Our programmer Jaysam took us to visit “Mabel”,  the Doozycards internet server, where she lives at a data center. Her data center is a well known posh facility, we discovered, with hundreds of other servers all chugging away loudly for their companies in one enormous linoleum paradise. Mabel is a high-class girl with  very famous neighbors like Netflix and Time Warner.
Our Creative Director, Bennett, like all Angelinos,  has been tortured by Time Warner Cable, so he grabbed the plugs to the cable empire’s gargantuan servers.  Jaysam, our nimble programmer, tackled  Bennett and wrestled him to the floor, saving millions of people from dark TV sets. We learned this is why all the servers are protected by chain link cages, because it is sooo tempting to pull a plug that has HUGE consequences.  Just a perverse part of human nature, they guess.

We are going to save for a fur coat for Mabel since they freeze the poor little servers with constant air conditioning blasts.  Mabel’s a doll though.  A real workhorse.  She’s only the size of two stereo receivers. She is also safely locked inside a cabinet,  protecting all  your cards and correspondence.

Our entire correspondence with our customers goes in and out of these cables!

Bennett and I pretended to be Sergei and Larry from Google surrounded by all these stacked servers.  We thank Jaysam for a fun tour and for protecting all our customers accounts and cards so vigorously!

Send Irish blessings and cheer with our brand new St. Patrick’s Day ecard.  The penny whistling cat, the  drunk chihuahua and their back up band are at it again.  Regardless of how drunk the chihuahua is, the show must and does go on.
We hope you get your Irish on! Send some of our funny St. Patrick’s Day e-cards like  St. Patrick’s Day Riverdance ecard or our one of our more traditional St. Patrick’s Day ecards such as Across the Miles St. Patrick’s Day.
We wish you  a Happy (and really lucky) St. Patrick’s Day! (mind the leprechauns, though… they get persnickety)

It’s time to spring foward and set the clocks ahead an hour.   Get extra caffeine for Sunday when we  lose an hour.  Our customers are getting ready for Daylight Savings since our new Daylight Savings E-card Spring springs Daylight Savings has been very popular this week. Remind friends,  family and yourself  to set the clocks forward.  Send daylight savings e-cards! One of my favorite Daylight savings ecards is: Daylight Savings Therapy. It’s a bit like my marriage…

We had so much fun making this new e card with Dionne.  First, Dionne and her son, Damon, recorded the whimsical and charming Caribbean style birthday song.  After hearing the song, Bennett hand drew some rough sketches (“very rough” he says). Here’s his first sketch of a bulldog in a sarong, and then a sketch for the beach background.

Next, we asked our animator, Gwyneth, to take these sketches and use them to design a gorgeous background, characters and props. As you can see, we ended up changing a lot: the outfits, the species of dogs, and we added a cabana stage.  Gwyneth really took the very basic original ideas and brought them to life.  Once the background, props and characters  were approved, we told Gwyneth to animate the card. Here are her designs for the doggies, the background, and the props.

Click here to see the final card.

Here are Otis and Charlie delivering Meals on Wheels

On Sunday, my son Otis,  my nephew Charlie and I delivered Meals on Wheels.  Living near Beverly Hills, we often get to see how the top 1 % of the country lives.  However, going east of Vermont Boulevard toward downtown LA is a different story.  Many of the recipients on our Sunday delivery route live in tiny rooms.  For several of them, the bed takes up most of the space in their home.  We delivered a meal to one woman who is blind and living alone with just a bed and a desk.  After helping the her up to her third floor apartment  I can’t even imagine  how she gets herself to the grocery store regularly.  She has no refrigerator or even a kitchen.    However, thanks to Sister Alice Marie (“Sister Sam”) at St. Vincent Meals on Wheels, hungry seniors are being fed.  These forgotten seniors need help.  Please consider helping Sister Sam in her mission to feed thousands of home bound seniors a day.  Click here to make a donation.  Every dollar goes to feed a home-bound senior in need of your help.