Exceedingly Mundane

How do you spell that? That’s what my computer did this week, it went ker-pluey, ker-plunk. It died on Wednesday, but I’m happy to say it is patched, bandaged and limping along at the moment. My HP laptop is 3 years old and has had only one problem, but this is the third time that this has happened. The first two times, it was under warranty, and extended warranty, so I was able to mail it back to be “fixed”. Not that they really fixed it, since it keeps happening over and over 😀

My video card (Nvidia GeForce Go 7600) and the processor on my computer, apparently, upon further research, have a major incompatibility. The video keeps going out on my laptop, which is really quite bad. Multi-colored vertical lines instead of Windows loading is really not all that fun. Nor is a black screen.

Tim, being the wonderful, sweet, smart guy that he is, figured out a way to switch my setup over to the basic VGA setting on the motherboard (you know, the one that works with Safe Mode, which does still run on my computer). So, now everything is really big and less crisp, but it’s up and running. It’s bought me some time to make sure all of my files are backed up (hello, don’t want to lose years worth of digital photos!). I don’t know how long this patch will last, but in the mean time, I’m happy to have a computer at all.

I was going to make a separate post, but I guess I’ll go ahead and spill the beans here.

Tim got a MacBook Pro a week or so ago!

It was a very belated birthday/Christmas/Valentines etc gift (and in fact anniversary gift, since yesterday was our 14th wedding anniversary)! He’s been wanting to get a Mac for a while, and we finally got him one. In fact, here’s the kicker:

Tim has never had his own personal computer :gasp:

He’s a full-time computer guy and his work has always provided him with a computer. He’s bought me 2 or 3 brand new computers since we’ve been together, and he has always, always taken the old one as a hand-me-down, to use for himself. He’s so incredibly unselfish and always gets me a new one, and has never ever had a new one for himself. So, this was way overdue!

P.S. Please note, not only does this photo show his shiny new Macbook, but you can also see one of our other new happies – Saints Super Bowl champions t-shirts! Woo-hoo 🙂

and In with the new!

I’ve blogged before that we make a lot of coffee at our house. Tim has been drinking coffee (black, thank you), since long before I met him. I resisted for a very long time, but a few years ago, learned to drink it, if it is somewhere in the khaki shade 🙂 Lots of Splenda and creamer for me. Anyway, since he started working part-time, and then later, full-time from home, our coffee maker gets quite a workout. We make 12 cups a day, 7 days a week, on average. Some days, I make a second pot, although not as much lately since it’s hotter. And speaking of that, highs every day this week are 97 and 98. UGH!

Anyway, our reliable old Cuisinart, pictured below from a previous post, finally bit the dust:

Actually, it started smoking! Tim said it had a short in it, and the carafe starting boiling, in addition to smoke coming out the back. So, we went that very afternoon to get a new one. We thought we would go to Sam’s Club and buy another one like this, as I always see them in there. However, they didn’t have this one. They had a different Cuisinart, an On Demand one, that doesn’t have an external glass carafe. Tim liked that idea, and so we are giving this one a try. I’ve read some of the reviews on Amazon, and it appears that this new one may not last as long as our old one (3 1/2 or 4 1/2 years), but we’ll give it a go. Tim likes that the coffee stays hotter inside the internal carafe. It’s easy to clean up, and it doesn’t splash at all when you hit the pushbutton to stream the coffee into your cup. The only kicker for me is that it is harder to fill up an internal reservoir/carafe. It was easier to take the glass 12 cup one over to the sink and fill it up 🙂 But, I’ve adapted. You can teach an old dog new tricks!

Here’s the new one:

Which reminds me, I blogged last year about hoping to get new dishes, and I finally did! I have four colors of Fiestaware, that’s the scarlet red one. Maybe I should post about my new dishes. Love having color! 🙂

Have a wonderful day, one and all! 😀