Photocopies & Fingerprints

Last week my poor beleaguered printer started faltering, which should have come as no surprise given its age (9 years), but I was still horrified when I shone a bright light into its innards: there seemed to be a lot of messy inky areas where there had once been clear plastic walls. I couldn't tell if this was because of me and my ink-refilling methods or just the fact that it is a very old printer, so I did what any Jane Austen Heroine would do: said a silent prayer, girded my emotional loins, and steadied myself for the worst. The next day the colour ink cartridge stopped eating refused refilling.

A couple of nights later Richard and I were in the Super Duper New Walmart near us (which is so industrial-looking we all hate to go there now) looking for another ink cartridge for me to ruin and we noticed that a new printer was only slightly more expensive than a new colour ink cartridge. So we did what any sensible, momentarily child-free couple experiencing the unusual sensation of being child-free would do: we bought the printer instead of the ink cartridge. It was a giddy sensation.

Then we brought it home, where our spendthrift ways created absolute chaos. Max was simultaneously shocked and thrilled that we'd actually BOUGHT something (we are apparently boringly cheap); Dominic was delighted that we bought something NEW; and Katie was thrilled that I'd come home to rescue her from the tedium of her materialistic brothers.

Tragically, when I took to Amazon to check reviews on our new purchase, they weren't very good. They were okay, but not great enough to make me want to keep it. The next night, we returned it. "Is there something wrong with it?" asked the girl at Walmart. "I don't know - you tell me," replied my sometimes-challenged-about-returning-things-to-stores mate, whereupon I kicked him under the table and said "No, nothing, we just want one that doesn't use so much ink." "Oh," said she, "this is the second one I've had returned today."

Great.

Eventually, after scouring Amazon for reviews, then scouring the stores around me for those very printers, I found one I liked, at a price I liked, and with reviews I liked. Even more exciting, it photocopies, scans, and looks very cool. What's not to like? Wait, I lie: it does have one fault: It's very shiny and very black, which means that it is a perfect fingerprint magnet. And given that I am close to the bottom of the list when it comes to World's Most Amazing Housekeepers, this creates havoc in my life in terms of its Reposing Glossily On The Shelf potential.

Other than that I love it.