Remember when the hard drive on my laptop died? I don’t blame you, it was way back in December. Yeah, I’m easily distracted from stuff I have to do.
David and Keith tried, but amongst the tiny tiny screws there was one that refused to budge, preferring to just be smooshy. Yesterday David used the divine magic of accidentally leaving my laptop in his car for hours and then buying a different screwdriver and the stubborn screw just came right out. There is no easy way to take a 12 inch powerbook apart. It’s all tiny screws, tiny plugs, tiny wires and obscure instructions.
David managed and there it was, a shiny new hard drive in my computer.
Then it was my turn to get the operating system loaded up. OSX Panther (growl) went on just slick and easy. OSX Tiger (roar) was more problematic. After finally getting it loaded, the computer started showing me crazy bits of code and error messages. My favorite:

PANIC: We are just hanging here…

Who the hell is this ‘we’ and where the fuck are they ‘hanging’ the damned laptop isn’t even an inch thick! Also, don’t panic. Panicking won’t help my computer get better, it’ll just upset me. There were many theories about over heating, other bad items on the inside, satanic possession.
I did the only thing I could do, I made a bowl of oatmeal and sat in bed reading. David tried a few things to no avail and he came to bed.
Today he reloaded Panther (growl) and it works fine. I’ll talk to the muchachos at work about getting a clean Tiger (roar) disk and trying again. I might even see if there was some extra photoshop…
So yeah, got the laptop back. On one hand it would have been nice to get a new one, but I really don’t have a reason to get a new one except that it would be shinier. Also, the difference between the MacBook and the MacBook Pro is $900 and only the MacBook Pro comes in silver. I’m a whore for silver electronics. I’m reasonably sure that David (the dude with the best credit score the mortgage guy had ever seen) would not be so down with paying $900 for a color upgrade (I mean I know there are other features that are better, but in all honesty, I use the computer for surfing the web, email, photos and writing. None of these things require the $900 worth of tiny chinese orphans that live in the MacBook Pros!).
In other shiny news, we received 3 giant boxes from Sierra Trading Post today. Of course the bulk of what was sent is going back. The nice thing about their stuff is that it’s way cheap, the problem is that you can’t try it on. So, you order all kinds of things, try them on, send back what does not fit. I ordered 3 pairs of sneakers to try. I have a pair of Asolo hiking boots and they are amazingly comfortable, so I decided to try a pair of their sneakers. They were not so comfortable, too loose in the toe box and heel, not much padding. Those are going back. Next up was a pair of Keens that were super cute, but I was reasonably sure would be useless. I figured I’d at least try them, everyone needs cute shoes and maybe they would be cute and functional. Completely useless. There was nothing to them, no support, nothing to hold them in place, all kinds of places where the rubbing and blistering would happen.
Well, as a back up I ordered another pair of green Vasques. Perfect. You know, when you find the perfect pair of sneakers you just keep them. We’re tempted to buy a few extra pairs just to have them on hand should they decide to stop making the Velocity. I’m fat, I have small feet and high arches, also, I supinate like a freak. It’s not as bad as pronation, but it’s why I sprain my ankles so easily. The Vasque Velocities are made to be trail runners so they have all kinds of crazy support for the arches and they try to keep you from twisting your ankle while running over rocks and roots. Certainly, they can’t save me from my own retardation, but they help. Also, most shoes are too big for me in some way, my heel slips or the toe box is loose or something retarded. These shoes fit perfectly. I didn’t think it was possible to be so in love with a pair of shoes (and believe me, I love shoes).
I also ordered some pink snowboots , I don’t know what kind of crack they were smoking when they sized these fuckers but the size 5 boots were so huge that…well, there’s some sort of absurd comparison to be made here. They’re going back.
I also got a rain coat in the same green as my new sneaker shoes and also some slicky rain pants for when it rains I guess.
Still to come: my awesome new sleeping bag!
And tomorrow I get started on my State Fair jam! Cherry jam, strawberry lemon jam (def strawberry jam) and probably a batch of salsa verde and a chutney of sorts. I’ll probably whip up a batch of Leminger for myself if I have time.
To be honest, I’m not necessarily entering to win, I just want to get in there and see how things compare and get an idea of how things get rated. After this year I’ll really put a lot of effort into it. I had wanted to enter in the crochet categories as well seeing as the stuff I saw ribboned last year was not all that exceptional (sorry, but it wasn’t), but I didn’t get around to anything. Ah well, there’s next year for that.
I’ll keep you posted.
And one last thing, I just want to say thank you to the people who called an emailed me last week. I was having such a terrible week missing Ghengis and so many of you called to comfort or make sure I was okay. My aunt emailed me today, she pointed out that probably no one knows just how much he meant to me and that it was probably pretty lonely in my grief. I hadn’t thought about it, but she’s right. I am often uncomfortable talking about my grief because I feel that I can’t explain how important this whole thing is and that people will just think I’m a nutty dog person with emotional problems (more than usual, you know). So yeah, bad week and all, but it’s getting better. Sort of.
I’m off to see if my photos still work!