August 6, 2011: There's nothing like a nice, homemade card!

When we were kids, my mother used to emphasize the importance of a good, homemade card.  The way she saw it, it took hardly any effort to buy a card. Making one, on the other hand, was a demonstration of love, an achievement of time, toil, and determination.  Mom was right.  And so, with a former co-worker's wedding fast-approaching, I thought it would be nice to put in that extra little effort, and take the time to show her how much I cared.  I dropped by my local gift shop, picked up some multi-colored construction paper, stickers, a glue stick and got to work…

…handing them off to my assistant, Trevor with instructions to make a nice, heartfelt card.  The results…

Trevor triumphantly shows off the fruits of his all-day labor.

Not bad. A minor quibble with the word "MARRIED" that looks a little front-heavy in the letters, suggesting he misjudged the amount of space he had to squeeze in the word. Other than that, pretty nice. Like the choice of the pink and blue.

A sweet sentiment expressed amid the matrimonial adornments: wedding cake, the bouquet, a gift, a heart, and a tyrannosaurus rex.

His own little touch in the back. I believe he's trademarked the company logo.

So, I sent off the card along with a check.  Beside the "RE" at the bottom left of the check, I wrote: "Payment for black market organ".

Good luck trying to cash it!

Anyway, the following week, I received a response from the bride-to-be…

Hmmm. Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Oooh la la!

And the "thank you". I'll take it, although I'm still kind of upset she didn't take my advice and go with the Stargate-themed wedding.

It turned out Trevor had some leftover supplies and, with my sister's birthday around the corner, I figured "Why not?"…

Note the liberal use of dinosaurs and kittens.

It took a little extra time and effort but it proved worthwhile because, in the end, everyone was very happy.

With the exception of Trevor who cut his finger, contracted a bacteria from the suspect glue stick, and spent the weekend at the hospital.  Unfortunate but, as mom is fond of saying: "No pain, no gain!".