My Day...
It was a pretty good day, actually. It certainly started nicely. I woke up, which is always good and much less confusing than if I didn't. Since the boys were still asleep, worn out by their play date with the neighbor toddler, I took a nice relaxing bath while reading part of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, getting ready for the release of book six in July.
Of course, I did have to get out of the bath. So, I did and turned on my computer, ready for a day of checking e-mail and Neopetting. Went and did a few things while it booted up, you know checked on my single surviving fish and the like. Came back, expecting the nice elf background and familiar icons -- only to find the words "Primary Hard Drive Failure." Grrr.
I immeadiately flashed back to the last time we had a problem with Dev's Gateway, and the hours I spent on the phone trying to decipher the thick accent of every tech support person I talked to. Not a pleasant memory, to say the least. After restarting a couple of times, I whimpered and went away, out to the deck to transplant all the seedlings that I now had containers and soil for. When in doubt, ignore the problem and hope it goes away.
Transplanting done, watering, cleaning up the resultant mess, and watering the neighbor's plants done, I moped back inside to try the laptop again, still no joy. So, I sucked it up and called the Dell tech support people and was very pleased with the result. I could understand him, he was patient and polite, and he made sure he had a number to call back on if we got disconnected (easy to do on a cordless phone while you're trying to hold the phone and unscrew somethingnat the same time). My hard drive is dead, but it's still under warrenty, so the new drive will be here in about 3 business days (Memorial Day weekend comma dammit), and the tech support guy is planning on calling back Monday to check to see if it's arrived yet. It won't have, but I have his extension so that when it does come he can talk me through installing it all again. Yeah, I definitely like Dell's service and support better than Gateway.
So, at loose ends since Dev was using his PC and the boys' is way to slow for anything but frustration, I decided to act like a housewife and cleaned up a bit. This is always a good way to put me in a bad mood. Which is why I was less than amused when Dev fired a flying disk at me and hit me in the nose. And no, the fact that he was aiming considerably lower did not help my attitude.
I decided that it was a good time to take a break and abandoned Dev to the boys in order to go to Dollar Tree. I happily roamed the store, finding bug jars and bookmarks that were not on my list of needed things (I just went for some containers) but were fun. I also found some nice butterfly pictures, but of the three two had black frames and one had an ungly green frame. Yuck! But, you know, Wal-mart is just across the street, and I bet a little acrylic paint... So, we now have nice butterfly pictures in purple frames that match the bathroom rug. Total cost: $5 (I broke the glass on one and need to replace it next time I'm near a Dollar Tree). Once again, I was a happy camper.
Read to the boys a bit (reading them Harry Potter as well). Made dinner, ate, watched some movies -- a good evening. Then, I made the mistake of reading the paper. Always a scary thing, because I look at the classifieds to see if they're selling anything interesting. You know, like the complete contents of a 55 gal saltwater aquarium... And then I made the further mistake of mentioning this to Dev. So, I may have a saltwater aquarium as well as the freshwater tank in a few days. My husband loves me, even if he does hit my nose with flying disks.
DC decided that last night was his last night for snakejuice, so bed time was interesting, to say the least... And Brian is still awake.
Of course, I did have to get out of the bath. So, I did and turned on my computer, ready for a day of checking e-mail and Neopetting. Went and did a few things while it booted up, you know checked on my single surviving fish and the like. Came back, expecting the nice elf background and familiar icons -- only to find the words "Primary Hard Drive Failure." Grrr.
I immeadiately flashed back to the last time we had a problem with Dev's Gateway, and the hours I spent on the phone trying to decipher the thick accent of every tech support person I talked to. Not a pleasant memory, to say the least. After restarting a couple of times, I whimpered and went away, out to the deck to transplant all the seedlings that I now had containers and soil for. When in doubt, ignore the problem and hope it goes away.
Transplanting done, watering, cleaning up the resultant mess, and watering the neighbor's plants done, I moped back inside to try the laptop again, still no joy. So, I sucked it up and called the Dell tech support people and was very pleased with the result. I could understand him, he was patient and polite, and he made sure he had a number to call back on if we got disconnected (easy to do on a cordless phone while you're trying to hold the phone and unscrew somethingnat the same time). My hard drive is dead, but it's still under warrenty, so the new drive will be here in about 3 business days (Memorial Day weekend comma dammit), and the tech support guy is planning on calling back Monday to check to see if it's arrived yet. It won't have, but I have his extension so that when it does come he can talk me through installing it all again. Yeah, I definitely like Dell's service and support better than Gateway.
So, at loose ends since Dev was using his PC and the boys' is way to slow for anything but frustration, I decided to act like a housewife and cleaned up a bit. This is always a good way to put me in a bad mood. Which is why I was less than amused when Dev fired a flying disk at me and hit me in the nose. And no, the fact that he was aiming considerably lower did not help my attitude.
I decided that it was a good time to take a break and abandoned Dev to the boys in order to go to Dollar Tree. I happily roamed the store, finding bug jars and bookmarks that were not on my list of needed things (I just went for some containers) but were fun. I also found some nice butterfly pictures, but of the three two had black frames and one had an ungly green frame. Yuck! But, you know, Wal-mart is just across the street, and I bet a little acrylic paint... So, we now have nice butterfly pictures in purple frames that match the bathroom rug. Total cost: $5 (I broke the glass on one and need to replace it next time I'm near a Dollar Tree). Once again, I was a happy camper.
Read to the boys a bit (reading them Harry Potter as well). Made dinner, ate, watched some movies -- a good evening. Then, I made the mistake of reading the paper. Always a scary thing, because I look at the classifieds to see if they're selling anything interesting. You know, like the complete contents of a 55 gal saltwater aquarium... And then I made the further mistake of mentioning this to Dev. So, I may have a saltwater aquarium as well as the freshwater tank in a few days. My husband loves me, even if he does hit my nose with flying disks.
DC decided that last night was his last night for snakejuice, so bed time was interesting, to say the least... And Brian is still awake.
