Holy shit

we may have just sold our house.

I hate electrical equipment...

and it seems to feel similarly towards me.

I bought my laptop - this laptop right here - three years ago. February of '05. Immediately after purchasing it, it did this thing were, if you moved it too quickly, it shut down. I thought, for a while, that laptops did that. A few months later, SisterJ purchased her laptop and I noticed "wow, you can move it without treating it like it is plutonium and it still works!" So I asked my HP people what was wrong with the puter and they said "Send it to us, it sounds broken." I did, and it was. The motherboard was 'compromised' and had to be replaced. That sucked, since it was a new laptop and then I was without it for a few weeks - about a month, I think.

About 6 months later, one of my 3 USB ports (the quickest one) stopped working. Just wouldn't even show up on my manage devices list. It kinda sucked, but I dealt with it. A few weeks later, another one stopped working. (To figure this out I had to buy a new cord for my printer, as I had assumed it was the cord that was broken. It wasn't.) Less than 3 months later, the final remaining USB port refused to show up. Nice. Went to the HP people again, and they were all "You must have done something, I wonder why that would happen if you didn't uninstall them" (As if I were purposely removing the posibility of my computer being able to communicate with other devices. "Send it to us," they said, acting as if I needed to be reported to Social Services for laptop abuse. I packed it up and sent it off AGAIN and it as gone for a month and a half. When it came back, they grudgingly admitted that the computer had done it on its own, acting out with the sort of antisocial behavior you expect from 3 year olds.

This year, as we have discussed, I had to send the pretty computer away because the fan was overheating and then full on stopped working. Again: not my fault; Again, at least 3 weeks with no laptop.

The same time I bought my laptop, I bought a printer with it - an Epson. It was an color, copier, printer, and it was free with rebate. I love free. I love rebates. I thought I was veeery lucky. Sometime between the first time I had to send the computer back and the second time I had to send it back, the printer stopped working. Totally. The ink cartridge had somehow leaked into the inside of the machine, and was producing large black splotches on ... everything. The printer refused to print anything, and then got to the point where it wouldn't even turn on anymore. Nice. So I called up Epson, and they were all "really? How'd that happen? Oh wait, that's a known issue with this model. Send it back to us and we'll send you a new one. A better one! You're a lucky lucky girl!"

Yes, I totally felt lucky, as I'm sure you can imagine.

That printer lasted about 2 years, until, last fall, right when my family troubles were exploding, it decided to start eating the paper. It would start to load a page to print out on, and instead of going through, it would crumple it up and then flash red lights at me. "error! error! Error!" it would yell. As if I couldn't tell from the whole gobbling up the paper thing. The warranty had, of course, expired by this point, and this would've been my 3rd try with the Epsons anyway, plus I had been thinking about getting an all in one that you can fax with (because of my timesheets for the PCA program that have to be in every two weeks and sending Mum to Staples every other Monday seemed pretty low on the list of priorities when you're dealing with famiy emergencies).

So to make things easier on myself (and everybody else), I went ahead and bought a brand new printer/copier/scanner/fax. It's a Canon, and I have loved it for all of the 5 months that I have been using it. It printed out SisterJ's save the dates, her wedding invitations, the games we played at the shower. I've completed about 25 of SisterCh's scrapbook pages on the thing, in the past week. It and I have copied a gazillion magazine pages, crochet directions, and recipes.

And then, there came today. When I tried to copy Youngest Nephew's Report Card (he did awesome, watch out 3rd Grade!), the printer started making this scary noise, lights started flashing, paper stopped rolling in. The piece of paper ripped somewhere inside the machine. And there, it got lost. A little piece of paper is sitting in there, making everything else NOT WORK. So I called Canon, and yippee, you guessed it "Please sent it to us, we'll send you a new one to replace it. There's no way you can fix it yourself."

UGH. Just Ugh. I mean, seriously, why do electronic things hate me so much? I am a good owner. I don't misuse them or eat food and drop it into them. I use that spray duster thing regularly, and I've only dropped my poor laptop once, and then, it was because I was dropping as well. (We haven't talked about that: it was the week leading up to the wedding, the computer and I took a tumble ... a serious tumble. My back was WAAY messed up and I was really glad you couldn't see it under my dress. And the puter was ok except for some dead pixels in the lower right corner. Which bothered me a lot at first, but now I realize all it means is that I have to look somewhere else to see what time it is. I think I can deal.) I am not cruel to things with plugs, but they must have heard horror stories, because there is some sort of computer/printer conspiracy when it comes to me.

So, if you have anything that needs copying, you - and I - will have to wait 7-10 days. Sorry about that.

Missing:

It may just be the end of the world: We have misplaced our copy of Llama, Llama, Red Pajama. A true tragedy, my friends.

Nevermind that we have, literally, hundreds of other books. Only Llama, Llama will do! LilGirl is, I am proud to say, a book lover. And when she's in love with specific books, there are no substitutions allowed. Llama Llama was last seen on Saturday, at Grandmother's House, although she insists it is not there. It is also not in the blue bag we brought back from Grandmother's House, either basket Lil Girl's books live in, or any of its usual haunts. I have faith that it will be found, but not during this naptime... Hopefully, when she wakes up, she will not remember that she wanted it, and we can instead see how many babies will fit into this carriage.


Also, while searching for a picture of Llama, llama, I find that there is a NEW LLAMA - Llama, llama mad at mama. You know who's going to the bookstore this weekend, right? Well, not me... but I can send somebody!

Glory, Hallelujah ...

Well, Blogger has finally seen the error of its ways and enabled me to blog again! I am not SPAM! Aren't you so happy for me?? I knew you would be.

Quick Update for all of you who contacted me and were wondering: My Grandmother's party was great - about 3/5ths of us made it, which made for a decent sized mob. But, Grandmother was excited, surprised by who managed to show up, and happy. Two weeks later, she's still happy, so that's what counts. Of course she and I are both still worn out (and she has a pretty good excuse, if you ask me), so the mandatory enforced blog vacation did come at a pretty good time for me.

Although you did miss the DRAMA of Sister K (youngest sister, soon to be Harvard student)'s break-up and re-up with her boyfriend of 8 months. And my patience when this DRAMA combined with Sister J's wedding DRAMA to prohibit me from reading the newest Harry Potter until Sunday.

Which I then read in six hours, and cried for probably a good third of that. How amazing was the Deathly Hollows, people? Did you read? Did you love it? Am I - in less than a week - much too late for the discussion? Well, that's too bad, because I have a lot to say! A spoiler filled post will soon be sure to follow!

Other than that, I am recovering and reading and attempting to clean my room (again!); and, in my foolish attempt to show the 'real me' (minus the name) here on the blog, I will now regale you with the tale of why I need a new bookcase:

So, I had, in my very small room, four bookcases: two tall, 5 shelf, regular bookcases, and two smaller two shelf (plus desk-level top) bookcases. And they are full. They are very full. They are so full that I also have three baskets full of ToBeRead books, a 24 gallon Rubbermaid bucket full of books ToBeTraded (on PaperBackSwap), an old amazon.com box full of books ToBeReviewed, and various piles of other books, on my desktop,, inside my wardrobe, and under the television. In case you were wondering, I like to read.

One of the smaller bookcases was filled with children's books: Books I used to teach/tutor with, books for Youngest Nephew and now his baby sister, and books for me. Because children's books are for EVERYONE, people! (Ahem - Harry Potter is not the only acceptable children's book - surprise! Now stepping off soap-box...) And one day, when I wasn't feeling quite my best (shock!), I was doing more than I should (this many shocks in one post - how will you handle it?!) and I tried to stand up to get something from a pile on the desk, and leaned on the smaller bookcase, and fell into this bookcase. And broke the bookcase into a sad number of pieces. Seriously.

It was just one of those particle board bookcases they sell at Target, the ones you put together yourself? But WOW did it a)hurt, b)crumple like dust, c) make me feel both stupid and gi-nor-mously fat. Incredible amounts of fun, I tell ya.

So, now, all of those books, plus all the books I've gotten since sit in little piles on the floor, because I refuse to pay $110 for a bookcase and I also don't want to buy another Rubbermaid container, because where will I put it once I have my bookcase? But, since it's been a while (like... 5 months?) since I broke the bookcase, and the piles are now getting a bit out of hand (see photos, although, they're usually neater piles, I just wanted to be sure you could see some of the titles, because that's what I'd be looking at)... maybe I should just give in and buy a bucket?





Anyways... glad to be back. Will be posting more often, because I missed being able to talk to y'all here, while I was gone (although my commenting did improve a bit, I must say). Hope everybody is doing well! Love, NTE

I need one of these...

One of my more "minor" issues is an increased sensitivity to hot & cold. I've talked before about how that issue effects my showering habits - honestly, most showers end without me ever touching the cold water faucet.

This hypersensitivity can be trouble, though, particularly when I'm watching the kiddos. I always err on the side of too cold, and have somebody else double check the temperature of the face cloth or bath water, if they're around. But this is a much better idea. Something to invest in, I'm thinking.

And, BTW, if you don't hang out at Parent Hacks, you definitely should!

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I'm not too fond of the new Blogger, so far: having to sign on every time I try to post is a pain in the butt. On the plus side, there are the handy-dandy post labels - I like. However having entire posts deleted instead of saved - this is a VERY BAD THING. Because I've already typed things, and I'm too out of it to type them all again. So when they disappear, they're most probably gone for good.

However, I do want to retype some of the things I've said to my fabulous commenters, because you guys rock, and I totally appreciate you coming 'round.

Miss Janice - I really can't thank you enough for my surprise: it certainly did come at exactly the right time. (And wasn't it fabulous? Even when he's being a dope, Roarke is totally swoon-worthy.) Also: can I, just for a minute, say that you've got to be nicer to yourself? You're one of the most involved, interesting & thoughtful people I am lucky enough to know. If McHub isn't seeing it, than that's his loss. I see it: your friends do. So give yourself a pat on the back (and him a kick in his arse). Nuf said.

Jo I know you are one of the few people who will take this the right way: I'm so glad they have a name for what's wrong with you! (Hopefully!) I'm always thinking of you - be as well as possible.

And a big welcome to all my first time commenters! Thanks for dropping by!