10:17 – Success! I finally managed to get postage/customs labels printed for the international shipment that’s been sitting here in the queue since Monday. I did it by installing the Opera browser. From now on, I’ll use Opera only for printing USPS postage labels.
Also, as it turns out, I was wrong about not being able to use PayPal Shipping to produce postage/customs labels for Priority Mail International. It didn’t offer me that option yesterday because I was shipping to US addresses. When I ship to an international address, it gives me the choice of Priority Mail International or Priority Mail Express International. Duh.
So at this point I’m comfortable using only USPS. One way or another, I can get postage labels printed, and that’s all that matters. I’m quite happy otherwise with USPS. It’s cheap, fast, and reliable.
Barbara has been quite patient, but she’s mentioned several times recently that she’d like me to get all the kit clutter cleaned up. Currently, I have kit stuff stacked up in my office and the stockroom upstairs, along with the library/living room, dining room, and kitchen. Until yesterday, there was also a lot of kit stuff in the den. In fact, only our bedroom/bathroom, the hall bathroom, and Barbara’s office are kit-free. The unfinished area downstairs, of course, has tons of kit stuff, although the finished area other than my lab is kit-free. So I told Barbara this morning that if she has time to help this weekend, I’d like to spend some serious time getting the clutter cleared away and organized. I’m sure she’s delighted.
The new neighbors, across the street and two houses down, moved in yesterday. They’re a married couple, Zakiah and Bernard. As is so often true of married couples, she is very friendly and outgoing while he is quieter and more reserved. Friendly, but not effusive. If I understood correctly, she is a mental-health counselor and he’s a substance-abuse counselor.
They have four children, ranging in age from 1 to 13. Barbara and I met the three older kids last night when we were walking Colin. The oldest is at a STEM magnet school. He wants (for now, anyway) to major in college in marine biology. Zakiah says that until recently he wanted to pursue robotics, but one way or another it sounds to me as though he’ll be a STEM major.