Monday, January 31, 2011

Car Show, Sort of

Got to the new car show today but had to cut it short after my mom called 10 minutes after I got there and said she was trying to get a slot at the dentist due to the bad weather coming tomorrow. Well, I got the brochures I wanted, checked out a couple of cars and headed home. I called just before I got on the PATCO Speedline and she hadn't heard from them yet. I called again after I got back to my place and she still hadn't heard anything. Never called so my day was ruined for no reason. Nothing new. I think I might go again on Saturday. I want to get there right when it opens so we can check out as many cars as possible and take a look at some of the classic and vintage cars. In the meantime, back to work on my Zazzle store and getting up to speed on color management at Blurb.com so I can start working on publishing some of my photos. I'd like to get at least two books of them out this year by the holidays so I can have more of my stuff out there to sell. If I do them right, I think they'll sell well. Won't know until I try.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

It's Sunday

It's Sunday and it's actually sunny outside and there's a little bit of melting going on. It's supposed to get colder tomorrow. Figures, the day I plan to go to the Philadelphia Auto Show it's supposed to get colder. Happens every damn time. I think I've got the transmission glitch fixed. The fluid was a bit low so I got some and added some until it read full. Took it out this morning after a cold night and it seemed to be okay. I think the fluid was low enough that it needed to warm up so there was enough in the mechanism to work.  I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on it from now on. Car's got a lot of miles on it so I guess it comes with the territory. Have to keep up with it until I can get a new one.

More crappy weather is on the way, too. Supposed to have sleet turning into rain on Tuesday and freezing rain to rain on Wednesday. I'm really getting tired of this shit. Can't wait for February to go away. It's been a long winter so far. Back's still bugging me a bit from shoveling that heavy snow. Have to keep doing the stretching and exercise. Spring training starts in about two weeks so that's one harbinger of spring and the Rolex 24 at Daytona is finishing today. That's the start, more or less, of the car racing season in the US. I'm really looking forward to warmer weather. Can't wait to start exercising outside again.



Saturday, January 29, 2011

Got Stuff Done

Well, I actually got something done today. Got a walk in to try the new sneakers and I think I fixed the issues with my transmission. I think the fluid was a little low and when it got really cold, it would be reluctant to go into drive. I added some fluid today so we'll see tomorrow if it works properly. Here's hoping. I'm also thrilled about the Rolex 24 at Daytona is running since that means it's the start of racing season in the US. It's a great endurance race. Lots of fun to watch, especially on TV. Going to the new car show on Monday. Maybe this will be the year I FINALLY can swing a new car. I hope so. The show is a lot of fun. They also have classic cars on display from some local clubs and museums. Going to check them out and then hit the main display floor. I want to try some cars on for size. It may sound a bit odd, but other than good reliability, my two main criteria are headroom and legroom. Especially headroom. If there's at least an inch between the top of my head and the headliner, we're good. Legroom is next. Especially if I have to move the seat forward to reach the pedals. I love that. We'll see what happens.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Again, Snow

Here we go again. Sort of. We've got an Alberta Clipper passing through today and we're getting a little bit of snow, a coating at most, fortunately. There's supposed to be another one passing through tomorrow and then there's talk of another big storm next week. Everyone I know is getting a little tired of this shit. Looks like I'll be going to the Philadelphia Auto Show on Monday since they're saying Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be lousy and then on Thursday, we get a cold Arctic blast. I am NOT going to walk in bitter cold through slushy city streets like I did the last time I went. At least on Monday it'll be in the low 30's and not too windy.

Don't know if I'll get too much done on Zazzle today. Had to run over to my mom's and reset her remotes so her cable would work properly. A friend of her's messed with them and screwed things up. It was an easy fix but a pain in the ass none the less.

Here's one of the iPad cases I offer at my Zazzle store: 




I've got other designs on these and other great products at Zazzle. Stop by my store and take a look. Thanks.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Snow

Hi, if I seem a little off, it's because I'm seriously tired from shoveling more snow. This time we got hit hard and it was the wet heavy kind of snow, great for making snowmen but a real pain in the ass to shovel. Gets really heavy, really fast. Got rolling on it and our neighbors' landlord came by with his snow blower and made fast work of things (we share the driveway). We also had to get the sidewalks cleared and clear the downspout on the front so the water wouldn't get in from the roof. The main roads are fine but a lot of the side streets are still a mess. It's sunny and above freezing so at least some of it will melt. The downside is that tonight everything will freeze up and most likely there will be some black ice to deal with. To everyone who's dealing with the weather in the Northeast US, hang in there, spring is coming.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Products

Got two product lines finished up today. Took a while but it was worth the time. Got that much closer to the magic 1,000 product threshold. According to what the help section in Zazzle says, 1,000 products is kind of a magic number after which your chances of more sales increase. Makes sense. The more people have to choose from, the better your chance of some one finding something they'll want to buy. I know most of the ProSellers have upwards of 10,000 items. I'll get there. I'm sure I'll reach 1,000 items or even break that number by filling out my existing product lines. Then it's on to new designs and creating some original artwork as well. That and starting work on putting books of my photos together using Blurb.com. I've got some ideas for photo books and I have to go through my photos and decide which ones I want to use. I may also use some of them for Zazzle products as well. Of course, the first thing I have to do is shovel the snow that's currently falling. It IS winter after all. I do need the exercise so I'm not going to complain too much.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Still At It

Still working on the Zazzle store. Got some done yesterday but due to other stuff, haven't had a chance to do much today. Will definitely get something done tomorrow. Oh, and if you're a visitor, the blog panel to the right of the text is working. Even if, for whatever reason, there's no image showing, the link(s) to the products still work so if you want to see the item(s), just click on the link and it'll take you there. I copied the code and pasted it in again but I still got the same result. I'm guessing there's a glitch somewhere. Anyway, if you've stopped by to read my blog, thanks. If you have any questions or comments, let me know and I'll answer them or comment back as soon as I can. Feel free to stop at my Zazzle store and look around. I've got t-shirts, posters, mugs, mouse pads and a lot of other great stuff that makes for great gifts. My store is also on Facebook so please stop by there and click the "Like" button if you like my store. I'd really appreciate it.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Projects

Well, it's a new year and some new projects are on the horizon. I'm still working on updating my Zazzle store and adding products and I've got a couple of other things going, most notably, I'm finally going to get off my ass and get moving on publishing a book of some of my photos using Blurb. I've been thinking about it for a while and I've finally decided to sit down, get up to speed on color management (one of my weak spots) and really do it up. I've been through some of my older photos and an there are more that are good than I originally thought. I've got black & white and color shots so I'll probably do up a book of B&W and then at least one book of color shots. Probably going to take a while but I'll get there. In the meantime, gotta keep on keepin' on with the Zazzle store. I'm within spitting distance of the magic 1,000 products threshold and I've got plenty of clip art to make some new designs and some ideas for some original artwork, too. If nothing else, it'll keep me out of trouble. See you soon.