So, I’ve been less than good about writing here lately, but there’s a reason: the Lego Expo. And another reason: computer failure. And maybe even a third reason, if you stretch things a bit: that laryngitic cold I had a couple of weeks back.
Starting with that cold, it definitely took the starch out of me for a while, and didn’t leave much energy for anything outside going to work and sleeping and eating and tutoring and (occasionally) socializing with Jim. On the bright side, though, I wasn’t nearly as sick as my brother has been with a viral stomach bug. Thank goodness for that.
Then that computer crash: the computer at the children’s desk at the library froze while in the midst of doing a Windows update on the 31st (we were updating all of the library’s computers in anticipation of that much-talked-about April Fool’s Day virus). We tried everything we could think of over the next week to try to save files, with Dad providing some excellent tech support, including a Ubuntu boot disk which helped establish that the computer’s bios was fine. But, ultimately, we had to wipe the hard drive clean and start fresh; Lisa had to spend time on the phone with Dell tech support, and then even more time reinstalling the software. I lost all of my email files, but almost none of my Word and Excel files, thanks to diligent frequent backups of those files to my flash drive. Let this be a lesson to all of you: back up those files regularly, including email files. I sigh wistfully when I think about my beautifully organized Outlook files, with all kinds of great resource information and performer confirmations and contracts. Sigh.
While I don’t write blog entries at work (never, never, never – they’re all written at home), this computer failure did make me totally and completely SICK of computers for the week of crashedness. The last thing I wanted to do in my free time was log on to the laptop at home and write blog entries.Â
As for the Lego Expo, well, it really deserves its own dedicated entry. Tune in tomorrow for that one.