Net Diva wrote in my guestbook, "So in late September you said not to buy a printer until after mid-October. Now why was that? Inquiring voyeurs want to know!" I'm so glad you reminded me.

Anybody who's a computer head knows that Epson is the innovative company when it comes to reasonably priced inkjet printers. I had signed a Non-disclosure Agreement for one of their new products, but it's been officially released, so I can talk about it now.

The Epson Stylus Photo 820 is a new 6-ink inkjet printer targeted to the consumer market and priced at $149.00. Six-ink configurations (cyan, light cyan, magenta, light magenta, yellow, black�or CcMmYK) make for a much better print than the 4-color ones, and this printer basically uses the same technology as the Epson Stylus Photo 1280�a $499 printer�except it's not designed to take the volume of output that the 1280, more of a pro printer, can handle. So, the 820 promises to be a really rocking consumer printer if you're looking for such a thing. The ink and the paper (photo paper and heavy mattes available) add to your expense, and you have to buy the right cable to hook into your computer, but overall I'd bet that it's a pretty damned good product. I'd probably get one myself, except there's no room for one in the study. Dammit. Okay, I'm off my sales horse now. If the Epson folks follow any referral links to here, they're going to be wondering who the hell I am. Hee.

This concludes the consumer electronics tip portion of our program.

I was this close (*Badsnake holds up thumb and index finger very close together*) to shoplifting this weekend. I may have mentioned that we had a plumber install new fixtures in the bathroom. Originally, all we needed done was to have a leak in the tub faucet fixed, but I, like a moron, decided to do a little sprucing up while we were at it and bought some nifty Pfister faucets to go in.

Replacing the faucets turned out to be a much more time and money consuming project than I had anticipated. Changing out the sink fixtures took about half a day and cost hundreds of dollars. Ow. But the plumber offered to do the shower change-out on his own time on a night or weekend and much more cheaply than what his company charged.

When we finally got around to getting the job done, the shower fixtures were installed, but there were holes in the tile around where the pipes come through and the faucet knobs are attached. I didn't notice this until the plumber guys left. There weren't any of those little metal flange thingys to cover up the holes. I called the plumber (who'd taken the Pfister box and old shower parts with him) and asked him to check and see if those flanges (officially called escutcheons) were in the box. He swore there hadn't been any in the box.

Sunday I went to Home Depot to try to buy some replacement escutcheons, looked at the display of the fixtures I'd bought, and there they were. They were supposed to come with the fixtures. Now either they were left out of the box, or my plumber is lying. There was an open box of fixtures very similar to mine with identical escutcheons just sitting on the shelf. The escutcheons would fit easily into my back pocket. Technically, I'd already paid for these parts. I had no recourse to get the missing parts from the store because the fixtures have already been installed and I don't even have the box anymore.

I put the escutcheons in my cart. I thought about laying a catalog on top of them and trying to just walk out with them in my cart. I thought about putting them in my pocket, but that's harder to explain away as something I just forgot about. I walked around the store, frustrated that I had the parts I wanted in my cart, but couldn't actually just buy them. The replacement escutchoeons HD did have were ugly and the wrong size. Grrrrrr!

But I couldn't do it.

I thought about Sara's tales of stinky inmates and jail life, even if it's only long enough to get bonded out, and decided that a shoplifting charge was really the last thing in the world I needed. And I probably wouldn't be able to live with myself afterwards. I would hear the clinking of the Telltale Escutcheons in my sleep, slowly driving me insane. I would've ended up driving back to Home Depot and sticking the parts back in the box where I'd found them. I'm such a pathetic law abider.

My only recourse now is to call Pfister and see if they'll have mercy on my soul. Maybe Home Depot would pity me if I show them digital pictures of the installation and the receipt. Garg. I hate shit like this.

Moving on - 12:11 p.m. , 2007-08-14

Where the hell have I been? - 12:10 p.m. , 2007-02-19

Holy shit! - 2:24 p.m. , 2006-01-11

Stuffing recipe - 6:17 p.m. , 2005-12-13

Good Life Update - 10:22 a.m. , 2005-11-11