October happenings...so far

i wanted to post a picasa album, but i'm on my work computer and don't think i should probably download it here, so i hope you enjoy the pictures the "regular" way. First, Sean's B-day:

Then, Sophie's B-day(actually, both of the kids' parties took place at the same time. The joy of birthdays 2 days apart):

pictures worth 1,000 words

Please stand by...

Reasons for not posting/posting pictures, number 28 (Sean's new favorite answer to questions - has he been talking to you, Trev?):
We got the desktop back up and running and it's quite nice, but I haven't gotten around to downloading my few pictures on it yet, and Chip hasn't run a recovery on the old hard drive for any old pics I could post. Also, once we got the computer back up and running, our internet decided to "crap" out on us...let me tell you a little story...
Saturday we go to Best Buy and get an awesome hard drive. Luckily there was a nice sale, so Happy Birthday To Us (and all I was hoping for was Amy Grant's new cd and biography), we get a "750 Glorious Gigabytes" (it actually says that on the box) hard drive. Chip gets home and installs it and our lovely friend Michael helps out. Things are going well, and we rejoice. Except for the fact that 3 of our 6 goldfish die. That's sad. I flush them, but sense that the other 3 aren't long for this world.
Sunday morning dawns and 2 more fish are dead. I leave them in the tank because one of them is "Goldie", the fish that Sean won at the school carnival that started the whole fish thing. The internet starts acting up - stick with me, these things really ARE related - but it works long enough for me to pay my cable bill online. Ironic, huh? Sean wants to bury the goldfish in the back yard. But...I'm squeamish and don't want to mess with any of the fish until the last one dies.
A few hours later, the last fish is dead. We turn off the TV and say we'll bury the fish after we eat supper (now that I'm telling it, that seems mean, but there were Steaks on the grill you see...we couldn't interfere with THAT). After a yummy meal, Chip kindly puts the remaining dead fish in a box and grabs the shovel and out we go for a lovely burial. Sean loves digging, and since we'll be putting in an egress window (that's a window so that you can have legal living space in the basement with an accessible exit in case of emergency) soon, Chip decides to let him dig over by the window. Sean's not very strong for that kind of shovel, so I have Chip demonstrate how to jump on the shovel to make it go in the ground. Sean likes that. We go inside.
Chip and Sean go play a video game and I turn on the TV, but there is no cable. I'm so upset! I spend 45 minutes on the phone to $(*%@#) Charter and am very upset that they can't come out to look at the problem until Tuesday. After all, besides all the fun I have online, Chip is looking for a JOB, and it's about the only way nowadays! I go to bed livid.
In the morning, I say to Chip, "I just don't understand how we turn off the TV to eat and when we come back we have no signal - especially since they were just here a week ago to supposedly fix everything!" Chip says, "You know what I wonder...how far did they bury that cable when they re-wired it last May (you can see why I'm a bit frustrated with Charter - we've been fighting this since last March!!)?" I say I have no idea, but knowing Charter it probably wasn't very deep. So...out he goes. And sure enough, right where Chip had shown his skills with the shovel, there was our cable line severed in two.
Poop.
Well, at least we figured it out before Charter came out and charged us $75. But it's still not working right. We can see TV at least, and the desktop has Internet access, but the laptops are essentially useless. Unless you want to play Zoo Tycoon. Or do actual work (yuck). No can do writing blogs while Sophie's sleeping on me and I'm watching Dancing with the Stars or LA Ink. No can do checking email while Sophie naps and I'm watching Ugly Betty or Big Shots.
Oh well. At least this computer works. Now if we could only find our Microsoft Office disks...

Is it contagious?

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with my sister-in-law about the unfortunate loss of all her pictures from an external hard drive. I was saying how rough that would be to lose so many memories and thinking I was glad my stuff was backed up.

I think it was two days later when our computer started acting up. We thought it was a cable issue (which it was, at first), but then because the internet wasn't working, we tried to fix some other things and the whole computer went kaput. Blamm-o. No more hard drive.

That's when I realized that I only had my pictures backed up to early July, and I didn't have ANY of my documents backed up. I think I have a copy of my resume on another computer (or at least in my email somewhere from when I sent it to myself), but other than that, everything's gone. No recipes (and sadly, although I never used them, I had quite a collection), no records of bills paid, no password reminder files, no fun games, none of my video files that I spent days recording from old video tapes...

Today we bought a new, really BIG hard drive. That is, lots of storage space, and now that the computer's back up and running, it's going very fast. Of course, that might change once we find all the discs for the stuff we want to re-install. But even though it's the same old screen, same keyboard, same card reader, same mouse, it FEELS inherently different. And traitorous. I don't trust that my things will be safe on here anymore. I may be glad I recently bought some DVD-RWs, as I'm sure I'll be backing up "My Documents" much more often than I had been doing.

But, since it works for now, here are a few pics from recent days. Enjoy!

Here is Sean in his Cub Scout uniform.

He's had a few additions since this picture,

but this was the first time he wore the hat and shirt. Sophie and Dad at Muskegon's Walk to Remember. More about that some other day...but isn't this just a precious picture?

Here are Sean and Sophie enjoying the personal cakes Gramma Christie made for them. Sean's is a hill with a couple of dirt bikes riding on the path, and Sophie's is a butterfly. They made messes of them in quite a hurry, much to their delight, and much to the chagrin of some others!

We had the opportunity to shop for the kids' presents without the kids last Saturday night, and after they were asleep, I brought Sophie's inside. I forgot to put it away when I went to bed, so first thing Sunday morning when Sophia woke up and I took her out in the living room to change her diaper, she pointed to the box and said, "Dis?"...."'Dis?" (that means, "what's this?"). I said, "No, Sophie, that's your birthday present - you're not supposed to see it yet!" To which she responded by pointing at it again and saying, "'Dat?" ("what's that?"). I laughed very much! Needless to say, she got her present a couple days earlier than I had intended. The good news is that she likes it very much!Here's Sean enjoying his "Cars" cupcake. Not very good quality photo, but I have more I'm saving for another post. I'll try not to keep you waiting too long for that one!

I'm still around

Hey, I'm still here, but we haven't had internet access for a week. We're sorta back up and running, but I'm using my laptop from work, and I have no way to download (technically upload) photos from my camera...so no photos.
Life here is the same. I'm still working hard. Chip's still working hard to find a job.
Sean had a birthday yesterday, and it was "my worst ever", according to him.
He's a cub scout and tonight was his 3rd meeting. He's already almost done with the requirements to get a Bobcat badge, and next will be his Tiger Cub patch and then elective beads. He's working towards everything now...and would you like to buy some popcorn from him?!? They are so nice to let you know that you don't have to buy the popcorn - you can just make a donation.
Sophie's birthday is tomorrow, and at least she can only say "hot" and "up", so she won't tell me it's her worst ever.
That's about it for now. Hopefully I'll find either my card reader or my camera's USB cord soon so I can show pics of the birthdays...