The Empty Soda Can

First of all, if you haven’t read the Introduction to this post, please do so. It’s not absolutely necessary, but it will help you better understand our search for the perfect printer. :-) After years and years of purchasing printer after printer—some good, some bad, some so horrible you’d prefer a poke in the eye with a sharp stick—we were finally happy with our Brother HL-4070CDW for printing, Epson CX5200 for flatbed scanning, and HP OfficeJet 4315 for sheet-feed scanning. We also had our worse-than-a-sharp-stick Samsung SPP-2020 for photos, but since that only worked once before being in the shop for three years and then coming back still broken , we hardly even counted that. But the one thing we still required was a functional CD printer. I hopped online and, lo and behold, Staples just happened to be running an awesome sale on the Epson Artisan 835. But did I want to risk another Epson all-in-one? Sure, my CX5200 was great, but it wasn’t a CD printer. The only CD-printing al...

When Anna and I first got married, we bought an HP printer. I don’t remember what model it was; I just remember that at the time, I wanted a nice printer that could handle 11″×17″. It cost us over $500, but we were happy—right up until we tried to print something. It was horrible . In the three months we owned it, we had no less than thirty different errors. It probably worked, about 2% of the time—no exaggeration. I remember one day, I needed to print a two-page, black-and-white text document, before I left for work. I was late, because I only gave myself 20 minutes and the printer took 32 minutes to complete it. We finally got HP to take it back, but they docked us $50 for the ink we used.  I decided it was time to find another manufacturer. Shortly after the HP debacle, we got an Epson Stylus Photo EX. It was awesome , but when we got a new computer, a few years later, its standard 8-pin serial connection was no longer standard. We upgraded to another Epson, a Stylus CX5200 al...

I’m going to make a confession: there are a lot of things I don’t like about our house. I mean, don’t get me wrong; it’s nice enough. I’m guessing most of my friends wonder why on Earth I wouldn’t like it. The picture at right is from before we bought it, so the weeds and mess are long since gone. It’s also still only five years old, so it’s not falling apart and is fairly modern. It’s also big—3,500 ft² big. It’s got enough room for our family and then some, which is one of the main reasons we bought it: so we could grow into it. It’s got a nice office for me to work from home, and we’ve added all sorts of wiring so that the house can handle my *ahem* enhanced technology needs. We’ve also upgraded the HVAC (as many readers already know), which makes it very comfortable. As for the location… wow. Just… wow. It’s two minutes from the kids’ elementary school, two minutes from the new Church building, three minutes from Walmart, four minutes from our bank and a gas station and resta...

Many of you probably figured I was talking about our taxes, and that would be a logical assumption. However, the fact of the matter is that, being self-employed, our taxes are far from trivial and I haven’t completed them yet. Oh well. We’re getting a refund, anyway: $1,500 in overpaid gas bills. When I posted this to Facebook, a friend responded by asking, “Wow, how does that happen?” It’s a great question, but the answer is sort of complex. As such, I’ve chosen to post it here. We bought our current home in July, 2007. One of the smartest things I did was to offer the sellers $5,000 more than asking price, so we could get cash back at closing and do some upgrades to the house. The most significant of these happened, a few days before we moved in: I hired the company that did the original HVAC system to come in and zone that system. By the time we moved in, there was one zone for the entire downstairs, one that covers most of the upstairs, and a third for my home office (which st...

Hayley Westenra • Never Saw Blue (Full Length Drums Mix) (✭✭✭✭✭) Sigur Rós • Gobbledigook (✭✭✭✭) The Locust • I Become Overwhelmed (✭✭✭) ABBA • Voulez Vous (✭✭✭½) Hayley Anderson • Every Corner of My Heart (✭✭✭✭) Mephisto Odyssey • Bump (Hot Pink Delorean Remix) (✭✭✭✭) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • Once There Was a Snowman Heart • Who Will You Run To? (✭✭✭✭) Heart • Magic Man (✭✭✭✭) Heather Sullivan • Twisted (✭✭✭✭✭) We the Kings • Check Yes Juliet (✭✭✭✭✭) Holly Conlan • You Are Goodbye (✭✭✭½) Freddie Jackson • You Are My Lady (✭✭✭) Micky Dolenz • St. Judy’s Comet (✭✭✭✭) Micky Dolenz • The Moonbeam Song (✭✭✭✭) Les Rossignols de Poznan • Alleluia, Ave Maria Black Rebel Motorcycle Club • Dirty Old Town (✭✭✭) James Kibbie • BWV673 Christe, aller Welt Trost James Vargas • Sitting Pretty (✭✭✭✭✭) Tulsa • Rafter (✭✭✭✭) Pink Skull • Oh, Monorail (✭✭✭✭) Dr. Dog • The Old Days (✭✭✭½) U-Nam • Street Life (✭✭✭✭✭) Jazzmasters • Free as the Wind (✭✭✭✭) Tim Bowman • High Def (✭✭✭✭...

Steve Miller Band • Abracadabra (✭✭✭✭½) The Mills • Abran fuego (✭✭✭✭½) Steamroller • Absence (✭✭✭✭½) Jewel • Absence of Fear (✭✭✭✭½) They Might Be Giants • Absolutely Bill’s Mood (✭✭✭✭) Kelis • Acapella (✭✭✭) Counting Crows • Accidentally in Love (✭✭✭✭✭) Ex-Voto • Accidents Never Happen (✭✭✭½) Power Music • According to You (✭✭✭✭) Lita Ford • Aces & Eights (✭✭✭) Crash Test Dummies • Aching to Sneeze (✭✭✭½) Mark Morgan • Acolytes of the New God (✭✭✭✭) Sigur Rós • Gobbledigook (✭✭✭✭) The Locust • I Become Overwhelmed (✭✭✭) Chicago • I Believe (✭✭✭✭) Cloning Einstein • I Believe (✭✭✭✭✭) Micah Stampley • I Believe (✭✭) Tears For Fears • I Believe (✭✭✭) The Studio Sound Ensemble • I Believe I Can Fly (✭✭) The Darkness • I Believe in a Thing Called Love (✭✭✭✭½) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • I Believe in Being Honest The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • I Believe in Being Honest (Instrumental) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • I Believe in...

Paula Abdul • Coldhearted (Quivering 12″) (✭✭✭½) Love Derwinger and Roland Pöntinen • Concerto in A♭ Major for Two Pianos and Orchestra: III. Allegro vivace Lenny Kravitz • My Love (✭✭✭½) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • The Tenth Article of Faith Pepe Ahlqvist & The Rolling Tumbleweed • Big Pig Beta (✭✭✭✭) Narvalo • Aven Aven (✭✭✭✭) Blind Pilot • Go On, Say It (✭✭✭½) Blind Pilot • Go On, Say It (✭✭✭½) Blink 182 • All the Small Things (✭✭✭✭) Cathy Dennis • Falling Aretha Franklin • Angels We Have Heard on High (✭✭✭✭) Fresh Body Shop • Can't Get Enough (✭✭✭✭) Bryan Adams • Cuts Like a Knife Mainz Chamber Orchestra • Symphony No. 29 in A Major, K. 201: II. Andante Boom Crash Opera • Forever Ron Davis Trio • Popeye (✭✭✭✭✭) The B-52’s • Roam (Extended Remix) (✭✭✭✭) Winger • Baptized by Fire (✭✭✭) Frida Hyvonen • Enemy Within (✭✭✭✭✭) Throw Me the Statue • Lolita (✭✭✭½) The War on Drugs • Taking the Farm (✭✭✭) Sen Dog • Fumble (✭✭) Near the Parenthesis • Not Here, No...