remember the whizbang printer i got for christmas? the one i was afraid to use until i HAD to because it sucked ink like a Hoover, according to reviews? the one that would print on anything from copy paper, to rag paper, to posterboard? that one? have i mentioned that i have yet NOT EVEN ONCE been able to get the paper to feed through? any paper? perhaps because my head was exploding and eyes spinning, i may have forgotten to mention it. so today, as i stood in my bathrobe on the deck, and diva snooped behind some trees, i got a Must Do idea for a collage, and began to set my day up to accomplish that. 1st - breakfast, because it would be a long day. while i was eating, husband showed me his pictures from a recent trip to Niagara Falls (on business, of course). one of the shots had the exact EXACT lines i had just sketched out for my collage - same tonal values and everything. yow. so (you know what's coming) i decided to print it out on the whizbang printer and use pieces of that print in the atual collage. 2 hours later...i found a number to the tech support center - open on saturday! which could only mean an offshore call center. which i am usually patient with, even though they mostly just read the troubleshooting guide from the internet self-help section. I got to speak with JD. he indeed, began reading the troubleshooting section, but we went through it together. when he threw down his ace, and said "okay print," you could almost hear him smile as he waited to have praise heaped upon him for his genius. nope. the paper jam light continued to flash even though no paper was jammed. being truly surprised, and now a bit irritated at the printer himself, he advised that what i needed to do was blow it out with canned air. oh. hell. no. and i explained to him calmly that "Oh hell no, JD. It has done this since being released from it's box in december, like a scourge visited upon me." a moment of silence, then he asked for the serial number. like 2 seconds later, he advised me that they would be sending me a brand-spanking-new printer with return postage for me to return my disobediant one. just like that. hunh. i am pleased. very pleased. happy that it wasn't just me. happy for a new printer. happy that it will arrive in time for me to make prints for my show. happy happy happy. in fact, so happy that i may not be able to collage. but happy all the same. i need a break from cutting silver and polishing and deburring and buffing and all that is involved in producing a perfectly wonderful silver disk. my hands need a different rhythm for a day or two, so they don't get frozen in place! okay - diva is doing her big impatient no-one-loves-me howl, so off to the woods. Have an incredible day!