You’ll be pleased to notice that I’ve made a few little improvements to my blog.I’ve been meaning to add these useful features (that I see so many others have) but I had absolutely no know-how.Then my eight year started using html to create mini-webpages.I figured…if an eight year old can do it then I should at least give it a go…and hey, if I couldn’t do it, I at least had someone who could help me out of my fixes…and he did…more than once.He knows what all these little "br"s and "p"s mean.He found the process fascinating.Me…I’m just glad I came out of all that coding alive and my blog is still running.
Okay here are my new features.Feel free to test drive them and let me know how you enjoyed the driving experience.
*An “About Me” description
*A “Contact Me” icon
*A shortened “Recent Post” list
* A “Categories” section with more specific categories
*A “My Freebies” heading to pretty things up
* And a “Home/Next Page” navigation bar at the bottom of the blog (which needs to be changed to a more visible colour I just realised…“Ethan, I need you” hollers me.)
I hope these improvements made your visit to my little blog more enjoyable and made it easier to navigate around.
Do you find yourself changing your printer ink cartridges more often than your socks?? I did. Well 9mls from these teeny tiny cartridges doesn't go far. Let me tell you!! Now I'll admit. I'm very free with my printing and I give our printer quite a work out every week. But with our new printer and these teeny tiny ink tanks we were averaging at least one full replacement of cartridges every two to three weeks. Totally ridiculous especially considering each costs (and there's 5 of them!!) around the $20-25 mark. Yes ouch! A big ouch.
I used to cringe at replacing my old printers' tanks (only two of them) at $50 a tank every four months or so and my computer salesman used to cringe along with me. It was the same salesman who convinced me that it would be "better" if I bought a new printer that used cheaper inks. HA!! Okay, it wasn't all his smooth talking that did the deal. We really needed to look at a new printer since our old one's cartridges had become very difficult to find and would soon be non-existent.
Well after only a few months with this new printer and a fortune in ink I sent hubby back to the drawing board to find us another printer. I'd rather get a whole new printer that was more economical than replace cartridges that basically cost, almost fortnightly, the same amount as the printer!!
While hubby was researching he stumbled across continuous ink systems (CIS). The cost effectiveness of the system really appealed to us so we decided to purchase the system and give it a burl. What could it hurt?! We already planned on ditching the printer (while it worked beautifully in all it's printing capacities it was just a huge continuous hole in the wallet) so voiding the printer warranty didn't phase me in the least. The success of the CIS was all that would save that new printer so it was worth a try. It also didn't cost a whole lot more than the price of replacing a whole set of cartridges so we weren't taking too much of a risk.
My only concern with the device was that there was a bit of fiddliy stuff involved with installing the system. Computer chips to be removed, soldering to be done, ink syringing and other such scary sounding such. But since none of those things would be my job I didn't fret too much. From a spectactor's point of view, those things didn't look all that bad when it came to the crunch and the instruction manual seemed very thorough and helped immensely. Well it was a little messy but still less messy than we expected. Bear in mind that the ink is permanent so wear gloves, cover your surfaces and be prepared. But it wasn't too bad. We coped and we'd do it again....okay that's easy to say since I was only offering my support from the sidelines E.g. Don't get that on the carpet. Are you sure this is a good idea? Why can't we do this in the garage? Shouldn't you change out of your good work shirt first? That sort of thing. You know how helpful us wives can be when we are trying really hard .
I'm so pleased with our continuous ink system. It seems like it's going to be the answer to our expensive ink problems. Just compare this: 100mls of ink for the CIS is $13 or 9mls of ink for $20ish. Hmmmm....seems like a no brainer to me.
Of course we've had to make a few compromises in this new arrangement. As the ink supply sits outside of the printer, the ink supply tubes require that the printer lid be slightly raised (yes the printer still works as they bypass the error that would normally occur if you raised the printer lid) so it's a little odd looking. But nothing that I can't live with. Mind you I had to find a new place to store my cd supply. Oh the trials....
So that's our printer ink quest that we've been on and that I believed has ended in a happy love affair. And you know what I've been doing all day...printing until my heart's content. Oh the absolute bliss of not having to worry about running out ink...at least not for a very long time.
... and the printer breathed a sigh of relief. Its life had been spared.
....and they all lived happily ever after
The End.
(And no, no one paid me for the endorsement of the CIS product. I'm just a new fan. Oh and I don't think the printer people would dream of contacting me for any of their gigs....hehehe.)
I am a homeschooling mother of two boys, aged 8 and 6 years. We live in Australia and have never sent our children to school...except to visit with their Daddy, my Dh. He is a school teacher (as I was too, a long time ago).
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