SWEET MOTHER OF PEARL!! I feel like the most foolish person in the world right now. Embarrassed X 10. So, I did another test , trying out some of the suggestions here. Still short. But I measured the center of the 3-piece test strip and it was spot on. How could this be-the center of 3 strips is spot on but the entire width is still off? It was only then that I discovered that I was measuring from the end of my ruler; well, the edge of my ruler gives an additional 1/4 inch line. So, if I measure from the edge of the ruler, it is automatically adding 1/4 inch. When I re-measured starting at the 1 inch mark, it was pretty darn close. DOH! I hope that makes sense?