International Relations & A Day of Firsts

Yesterday was marked by a series of firsts. Some business related, some practical skills, and all important steps.

I sent my first international package!

It was a package headed for Greece. I had never shipped internationally before, so, I have to admit, I was anxious about figuring out how to get it right. I knew I had to bubble wrap and pack everything well. That was step one. I paid for postage online through paypal and that made life much easier. The "next steps" section told me I needed a customs envelope and I went to a local post office that walked me through the rest of the steps.

~waves to Sandy in Oro Grande~ Thanks, Sandy!

Basically, the other steps involve paperwork, and an extra label, that way, when customs pulls the customs envelope off, the address would still be on the box. I already had a tracking number and the package was sent along with our taxes (which were quickly finished by our CPA, Gary, the night before. Thanks, Gary!)

After the mail, My husband, James, and I showed a vacant rental in Oro Grande to perspective tenants. We shall see how that turns out, the folks were nice enough. Then, we headed out to the ranch to see about a truck that needed an engine put back together, I mention this because this was a first for me, as well. I always wanted to learn how to do mechanic work. I know this sounds strange to most people, and I know it takes a certain amount of long hours to know what you are doing mechanically. However, I have good reasons for this version of insanity. Mostly, because my cars liked to break!

Early on in my car owning history, I felt the need to wean myself from a mechanics mercy. Learning an engine never had space in my agenda, though, until it happened yesterday. I helped to put fuel injectors back together! It was so exciting! To actually begin to understand an engine, as James explained everything and allowed me to help solve the puzzle of rebuilding fuel injectors.

I ended this busy day by browsing through Etsy forum topics and found Susan Sheehan's topic about Twitter- learning even more new things. Her topic led me to her fabulous blog which can be found in "blogs I enjoy & follow" to the left. This enlightened me to Etsy hacks which are wonderful. I will save that for tomorrow, though. ;)

All in all it was a productive day and, now, I know how to ship internationally! Yay!

I won't go so far as to say I know how to rebuild an engine, though! ;)