OLIVE OIL

This looks like bottles of olive oil with some bits of paper, doesn't it? Yes, but little do you know that the labels were made and printed only after a lengthy to-the-death fight with PhotoShop.

It's a tale oft told. The old computer won't work with something you need so you relent and buy a new one. Surprise! All the aps you know and love no longer work so you have to buy new versions of those, too. I liked PhotoShop 7. I only ever used it to lay type over photographs but it worked perfectly, but no way on the new computer. I put off buying CS5. I didn't buy QuarkXPress, either. This stuff is expensive.

Along came BlipPhoto and so I bought CS5 because now I had two reasons to have it. It does a lot more stuff but it is stuff I don't want. There are more steps to achieve the same things. When it came to making new olive oil labels, get lost, it wouldn't do the fonts in any type size but 9 points.

I gave up on the labels a month ago. We went to a printer in town but they only do ready-made things. I was in big trouble and I knew it. Hours of frustration and near hysteria awaited. After a day of mounting panic I finally did one. Then the printer wouldn't print to size. Too large or too small.

Himself does not understand why I get so fashed about such things but I kept getting messages. "Programme error, can't save. File not recognized. Disk not found." That sort of thing. Had to use force quit on PS. I admit that ignorance was part of the problem but not all. The labels are not as good as I would like but I couldn't go through all that again.

Rant over, you can come out now. Several cases have gone in to the best deli in town. We will not be paid for it but we will have a jolly nice credit there.

As a final blow, there was this little accident These bottles, like spies, came in from the cold. I know that water expands when frozen but did I know that oil expands when warmed? No, I did not. I left these in the light box and when I came back the oil had pushed off the caps. I have to make another light box now because the old one has been marinated in olive oil.

For the record: + 6 C. Overcast. Humidity 76%.