A Fun Little Afternoon.

Note: This really happened a few weekends ago but since my internet wasn't working at the time I have just now been able to post this. Don't hate!

Well, I know the "fun" part for me was the photography exhibit at the Cinci Art Museum. I think Tim's "fun" part was the drinks and appetizers at Teller's afterward. And, also, I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get great pictures because evidently, you aren't "allowed" to take pictures of temporary art exhibitions. So I managed to snap these really quick before the girl came back to check on me. I was a sly little devil. :) Anyway, the exhibit was really interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

And if you ever go to Teller's, I would most definitely recommend the Brie Flatbread.  It's excellent. I'm sure we'll be back again for the Tim-approved wide beer selection and  the Olivia-approved great appetizer selection. Yum.

Having the Internet Work On My Laptop Again: Priceless.

After three weeks and a dozen emails to and from HP Support, one three-hour phone call, a trip to the Geek Squad and $70 spent on a new router, I am officially back on the internet and back in business.

All because I wanted to buy a wireless printer. Sheesh.

Well, now that it all works together (like it should), I have grand ideas of doing more branding for my business and spreading my wings. First things first, I''m starting with ye old blog. I've been blogging since 2005 but still have little knowledge about design, widgets, icons, etc. so I am very eager to see what I can learn with this class "Bling Out Your Blog." I think it'll be so fun and educational. Totally up my alley.

After this class, maybe some photography classes this summer. I think I'm ready for a new chapter. After troubleshooting my laptop, printer and router for three weeks straight, I should be ready for anything!

HP Customer Support, you kill me!

No, seriously.

I've had my new printer a little over a month. I was so super excited about it (as you could probably tell from the blog I posted). Until...

It decided it didn't want to print wirelessly for me. (Which sort of defeats the purpose of buying it when you have a laptop.)  So after trying to figure out the issue myself, I decided to email the HP Customer Support about the problem.

They sent me back a lengthy email with about seven or eight different steps to take to resolve my issue. After working through all these steps on and off for about a week, it did no good. None of them.

Yesterday I finally emailed the Customer Support rep who was helping me with this and said this:

Hi,

I finally performed all of the steps listed in the email and it still did not work. I even tried to connect the printer to another computer in my house and it still didn't operate correctly. What other options do you have?

Thanks,
Olivia


To which her response was this:

Hello Olivia,

Thank you for writing back to HP Total Care.


I am Lavina from HP All-in-One E-mail Technical Support Team and this reply is in regard to your concern related HP PhotoSmart Plus All-in-One Printer - B209a.

As from your email I understand that the printer is off line and the computer does not detect the printer.

Olivia, I understand how you feel about this issue. I’m really surprised on the patience that you shown so far. I doubt about my patience level if I were you. I hope to help you fix this issue before it wears out. Thank you for your cooperation.

 
Ha! Even HP Support is surprised I've hung in there this long. Is that a sign?? 

Please feel free to leave lots of comments with encouragement or technical support. I could use either at this point.

Things on my mind for this week.

Figuring out an affordable option to have photographs (professionally) matted and framed for my shop and offer that to my customers.

Organizing (and keeping it that way!) the art office space. This will probably include lots of cleaning out and purging of unused items which may lend itself to a scrapbooking/crafting giveaway later in the month.

Washing the car!  All of this warmer weather feels so good. You can't ride around in the sunshine with a dirty car can ya? It just doesn't seem right.

Going to see this photography exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

What are your plans?

It was a lot of fun.

Note:  All pictures taken with my phone because I left the real one at home. Darn it!

We started out having a few drinks and playing shuffleboard (?) at Fries Cafe.

I totally kicked Tim's butt in the shuffleboard. It was awesome.  :)

Then we headed to Mecklenburg Gardens for dinner.  A really neat and quaint restaurant featuring authentic German food and beer. We had some Hanky Panky dip (pictured) as an appetizer. Tim and I both loved our entrees as well. We will definitely go again.

A memorable way to celebrate your 30th birthday if I do say so myself.

In like a Lamb?

March is here now and I've decided to come out of blog hibernation. It was about time anyway. I have a few things to catch you guys up on.

First off, I bought a new printer a few weeks back. I got a HP Photosmart Plus Wireless All-In-one with a touch screen. I thought, "oooh, this looks nice!" and the wireless option was a plus so that both Tim and I could use it.  Well, it's pretty pointless to get a wireless printer if you can't figure out how to use the wireless part of it. I'm so frustrated with that! Ugh. I will probably just have to call HP and figure out what I'm doing wrong, but I hate doing that. I feel like I should be able to figure it out myself, ya know? If anybody has one of these (or something similar) and has some technical pointers for me, please feel free to comment below or send me an email. :)  Thanks.

In happier and less techincal news, we have tickets to go see Train in exactly ONE MONTH!  I don't know who's opening for them (or if they even have an opener? it's not listed...) but I really don't care anyway. I'm sure it'll be great. It's been a long time since I've been to a good concert (probably Jack Johnson a year and a half ago... and by my standards that's WAY too long in between concerts). A nice little early birthday present for me. Yay for that!

Tim and I also started thinking about painting some rooms in the house (FINALLY!).  I got this color combo in a West Elm catalog that I received in the mail about a month ago and ever since then I've been obsessed with it. I feel like this has to be the color scheme for the living room. It will go perfectly with the brown leather couch in there plus the color of the natural stone fireplace. Tim doesn't really get it but that's okay. I keep reassuring him that it will successfully come together when all is said and done.

I've really been concentrating on expanding and improving the Etsy shop lately. I hit my one year anniversary last month and it was just inspiring to know that I can continue to do something I love part-time and still make a few bucks here and there. Double yay for that!

And in a related note, I stumbled upon this website this morning with cute and stylish, purse-like camera bags! It's like what I always dreamed of! So when I finally upgrade my camera to an SLR, I can carry it around in something that will be a little more ... let's say....  inconspicuous. 

So with all that said, let's hope that March will be a strong follow up to February (but not with the weather!). I feel like I'm going in a good direction.  Bring on Spring!