me for a few years now. I need a handyman boyfriend. Anyone? I am totally serious. Handywoman girlfriends also considered.

I had a dream last night that PMT were visiting me, but my house was falling apart so I had moved into a tree house above it. I felt pretty lucky to have the treehouse, but it turned out all my friends picked this inopportune time to come visit me. It was like I was throwing a huge party for everyone I've ever known, except they all showed up uninvited.

I was happy to see they all managed to get drinks from the rubble below before climbing up, but the more of them that showed up, the more trapped I was at the far end of the tree house. I kept wondering what they were all doing there, then it hit me. You came here to meet Paul, didn't you? That must be it. I decided I needed to get out of there and get a drink myself, so I pushed my way through the crowd and climbed down. That's when I discovered Terry had been stuck downstairs the entire time being bartender. People were still asking him for these crazy drinks and he was doing his best to accommodate with the meager resources left in the hollow shell of my house.

I knew I had to buy more drink fixings quick and asked him what I should get. He rattled off some mixers, ending with "white coke." I wasn't sure if I heard him right even after he repeated it a few times, but figured it would make sense once I got to the store.

I think I know what he meant now. Unfortunately, they were all out.

Ok, enough with the freak-out rug userpic, I'm switching to something more soothing!

I had a weird voting experience today. I didn't get all the pre-election crap you usually get in the mail the last time I registered, so I registered again. They convinced me to sign up for an absentee ballot, even though that seems like a waste of paper to me and I'm not really keen on killing more trees.

Anyway, my boat-load of election materials arrives on cue and I fill out my cheat sheet and head for my polling place at the playground next door. I also had the brilliant idea to unload my Halloween candy by dropping it off there in a bag labeled "Thanks for Voting!"

Maybe my 5.6 pound all chocolate variety pack threw them, but the volunteers seemed to think I needed my absentee ballot to vote. So I go back to the house, transfer my cheat sheet answers to my absentee ballot, then go back. They fuss around a bit and decide they have to write "Surrender" on the envelope and put it in this special bin. That seems odd to me, but I sign my name to say I voted and go on my way.

Five minutes later, one of the volunteers tracks me down. Turns out writing "Surrender" on the absentee ballot makes it void, so now I have to go back to the polling place to fill out another one. I'm thinking, the only thing that made sense about the situation up until then was saving paper by using the ballot mailed to me. But now that one is "void" and I have to fill out another one. That is so fucked up.

Anyway, there was a time [inlink]twisted,5[/inlink] when I enjoyed throwing curve balls at election booth volunteers, but I am so over that now. Those guys have enough to worry about without me throwing a wrench into the works.

p.s. - some guy named Adam, identifying himself as being from the Democratic party, just stopped by to make sure I voted. Hell ya! Twice!