We're in the middle...

...of starting orthodontic work for Frodo. He got some "spacing elastics" put in between a couple teeth last week. Today they will make a mold of his mouth. Next week he gets the palate expander placed. I have the bottles of tylenol and advil all ready. I'm going to pick him up early for his appointment today and we'll go out to lunch together. :)

Today, I also have to go and vote. It's the local spring elections. Then when that's done, I'm going to go outside and enjoy the gorgeous weather. It's going to be in the mid 50s and sunny. I think I might clean the garage. I have to persuade hubby to help with that. He got some last night, so he should be pretty agreeable today. ;)

My printer wasn't working well recently. It was leaving streaks all over printed pages. I did all the "maintenence" functions on it, and it wasn't resolved. I took an example page into the office supply store we purchased it from just 13 months prior and asked if they had any suggestions. The gal in their tech department said it was probably that the print head needed to be replaced. (After just 13 months? WTF?) I mentioned I'd purchased the "protection plan" thingy. (Which I almost NEVER do!) She said those usually didn't cover the print head. (WTF again?) So I went home.

I checked the protection plan document and I couldn't find any mention of it not covering a print head, so I called the number on the document. After a short eternity on hold, I got a pleasant woman with a Jersey accent on the phone. She ran through a list of things with me and after determining I'd done all I could, she said she'd have some labels printed up for me so I could - get this - box the printer up and ship it to them so they could look at it. (WTF yet again!)

After hanging up with her, I decided if it was already shot, I'd try taking it apart to look at it. I got all the print cartridges out and the print head actually comes out after I lift a little switch on the mechanism that carries it back and forth. I look at the print head and see it's got all sorts of wet paper fiber-ey gunk built up on it - it looks like when you color with a marker on a cheap piece of paper and the paper starts to disintegrate. So I grabbed a kleenex, wiped it off, and *voila!* the printer works fine now. I figured when I got the shipping labels in the mail, I'd just trash them.

Yesterday rolls around, and I'd actually forgotten about the shipping labels arriving because it took so long. I open the envelope and inside is a letter and no shipping labels. The letter states that under the terms of the protection plan, I was entitled to a refund of the original purchase price of the item due to the defect in the item. So instead of shipping labels, I got a gift card to spend at the office supply store! So now I get to buy $180 worth of *something* from there. IU really don't need lots of paper or staplers or anything. I might put it towards a new digital camera because I really don't like the one I have. :) Either that or a new chair for the computer desk. Hmmmm.... Decisions, decisions!

I hope you have an enjoyable day!