So my laptop (going to call it laptop instead of computer from here on out, for reasons I will disclose later!!) Crashes on the 11th.... I'm thinking, great, I've totally lost all of my work and photos from the last 7 months. I seriously freaked. DH had never seen me angry until that night. I actually resorted to kicking stuffed animals. (out of DS's sight line of course, don't want to be the one giving him ideas!!) I called my bro., the techie extraordinaire, and he said that I might be able to fix it, etc, but to look around for a disk to reboot it off of. I get off the phone with him, freak out a little more and finally start chatting online with a Dell tech. He asks me tons of questions and finally comes to the same conclusion that my bro did, that I needed an XP disk to reboot. So, because it is soooo hard to get a tech on-line and keep them online until the problem is solved I dash into the other room and find what looks like an xp cd (I know I have one laying around here, so this has to be it, right?) The tech says great, install it and ends our conversation. I'm thinking, great this will solve my problem and I'll be good as new again. So I install. I am a total retard. I've just installed Windows 2000 which looks ancient now and none of my programs will work with it. Fortunately most of my documents are still there, I can't really access them, but they are there. CD drive doesn't work, network doesn't work, Internet won't work unless I give it a phone number to dial! So I call my father, who used to work for Microsoft, and it turns out he has an extra copy of XP just sitting around. I reschedule my next day to drive up and fix my laptop. It seems to work, things look a bit better, still weird, but I can access my files. I think I'm in the clear. I come home and try to use the Internet..... that's a joke. Still, my system doesn't work.I work for hours to get the drivers downloaded from their site and try to install them. Most won't work. At midnight I'm finally fed-up with everything, so I call the techs. I'm put on hold a dozen different times and finally reach someone who says they can help me. He asks if I have an XP cd, I say "yes", he says "great we should be all good to go". He walks me through all the steps, helps me install the drivers, etc. I tell him it's still not working. We go through a bunch of other things and he says, oh, by the way, is that XP disk a DELL XP and not a Microsoft XP disk? Um, excuse me? I had no idea there was such a thing, you'd think that after talking to 4 different DELL techs that one of them would have mentioned this??? Well, of course a normal disk won't work, I need the special DELL disk that they stopped giving to customers when they buy from them to save a lousy 10 cents. So they will send it to me, I should receive it in 3-5 business days. Well, 7 business days have come and gone and still no disk, I call one more time to see where they are...... guess what? They were never sent. Guess who's never buying a Dell again? Anyways, they had better get here on Monday or I'm having some tech guy for lunch! And you know what the icing on the cake is? The other computer I have to work with has no "m" button on the keyboard!!!!! Yep, every time I want to type an "m" I have to get out a trusty pushpin and hit the hole just right. Anybody know where I can buy just one key for a keyboard??? Okay rant over. I feel much better now. (I know you're now going to think of me with a pushpin sticking my tongue out just so while I jab at the keyboard every time you see an "m" !!)
Anyways, life here is crazy as ever, I'm still somewhat functioning without my beloved laptop. I'm in the middle of planning 3 party's right now. 2 are surprises and one is a shower for my sister. I'm really excited for them all. One of them will have around 60-70 guests and we're preparing dinner for them, so I whipped up a double batch of my mother's famous dinner rolls and will spend all tomorrow rolling them out and baking. Sigh, I can't wait. I always used to bake when I got stressed. Finals week was my baking week. It always made me feel so much better. I've also been working on restoring lots of old photos for family stuff and have been loving it! Seriously, it's one of my addictions. I just love preserving pictures.
DH and I are definitely moving to Ohio, we just haven't decided on Cleveland or Columbus yet. I'm anxious to get a decision made and get plans in the works. We only have 4 months until we move. We're researching the option of going into the Air Force to pay for school, so if anybody has any experience with that, please share!!!
Well, if you're still with me through all of that you must be a good friend! When these parties are over I can share the projects I've been working on, so that should be soon!
Cross your fingers that I get my disks in the mail!!!!! Enough "m's" ...... I'm going to bed!!!