Ladewig.com

If you want your package to get where it is going, avoid UPS if at all possible.

I ordered three kringle (a Danish pastry) from back home in Wisconsin. To make sure it arrived before New Year’s, I paid for 2nd day air (the bakery uses UPS) and had it shipped to my work address, since I didn’t want pastries sitting out on the porch in the warm weather we’re experiencing. Guess what? I’m still waiting for my kringle.

I’ll spare you my sad story, but this has really opened my eyes to what a horrible system UPS has for tracking packages. I had one person tell me I could pick up the package, and then another tell me I couldn’t because it hadn’t arrived. I gave them an alternate address to deliver it to today, and I was assured they would take care of it. Turns out they didn’t and the package is waiting for me to pick it up… even though the place where I would pick it up is closed until Monday.

I have now had seven phone conversations with six different people at UPS. I’ve also left a message with the manager here letting him know how unhappy I am. We’ll see if he calls me back on Monday or whether I have to call him.

UPS asks in their ad what “brown” can do for you. My answer to them would be to deliver my package. That’d be a nice start.

Follow-Up: I wanted to let folks know what happened with my UPS problem. I finally had a chance to talk to the area manager, and he apologized for the confusion. He asked me what the kringle cost along with shipping and said he’d request that they send me a check.I offered to provide a receipt, but he said that wouldn’t be necessary. A few weeks later, a check appeared at my doorstep (delivered by UPS of course). So all is well that ends well.

I imagine I’m like most people with a digital camera. I have hundreds of digital photos, but few of them are ever printed and added to an album. As nice as it is to watch a slide show of photos, it just isn’t as convenient or as satisfying as paging through a photo album.

I’ve ordered prints online and printed them on our home printer, but I haven’t been satisfied with the quality, even with “photo” paper. The only option I had left was to take them to our local photo lab, but I never got around to taking a disc in to be processed. That’s when I discovered the Epson PictureMate.

This has to be the most amazing photo printer I’ve ever seen. Incredibly small and compact, it is designed to be portable, although I can’t imagine actually taking it anywhere. What is amazing about it though, is the fact that it can produce lab quality 4×6 prints for $0.29, the same cost as the local photo lab. On top of that, the prints have a life of up to 200 years in photo album conditions and resist fading 2 to 4 times longer than lab prints.

Of course, vendor claims are just that, but I was impressed enough to order one. (The $50 Visa gift card offer by Epson was an added incentive to order before the end of the year.) The printer arrived today and the FedEx person raved about the printer, saying she bought one recently and loves it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t often get product reviews from the delivery people, so I took it as a good sign.

I just finished setting it up and printed a couple of the photos Kristin asked me to print (from Christmas 2001!), and the results are incredible. The pictures come out dry, no smudging, no drying needed. If I hadn’t printed them myself, I’d swear these came from a photo lab.

Of course, the $0.29 price is based on the paper and ink packs Epson sells and doesn’t include the cost of the printer itself. Plus it takes time to print the photos. Being able to do it at home, however, makes it more likely that I’ll actually make prints for myself and others.

Bottom line, if you’re looking for a photo printer, you can’t go wrong with the Epson PictureMate. Just a few things to keep in mind:

• It only prints 4×6 photos.
• Even though prints are dry to the touch, they recommend letting them dry for 8-24 hours before putting them in an album or under glass for the longest fade resistance.
• You cannot preview photos on the printer display. If you use the printer standalone with media such as CompactFlash or SD cards, you need to print an index sheet to select which images to print.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Saturday was Baking Day. We spent almost nine hours in the kitchen baking cookies, making Crispix mix, and making various other goodies. Now we need someone to come over and help us eat all of this, to make sure that we don’t! Mmm mmm mmm, I love gooey butter cookies.

GameSpot reported today that Electronic Arts has signed an exclusive deal with the NFL and NFL Players Inc., for sole rights to use NFL teams, stadiums, and players in its games.

This stinks. Apparently the NFL decided in Spring that they would put the license up for bid as an exclusive deal. So now, rather than compete on the merits of its product, EA can simply freeze out the competition. Without teams, stadiums, and players, you don’t have much of a game. How much do you want to bet that next year the price cuts on Madden (made in response to ESPN NFL 2K5 selling for $19.99!) are history?

For more info see: Big Deal: EA and NFL ink exclusive licensing agreement – PlayStation 2 News at GameSpot