DragonBlog

Irony

Internet has been down. We are in the process of changing service providers entirely and have only been able to get our e-mail through our cell phones (yes, I have buckled down and officially gotten my own cell phone finally. More on that one later) which buckled under the strain a couple of days back when my mailbox filled up. Without access to the internet I had no way to purge the deleted e-mail from the system. This, in turn, filled up the mailbox when someone also emailed me several megabytes worth of images.

Meanwhile, Brian hooked up the dialup we still have access to from our old service provider.

The real irony though. The SAD, SAD, truth?

I'm using dialup right now and I DO NOT see any speed difference from what I was getting before - with my ADSL.

*blink*

I think it's time to upgrade the LAN cards. Urk.

I have a freaking iPhone now, but my actual computer suddenly feels SO low-tech. *sniff* I'm so confused.

All in time... all in time... more important things to pay for right now.

But, at least the e-mail is fixed. I hadn't realized just how much I relied on it! Eek! And I've been missing my keyboard. My thumbs and fingers have been trying to cramp up as they get used to typing on that teensy little on-screen keyboard. Right now I'm on my keyboard and it's so nice. LOL!

More later. Just wanted to drop somthing into the void here. We'll supposedly be online again on the 14th. Then I won't have to worry about logging on and off so that I don't go over the 20 hour limit of dialup I have with my old ADSL account...bleh.

Hope everyone's holidays went well!

Current Mood: busy

Down to a reasonable level!

Well folks, I finally broke down and did the dirty deed - turned on Spam Assassin on my server to cut down on the 100-some-odd spam e-mails I was getting per day. So... If I don't respond to an e-mail - it's possible you got filtered out! I don't know how strongly it filters, to be honest, but so far I think I've gotten an average of about 5 or 6 spam messages per day now, mostly coming in from other e-mail addresses I haven't turned it on for yet. That just gave me back something like 10 minutes of my life each day. Yay me!

I've also decided I do NOT like GoDaddy.com for web hosting. Unless you are willing to pay the excruciating $88 per month for dedicated hosting - you cannot install Movable Type on their servers. Bugger that! The client I'm working on a blog for right now signed up for GoDaddy. I didn't realize that a hosting/domain company as popular as they are would be so restrictive. I think they just want people to put up simple sites, preferably using their little program instead. Bah! No fun at all. Or, maybe I've just been spoiled rotten by the good folks at Cleverdot.com. They may have the occasional glitches in the system, but they do a great job and give me lots of tools to work with.

I swear though, they should seriously give me kickbacks for all the times I've plugged them on this blog or with other people... LOL. Then again, if they keep bumping up my server space and upgrading stuff every so often - I'm happy.

In other news, I picked up a Kodak EASYSHARE Photo Printer 300 on eBay, which arrived yesterday. This little jobber rocks. I've already picked up more paper and such for it so I can print more, although it looks like I'll get a better deal buying online in the future. I am VERY pleased with the output on this little printer, and have already whipped up wallets and desk photos of the kids for Brian and I.

I'm using this photo of Kayla, from the end of July:

Yeah, I know. She's cute. I added this photo to the gallery too, so you can gaze at her cuteness in large-sized bliss, and let her cuteness own you. 'Cause you know she's totally got us wrapped around those little fingers of hers already. I'm just working on increasing her fan base. *grin*

Meanwhile, more stuff to do, so that's all for now.

Enjoy!

Current Mood: enthralled

One little problem after another...

Well, I was planning to come in and post about the fact that I've uploaded more than 30 new pictures to the gallery, complete with captions. Except that it took me an extra long time to do it, as the server was having problems. And so was my web browser/e-mail program...

I recently upgraded to the newest version of Opera, since there was a new one to be had. Unfortunately, this time around I experienced more glitches than usual - for one, I wasn't receiving images that were sent to me via e-mail anymore. I could forward them back to myself, however, and the images were suddenly there. Weird, to say the least. After a few other glitches, I decided to downgrade, back to the previous version.

Big mistake. HUGE.

First I stupidly didn't uninstall the newer version of Opera before installing the older one over it. Thus, everything got confused and otherwise discombobulated. Half my buttons had gone wonky, for one.

Oops, says I, realizing what I did. So I run the uninstall program to remove those parts of Opera 9 and then re-install the older Opera again. Usually, this ought to work. But no. First I got an error message just trying to open Opera. Eventually I tried re-installing Opera 9, just to get back to a functioning browser - and all my stuff was GONE!

Oh crap. All my e-mail, contacts, notes, settings, etc... gone. Kaput. No more juju for me.

*sob*

So, after leaving my computer to make lunch and keep myself from throwing something at my poor, unsuspecting, innocent monitor, I returned and went at it from a different angle.

Nope. Doing a Windows System Restore didn't quite fix it either.

damn.

However, being the not-entirely-an-idiot person that I am, I managed to scrape some files out of the computer, install a fresh copy of the older version, and explain to it, in no uncertain terms, that it was to pull as much info out of it as possible.

So now I've not lost any contacts, I've reset all my settings from scratch, managed to recover all the notes I had in there, and have all but about a month's worth of e-mail.

So - if you e-mailed me anything in the last month - it's gone. Disappeared into whatever place that little bytes and ether-fragments end up when they are lost. Probably the same place that sock go when they escape the clothes washer. And that vinyl 45 with Pinball Wizard on it that I lost sooooo very long ago.

If you sent me files, I still have them. I save stuff to specific directories, never relying on the download folder in Opera to keep everything in one big jumble. I like knowing where to find stuff. But if it was in the text of the e-mail - it's gone.

*sigh of frustration*

But... there are the new gallery pictures. With captions even. Consider that a consolation prize?

Current Mood: discontent

Vid-Card Roulette...

Been playing video card roulette every time I reboot my computer. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't. Today, while rebooting to try and troubleshoot why we've been having problems with the DSL, it didn't. Last straw. I can't get to the internet on Brian's computer without moving cables around (after trying to remember which is which first) and then making changes on his computer so that it knows how to log onto the internet. The way it's set up now, it logs on automatically for him whenever my computer tells it there is internet. Without my computer running, we're SOL when it comes to anything online. Kinda makes me realize how dependent I've become on those little things, like Mapquest and Google.

Needless to say, I went out and spent money we don't have on a video card I didn't want to buy yet. I wanted to wait until we could afford to buy me something a little nicer. Instead, I picked up the least expensive version of the one I already had that fits in the AGP slot. Even going with the lesser model, however, it's still got twice the memory on it that my last card had. The last card was pretty top of the line when I got it, but that was around five years ago. So it ought to be nice when I start gaming again. If I ever find time to do any that is. Free time is pretty scarce lately.

I picked up DSL filters too, since that's the likely problem with the internet. I'm having trouble with finding the right filter for the wall mount phone, however. Looks like I need a different one than I have and I've screwed up the wiring in the process. I'll need to rewire the wire running down the wall, through the crawlspace, and across the basement ceiling. Good grief. I needed that extra project like I needed another hole in the head.

*grumble, mumble, complain, whine, bitch, mumble, grumble*

Okay, done now. I wanted to blog about other stuff. Like Brian's post about losing his ring yesterday. And the couple of THOUSAND spam pings I had to delete on my blog, because some jerk hit me with a bot. I've disabled pings entirely now, probably for good. Comments, however, are still functional. Maybe I'll find time to tomorrow to blog about more stuff. But now - I have to get to bed.

G'night!

Current Mood: cranky

Crisis Averted...

This morning was my first day back at class, Brian's first day back at work, and the first day I've left the house without my daughter since she came home from the hospital. I still worried, seeing as how she's only three weeks old and I'm an avidly over-protective mommy, but she was in RainMoon's capable hands and all was well.

The morning itself, however, did not bode well. After feeding Kayla and getting mostly ready to go to class, I put in my Quick Shtick Writing post and then threw together a quickie document of images of my kids (okay, admittedly they were mostly of Kayla - duh!) to print out and take with me to class. The printer did weird things on me (as my printer sometimes does), causing me to have to reboot after the computer somehow decided that it no longer existed (problem with the USB hub too - she needs more power Captain!). The problem was - when I rebooted, there was nothing showing on the screen suddenly!

I ruled out hard drive/motherboard error quickly enough, leaving monitor/video card failure as the only options. Swapping monitors momentarily seemed to fix it, but only on a fluke. In the end, it seemed the video card was the culprit. But I had to go to class, so I couldn't troubleshoot it further.

Examination this evening showed that dirty gunk had clogged up the fan on my video card - EWWW! I guess I need to open the box and use a can of air on it now and again. I was able to clean it up and get it moving again and all appears to be well. *phew!* We really can't afford to be replacing expensive computer bits just now, so I was pleased to see it all come back online. Crisis averted.

That's all for now though. I think my littlest one is getting hungry...

Current Mood: relieved

Technical Difficulties...

I haven't been able to post here for the last couple of days. Ironically enough, just as my son's birthday comes around and I take a gazillion cute pictures I want to post. Not to mention I had a "deep moment" earlier today that I might post as well. God forbid.

Sometime within the 24 hours after my last post, the DBI cgi module apparently became corrupted (and I only vaguely understand what that means, but certainly not enough to figure out what needed fixing). Thus, this blog, To Our Children's Children, and DragonBytes were all shutting me out from posting as they were all run from the same installation of Movable Type. I'm still running the older version as I'm not able to justify the $70 for the personal edition just yet. I'd need that for any blogs that Brian is writing with me. Otherwise their free version would work fine. Oh well. It just means I don't get all the new bells and whistles yet.

I went to post on Friday evening and found that I couldn't. I dropped an e-mail to my web host's (Cleverdot.com) customer support and groaned unhappily as I figured it was unlikely I'd get any help until... well... today, actually.

To my amazement, he/she/they? worked on it all weekend long and on into today until I just got home from errands to find an e-mail suggesting I test it out to see if they had fixed it. So far, so good. We'll see if this actually posts...

If it does, then I won't have to edit out the following:

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Cleverdot Person/People!!! I am an internet junkie and very, very glad to have my little space back online to post at!!! Thank you!!!

Okay. Expect more posts from the backlog of info of the last couple of days. We've got Birthday, Birthday Party, and Mother's Day posts to be written up, complete with pictures! Also - the countdown until we leave for vacation begins!!

And boy do I ever need a vacation. More on that later.

Internet Woes...

Today's blog comes to you courtesy of "James" in India.

Or at least that was the tech guy who got me back online today after I'd spent hours and hours rebooting and trying different stuff and peering at cables and filters and all other assortment of things until I was at my wits end.

Usually, I can figure it out. This one had me bamboozled.

I think I spent about an hour on the phone, between being on hold and then talking to James and rebooting and such. Fortunately, he spoke decent enough English that I was able to understand him without getting frustrated. I've had that problem in the past with some tech support companies that outsource.

In the end, he was able to get me connected and then left me with some vague instruction on how to get the LAN here at the house back online, so Brian could have internet again too. His instructions for the LAN technically worked, although I had to muddle about with wizards and settings before I convinced my computer to send him internet and his computer to see that it was there.

All done. All back. All good again.

Pounding headache though. *pout*

I have to fold yesterday's laundry before I can head off to bed though. I spent yesterday washing loads of laundry in-between web relocations stuff and other chores. I got all the hanging clothes hung, but the non-wrinkly stuff like socks, jeans, and towels, along with the crap we don't care if it wrinkles like t-shirts and underwear, are all sitting in laundry baskets around my computer desk, waiting expectantly.

So, if you'll excuse me - I must now fold.

G'night.

Digital Distractions...

Being the target of such huge amounts of comment spam has taken some of the wind out of my sails on getting the blog up in WordPress, so it's still in progress. There's also the little problem that it's not compatible with the Opera browser entirely, and so it has some problems when I go to use the interface pages. I'm looking into it. Maybe I can just redo that page so that it works right for Opera folks - it's all open to changing but I'm not sure how into the php code I need to be to change stuff internally like that. I've been reading up on php at my favorite site for looking stuff up - w3schools - which is one of those links I need to drop into the "web tools" category of my links section when I can divide them up nicely like WordPress lets you. There's questions I have though, and it feels like I'm not finding the answers easily, even on the WordPress Wiki.

I've also been slightly distractec by my new digital camera, which arrived yesterday. I've been snapping pictures left and right, and can finally get pics of the couple of items I have waiting to get put up on ebay to pay for already purchased camera. I sold the batteries from the old one already, but that only covered about a fifth of the cost for a whole new camera. I suppose I can toss the old camera itself now - all it does is destroy disks, and now it doesn't even have batteries to make it do that. Then again, maybe I'll put it on ebay for someone for parts. Who knows if there isn't someone out there who needs some other bit to make theirs work properly and actually knows how to fix it.

But my nifty new camera is less than half the size of the old one, and it can do 30 second movies. I shot my first one of those tonight, basically a poorly-lit rendition of my son laughing at me. He seems to be highly amused by people with cameras pointed at him these days.

Here, finally, is a decent picture of our kitten, cinder, taken just last night:

That's all for now.

G'night!

Eeeeevil internet...

E-bay is evil. For that matter, so is pricewatch.com as well. Although I'm still not seeing the software I want for the $40 or less I want to pay for them. Nope. No goodies for me tonight.

I'm in a "computer jolt" right now. I spent today ripping the guts out of one computer, making another one a blank slate with nothing but Windows XP on it for the moment, and setting aside another two to combine and turn into something useful maybe next week.

Then my husband happens to come home with mention of a possible person who potentially might be interested in paying someone to redesign their web site (and it needs it, in my humble opinion), so I'm all looking at web sites and dreaming up new stuff and wondering how to make flash stuff work, and so on...

But I don't have the software to make flash stuff. I bet I could handle it just fine if I did...

Oooooh. And I want Front Page too, for easy upload and organization and quick editing...

*drools all over keyboard*

Damnit!

I think this computer thing is, like, an addiction or something.

You know, I never said "I want to be a geek when I grow up!" Not ever.

*sigh*

To take my mind off it I'll just go play a computer game now --

DOH!

G'night!

101 ways reasons to smack Bill Gates...

I feel a blog coming on...

101 reasons I'd like to smack Bill Gates.

Ya.

The program I'm working with at my job is Microsoft conceived, and then "modified" for this company's use.

The poor souls in programming have already started to hack it to make it useable by us poor folk who have the job of transferring a whole lot of old web site content into the new system.

Every image file, for example, has to be uploaded one at a time. The same with all the .pdf files too...

This company uses a lot of images and .pdf files in their site.

You'd think it would be easy to just ftp a bunch into a folder or something, but this isn't Front Page. I saw Front Page. That's what they're moving out of. I like it much better than this new system, but there's reasons it will make it easier for the people in individual departments who don't need access to page design and stuff I guess.

In the meantime, it seems like it's a relative nightmare for everyone transferring the site over.

It's not actually a nightmare for me though. Oddly enough, I'm finding it kind of fun. It's still more engaging than "here, type this memo and fax it to our corporate headquarters". And far more engaging than copy. swap. copy. swap. copy. swap. coallate. repeat.

But I'm still tired. Pooped. Short on time.

Tonight was drawing class too. I drew a goblet (read wine glass with water and a spoon in it). The base still doesn't feel right, but the rest doesn't look half bad. If I ever have time again, maybe I'll scan it. More likely I'll do something better before I actually find that kind of time...heh.

Anyway. More tomorrow maybe.

G'night!

Technical Difficulties...

We are experiencing technical difficulties today, which may continue tomorrow. As our server was kind enough to warn us, they are doing some upgrading that will hopefully speed things up and make for less problems. If they succeed in this, we'll be keeping them for another year when it comes time to renew. If not, I have already been slightly annoyed on the occasional times when I've not been able to log into my own site.

*grumble, grumble, grumble*

In other news, yesterday's tensions were discussed shortly after I posted, and much was made clear, along with some things being somewhat worked out. It's a rough time right now, not knowing where money is going to come from soon.

I did my interview thingy at the placement agency today. I think it went well enough. I'm at least familiar with how agencies work, since I've done plenty of temp work in my time so far. Tomorrow is another agency, where I'll be doing some testing. Today's agency has an online testing thing that I can do from home, which is really cool, but the person I interviewed with hasn't sent me the e-mail yet.

So, I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to know what my typing speed is currently at. Mind you, I do a lot of typing on here where I don't have to look at one sheet and type elsewhere, but I also play quite a bit of boggle, and I still do some of that typing when my boss sends me stuff. I think I should still be where I used to be, if not better, at typing. I just wish I'd bothered to write down what it was. So, this time, I'll have to mark it down finally. Perhaps I'll put it up here as well. We'll see. Not everything I do needs to be recorded for posterity you know...

*grin*

Also, it was therapy night tonight. And I realized I missed something important that my husband wanted to do that I hadn't noticed, even after he'd mentioned it in passing on his own blog. I try to catch such clues, but I missed this one...

Starting tonight, he's giving our son his "bedtime bottle" instead of me. I hadn't realized it, but I was kind of hogging snuggle time with my little boy. This will start helping make there be more snuggle time for "daddy" too!

Sometimes I'm trying so hard to be a good mommy that I accidentally keep my little guy all to myself! It's not fair though - he looks at me with those adorable blue eyes, just like his daddy's eyes, and how can I not be sucked in under his little spell?

Bad mommy! No biscuit!

*retrieves willpower from behind the bed where she stuffed it during her first month as a mommy*

G'night!

P.S. - Yes, I know, I totally forgot to do yesterday. And I'm not feeling up to posting it right now. I may look at it later this week, or I may just skip it this time. Sorry tj.

Rawr...

I am so not pleased...

I got the new power supply into my other PC box today. Works great. Booted up. Started the Windows XP install...

And now that computer seems to think that it doesn't have any hard drives.

It has three!

Not one,

Not two,

But three stones drives!

hrmph.

At least the CD player is working, so it sees that.

I'll be messing with the BIOS and stuff on that box now.

Sounds like a potential for more "computer dreams" tonight...

"Hard drive not found. Please reboot your brain and begin this dream again."

*grumbles*

G'night!

Death of a hard drive...

It must not have been a virus after all.

Time of death on my laptop hard drive is estimated at 9:35 pm. Or at least that's about when my husband looked over and said:

"Hon? Is that an error message?"

Indeed it was. Hard drive failure.

And I'd just gotten it all re-installed, brand-spanking new again. I'd gotten the bare minimum programs up and running, and had even started weeding out all the stupid "online services" crap they put on there to annoy me.

I'd even indulged my asthetic senses by changing to a different desktop background than I have had up on that laptop since I bought it two years or so ago.

So, facing the inevitable, I turned to the computer that I've had sitting around gathering dust, waiting for me to install and start playing with Linux on it.

But it had a bad CD drive in it.

So I tried another.

And it was bad too. (I really gotta learn to throw broken stuff out already!!!)

I don't know about this one, which I pillaged off another, older computer, because in the process of messing with stuff I accidentally touched one thingy to another thingy while the power was still on, and...

bzzt.

I killed the power supply.

Of the three other power supplies I had available that weren't in use:

• One was mounted in an old (and I mean really old) computer in such a way that it requires considerable talent to get it out, and my brain is too fried to handle it at this point.
• Another was in a box. It was broken. It's now in the trash, along with the one I fried.
• The third one works - enough to confirm that the problem now is the power supply, but this one is under-powered and can't actually boot the machine completely.

So, I'd already kept my husband up far past his bedtime, as he tried to keep me from either a) deliberately breaking something in frustration, or b) burst into unstoppable tears, or c) throwing in the towel and go running to buy a pack of cigarettes. I used to chain smoke when fixing computer problems. I am four days (technically three now) from my two-year anniversary of quitting smoking. Not the best time to cave in...

Anyway, we looked online and found a reasonable price on a used "like new" hard drive for the laptop. It's smaller than the other one was, but I hadn't even used a third of the 20GB drive to begin with, so this 12GB one will work fine. In the meantime, I'm temporarily going to have to put work stuff on this computer and pray nothing goes wrong with it too! Since that's the reason I put it on a different computer to begin with - this one went down in a nearly catastrophic way, and I had only just begun working from home for my boss (I went into the office before he was trasferred out of state), so I didn't want to have him think it wouldn't work out!

I'm about to go hunting for a reasonably priced power supply too, as I do want that other computer working. Even if I don't make it into a linux box, or turn it into the work machine, or whatever - my son will need a computer eventually too, and I've got my eye on that machine as his first "hand-me-down" one. Until he's old enough to truly appreciate the machine - mommy gets to upgrade before he does.

Of course I had planned on blogging about something else entirely tonight. I'd also planned on going to bed at a reasonable hour too.

Pffft. Maybe next time.

G'night!

Abort, Retry, Fail...

Well, the good news is that I managed to convince my laptop that it did, indeed, have a hard drive within it's plastic shell. Long enough to even copy the important files off of it, so that when I reformat the whole damned thing I can get it working and still have the e-mail and documents that are what I use it for in the first place. I just wish that the "recovery disc" would give me the option to not install about half the crap it adds to the basic operating system. I only need a few of those programs, and will have to spend more time uninstalling them than I did installing the whole package in the first place.

*sigh*

I find it entirely ironic that, just as I decide to not venture further than my current clients in this particular business venture, my work only laptop goes wonky on me. It's a bit twisted, even for me. But I wasn't about to roll over and pay someone something like half the laptop is worth to recover my files. I really need to back up those files more often so I can rest a little easier knowing that if it all goes kaplooey on me I don't have as many documents I might need to recreate. I do keep hard copies though, fortunately, so I wouldn't have been entirely screwed.

In other news, we dropped my car off at the shop tonight, so they'll look at it tomorrow. So, for the moment, I'm "sans automobile". It needs the 60,000 mile maintenance done, and they need to make the rear rakes stop sounding like an airplane is going by overhead whenever I make a stop. It's rather scary sounding. I dread to think of whatever else they'll find that needs fixing. The stuff we need done alone is going to break the budget considerably this month. Time to tighten the belt once again.

Anyway, I've got a laptop to work on tonight, so that's all for now.

G'night!

Oh Shit..!

Ummm...

Is it a bad sign when your laptop says the following:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.

*sees her readers nodding somberly at her*

Yeah. I thought so too.

And no, I still hadn't gotten around to making a backup.

[insert overly long stream of cursing here]

F**K!!!

We interrupt this broadcast for another day of my life...

Looks like we finally got the internet back to working today! Hooray!!!

*dances around until dizzy*

Like, it's on all the time again - you know, like DSL is supposed to work. And why, you ask, is the internet finally working???

Because someone finally sent a real live person to my door!!! Whoop!!!

Now here's the fun triangle - there's me, the ISP, and the phone company - and since nobody seems to understand about conference calls (you'd think the phone company would know how to do that sort of thing, now wouldn't you?), there was a considerable level of non-communication going on between the three sides...

You see, I was under the understanding that the guy was being sent by the phone company, at the request of the ISP, to fix my problem...

Silly me.

He (meaning the guy who arrived at my door) was under a slightly varied version of "fix my problem", meaning that it was unusual to ring the bell and talk to me at all. But, in all fairness, the guy was great. He was supposed to arrive sometime between 1 and 5 pm, and just showed up around 10 am instead, since he had an open slot. Although I appreciated the chance to get it fixed ahead of schedule, I'd had my sleep interrupted by the ISP guy calling earlier and putting me on hold for a half an hour while he set up the appointment with the phone company in the first place, so I'd reset the alarm (which hadn't gone off yet when the ISP called) and gone back to sleep. So I ran to answer the door in a t-shirt and underwear with a bathrobe thrown over it, and my hair all bed-flattened! Oh, the horror! I managed to throw more decent clothes on, even if they were just the first thing I grabbed, and brush my hair into a clip while he was checking the outside stuff. I also got my son changed into a clean diaper, as he'd been woken up by the doorbell (which makes him cry) and now required breakfast. So I'm attempting to help the guy look at my phone lines and stuff, while feeding my kid cereal in between... There was a lot of pointing in a general direction "it's over there" for some stuff.

Which led me later to realize one assumption he may have made, having been behind the head of our bed in order to reach the phone jack... *clears throat*

Dear Mr. Repair Guy,

The item you saw on the shelves we are currently using as a headboard behind the head of our bed was, in fact, NOT what you probably thought it was. It, in fact, IS a massager - most commonly used for neckaches and backaches and the occasional leg muscle problem. The design on this particular model of massager is not such that it could be used in any "other" manner than what is shown on the box it came in. The fact that my much younger sister gave me this particular massager also would put it in exactly the wrong light for such use even if it were capable of such "entertaining" usage. Your mind can now rest at ease, you did not see some sort of nastiness in my bedroom this morning. I don't keep those sort of items by the phone jack, after all, as the cat likes to sit back there when she gets into the bedroom. And there's some places you just don't want to suddenly get cat hair into...

Thanks again for fixing my internet,
Amy

So anyway, he fixed the internet. It was not the modem after all, so now I'll have to make sure the old one works and then probably return this new one, since I didn't need to buy it. Which is what I wanted to know in the first place. *sigh* The problem turned out to be one of the filters that keeps the DSL from messing up the phone. I'd tried the "process of elimination", but I didn't have nice new filters to put everywhere at the time, and it somehow didn't seem to work even when I did pull that filter off, so I never managed to narrow it down. But it's been consistent ever since he left. The bill is being sent to the ISP, and I hope I get my money back for this new modem...Arrgh...what a hassle this has been. And the ISP customer service guy was rude all the time, treating me as if I didn't know anything at all. I have an e-mail in my box for a "satisfaction survey" and I am so going to rant if there's a comments section.

I think it's time to look into new DSL providers - we're apparently paying too much for this one, since they don't offer any decent customer service once you've managed to make it through their automated system to even get to a person in the first place. I'd go with the DSL offered directly through the phone company, but they charge a lot too... Time to shop around. So be warned that the page this blog is located on may move, although if you are getting here through www.rayndragon.com it won't matter, as I forward that through another service and I'll just have to tell it where to redirect it. The most annoying part will be getting people to get the new e-mail right again. I only just finally got the last person moved off my old yahoo address. LOL.

Another good thing for today - we got our taxes done. We've been procrastinating for about a month now, although I think it's been more "forgetting" than "procrastinating" actually. Anyway, we're getting a *gasp* refund this year!!! *glee!!!*

Which means we'll actually be able to justify our Anniversary gifts, come May, which is something we were both a little concerned about fitting into the budget this year. Things are looking up, but for the moment they've still been kind of tight. We've also still been getting the hang of this "parenting" thing, where there's additional expenses like formula and baby wipes each month. We've never been particularly perfect when it comes to budgeting - usually it's more like:

"Hon? We're out of money again, so don't spend any okay? Oh, and I need gas to get to work, so I took that $20 bill in your purse too. But the next paycheck will be deposited at the end of next week, so we can get groceries then."

Somehow, we do muddle through. We just try to pay the important bills before doing the groceries so that we know the mortgage gets paid each month. I've always kind of had the philosophy that if we have a roof over our head, we'll figure out the rest somehow. In the worst situations, when your scrounging the toll change to buy food - ramen noodles are usually four for $1.00 at most grocery stores. We've been that desperate before, so things being "tight" is just a matter of muddling through until the tide turns. *smiles*

See? I'm not a pessimist after all!!! I know that the rainbow is waiting just around the next corner...

waiting...

waiting for us to come 'round that corner so it can BEAT US SENSELESS!!!!

*clears throat*

ahem. sorry 'bout that.

So, I'll just continue my list of things from Sunday/Monday... um... tomorrow.

When I'm not feeling quite so...

Optimistic?

yeah.

g'night!

And off, and off, and off...

And so, the disasters continued today...

First, we got to find out that the problem with the internet is not necessarily the modem, when the ISP called me back today. I was merrily browsing the web when the phone rang. The process of answering it cut off the internet somehow. I'm on DSL - that's not supposed to happen! ARRRGH! So, anytime the phone rings, it's touch and go as to whether or not it will kick out the internet, and getting the internet back involves rebooting both the modem and my computer.

*grumble*

And the guy didn't check with me before putting me on hold and calling the phone company, so now they have the wrong information and will go through the same stuff I've already been through with them. *sigh* The guy from the ISP will get back to me sometime on Tuesday - although he was supposed to have someone call me back today but it never happened.

I've already been tossing around the idea of changing providers, maybe this is the time to entertain it more seriously. Assuming the internet stays up long enough for me to do the search to find them, that is...

Another "off" today involved plumbing. More specifically, drainage. As in it wasn't doing what it is supposed to do. You know, drain? Yeah. Eww. After some mopping with towels and the discovery of how badly we were backed up, I instructed my husband to deal with the situation by dialing a plumber and getting them to come rod the line to the sewer. Which he did, and they did, and now we're another $100+ in the hole, seeing as how we don't have a cleanout so they have to remove the downstairs toilet every time they come and they charge extra for that.

*grrrrrr*

Oh yes, no call from my sister today means she won't be at Easter tomorrow. The phone call from my uncle today means that my husband and I will be taking separate cars to Easter tomorrow - My uncle's car is in the shop so Brian will go and pick him up so that he'll still be able to come. Otherwise none of "my" side of the family would be attending. And there's the whole, you know, birthday thing... so I ought to have someone from my side be there. Sheesh. It's not my fault the rest are dead.

Also today, I went through more than half of the clothes that I own, separating the maternity clothes into one bin for storage, winter clothes into another bin, and clothes I can't wear until I lose weight again into a couple more bins. I also have a basket/bag thing that I've filled up with stuff I won't wear anymore for a variety of reasons. Now that about half my wardrobe has disappeared into various piles, I have a better idea of a) what clothes I have left that actually fit me right now, and b) just how much I want to lose weight again.

*sigh*

Perhaps I should have left that task until after my birthday after all. Except that I wanted to find something decent enough to wear tomorrow so I don't look like a slob. I have lots of cute clothes in the "when I get skinny again" bins. And "skinny" to me is not the supermodel version, but the "right weight for my frame" version the doctor would likely recommend. Mommyhood has done nasty things to my figure - it gives me far too many reasons to not find time to exercise properly, and just grab whatever for myself to eat. That, and I've been cooking recently - which does mean healthier meals, but I tend to cook large quantities and eat like I used to do years ago. My mom was of the "clean plate" philosophy, so I didn't learn to stop when I wasn't hungry anymore, but ate what I was given instead. So I have to watch my portions again. I'm slipping into old habits.

Attempts to trim our son's hair tonight before bathtime has perhaps convinced us that maybe $8 or $10 isn't too much to pay every couple of months or so to have someone in a shop do it. When we had one done just before our Christmas portraits, it took the woman five minutes to reshape Jareth's hair into cuteness again. Brian watched how she did it, and felt it was something we could figure out, but I think, perhaps, we are not (ahem) "cut out" for the job after all. Although this second attempt on our part looks better than the first, it's not "finished". We gave up as he just wouldn't hold still, even with one of us distracting him while the other one tried to do the cutting. And neither of us is hard enough to just hold his head still while the poor guy cries and gets all red in the face. Nope. I'm a wuss in that regard. Sorry. Little guy cries and my backbone just crumples.

Ah, well...

Happy Easter tomorrow to those who celebrate it!

I'm going to play myself a wee bit of solitaire to wind down with, and then it's off to bed.

g'night!

On again, Off again...

Today is a day of ons and offs apparently...

First, the alarm clock was apparently bumped to off, or rather the plug came out and my husband kindly reset the clock but forgot to reset my alarm. So, 9am came and went without the usual beeping and ignoring of the beeping and silencing the beeping that ordinarily accompanies the mourning routine between the alarm and myself. Instead, I was awoken much, much later by a BING-Bong! noise. Ahh, the neighbors had a visitor. But the neighbors weren't home, and the noise continued another three more times before a) the visitor gave up, and b) I had buried the offending ringing end in a couch cushion as my son had been woken up and was now crying unhappily since the noise had frightened him. I have since opened it up and discovered there is not some way to change the frequency like I'd hoped. Damn. I'm not sure what the solution is yet, but it's not seeming promising.

Then there's my sister, who came by today to give me birthday presents - a dvd I've been wanting and some artwork - a framed acrylic painting on canvas board that she did! Yay! Art!!!

Now she may or may not be able to make it on Sunday, she'll update me again tomorrow... *throws hands up in the air in despair*

And then... the internet was off. So, once again, I ran about the house unplugging everything and then ran back to make sure the ADSL light was on...

It wasn't!!!

WHAT???!!! NO INTERNET???!!!

*feels the need to breathe into a paper bag suddenly*

*fumbles for pills of any kind to help with the rising agony in her stomach*

*plugs a phone back in and dials the internet provider frantically*

I was hoping to get one of those messages that says "it's temporarily down in your area, don't panic, we'll have it back up in a matter of minutes", but was not that lucky. I, in fact, managed to get one of the least helpful tech support people... After explaining to her that my DSL was interfering with my phone line (static a-plenty), and that the modem wasn't registering a DSL connection, and that I had everything else unplugged from the phone line except said modem and the phone I was talking to her on...

She wanted me to go outside with a screwdriver, plug the modem into some mystery outlet outside the house, and open up the box my phone line comes into from outside the house to plug the modem into...

huh?

It would have been easier to run from phone jack to phone jack plugging in the modem and checking it - especially since she wanted the modem plugged into a specific jack in the phone box. A specific jack there weren't any markings for. A jack that must have already had something plugged in it, as my husband said all the jacks were filled with plugs from other things. So I told the tech support lady this.

And then I told her again.

And again.

And again.

And, after she told me the same thing repeatedly even after I explained that I didn't have anything marked like that in my phone box outside, I put her on with my husband so he could explain it to her YET AGAIN !!!!!

*sigh*

After that, she filled out a form and told us someone would call us back in five days...

Yeah. Um.... I can't wait five days just to know if someone is going to tell me if it's my modem or not. Since I already know it probably is the modem, I just wanted someone who knew more than I do about these things to confirm if it could be anything other than the modem so I wouldn't have to spend $100 finding out the hard way - by buying a new modem.

So, guess what I bought today?

Yep. modem.

Guess what? It works great.

And there's no static on the phone right now either.

It could be a fluke...

But I doubt it.

Hmph.

I wonder what I'll say when they call me back...

But, for now, I'm going to leave off today thinking about the balloon at the grocery store. The "Happy Easter" balloon that had Tigger and Pooh on it and bounced about in the air, tethered to a string that was anchored in a display of cheese trays and the like.

Or, more accurately, the look on my son's face when it caught his attention. That innocent look of absolute fascination that can only appear on a child's face. The little laugh he made when it moved. I didn't have to do anything but stand there and watch him watch that balloon.

It was one of those perfect moments.

Those are the moments that I like to think I'm here to experience.

mmmmm.

g'night!

All computers are created equal

All computers are created equal in the eyes of the plug.