Guess what guess what guess what!
My HP B9180 Photosmart professional printer is here, and it is everything I could possibly want and then some! It’s larger and heavier than the HP 8750, but it also takes nine individual ink cartridges AND four individual print heads, and has over 4800 individual ink spraying nozzles, so the extra weight is to be expected.
So far the photos are coming out flawlessly. 4 x 6, 5 x 7, 8 x 10… borderless and perfectly sized, and bordered and perfectly sized! No pixeling or jaggedness issues whatsoever! My only teensy, tiny complaint is that the photos are looking a little dull on paper, but I have a feeling that’s a simple thing to correct using Adobe Photoshop. I have been doing some research on color profiles to see what others suggest.
More tomorrow, once I get my new paper to use with the printer!
I didn’t forget about the Bean!
All this talk of my woes with finding a good swimsuit for Alyssa, and I forgot to mention Ryan! My poor Ry Bean. Well, the Ry Bean has a pair of cute green with blue and white stripes down the legs swim shorts from last year. They had a lot of boys swimsuits to choose from at Target, and I really liked the shade of green these swimming trunks came in!
But in case they don’t fit him, since he’s around 35ish lbs. and is pretty solidly built, and we bought the swimming shorts a year ago, when he was still wearing baby swimsuits, I have my eye on these:
What do you think?
Shopping for baby gifts
I love shopping for baby gifts. Baby gifts are incredibly easy to buy, especially when the moms-to-be provide you with a gift registry! For both pregnancies I created gift registries. When I was pregnant with Alyssa, I had a gift registry at Amazon. When I was pregnant with Ryan, I had a gift registry at Target. Both times, people knew exactly what I’d want, but still have a selection of items to pick from, so it would still be somewhat of a surprise for me. 
Just checked out some more suits…
So I just ran through some more websites: KMart (who shops there nowadays? lol), Boscov’s, Kohl’s, JCP and Sears. I found one or two promising looking suits in the baby swimwear section of Kohl’s, but, I dunno… I’d have to take Alyssa over there in person to try out the suits. We do have a gift card with about $7 left on it from Christmas, so we could use that up.
La la la. I’m tired, but I have some work to do before I go to bed. And I’m hoping to keep myself up until 3am or so, when our bank posts deposits for the business day! The IRS apparently made bank deposits to the first 800,000 people for this week (this week IRS stimulus payments are being direct deposited to individuals with soc security numbers ending in 00-20; ours is one of the first ones if they’re going by numbers!), and did Monday’s deposits at 8:30am. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope that money is there come 3am! Or even 9am! Just at some point on Tuesday, PLEASE!
Girls swimsuits
This year, Alyssa, my three and a half year old daughter, is definitely wearing a one piece bathing suit. When she was a baby of nine months and then a pudgy toddler of a year and a half and two and a half, two pieces, with their ruffles and frills, were adorable. But now that she’s going on four, and has lost most of her baby fat, I want her in a one piece. Bikinis on little girls, particularly bikinis styled after those that lanky teen girls would wear, remind me of serving up a pig on a platter to a hungry crowd. Replace “pig on a platter” with “girl in a two piece” and “hungry crowd” with “pedophile”, and you see where my mind is going. :/
So, one piece swimsuit it is! Now to find one that fits what I like, and what Alyssa likes. So far, I have probably looked at over fifty girls swimsuits, but have not found one that I really, REALLY like. Either I like the cut of the suit, or the print. But not both. Of course not. Never, ever both.
Please, throw stores at me! Target, Gymboree, Little Me, Carter’s, Gap, Baby Gap, Children’s Place, Limited Too (tiny girls version)… I’ve looked at them all. What’s left!?
We’ve got the sick
So here’s a mini-review for you: Pepto Bismol absolutely sucks for anything other than diarrhea. Take it from me. I’ve been in a household of daily vomiting and purging since last Monday, thanks to a stomach bug that came in last Sunday night and hasn’t left yet. Ugh.
I really want to take my daughter out for a swim suit, flip-flops and maybe a Roxy Teenie Wahine, and my son out for shorts and sandals, but I don’t want to take them out because they’re sick. Forget possibly throwing up in the car or in a store. I don’t want to infect other people. And seeing as how my brothers were visiting on Friday and again Saturday and got sick by Sunday morning, whatever we have is obviously contagious!
Baby gift swap
When I was pregnant with my son, I joined a really neat LiveJournal community called little_gifts. The purpose was simple: every month, we would have a baby gifts swap with other members. We were always paired up randomly, so there was no chance of playing favorites or anything like that. Each member posted a gift registry or wish list, and mailing information was kept by the admin, who would pass it along to the gift giver, as needed.
I was a part of the group for six or seven swaps, before things fell through and a lot of the members stopped participating.
I’m trying to get something like this organized again on Lavish (check the parenthood forum), so stop by and let me know if you’re interested!
