Crash!

I was attempting to download a patch onto my big laptop and it crashed on Monday and hasn't been able to boot up correctly since. I need to take it to my computer repair guys today to see what is wrong. The error message says something like that it is caught in a continuous faulty loop or something similar.

I am just hoping that it is an easy fix, because my mini is great for simple things but I really rely on my big laptop for major writing assignments (like writing my book, mostly) and even blog posting simply because the keyboard is much easier to type on than the mini is for any major length of time.

Anyway, I can post a Mystic Monday post from my mini, and will try to get to one later today (even though it is Wednesday again) because I know how much you guys are getting used to learning about all those obscure friends from the early church. I hate to disappoint.

Mrangelmeg and I are off this afternoon for a drive to Indy to participate in my first ever Alumni Gathering for my Gradual School. I am really looking forward to seeing the Abbot and
President Rector and hopefully a few other friends from the area. Before I do that I have decided that I have to get a mani-pedi because my toenails are looking really bad, so after my morning workout I am stopping at the nail salon.

Pax

CRASH

My computer had a hardware failure yesterday. Lucky for me it is still under warranty and I can send it back to Dell for a fix. Unhappily I will have to borrow time on the son and heir's computer when he and the angelbaby aren't using it, so I may be a bit Blog-silent for the next few weeks. I will try to continue posting at least on Monday and Wednesday mornings because he works and she is in school so I know I can get computer time then.

I hope this doesn't take long, I may go into withdrawal. Especially since I don't get any chocolate for the next three weeks either.

Pax

Computer Update

The Computer Guys have my laptop back to me working good as new, and I am pleased as could be that I didn't have to send it off to Dell and be without it for a couple of weeks. It wasn't even all that expensive considering they replaced the hard drive. It is working like a charm and I didn't lose a speck of data that I can see even ITunes is running smoothly.

I have it up and running, and I have taken the precaution of getting a new wireless keyboard, because we found that part of the problem with the crashes I was having before were being caused by my old wireless keyboard. When I stopped using it I wasn't crashing five times a day. So, I have a new Keyboard and mouse and my laptop is up on a mesh inbox so that it gets enough cool air flowing through underneath it, and I am good to go.

It is really nice to be on the computer before midnight (when I was sharing with the kids the only time I could get on was when they were done and had gone to bed unless I threatened them, and you all know I am much to nice to threaten my kids.

Pax

Computer Update

So I took my laptop to some computer guys with a little shop just off downtown. They came highly recommended and I was really impressed when almost the first thing they said was "Data recovery is our specialty, so worst case we can recover all of your stored data if we decide you should ship it back to Dell and have them fix it under the warranty."

That was a huge relief, and why mrangelmeg suggested I take it someplace locally before shipping it back to Dell straight-away; Dell would most likely just scrub the system and reload all new software as the quickest way to 'fix' the problem whatever it is.

These guys are really impressive. They seem to really love what they do, and take great pride in personal service. They even gave me some suggestions about my wireless network in my house and told me to bring in the computer that mrangelmeg spilled tea on and they would see if they could get it up and running again so the girls could use it for school.

I may have a working laptop by the end of the week, or I may have to send it in to Dell to get warranty serviced, but either way I should be able to save all of my data. That in itself is something to be happy about.

Pax

Blogger Blackout

My computer went on the fritz in the most spectacular fashion the other night when I was trying to open ITunes. ITunes wouldn't open and was doing something really strange, so I tried to download a new version of ITunes from the Apple sight hoping that would repair the problem, but it didn't.

The next step was to totally remove the old ITunes and reload a brand new version and lose all of my old music, movies and podcast information stored there, which I was about to do when mrangelmeg told me I should just reboot my computer first to see if that would clear up the problem.

So I rebooted my computer.

Now my entire Windows XP program is scrambled and we can't even get my computer to run in safe mode, every time we start up my computer it runs through the XP start up screen , then we get two error messages telling us that there is an invalid picture or something like that and when we click OK the computer goes black. Not even a B.S.O.D.

So, I am without a computer until I can get back home and try to use my XP boot disk to reboot. If that doesn't work we are going to take it to our PC guru and have the hard drive copied and then send it off to Dell and see if they can figure out what went wrong. Lucky for me it is still under extended warranty.

Anyway, I am using mrangelmeg's computer today, but I won't have access to a computer for a while. When I get back home on Saturday I might be able to get a few minutes on my son's computer occasionally, but I will be waiting in line for that, so blogging will be light for the next week or so until we get my computer issues ironed out.

I can feel the withdrawal symptoms already.

Don't forget to join us in August for the month of prayer and reparations for sins against the Blessed Sacrament. Show extra love for what we love in reparation for those who just don't understand.

Pax

A New Day

Last Night the nice man at the Computer Shop called and said that they had found the problem with my computer. After trying to make it crash for about half a day with no luck they began running a diagnostic on the component parts and found that one of the RAM sticks is faulty so they removed it. The good news is the fix will only cost $49. The even better news is that the computer is still under extended warranty and Dell should cover the RAM stick so I should be able to get it replace by Dell (hopefully they will just send the stick and let mrangelmeg put it in and not make me send the whole computer to them).

So, since the puter has two gig of ram I should be able to do just about everything I need to do on the one gig that is working properly until I get the other stick. I am so happy that I will be back on my own computer in just a few hours that I could get misty.

I am off in just a few for a visit with my personal trainer and then I will pick up my computer and take it to the nearest wifi hotspot and give it a test drive while I am waiting to pick up the Saintly daughter from school because there won't be time to come all the way home in between.

Things are looking up today after yesterday. Maybe I will actually get some writing done while I am at the coffee shop. That is my goal anyway, to write an essay for Helium, and maybe even write another chapter of the book in progress.

I love Thursdays.
Pax

This Just Wasn't My Morning

So I got up Early and got ready to take Daughter to school and go to Mass. First the garage door was frozen to the ground and wouldn't open, then the passenger front tire was low. I stopped at the gas station to put air in the tire but the valve on the pump was broken and all I ended up doing was taking even more air out of the already low tire. I was so scared of driving on it that I drove back to the house and made mrangelmeg take daughter to school.

This just isn't my day.

I went out and fed the puppy her morning meal and found that she had chewed a hole in her (pretty expensive) thermal blanket we just bought to keep her warm this winter. I had velcroed it to the floor of her dog house but she ripped it right out the first day. Now there are little pieces of the foil liner all over out there. I am so glad that she is an out door dog with all of the things she tears up.

Then, I remembered that I don't even have my computer. It has been crashing on average about twice a day so I finally took it to the shop yesterday and the nice man there said it would be at least three and probably five days before I could have it back. Five days without my computer! That will be like five days with my arm tied behind my back. I can't even sync my IPod and get new podcasts for five days! It wasn't until I was driving away from the shop that it ocurred to me that I hadn't done a sync that monring. ARGH!

Thanks to mrangelmeg, who graciously got my tire aired back up, I am not stuck here in the house all day -- and I will get a few loads of laundry done that would not have gotten done had I gone to morning mass. And I do have access to my son's computer when no one else is around (which is for about an hour a day). So I suppose even though things aren't going the way I would have liked them to go, all is not lost.

I just have to see the good in the day.

Pax