HP Incompatible Cartridge Error - Hewlett Packard's Dirty Secret

My printer started displaying an error at the beginning of the summer.  The error said "Incompatible Cartridge Error", which seemed strange because I hadn't changed the cartridges, and they were genuine HP cartridges.  I read the steps from the HP website about this error, and nothing changed.  Not wanting to drop $50-60 on new cartridges, when I was not sure that they were the problem, I called HP, and after many frustrating exchanges, some representative agreed to mail me new cartridges.  Of course, they sent me incorrect cartridges.  So, I went to Staples to try to exchange them for the correct ones, which, of course, they were unwilling to do.  However, I learned something from their tech support guy that HP does and apparently won't admit they do.  So, I am posting this corporate secret today to spare other folk from the headache that I experienced with this issue.

Hewlett Packard date stamps their print cartridges.  This means that once they are used, they are designed to cease working after a certain amount of time.  The rationale given to me was to prevent black market or refurbished cartridges from being used.  Hmmmm...  The problem with this is that, since the price of toner ink rivals the gold index, we like to use our ink sparingly.  I guess thrift is looked down upon from mega corporations.  I am going to call HP each and every time a cartridge times out and there is still ink in it.  I urge you to do the same, and tell them that we will continue to do so until they change this stupid, wasteful policy. 

Being Bradys

A typical nighttime look for a
mother of six, only if she doesn't
work and has a maid.

My little  joke that I keep from my husband is how I can't be Carol Brady and Alice.  You know, if Carol had to clean the house and feed the kids and launder eight of everything everyday, then those scandalous scenes where Mrs. Brady wore her fluffy nightie in the shared marital bed will not be possible.  Her bouffant would never have existed, and her patience with Cindy using the word "stinker" would have been seriously dimished if she was lugging groceries and washing dishes, I am sure.

I just know this woman does NOT
have a problem with the cake I made
for her!

I now realize that I am Mike Brady, as well, because I'm the one out there making a living.  That Hawaiian vacation isn't going to pay for itself!  And, since I don't have three girls and three boys, I have to entertain and supervise my little one a la Marcia and Greg.  So, I guess what I am saying is that I am the entire Brady Bunch, minus the X factor and the young, thin, sexually budding bodies.  My problems don't resolve themselves in 30 minutes, though.

My Own Wet Burrito

One of the reasons I love New York City is the cheap, delicious, exotic eats.  Almost anything you can imagine, you can get, and as authentic as if you were on a culinary tour of the world.  Everything, it seems, except a specialty of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I spent my teens and twenties, called a wet burrito.  I make a point of getting one every time I visit, but this year I didn't make it.  So, I prepared some at home.  It takes a bit of work, but you could cut down on the time commitment by buying canned beans, enchilada sauce and taco seasoning.  But, I had as much fun making these as I did eating them.  Here's what I did.

• 

  Grand Rapids, eat your heart out!

  half a medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, pressed
• ground meat (I used turkey)
• pink beans (one can or a half a bag dried) 
• one can tomato sauce
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 cup stock or gravy (I used leftover cooking water from black eyed peas)
• 5-6 oz shredded cheddar cheese
• tortillas
• 2-3 chopped tomatoes
• a half a head lettuce, shredded
• sour cream

Start the beans cooking if you're using dried. Cook the onions and garlic in a pan until transluscent.  Open a can of tomato sauce and pour into a pan, add the stock or gravy, cumin and chili powder.  Add half of the onion and garlic mixture and cook down to around half.  When it's cooked down, blend in the blender.

When your beans are cooked, put them into the blender with some cooking water and the remaining onion and garlic mixture and blend to a paste.  You can refry these if you want to be authentic, but I cannot tell the difference.  Add the tomatoes and half the shredded cheese.

In the pan in which you cooked the onions, cook the meat until browned and drain the grease.  Warm up your tortillas, then assemble them with the browned meat, the bean, tomato and cheese mixture, and some shredded lettuce.  Top them with the tomato sauce and the remaining cheese.  Warm to melt the cheese, top with sour cream, and enjoy!

Christmas in July

I completed my Christmas in July swap with Rosa Maria in Spain.  Thank you, Mini Jazzi, for setting this up!  It was my first swap, and I did it like a total beginner.  My first mistake was not taking a picture of the items I sent.  The second mistake was making big things.  I made a pipe cleaner Christmas tree, a Celtic knot rug and a lounge chair from coffee stirrers (picture not available).  So, the items suffered from a lack of a theme.  Everyone else made such delicate little things.  And third, I didn't wrap the items nor put in a card.  Well, now I know how to do this, and next time I will do it more properly.  Sorry, Rosa!

The contents were even more amazing!!!

I receive my items, and honestly, the packaging was so well done that I thought Rosa had made me little Christmas presents to put under the mini tree.  But, when I squeezed the packages, it felt as if there were things inside.  Wow!  Look at the loot!


They were packaged so nicely
I thought the gifts were the
gifts!

She made me a bulletin board decorated with tiny Christmas cards and holly sprays, the most amazing doily ever, a bead wreath, and my personal favorite, flowers!!  I am in awe.  This was so fun, and now I have a new friend in Spain.  I hope she likes my presents, and she is understanding that she was paired with a total newbie.  Merry Christmas, everyone.

My Cancer Story

Last school year was the year of cancer.  I had my annual birthday mammo and PAP smear, because what better way to celebrate one more year than getting a flattened boob and the "slight discomfort" in that other female area?  Well, this year, things went a bit different when my gynocologist left a message on my cellphone on the Friday before the three-day weekend of Labor Day.  After a tense weekend, and another tense week where I left many unreturned messages to his office, he explained that I had abnormal cells.  Not to worry, however, because it is so common and he would simply remove the abnormal cells with a LEP procedure.  A LEP, in my layman's terms, is like a melon baller that scoops out the bad cells.  When I went in for my LEP, the doctor didn't do it, saying that it wasn't a candidate for this procedure.  I needed a biopsy.  The abnormal cells were precancerous.  Okay...

I had a biopsy on a Wednesday in mid-October.  I had told my assistant principal that I would be back in on Friday, but something told me that morning to stay home one more day.  And then the doctor called, asking me to come in because he had forgotten some post-operative instructions.  Uh-huh.  I was extremely doubtful of his pretense, and of course, my instincts were right.  I didn't have to suffer the typical hour-long wait; I was seen immediately.  Double uh-oh.  He told me I had cancer.  I remember writing this down on my notepad: "I have cancer", as if I might forget this nugget of information.  He then took out a medical diagram of the cross-section of the female reproductive system.  You think you understand everything down there, but once a doctor says the word "cancer", nothing makes sense anymore.  I couldn't locate the cervix on the drawing, nor remember what the purpose of it was, other than it dilates during birth.  I couldn't understand why the cells that were precancerous after the PAP had suddenly become very-much-so-cancer.  My husband accompanied me the next day to get the important information.  I needed a radical hysterectomy. 

That weekend, I googled cancer and learned about stages, and scary things like survival rates.  It was frightening.  My mother told me that I wanted a laproscopic procedure, because the healing time was reduced.  My onocologist (saying that was new) said I had stage IB cancer.  That was good news.  And I would need a laproscopic radical hysterectomy.  To quote my sister, a hysterectomy was okay because "that thing's been nothing but trouble".  I needed to get a PET scan, to determine if the cancer had reached my nodes.  The PET scan was an absolute delight!  Yes, it involved not eating for a day, and being pricked many times to find my vein, and drinking vile radioactive iodine water, but I was put in a room with a reclining chair, a blanket, and a television, ALONE.  I felt like I was at a spa.  The PET scan came back "pristine", meaning that the tumor they removed during the biopsy probably was all that was necessary to treat the cancer, but the doctors were still concerned that it may be in the nodes microscopically.

So, the hysterectomy was on.  Since I had a stroke four years prior, I needed clearance from my PCP and neurologist.  The neurologist sent me to his Doppler tech, who detected a heart murmer, so I needed to visit a cardiologist.  Finally, it was the day, my mother was here from Michigan, I had taken my meds and prepped my colon, out the door at 4:30 am, and they discovered a UTI.  It was a no-go.  Another round of clearances, and finally, a week before Christmas, my surgery went off without a hitch.  And, on New Year's eve, my onocologist told me that the lab did not find any cancer in the nodes, and I was cancer free.

Lovenox, nurses visits, having to get help to get out of bed; it was just a bit too reminiscent of my last convalesence.  Foley bags were new, though.  But, on the plus side, I did get to drop off and pick up my daughter from school, and in doing so, I met a great many of her classmates's parents.  We even found a Daisy troop!  All in all, if it wasn't for the burden of fearing imminent death, cancer was relatively easy.  I realize this is not the case for everyone, but the recovery, and again I'm speaking for me only, was far easier than for my stroke. 

So now I'd like to formally go on the record that I no longer want to try everything once.  Some things I do not need to experience include:

• cardiac arrest
• hostage situation
• scrapnel wounds
• irritable bowel syndrome
• plane crashes
• flesh eating disease
• pulverized bones
• gunshots
• nail gun through brain
• whatever is happening in this picture

This list is not comprehensive, of course.  I just needed to put that out there.

Ah-Ahhhhhhhh-Men!

My tech skills are rusty.  There is no debating that.  I only just restored my phone from the unneccessary factory reset I did over a month ago.  I  worked out the admin password for my laptop this week in order to load software.  And I brought my scanner back to life.  These processes took half of my summer vacation. 

So, my ancient hardware is puttering along again, so that it all may slowly break down in the course of the school year, so that I can repeat this annually.  After I "recalled" the laptop password (and, "recalled" is in quotes, because I did remember it, but it had been entered with the caps lock on), I installed my photo editor program, and finally cleaned up my website header.  I also had to figure out what was making the image lead with white, requiring me to thread through Style Sheets, which I only understand a fractional speck of a smattering.  So, it wasn't easy.  But, I think it finally looks decent.

pretty bad

an improvement

that took forever!

Schooooooool's Out! For! Summer!

Whew!  Year 10 teaching is in the books, and it was a record year.  First of all, I don't remember it being this hot for so relentlessly long while in school.  Our school carnival was Monday and I was thinking the bouncy castle would fuse onto the scorching pavement.  We could have cooked the burgers on the cement.  Yuck!  I couldn't help but think of the heat advisory that Bloombergito issued while I sat in my rotisserie classroom. 

Secondly, I don't remember a year that dragged on as long as this one did.  Even having been absent 30 days for my surgery plus a week off due to Sandy, this academic year just would not end. 

And, finally, I have to comment on the students.  This bunch was far and away the least motivated than any other bunch,  Sure, there were many clunkers in years past, and of course there were stand out students this year.  But, as a group, they could not be less interested in school.  I'm tired of trying heroically to teach those who cannot be bothered to improve themselves.  It's really akin to ramming one's head into the wall, and then having an administration Mack truck hit and pin you to said wall.  It's painful.

But, now's my favorite part of teaching: vacation!  We're whooping it up over here.  Now's the season where I get to do all the things I put off during the school year.  Of course, two months is never enough time to do everything on the summer to-do list, especially with a healthy dose of amusement parks, barbeques, beaches and pools and swimparks, and all the other summertime fun.  Miniatures are on the back burner for a bit.  Especially since I have discovered Polyvore.com AND Candy Crush Saga.  It's time to chill....

School Miniature Project and Christmas in July Update: Celtic Knot Rug

Knot bad for my first try.

One day, I will make a full scale version of this

I completed another item for the Christmas in July swap: a Celtic knot twine rug.  I've long wanted to recreate a twine rug in full International Guild of Knot Tyers.  I love knowing that such a thing as a knot tyer guild exists.  The pattern is deceptively difficult to follow.  I used pins to hold the overlaps, and I used a yarn needle to make the job easier.  Still, there are places where I went under when I was supposed to go over and vice versa.  On my second attempt, I'm going to fix these mistakes by correcting them on the second iteration of the pattern, and then undoing the entire first pass, and redoing the pattern correctly.  It went quicker the second time, although the do-overs will stall my progress.  If you're going to try this, may I suggest a pillow underneath the pinned cardboard?  Otherwise, it will look as if you were attacked by a maniac cat.
scale, along the lines of the Roost beauty that was a) expensive and b) no longer available.  I actually started spiraling twine to make a Roost knockoff, but I abandoned it due to technical difficulties. To complete the mini rug, I followed a pattern from the

Balconies are mostly attached

Street lamp

The miniature version of the French Quarter is coming along nicely.  We attached the strawberry basket balconies, and we made a lantern out of cardboard, a planter, transparencies and a dowel.  Students are drawing scenes and ironwork on the bulletin board.  The students are now out of control, and it will be impossible to reel them back in once the project is over.  Luckily, there is only a week and two days left after the competition.

School Mini Project in High Gear

I did the cutting of the windows and doors,
everything else was completed by students.
Obviously, the shutters did not go
through quality control, since they are of
extremely different sizes.

Still-to-be-completed walkways,
fountain and streetlamps, underneath
the 7 x 3 = 21 fact family (yes, I
 teach sixth grade) and an attempt
at a fleur de lys.

It's truly amazing what a difference enjoying teaching makes to one's demeanor.  I don't mind going to work, and I even like some of the students more.  We are building miniature models of the French Quarter.  The students are doing all the work, with the exception of the using of the carpet knife to cut out the windows and doors.  The balconies and the fountain required hot glue, and, yes, I had students do that.  That takes nerves of steel, let me tell you, considering that, when they were told to only wear black or orange shirts to school, a student wanted to know, "and no pants?".   Teachers are brave fools, for sure.


The students drew these from
 artwork printed off the
computer.  They're charming (the
art, not the students - ha ha!)



School Project Starts in Earnest

I'll never look at a broken umbrella the same again.  Since the populace in the neighborhood in which I teach is not in the habit of using trashcans nor of sweeping up, there are a lot of little goodies everywhere.  One day, I thought I had stumbled across some sort of charger, so I picked it up.  Another day, there was a nice little umbrella made with a satiny pink fabric, and thought it would make a wonderful accent pillow, so I grabbed that, as well.  During my umbrella deconstruction I realized that the thing I thought was a charger was actually the mechanism for opening and closing an umbrella.



Umbrella moving part + Christmas bulb = ?

Bubble tea straws +

My New Orleans scene in school is in need of streetlamps, so those little circular black things will serve as the base, with a bubble tea straw post and a

Pencil eraser holder cutters
with the polymer clay shapes
they created

Christmas bulb top.  I did some sawing and drilling today and hope to create balconies out of those pieces.  And from the tops of pencils I've created mini stamps to cut out leaves and fleurs-de-lis to decorate the balconies, which are strawberry baskets cut in half decorated with phone wire.  Everything is in pieces and ready to be assembled.  I am actually having fun "teaching" now!

Strawberry basket balconies
with phone wire curlicues.

The Before Trilogy

Awkwardly sharing a beautiful song in a
listening booth

Seventeen years ago, my sister told me that I would probably like a little indie film called Before Sunrise, and did she ever have me pegged.  This movie touched me in a way no other movie had before or since.  It struck a chord.  It is the story of two twenty somethings who meet on a train in Austria and decide to pass the night roaming the streets of Vienna, before Jesse, who lacks the money for a hotel, leaves the following day for America.  Basically, the two just talk throughout the film, with magical Viennese backdrops.  The two share their ideas about life and love, and I still held out hope that I would someday return to Europe and meet someone like Jesse with whom I could discuss my hopes and fears on memorable adventures.  In the end of the movie, they decide to meet again in six months on the train platform, and the places they visited are shown in the early morning light, without the pair and their young, idealistic love.

The romantics knew that this was the how
the couple ended up.

Around six years later, I went to see another movie, called Waking Life, that had the same pair, Jesse and French Celine, in bed, discussing what the moment just after death may seem like as the brain slowly shuts itself down, and the common, shared memory of all humans.  Deep stuff shared in total intimacy, presented in a dreamy, surrealistic cartoon, which was perfect, since we couldn't know what happened to the couple after Before Sunrise, unless we made it up in our heads, right?



Set in Paris, the saga continues

Seeing if he dissolves into molecules. Lovely,
lovely, lovely.

Wrong.  A few years after that chance encounter with the pair that so moved me, I spotted a poster in a indie movie house for Before Sunset, with Jesse and Celine backlit from the setting sun.  Dread filled me immediately; surely the magic of the first movie would be ruined with a follow-up.  But, after my trusty rottentomatoes gave the film a very fresh rating, I went to see it and, against all odds, it was a fitting and lovely, and just as ambiguously ended, update from the first movie. The two are older, and less idealistic, but we're still not certain if they end up together.  I, too, had given up my youthful hopes and dreams, and life had settled into unexpected patterns that I was somewhat disappointed with.  But, ah, I could watch that ending again and again.  And, once again, I knew in my heart what would become of them.  Could there be hope for me, too?

Finally, they are a couple.  Does this spell
trouble?  I'm dying to know.

And now, Before Midnight is currently playing in Manhattan.  I cannot wait for this movie to come out in Queens in two weeks.  I feel like one of the Star Wars or Twilight fans who will go to the midnight screening and line up during a downpour to see the latest installment of my favorite film franchises.  And just as I don't understand the fascination with blockbusters and special effects, I expect very few people to understand my attraction to a movie without a plot per-se, that follows lovers and the course of their lives.    It's hard to create tie-in Taco Bell merchandise on that premise.  But, as the previous two films did at the time of their releases, this movie  looks to sum up my current situation pretty well, only stated more eloquently in much more beautiful surroundings.  What's not to love?

Collage Frame DIY

Here's a joke for you: What's the difference between a regular frame and a collage frame?  Around $40.  Ha ha!

Tootie Pie needs a collage frame for one of her Daisy projects.  I told my husband that I could make one, but he decided to try to find one.  After around three hours, he called me and asked if I could make one.  No problem.

Actually, it really is easy.  All it requires is a bit of measuring and a square, plus a sharp X-Acto blade or, what I used, carpet cutter.  I used a spare piece of cardstock that was slightly too small for the frame, so I backed it with a piece of cardboard from Tootie Pie's Tinkerbell Tea Set she received for her birthday.  I cut the holes in the cardstock, then glued it to the backing, leaving the top part open to slide the pictures in.  It only took around one hours to complete, and I have a custom frame for a fraction of the price.  Sweet!

How to Make Exceptionally Unnatural Looking Miniature Grass from Foam Rubber

It may be grass,
or miniature
primordial ooze.

I took a before picture to
wow you with the
amazing results

Another don't from moi.  I thought one item my Undersized Urbanite entry was lacking that others had was landscaping.  I would like to add this to my Spring Fling build.  So, I followed some instructions on eHow using foam rubber, since I had some on hand.  I measured the paint perfectly, so I didn't need to drain any extra out.  However!  I failed to take into account the whiteness of the foam rubber, and my spring green lighted to neon alien skin color.  So, I'm chalking this up to a learning experience.  Next time, I will mix my paint much darker so that when it blends with the green, it will actually look like grass.  Oh, well.

Vote for My Spring Fling Design

Can you believe such a place exists?

I have some choices to make. I'd like to make a fairy house, but Tootie Pie came up with an inspired idea: she wants a Hello Kitty home.  I'd still like to try a castle. So, we'll need your help. Vote above for your favorite.

Is there such a thing as
too sparkly?

A Folly or Garage?

I am fresh off the fun of one miniature contest and I'm already looking at joining another.  Should I?  It is Greenleaf's Spring Fling, and the kit is $20 including shipping.  I have been wanting to make a castle, especially since we have very posh Petite Princess furniture, and I've been eyeing the egg carton brick technique and carved foam for a while.  Should I make an architectural folly, or a garage?

As I'm writing this, I already know the answer.  Yes, a garage is practical, and I could have an organized and clean garage, if only in miniature.  But it is no fun.  A folly: even the name is fun and cute.  I think I will fashion a princess tower, with turrets and spires and passageways.  I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

A two-legged tree house? Because "one leg is dangerous, and three are too stable and boring". Love it! Okay, I'm in!

Princess Tootie Pie Is Six!

Princess Tootie Pie's new silky
pyjamas.

Why, oh why, were light up
Cinderella slippers not
available when I was six?

Our formal celebration will be this Saturday, but we went shopping yesterday and she opened her presents from me.  She said she wanted to shop at "The Sparkle Store".  I needed to ask a few questions about that. She wanted to buy sparkles, so of course, that would necessitate a trip to the Sparkle Store. Duh, Mom! She wanted to buy jewels, and after a bit of investigative work on my part, and some internet sleuthing, it seemed like a big "Bucket of Bling" was in order.  We went to Michaels, and got a bag of jewels, some Crayola Pip Squeak glitter glue, a crown, and some markers that blend three colors together.  Thank goodness for those 40% off coupons, because bling ain't cheap, people.

 

My princess

 

 

Today, I took her to school to celebrate with brownie cupcakes from Costco, personalized with homemade frosting and pink edible sand.  I got to stay for circle time and sang some songs featuring the "ell" and "unch" family of words.  Laura got to use the pointer for her classmates.  I walked out of her school with such a huge smile on my face, and I had a nicer demeanor to my own students, and the good mood still is with me as I write this. 

Surrounded by her besties, who were brought
to the rug by the hand.  They are inspecting the
crown, but of course.

My six-year old!

Tootie Pie is my joy, my world, my life.  I love her never-ending tall tales, her infectious giggle, her amazing curiosity and intellect, and her songs that she creates on the fly and tries to pass off as a known hit.  We have developed such a bond that I can reason with her through her little bêtises (like letting one friend know about another friend's party that she wasn't invited to, or loading a school toilet with too much toilet paper) and she listens.  Goodness knows that a child that listens is every parents' dream.  She doesn't always mind me, but she does learn and improve every day.  And she started out good.  Imagine the woman she will become!  She will rule the world, I tell you!

How does one not leave this bunch with a smile?




Do Your Civic Duty: Vote!

I did it!  I made the deadline, mostly.  From what I can tell, not everyone who participated made the deadline.  I would have liked to make shades for each room, and I didn't get the lighting working (aside from the capiz shell chandelier), and I didn't even try to finish the rug.  That's been "in progress" for a year.  The contest took a backseat to the latest project, Tootie Pie's sixth birthday party.  But, I'm not embarrassed by my entry.  It is not up to the standards of Brae at Otterine (seriously!), but one day I may be a her level.  One day in the distant future.  Or, a parallel universe.  But, I'm still proud of myself.

Trying to make a mold of the one
original, large window that came
with the house.  The mold release is
critical, folks.  I almost removed a
finger trying to get my original out
of the mold.

Voting ends in less than a week.  You may place your vote here, and a synopsis of the finalists is here.  I'm still going through all the entries myself.  Big thank yous to Christina of Little Victorian for starting the contest.

My goal, as I stated in the beginning, was not to win, but to learn and network.  So, I've already reached my goal.  Another goal will be to not come in last place.  I'm reaching for the stars here, I know, since, if I'm honest, my entry is nowhere near as good as most of the others.  But, I did my best.  I'm proud how it turned out. 

I had a great time trying my hand at so many different disciplines.  I suffered a punctured finger, spray painted my face (luckily I was wearing my glasses), I knotted my hair up in the electric drill, and got more hot glue burns than I could count.   Seriously, I had a great time.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Undersized Urbanite Final Reveal

"Befores" on Left

"Afters" on Right

The master bedroom

The bathroom

The kitchen

The kid's room

 The living room

The dining room

There is a tutu-clad giant outside the window
and door.  Still working on the lights, held
up with tape.

The laptop is browsing "The Hardway"

We've come a long way, baby.  I bought this dollhouse on a whim, seeking mini furniture for the dollhouse I built for my daughter two Christmases ago.  I actually did not want it at all, since it is large, but the estate sale organizer negotiated it down to $10 for the furniture and house, so I wasn't going to leave it there.  A bout of cancer, a dental emergency, and an intrusive party to be planned all conspired to prevent me from participating in this event, but I perservered.  If anything, Undersized Urbanite kept me from totally losing it.  Please let the cancer influence your vote, also!

If you'd like more details on the progress, check out all of my posts here.

Capiz chandelier, Chinoiserie wall art, Nelson
ball clock in a corner of the dining room.



A transformed corner of  the master bedroom

A corner of the kid's room.



Always dishes to be done.

My cute cape!