New Year card

Yesterday I spent the day at Mrs. Ochiai's house. She was trying to teach me how to use Photoshop Elements 7 in Japanese. This is a challenge. Any computer software of any type is a challenge to me. And in Japanese? And I could go buy a book so that I don't have to remember everything Mrs. Ochiai is trying to get into my thick head, but that is more Japanese.

I was planning to make our yearly New Year card yesterday. We've done this for 24 years (since Takumi was born). For the first 20 years I just took a picture to the camera shop, paid a fee and they made the card for me. For the last 4 years I have done it myself.

HA! That's a lie! I have had Mrs. Ochiai do it for me and I printed it out myself. But this year I was going to get step-by-step instructions from Mrs. Ochiai and with two computers side by side I was going to mimic her every move and make a family Christmas card.

"I was going to..." means I didn't.

Just learning the different buttons (I've forgotten them all this morning!) took a lot of time. And then trying to make decisions like, do I want to fade out a picture or put a frame around it or use this font or that font etc. etc. took time. Mrs. Ochiai was patient. She made lunch and coffee. She made suggestions. She fixed things that I messed up.

I came home to try it alone last night. I want to put one picture of Tetsu and me and one picture of Takumi and Leiya on the card. And I want to include all the animals in our family. I am confused again. And I've found another reason why 1 dog and 6 cats are too many for one household. All their pictures won't fit on the card.

I wonder if my friends are going to hear from me this Christmas and New Years.