Thursday, July 12, 2007

Is the Universe Against Me?

So, if you thought I had been quiet over the last few days, you are absolutely right! Let me tell you what I had to go through to finish the last project for the Scrapbooking Masters 2007.

Sunday 1st July: DH takes my car to the shops in the afternoon. When he gets back he says that he thinks there is something wrong with the car. Didn't seem to want to start. He manages to get it into the garage though.

Monday 2nd July: Tried the car in the morning luckily before putting the kids is to go to do the shopping. DEAD AS A DOORNAIL! Called Ford. They think it is the battery, but should be able to jump start it they say. That night our very kind neighbour comes over to help DH jump it - while our dinner guests wait patiently inside! It starts! 20 minutes later I excuse myself so I can take the car (and Grace!) for adrive around, as instructed. Once back in the garage, I hesitantly turn the engine off, and try to start it again - NOTHING! Dh assures me he will get a battery in town tomorrow and fit it when he gets home in the evening.

Tuesday 3rd July: DH announces that he is taking the computer to work to reformat the hard-drive (meaning he is going to wipe the lot and start again.) "OK" I say, "Can you do it tomorrow so that I can get all the photos organised the mini-album". He assures me that I will have the computer back tomorrow. OK, so now no computer and no car! Desperate times call for desperate measures. I am not waiting for a second longer for that b#$%*y car to get fixed. I call for the mobile mechanic and the car is fixed instantly! YAY! Not in time to get to Tuesday Club though. OH, and no computer when DH gets home either. I will have to wait another day.

Wednesday 4th July: DH brings the computer home in the evening, but needs to reload all the software. This takes all night. OK - tomorrow I can get the photos I need right? I still have over a week before the masters entry needs to go in.

Thursday 5th July: I set up the external hardrive that DH backed up our old computer on, and have a poke around to find what I am looking for. Ummmm, where are all my photos? I ring DH at work and ask him exactly what did he save? The folder called digital photos. Oh - so not the folder called My Pictures? OMG!!!!!! They're gone! Not just the photos I needed for the mini-album but all the photos we have taken in the last six months have gone! And do you know what DH said when I used a few choice words? "It's not like someone has died" - NO, Not yet! I trust you fellow scrapbookers understand how I felt.

Right, so now I have to set about re-taking the photos I need for the mini album, and try to forget about all the rest of the precious pics.

Monday 9th July: Cut DH’s hair in the morning, took some photos.
Not a bad result!
Got them edited and stored on DH’s thumb drive. Finally organised, we get to Big W to print them off and wouldn’t you know it – none of Big W’s machines will read the thumb drive. No problem, we will go to Kodak in the same centre. Only we have to wait for the machine. That’s alright; it can’t be more than a couple of minutes, right – wrong! The only machine with a USB port is being used by some lady that “still has another couple of hundred photos to go through”. That’s fine, we take the kids to Maccas for lunch and Dave runs back to Kodak a few minutes later to collect the photos.

So that night I go off to the scrap room after dinner to buckle down, oh so conscious of the time ticking away before the deadline. I trim up the photos and to my utter horror realize that I have mad a terrible mistake when resizing them. They are too big for the mini-album I have made. What to do?! Well there is nothing for it – I will have to resize them properly and reprint them in the morning.

Tuesday 10th July: Finally!!! All the problems are sorted and I can get to work. Thanks to the support of my DH, I was able to get a solid start in the afternoon, cook dinner, put the kids to bed and get back to it. Worked solidly through the night, feeling my concentration slipping away I checked my watch – 1am – that might explain it. I crawled into bed.

Wednesday 11th July: D-Day. This project must be completed, photographed, burned to disk and express posted to Sydney today if there is any chance of making the Friday deadline. Thanks to my Drill Sergeant, babysitter and coach (DH) I finally get the album finished and photographed, only to have the computer (the one that has just been reformatted!) freeze up about a thousand times while trying to edit and burn the photos to disk. I race down to the post office and get the entry sent off with about 15 minutes to spare. Phew!!!!???

Now, at the risk of sounding terribly dramatic, but all this while fighting a chest cold over the weekend and entertaining two sets of visitors on the Saturday, delivering and collecting AVON brochures, and putting in an AVON order. Oh, and I managed to get my S4L recipe swap cards done and posted in there somewhere too!

Does anyone else need a stiff drink???

4 comments:

unicornsjulie said...

I'll join you in the stiff drink Pippa, wow what a week, phew...........Julie

Toni said...

OMG Pippa....
what a week... no wonder you need that stiff drink.
But it's all done now and you can relax. lol.
Best of luck.
Toni

Jenny Boyd said...

Wow! sending you dreadfully drunk vibes at the moment!! (no I am not drunk - just sending you the much needed vibes!!)

fingers crossed for you pippa!

Andrea said...

OMG, Wow!!! I'll join you in a stiff drink, I need it now too after reading through all that. I don't think I would have coped with all that stress. My DH certainly wouldn't have given me the support you got. Glad to hear you made your deadline. Good Luck, after all that, you deserve to be a Master.