I scaled back on the site for a few days to get all the Christmas-Festivus-Solstice biz completed. Last year, illness and recuperation from surgery (Somara was) kicked us in the ass. Oh yeah, the previous server’s hard drive crapping out was a nice $1800 bill. A lot of people probably got stiffed. We’re completely sure. Although I didn’t knock out as many cards as I wanted on Black Friday yet I pulled through on the Tim Cook (formerly Steve Jobs) Days.
Between blasphemous or amusing cards, I loaned my hands to washing dishes to assist Somara on her annual baking tradition which almost didn’t happen. This was resolved over our monthly steak-state-of-the-budget dinner…Somara was on the verge of saying the hell with it. I volunteered to help out by tackling the dishes, namely mixing bowls and spatulas (Weird Al has nothing on her).
Did it work out? You will have to ask Somara. I probably should’ve taken one more day because I was not around to assist in the packaging. I am making up for it with the delivering, I hope.
My other contribution was building a new FileMaker Pro database to keep track of who receives what: cards, presents and cookies. The Wiki wasn’t working for us. FileMaker at least lets me call up particularly families’ history from 2009-13 without having to juggle between Web pages. Oh yeah, it isn’t about keeping score, it’s to make sure I don’t give the same card twice in a row and to give Somara an accurate idea on how much to bake.
Looking forward to your cards, letters and photos!