Jeff had a good idea: print copies of a snapshot of the three boys taken in November to include in this year's Christmas cards.

We've printed from flickr to Target a number of times over the past few months with only a couple of glitches.

Primarily, the "glitches" seem to be staff too lazy to look through their drawers for our pictures.

Instead, it's easier for them to conclude, "They must not have printed out. Just resend them." I mean, there's no film, no negatives to claim. There's nothing on the hook and no responsibility.

But, this time there were some real problems with the prints.

Well, first, there was the false problem of "Oh, they must not have printed out, please resend them." That was Sunday afternoon.

Next, Jeff didn't position the text heading and footing on the photo properly, so it was cropped off the print. I bought them anyway, on Monday morning. Better to have something than nothing.

Then, I sent him the file at work so he could fix it in Photoshop.

He fixed it and sent it to Target. When he tried to pick up the prints on Monday night, he learned that the printer was down. He said that a woman was standing there at the counter, crying inconsolably at the news.

Stacks and stacks of photo cards were piled all over the place.

He was told that the printer would be repaired by late Tuesday afternoon. So I picked up the prints around dinner time yesterday. And, lo and behold, the first set of prints from Sunday afternoon was also available.

"Oh," I said, "these are the ones you claimed that you couldn't find a few days ago and told us to resend. Well, I'm not buying them, sorry."

I mean, eventually the cost of such laziness must catch up with them.