A bit of a Finish to the Computer Drama

Well, Christmas was officially over about 4 minutes ago.  I made it through and all things are pretty good.  My Dad ended up in ER Christmas morning about 5.  He was having trouble breathing, so prayers please!  He is home and is better.

As for me, however, my computer and I nearly parted friends.  As you know if you have been following, I have been trying to put in a bigger hard drive, backup my stuff, and get my email working.  Christmas Eve found me working on it.  I also needed to cook my special pumpkin pie for diabetics.  Easy recipe is to follow what is on the Libby’s brand pumpkin can but substitute Splenda cooking sweetener for the sugar and I leave out cloves and add pumpkin spice.  It goes from about 60 carbs a slice to about 14 carbs a slice.  I know the calories have to be dropping, too, I just don’t count them.

Anyway, I mixed up a double batch.  Now, I had already spent almost an hour trying to figure out if I could use the condensed milk I had that said “Best if used by Nov 12, 2012”.  I called Mom; she called the grocery store while I looked on Google.  Grocery and Google concurred that condensed milk is good for a very long time if not opened.  When I opened it, the smell was only as nasty as normal for condensed milk – lol.  I mixed it all up really well and went to the oven, which was on preheat.  When I checked it the broiler was on.  I worked and worked and could not figure out why the temp knob kept turning on the broiler.  Finally, I understood that my cleaning person had taken off the knobs to clean them well and had put them on backwards!  Switched them and all was fine.

I went back and worked on my computer and again after the Christmas Eve celebration.  This time I got it working!  It booted and all I needed was to get email working…but wait!  as I was checking it out, the monitor blew out!  I checked, reset, then replaced it with one that is very, very old (weighs about 50 pounds and is 13 inches).

Very very late (or early – depending), I and Google managed to get my email working.  I would put an exclamation on that sentence, but it was still glitchy and I did not have a “sent items” folder.  I found out that Outlook 2000 is not to be used on Vista without many problem.  So, today (Christmas Day) I switched it back to the old hard drive.  The new one is my backup for now and works well enough.  My plan is to buy a new copy of Windows 7 and a monitor and replace both, putting the software on my new hard drive.  It should work.  That is my project for the next 2 weeks.

Finally!  Christmas is over and I am told that we are expecting a blizzard this morning in about 2 1/2 hours.  I have food and your wonderful company, so I should be happy for the most part.  I really needed my cleaning person to be able to get here though and help me get the house ready for everyone on New Years Day!  What a holiday!

Still, I hope you all enjoyed your time with friends and family and pets.  It has been a glorious year so far and I am looking forward to the next one.  How much better could it be?!  After all, we outlived an apocalypse!!!

Love you all,

Scott