Hewlett Packard Printer Review & Giveaway

1 February 2009 by

cd028a_300

Several weeks ago I got an email asking if I’d like to try to HP Photosmart C6380 All-in-One Printer, Scanner & Copier (be sure to memorize the official name because there will be a test at the end of this giveaway). Since I haven’t had a printer for about, oh, EIGHT YEARS, I quickly answered the email and said, “Yes, please.” Because I figured having a printer of my own might be a smidge more convenient than sending attachments to my husband and asking him to print them for me. Which is pretty much how I’ve run this operation from the get-go. All fancy-like, you know.

The printer arrived early last week, and while I was thrilled to try it, I wasn’t nearly as thrilled as my daddy, who happened to be visiting and COULD NOT WAIT to open the printer box. In fact, he was the one who unpacked everything and unwrapped all the manuals and whathaveyou, and I’m pretty sure that if I’d offered to give him the printer he would have done some hitchkicks in my dining room.

(Not that he’s really the hitchkicking type, you understand. But he was mighty impressed by everything the HP C6380 can do. I think it was the first time he’s ever thought this whole blogging thing just might have some merit, and that is totally fine because I know how deeply new electronics speak to the heart of every man.)

Later that night I got a chance to really put the printer to the test, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was to set up. For some reason I still expect to have to enter some MS-DOS commands when I install new software, but the HP installation was easy breezy and over in just a few minutes. Plus, it’s a wireless printer, so I didn’t even have to fool with any pesky cords. I have the printer neatly tucked away in an area where it’s pretty much out of sight (I’m not a fan of the electronic clutter), and it works like a dream.

And the next day, that sassy new printer really made a believer out of me. I realized that I’d forgotten to pick up a birthday card for a friend, and I was just about to pull out a piece of stationery and write a note when I realized WAIT! I HAVE A PRINTER NOW! I CAN MAKE A CARD!

Sometimes it’s the little things, you know?

So I went to the HP website and found a card I liked and printed it out right then and there. IT WAS A WONDER, not to mention that it was quite a bit more professional-looking than when I used to print out cards on my daddy’s dot-matrix printer when I was in high school.

We have given our HP printer a work-out this last week, and it’s been such a treat. The wireless feature is fab, and I’m so excited about scanning in old pictures (something else I’ve never been able to do because I’ve never owned a scanner before, which pretty much makes me an embarrassment to the entire internet). It probably goes without saying that I’m tickled that we now have a piece of home-office equipment that does everything we need.

(Except it doesn’t wash windows or do laundry.)

(I imagine that it will be several years before they add those particular features.)

SO, if you’d like to win an HP Photosmart C6380 printer of your very own, leave a comment on this post and tell me how this printer would make your life easier. This contest will remain open until Sunday, February 8th at 11:59 pm.

And if you’d like additional chances to win, check out the BlogHer HP giveaway round-up page.

Have fun, everybody!

This giveaway is now closed.

Filed Under: Rambling

We Found Them

30 January 2009 by

For the last couple of weeks Alex and I have been playing a silly game. He’ll walk up to me and say, “What’s your name?”

And I’ll say something silly like, “Snickerbottoms” or “Picklelemons” or “McTuttlenuts.”

And then he’ll feign surprise and say, “MY NAME IS SNICKERBOTTOMS, TOO! I FOUND YOU! WE MUST BE FAMILY!” and then he throws his arms around my neck and laughs hysterically and wants to play the game all over again.

He loves it. I do, too.

Last year – The Two-Oh-Oh-Eight – was wonderful and exciting and challenging and hard. It was overwhelming at times. There were some difficult patches for sure, and I’m being as vague as possible, you see, because LET’S KEEP IT LIGHT, PEOPLE. LET’S KEEP IT LIGHT AND THEN LET’S LAUGH ABOUT SOMETHING, THIS IS HOW I OPERATE.

So, in short: while there were definitely some bright spots, more often than not in 2008 it seemed like I was forever standing before God and just flat-out wrestling with all my stinkin’ sin and mistakes and selfishness and failures and stubbornness. And fear. OH my word at the fear. And worry. And etc. and so on and so forth.

But.

In the midst of all that.

God did the coolest thing.

I have long contended that I have the sweetest friends and family in the whole wide world, and if you don’t believe me then you should meet them and then you’d see and then you’d probably want to be friends with them, too, and that is understandable, really, because they are all quite fabulous. Most of those sweet friends have been in my life since high school or college, and I kid you not that one of the great delights of my life is laughing with them about everything and nothing. Those girls know my faults like nobody’s business (I’m prideful. I don’t like to talk about my problems or my weaknesses. I’m moody. The list goes on and on.) and love me anyway. I love them to pieces.

So in terms of long-time friends, I’ve been beyond blessed. But truth be told, I struggle sometimes when new people come along because I feel like I’m not serious enough or smart enough or holy enough or laid-back enough or disciplined enough or whatever, not to mention that I’m irreverent and sarcastic (I’m going to start calling it “sarTASTIC,” by the way) and loud and waist-deep in the process of working out my junk and figuring out what it means to live a fully surrendered life (OH SWEET MERCY I feel that I’ve hit my introspective limit for 2009 already and PLEASE, CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT BACON?).

Anyway, the bottom line is this: I can get pretty comfortable with (relative) isolation if I’m not careful. I can start to like isolation if I’m not careful. The fact that I don’t blog about all the ISH-AHS in my life and my family’s life doesn’t make them go away, and if for some reason you think I don’t have ISH-AHS, then please permit me to give you this piece of advice: OH PLEASE DON’T KID YOURSELF.

But in 2008, despite all the Life Junk, God just blessed our socks off through people. Old friends. New friends who were “hit it off” people to such a degree that it almost gave me whiplash. Their names aren’t “Snickerbottoms” or “Picklelemons” or “McTuttlenuts,” but almost every single time I talk to them I want to throw my arms around their neck and hug them to pieces and scream “WE FOUND YOU! WE MUST BE FAMILY!”

So while it’s tempting for me to look back on last year and think mostly about the hard things, what I want to remember about last year are the best things. Because I’ll tell you this right now and you can cross stitch it and frame it and hang it in your living room in the dead-dog center of your wall if you’d like: it’s a whole lot easier to walk through your ish-ahs when there are people in your life who you love and trust – and when they love and trust you right back. Whether they’re family, old friends or new friends, I don’t want to do life without them.

I don’t have some pretty bow to wrap around this post, no clever way to tie up all the loose ends. I just want to be more mindful than ever that even though life is stinkin’ hard sometimes, God extends so much of His mercy and His goodness through the people He puts in our path. I want to love people well. Whether I’ve known them for my whole life or for twenty years or for twenty days, I want to love them well, to be mindful that they’re a blessing.

And this post is a reminder to my own dadgum self.

The end.

Filed Under: Faith, My Friends Rock

You May Have To Remind Me How To Use This Thing

29 January 2009 by

I don’t really know how to explain why I’ve been so scarce around here lately without doing a significant amount of oversharing, but yes. I’ve been a little out of my bloggy routine this week. After we got home from Travis‘ (phenomenal) concert, I tried to tackle my to-do list, and I think I didn’t give myself enough recovery time. Because Tuesday afternoon I had what my mama would call a sinking spell. Just bottomed out. Got all weepy and worried and whathaveyou. Felt way overwhelmed and burdened for a sweet friend. Fell apart after David and I realized that Hoopty Laptop is for real, straight-up dead this time (she quit working last week, and we suspected it was a power cord issue, but it’s not, and Hoopty, She Is Dead.)

(Poor Hoopty. Her passing makes me think of a WH Auden poem, which I will paraphrase at this juncture:

[Hoopty] was my North, my South, my East, my West;
My working week and my Sunday rest;
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought [our] love would last forever. I was wrong.

And I didn’t really love my computer. But I liked her a whole, whole bunch.)

It hasn’t helped that I’ve been listening to way too much Shawn Colvin, and Shawn Colvin always makes me cry because it reminds me of when I was in grad school and my friend Bubba was going through a difficult time and I used to think about him when I’d hear her songs and REALLY, I’M NOT AS CODEPENDENT AS I MAY SEEM, I PROMISE.

Fortunately we had an old Mac desktop in our garage, and the husband got it all set up for me in the dining room. It works great. I’m very, very grateful to have it as a back-up. I just miss Hoopty. As Melanie said earlier this week, Hoopty has been really good to me except for all the times she crashed when we tried to record all the podcasts you’ve never heard.

So there was that.

And then Tuesday night I read this week’s Newsweek that featured article after article about how horrible everything is and how it’s not going to get any better and how the entire global economy is collapsing on itself and how we’ve zigged when we should have zagged and, no kidding, I really thought I was going to have to take some sort of nerve pill when I finally closed that magazine. So I’ve made the very mature decision to stop reading and watching the news. It freaks me out. And I really do think that if the news media would report positive stuff for a solid month instead of focusing so much on the gloom and doom that things really would get better. Because we’d all feel better. And when you feel better, you act better. I know that’s simplistic. But it couldn’t hurt.

However, I won’t know if they decide to report positive stuff or not because I’M DONE WITH THE READING AND THE WATCHING.

In the happy column, the five year-old has never in his whole life been more delightful company. We have had the most fun week together. Monday night when I was cooking supper he grabbed my camera and took pictures, and when I transferred pictures to my computer the next day I laughed my head off.

Apparently his craft is heavily influenced by Pixar and Nintendo.

Okay. Two more things. Maybe three.

My sweet friend Merritt is flying into town tomorrow and I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE HER FACE. We haven’t seen each other in over a year, and I’ve already warned her that I will probably cry when I see her. The crying isn’t necessarily unusual in a week where I cried over a power cord, but my Merritt-related tears will be infinitely more heartfelt. OHMYWORDI’VEMISSEDHER. Cheese dip and guacamole for everyone!

Also: “The Office” and “30 Rock” are re-runs tonight, and all I have to say about that is NO FAIR.

Finally: your hair looks really good today. Really. It does. FABULOUS.

And I believe that’s all.

Filed Under: Rambling

Update On Baby Harper

28 January 2009 by

Such great news! So, so happy for Kelly, Scott and their sweet baby girl.

Filed Under: Rambling

American Idol Watch Party

27 January 2009 by

Hi.

How are y’all?

I’m fine-ish. Thanks for asking. The only really interesting thing going on right this second is that I still haven’t had supper and it’s after 9:00 so I think I’m about to have a date with some Kashi Go Lean Crunch.

Isn’t my life fascinating?

Anyway.

My post on tonight’s episode of American Idol is up over at Culture11.

And the good people over there moved us to a blog so that you no longer have to register to comment. You can just enter your name and email address like you do here. And maybe fill in a little verification box. Easy breezy.

There. I believe that’s all. I’m going to go whip up a fancy bowl of cereal now.

Love,
Me

Filed Under: Other Places

Linky Interwebby Awesomeness 01.27.09

27 January 2009 by

– A few minutes ago I was catching up on Jennifer’s blog, and after a few clicks I found myself reading this post, which I somehow missed when it was originally published. And oh my word. It took my breath away.

– Kathryn has some thoughts on The Bachelor. We can all join her in saying “Amen.”

– And last but not least, Dave Barnes has some news. And if you love his music like I love his music, you’ll be oh-so-delighted to hear what he has to say.

Filed Under: Daily Awesome
« Previous Page
Next Page »