I want to live on Oak street.

Or maybe Elm.   Anything with a short name.  Seriously.

Once upon a time,  back in the days before there was a computer and printer (or several) in just about every dwelling on the planet,  sending a snail mail letter involved actually having to write out ones return address over and over.
Such a chore.
Now,   my handwriting never was all that great,  and it's gotten worse over the years.  I think it had something to do with dabbling in Old German Script and messing around with Cyrillic.   That's my excuse anyway.

So I can sort of get away with writing addresses on envelopes,  but when it comes to trying to fit our return address up in that little corner there well,  that just ain't happenin'.

Especially since we seem to gravitate towards these streets with great long names.  I'm not about to divulge our current location,  but since we no longer live there,  I'm willing to let it slip that we lived on "Greekerinkskamp"  when we were in the Netherlands.
 Who would ever come up with such a name?  Don't get me started on the pronunciation.  Pretty sure my travelling companion never did get that one down pat.
That's what?  Fifteen letters?   Our current address has seventeen,  depending on how you spell it.
 The easy solution,  is to pick up a packet of those peel and stick labels from a stationary store,  write up the return address using some program such as Microsoft Word,  and there you go.  Like I said,  easy peasy.

 But just hang on there buckeroo.  We're in Europe.  Everything is different.  Things might "look" the same,  but don't be fooled.   See,  paper and those sheets of peel and stick labels are not quite the same size as they are in North America.
 No no....couldn't be the same.  That would be too easy.
 It would have never occurred to me in a million years to run out to Coles or some such place (back in Canada) before the movers arrived so that I could ship a packet of labels with me.   I mean,  who would ever think of such a thing? 
 Meanwhile I had bought a packet when we were in the Netherlands, and after some trial and error,  managed to print off a couple sheets of labels with our huge address on them.

 Then we moved.

 *sigh*


 I took a stab at this task not long after we came here to Wienerland but,  the results were less than spectacular.  I was able to use a few of the labels,  but it was basically a wasted effort.
 So yesterday I got it in my pea brain that I'd give it another go.  There had to be a way.
 First I thought my problem was because I had dumped all the Microsoft products off my laptop some time last summer,  and that maybe the current program that I was using was the problem.   Not that simple.  We still have an old laptop here that has a Microsoft program on it, but that wasn't the solution.
 The real problem is,  you can't simply scroll down and click on "Avery A4" or whatever it is,  and be done with it.  It's a custom application,  since nobody bothered to come up with a European equivalent for any of the programs out there.  If there is some sort of solution on the internet,  I sure didn't find it,  and I looked....and looked....

 At one point I almost gave up,  but I wasn't about to "let it go", and there was no way I was going to be happy with the same shabby results that I ended up with the last time.
All in all,  I'd say it took me four hours to finally end up with three sheets of usable labels.  I'm pretty parsimonious when it comes to these things,  so I only really wasted about a half sheet,  but did manage to go through a half dozen or so sheets of paper trying to get the settings right.   If we move before we run out,  I just hope to hell my laptop hasn't crashed in the meantime.   I'll cry.

 I even wrote the settings down on the bottom of one of the sheets,  just to be safe.


Oohhh,   maybe I'll do address labels next!   But then again maybe not,  since I just about punched something at one point.   I've heard that's not good for the computer.


In other "news",   and to leave you with some happy thoughts,  somebody had a birthday last week!
There were flowers.


 The one on the right actually needs to be looked after.   Gah!  Big responsibility.

 
The little oriental dude at the flower shop said it only needed to be watered once a week.

 We'll see how that goes.










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