What I Did On My Not Summer Vacation

Hi, I'm back!!

I'm sorry I've been gone so long. This was, until the past week, an artifact of the slow but inexorable expiration of my poor old computer; for the last two months it has spent most of it's time stubbornly displaying what other Mac owners will recognize as the Spinning Beachball Of Doom, and it just got to the point where it took hours and hours to write one paragraph and download one link... just not worth the struggle, although I did manage (with a great deal of patience, alternating with a lot of very bad language) a couple very short posts on my other blog.

There was no point in my trying to use the internet for other things - not only was the computer dying, but my OS was so old that it wouldn't interface with such things as Flash Player and Adobe and... well, most other websites. I pretty much could only do email... and two weeks ago even email became a huge time-consuming chore. My computer was giving me notice (and possibly the finger).

So. After a struggle with my (non-existent) pocketbook and a brief wailing period of resistance, I caved in and bought a new computer. One that does not have my pertinent information on it, unfortunately, since the old computer is not wanting to cooperate with exportation. Evidently my old computer does not believe in Free Trade - its political leanings are strongly and stubbornly Protectionist, and so my laptop and I are on our own.

It is taking a bit of time for the new machine and I to reach a comfortable state of detente. But I have been working on it, and will continue to do so, and hopefully things will get better. In the meantime, if you haven't heard from me personally in a while (that would be, um, most of you), please send me an email - I probably have no longer got your email address, and need to hear from you in order to get it again.

I do have something important to talk about, but one important aspect of that won't be available to me until next week, so I will wait until then to spout off about it. In the meantime, I can tell you that:

1. I have a new laptop. It's a Macbook Pro; it's a bit big and heavy (I got the 15"), but the smaller version's screen was just too small for me to deal with comfortably, so I'll just have to deal with the extra bulk. I think I'm going to like it reasonably well, and it's been handy to have something I can take with me to keep me from fretting during the hour where you have to sit still before the scan. As I told the tech, you don't want to leave me alone in the dark for an hour with radiation coursing through my veins and nothing to do but think about what is going on inside. A bored and anxious me is akin to a bored and anxious 5-year-old, and nobody wants that kind of destruction going on in a place of healing.

2. The Cat is old. Very, very old. Much older and even more crotchety than my old computer. Also, the fur on her back is much more matted than the fur on my computer (she's a very furry cat, so there is fur on *everything* around here). Poor old thing. She is growing deaf, and also a bit senile, which apparently makes a cat very, very talkative and demanding. She also is getting really funny about our new lap blanket - thank you, Eve, it is beautiful! - which she adopted on the first evening on which it arrived. From then on she would not sit on Scott's lap unless that blanket was very particularly arranged on his legs, and she would not sit on anyone's lap unless Scott and The Blanket were simultaneously unavailable. I'm feeling a bit put out, since I used to be Favorite Flavor in the lap-sitting department. Now I just get the Morning Pre-Kibble Gripe Session. Whoopee.

3. The Boy is on tour with his school theatre group - they are driving southward on their performance tour, starting with Peoria. Yes, you read that right. Evidently it does play in Peoria, so they are wending their way downward, eventually to play in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Twelve overly dramatic college students and their luggage, a techie, tons of props and equipment, and one very patient professor/director/producer, all stuffed into two vans and driving for whole days at a time. Dr. B is a brave, brave soul, deservedly loved by all who know him. We admire, but do not envy him.

4. No, I still have not finished the taxes. I am starting to feel that I will never finish the taxes. I am the Flying Dutchman of tax preparers. Or perhaps my taxes are the Cat who came back and just wouldn't stay away. This process has not been improved by the loss of the information that was stored on the old computer. Fear and Loathing In Minnesota.

5. The Parents and I have applied for tables at the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival this Mother's Day Weekend. We haven't heard whether we will be allowed to actually vend there or not - time will tell. In the meantime, the Parents' book is still chugging along, and they are enjoying the talks they have given on the subject. Mom has only written two of her wonderful posts about their time in Scotland since last July - she got a bit sidetracked, between the book talks and supporting her daughters in their various health struggles - but if you want to read more about their adventures and see her beautiful paintings of the people and lands they love, you can find them here. Write to her and encourage her to post more often! And then come meet them - and myself - at Shepherd's Harvest Fest. We'd love to see you there.

That's all the news for now. I'll be back again soon, though - see you then!