jesirose

I have a Craft Robo. It cuts paper. Sounds exciting right? Well, the cool thing is that I plug it into the computer, and can cut any shape, font, whatever I can draw in Visio, etc. Sounds more exciting now, right? It has some downsides. The blades don’t last that long, and if you run paper through without the carrier sheet just once, the cutting mat gets ruined. It also doesn’t cut cardstock that’s actually CARDSTOCK, but just thicker paper.

I used it pretty heavily for a while, then needed new blades and a mat and didn’t replace them for a while. So we painted the office a while back. Moved everything out, and back in. For weeks the Craft Robo was sitting on my desk, with a USB cable and power adapter next to it. I go to plug it in about a month ago, and low and behold - that power cord was NOT for the Robo!! No biggie, I go to look in the closet where Colin has drawers FULL of nothing but power cords. Not a single one was it! It uses some funky volt numbers and my robo power cord has dissappeared into thin air.

I figured surely I can’t be the first person to lose the power cord, somewhere in the corners of the Web there must be a store with some. Since Graphtec (the makers of the CR) don’t have an online store, you have to go through retailers. Nope, no stores had a power cord.

Now, Graphtec has more websites than I do. The actual Robo site’s support section has no contact info. So I went to the main site and found some options. When I found the list of numbers for American Sales, I also found another site.

I emailed them a few times with no response. I called them and left a message. A week later I hadn’t gotten a call back, so I called and got the machine again. I called the next day, same thing. Repeat. 6 messages. I didn’t get a call back until today, when I had called this morning and left a message that must have contained the F word a few times. The person I spoke to said their phones and email were having problems and was very apologetic. So I said okay, I just needed to get this part. He transferred me to their receptionist who couldn’t find the part number, and she sent me to tech support. Which went to voicemail. I left a message and called right back, and got the same people. They sent me BACK to the voicemail. I called back AGAIN and explained that since THEY called me back in the first place, I didn’t want to leave any more messages. It’s not like I wanted something for free, or needed to fix the machine. I just wanted to buy a part.

They finally got the part from tech support, and took my payment info. Hopefully it will get here soon. The tech support guy said he’s worked there 20 years and never had someone need to order a power cord. I find that hard to believe - someone else HAS to have lost their power cord - I guess they all just bought a new machine. I considered buying the new model but I really can’t afford to pay $300 because I lost a $40 part. (Also, the machine isn’t 20 years old, so it’s not like he’s been doing support for the CR 20 years.)

When the freaking thing finally gets here I’ll go nuts on cutting and post stuff for my lovely readers to see just why I really wanted the stupid cord.

Over the weekend, the texture was applied to the den (my future sewing room) and it looks awesome! Now I just have to pick a color. I’m thinking a nice green color. We also need to pick a ceiling fan and get a baseboard and molding too.

Here’s some progress shots of the “tv area”. I’ll have to add some more once we paint it. The contractors knocked out that cabinet to make it taller.

Here is another corner including the sliding glass door. Removing the panelling, the drywall, and the textured wall.

Check out ALL THESE PIECES! And my artsy close up focused shots.

I even sewed the first star. Only one corner is a bit crooked. I think it’s good. The time and effort I took cutting these exactly perfect REALLY paid off! I can’t WAIT to see more of this quilt.

Bailey has bonded to Colin pretty fast. Now whenever I open the cage he says “I want one”, to sit on his shoulder. Bailey is a GREAT shoulder rat. Kahlua is an explorer, and has no qualms about running up and sniffing the cat’s face. So I put Bear in the closet for a short while and let her explore while Bailey cuddled Colin. Then they started running back and forth between us on the couch. We discovered it is slightly difficult to play Halo 3 and have ratlets explore under your shirt.

I need more pics - but they are so fast and fun, I keep forgetting to make them pose!

I think it’s so cool to watch them grow up - so here are some new weights, plus the older girls too!

Bailey: 83
Kahlua: 63

Addie: 245 (when I got her she was 125)
Thirteen: 320 (omg that was a struggle. That girl does not like the scale any more than I do.)
Cameron: 320 (she looks so much heavier than Thirteen, this is weird)
Katie: 240 (this was easier than Thirteen!)
Sophie: 300 (she’s lost some I think)

They are AMAZING. I absolutely love these rats. It is such an amazing difference when you get a rat raised personally by someone who cares, vs. a pet shop rat. I love my other girls with all my heart, but it took them all a while to like me. These girls just come and sit in my shirt, brux for me, and are so calm and gentle. They still have that baby popcorn energy but during the day they’ll sit on my lap or shoulder, so sweet.

I weighed them today - what a difference! The bigger girl with the Irish marking (Bailey’s Irish Creme - aka Bailey) is up to 74 g! The little one who I have named Kahlua is at 58 g.

I’ll post some more photos soon!

These little mink babies just had to come home with me

They are precious little babies, at just 45g and 58g, they are the tiniest babies I’ve seen! The bigger girl is Bailey, she has a small irish mark on her belly, hence the name (Bailey’s Irish Cream).

The other girl is a self, and they’re both super sweet. They like to chill on my lap and in my shirt, and I even got a little bruxxing last night!

The rats had quite a lot of fun with a handful of grapes!

Sophie reaching down to steal one

Addie was happy to have some

Thirteen wasn’t sure about these…

Yesterday was the annual block party for my street. Most of the people on the street have dogs so I was excited to take Sadie and see how she did. At first I took her out on her 30′ leash, and let her play. After a while I took it off so she could run around with the other dogs and she did wonderful. She stayed in the yard most of the time, and came to anyone who called her.

They also had a kiddie pool out for the dogs to play in. Sadie has never liked going in our pool, but I put her in the little wading pool and she finally realized what she was missing! She splashed all over the place, tried to eat the water, and then got back in several times on her own! I was so excited.

We had a great time with everyone too. I had helped organize a tie-dye area for people to do shirts and the kids had a good time with that. I got to go swimming with a few of my neighbors, who then spent about an hour trying to launch water balloons over a house, and only got about 2 over

All in all, a great day!

Tomorrow is my birthday and I got to have a present early! Colin got me this awesome mouse I’d wanted. It’s so cool. It’s bigger than my old one so my hand has to get used to it, but finally I have a mouse that middle-clicks again!

I was sad to see them go but I am so happy they found a good home! I know they will have a great life and I am going to be expecting photos!

On a positive note, when I was showing their new owner Katie, she (Katie) let me pick her up 3 times in a row without spazzing out. It was actually very cool. It was almost as if she was saying “Oh heck, you’re not that bad. I’ll stay here.”

Also, little baby Addie? NOT SO LITTLE. She looks HUGE compared to those ratlets! She’s actually 250g now. Hard to imagine she started out as small as those girls when I got her

Sadie - definitely living up to the girl dog name. She played with her friend next door for a while then decided to pee on the floor 3 times and “forget” the kennel command.