I'm sure the few of you who read this blog know that I've been working my buns off trying to get the Shutterfly photo book finished in time to get it free. That was the offer in the email I got from them a week or so ago. At times, it went pretty smoothly...but, about 50% of the time I wasn't having a good time.
I ended up uploading nearly 300 photos to the website. And I'm pretty happy with the end result which shows a glimpse of all the events and travels and occasions that have occurred for the first six months of this year. I stayed up till way past 2 AM for the last two nights and still had more editing to do this morning.
My plan was to do the editing and then pack up and head to Port Alto for a couple of days of visiting with Wanda and Lark. Alas! Didn't happen. When I called to let Wanda know that I wasn't going to make it today, she said that if the weather got rainy down there, they might leave early. So, it was decided that I wouldn't go at all. It's disappointing, but we'll have almost two weeks together very soon when we go look at leaves in New England.
Back to the freaking photo book. I had trouble off and on with uploading new photos to the website. The Express Uploader would do well for a little while and then suddenly stop. Possibly it's a compatibility issue with Windows 7. I could do it through Picasa, but they were proud of the fact that they uploaded the very best quality photo, which makes a much bigger file that takes much longer to upload, but is the best for archiving (not what I needed). The Express Uploader offered several options to choose from, the 'fast' one being excellent for photo books, calendars, and cards. And it was pretty fast.
Anyway, to finish this never-ending (it seems) story, I got it all edited and prettied up. Saved it again and then went to checkout. The free book was 20 pages long. My book is 45 pages long. I like to have fewer pictures on a page, so that's why so many pages. A few pages had only 1 or 2 photos, but most had 3-5. I was hoping that all I would have to pay for would be the extra pages, tax and shipping. I applied the free book code and it worked...yay! I also had a coupon code for free shipping for items over $30, so I put that code in. I was reaching and I knew it, because the $31.15 I owed included tax and shipping...but, I gave it a shot. It informed me that I couldn't use that coupon on this order. I clicked forward to the payment page and put all that information in. But, when I looked at the amount I was going to be charged, it was wrong...I guess the coupon I couldn't use reset the total back to the original, so I had to go back and re-enter the free book code. Then back to the payment page where I had to re-enter all that stuff, but the total was right. Just as I was about to press the "submit order" button, the power flickered and I lost the internet connection.
I thought that was curious since my internet modem and my wireless router are both plugged into a battery backup. I would not have expected to lose the connection. And the power just flickered...for a fraction of a second. Oh, well. It was re-established in just a minute or two and I was able to order the book. And that's good news for you because you won't have to hear about it any more!
Except now I need to start uploading photos from the second half of the year. Probably to all 3 of the photo websites I use...just to be ready for that really good deal.
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