Great city. I could totally live there… from May to September. Not so sure about the other seven months (known colloquially in Mpls as “winter”).

Next week, I’ll be in Germany. The Wife and I are escorting a gaggle of high school students on a four-city tour of Deutschland. Should be fun. I’ve never been to Europe, so I’m looking forward to it.

Some Mpls pics are already in the Flickr queue up there at the top of the page. Photos from Germany will join it next week.

I’ll be incommunicado until the 24th. Those of you who need to be able to reach me already know how.

I’m looking forward to getting into the new office and getting to work on Monday. It’s going to be a big challenge to get my part of the operation whipped into shape, but it’s going to be fun. I’m looking forward to getting back into the news bidness. I’ve missed it.

I’ve learned so much new stuff the last three days that I fear my noggin will esplode with it all.

Actually, I just have a backache from the too-soft mattress in my hotel room. Otherwise, I’m doing great. I’m going to miss all the great people I’ve met and worked with in the last few days when I return home to my full-time assignment.

Ate lunch at a great place called Pizza Lucé. If you go, get “The Bear.” It’s fearsome good.

After work, one of my new colleagues (dare I say “friend”? I think so) drove me all over Minneapolis. I saw the statue of Mary Tyler Moore throwing her hat in the air. I saw First Avenue, where Prince got his start. I saw the wreckage of the I-35 bridge collapse. I saw all sorts of stuff.

I finally went to a Trader Joe’s. I went BACK to the Mall of America to pick up some Legos for The Boy at LegoWorld (or whatever it’s called). I went back to the Apple Store to get a World Traveler Adapter kit for charging my Apple goodies on my upcoming jaunt to Germany.

I am now relaxing at the hotel and getting my stuff ready for a half-day of work tomorrow and then seven hours of traveling to get home (a two-hour flight, a three-hour layover, and another two-hour flight). I will be sleeping most of Friday.

Probably no post tomorrow night, but I’ll catch up on Friday, since I’ll more or less have the day off.

Was going to go to IKEA and/or the Mall of America after work, but decided I was too tired. Will definitely do it either tomorrow night or Wednesday night after work. There’s snow on the ground here. Apparently, it stays around all winter. That would take some getting used to. It was a balmy 35F or so today, though.

I’m here for a week of meeting the new boss and other folks, doing some training, and getting orientated to the culture of my new employers.

Yes, new employers. I have given up the full-time freelance action for a return to the online news business with an interesting job with a really (so far) cool company. I’m not going to say who they are, because this blog isn’t about them; it’s about me.

Anyway, more about Minneapolis — including a trip to the Mall of America and IKEA (SQUEEEEEE!) — and travel throughout the week. Maybe some about work, too.

A few months ago, I wrote a post about getting started. I’ve gotten some perspective on that since. Regarding needing an office, I decided not to get an office. The summer was a little rough what with The Wife home every day (she’s a teacher) and The Boy home two days a week (he goes to preschool MWF during the summer). I didn’t get much done on the TTh days, but business was a little slow, and it worked out. Next summer I may have to get an office. But, for now, with everyone back in school full time, I’m happy working at home.

My workflow fu has gotten stronger, but still needs work. I need to get fully back on the GTD wagon. I think one of the truths about GTD is that it really DOES work, but you have to do it ALL for it to work well. Doing it half-assed (like I do it) leaves you with a lot of open loops (in GTD parlance).

In any event, I’m enjoying the challenges and benefits of working for myself. I’m planning to stick it out for the forseeable future.

The problem, of course, is that custom stickers tend to be expensive. Frontier Label seems to have pretty decent prices (and their website doesn’t suck, which is a definite plus for me), and — perhaps most importantly — you can do different designs in the same order, which would allow me to either do a few different ones or maybe team up with some other people who need stickers.

I’d also like to get some T-shirts done, and maybe some beer coasters (“biscuits”) if I can find a place that’ll do them. I’m also going to need a graphic for the glass door at the new office. Yes, I’m getting an office — details to follow soon!

If you have actual personal experience (or good second-hand experience), hook a brotha up, won’t you? Call now! Our lines are open!

See more on the first two screwed-up batches from another printer after the jump.

This saga started several weeks ago. Since I was quitting my job to freelance full-time, I wanted to get some new business cards printed. A friend at work who does all the graphics work for his church recommended overnightprints.com (no linky for you!). Their business cards looked nice, so I placed an order. When I received it, it was wrong: the colors were bad, the backs were randomly miscolored (it’s suppose to be green, but some of then were inexplicably orange), and the corners weren’t rounded. I figured I was getting what I had paid for, so I chalked it up to a lesson learned.

I asked for a refund and started looking around for another printer. Instead of refunding my money, they reprinted them, noting especially the rounded corners request, etc. A few days later, they arrived, with — wait for it — no rounded corners, even though the box had printed on it in big letters “ROUNDED CORNERS.” To add insult to injury the colors were off again AND the backs randomly had splotches of BLUE on them. Seriously. So, I emailed them again, asking for a refund. I got a somewhat apologetic email back with instructions on how to CALL to get my Return Merchandise Authorization. Really? Return the crappy cards? So I called the number, which was a RECORDING. Said recording told me to leave my contact info and they’d get back to me in a few days.

Nearly two weeks later, and nada. It was just $17, so I’m done and chalking it up as a good (and cheap) lesson learned.

In any event, the order from print100.com was delivered superfast and the cards look great. I’ll definitely be dealing with them again.

I need an office. Working at home results in my being always at work AND always at home. I need a schedule to keep myself disciplined.

My workflow fu is weak. My workflow for my freelance work is a bit haphazard. I think that partially comes from not having enough time to examine it, as I was too busy working. With a little (little bit of breathing room this week, I’ve been able to do a little examining. It’s not pretty. But, it IS getting better.

Sitting down with an accountant can be a sobering experience. It was good, but a bit bracing in some respects. But, I have a better picture of what I need to do now, so it’s definitely a good thing. Much better NOW than later.