Wow!

A busy day, or maybe just a "hazy" day. DS#3 had a REALLY bad night last night so my wife and I had some pretty severe sleep deprivation today. We did get his 1-year old pictures today (he turns 1 tomorrow), and I had a meeting with my accountant (tax time, yippeee!--the joys of both of us being self-employed) and the principal for the local elementary school today. These along with a few other tasks to do.

I finally started answering emails at 10PM and didn't really get through all of them.

Okay, I haven't done this for a bit, but my greatest frustration is Cartography. A while back I spoke to someone on the phone, sent her a contact, and she then (in a reasonable period of time) sent me some beautiful maps. Here is the problem, I don't have a signed contract, the phone number is disconnected, emails haven't been answered, etc. Basically, I have maps done by a cartographer that "fell off the map" and no contract. I can't use these maps in a publication without the contract or some sort of contact by the artist. My frustration level is beyond description. Can I draw a map? Yes. Can I create a map as nice as those I have received? Um, let's be honest, NO. I can make a decent map, I suppose, but the time doing so could be spent doing other things. Interestingly, Dundjinni has changed their license for commercial use maps, this means I might be able to use their software, grayscale the image, make a few other modifications, and use that. I'll be emailing them tomorrow.