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...