Saturday, March 21, 2009

Technical difficulties, part 2

Hello again. It's me again. At the library again.

So that means our computer still isn't fixed. It's "sort of" usable, but not on a permanent basis. It has some kind of nasty virus/trojan thingy, we think, and we've been seeing the "blue screen of death" very regularly. (Can you tell how technologically literate we are at our house?) Anyway, we have tried a lot of different things, and I think we're about to completely reformat it, which means we will lose everything. At least we won't lose any pictures, as they've been backed up to CDs fairly recently (thanks, Mom!) and beyond that, I haven't emptied the camera in a really long time. So we shouldn't lose any pictures. Other than that, there will just be a few Word documents lost that I would have liked to save. I think I will print them out, anyway, before we kill the poor thing. Then at least I'll have a hard copy, and I guess I could always retype them if I cared to in the future.

Oh yeah, and Karisa, if you don't mind sending me your weekly schedule chart again, I'll be needing another one. I have NO idea how to make all those little columns. Thanks! Y'all, this weekly schedule has been the best thing ever for me in the organization department (and there's really not much to it, but it's so very helpful). So feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment or etc, if you'd like me to send it to you and I will try...that is, if I can get it back!

Quick recap of our day today:

  • This morning, we took the boys to "Construction Junction" at the local fairgrounds. There were all different types of heavy equipment that the kids could climb up into, honk the big air horns, etc. One of the dump truck owners actually let the kids raise and lower the truck bed with him up in the cab - way cool! Home Depot was there, and gave out free orange aprons and woodworking kits to each kid, so they could actually "build" something while they were there, too! Drake got a butterfly house kit and Levi got a fire truck kit. We started getting ready to build them there, but it was really windy, and we decided it would be easier to do at home, so we took them home with us instead. Anyway, we had taken Drake to Construction Junction about 3 years ago - back when Daddy was still a Heavy Equipment Operator, and was actually working there with his unit as a volunteer! Today brought back a lot of memories. The last time we went, our favorite Alaskans were there with us, and Drake and Jaedyn had a great time together. Drake loved it today too. Levi, however, thought it was too "SCAH-ghee" (scary), although he got over his fears a couple of times, at least long enough to go up into some of the cabs. Once he even honked an air horn! The trouble was, whenever he'd sit in one of the machines, he thought it was his own personal backhoe, or whatever. So we heard "mine" a lot. He wasn't a particularly happy camper.

  • This afternoon, we worked in the yard. Drake and I weeded the flower beds, and Adam mowed the lawn for the first time since planting the grass seed awhile back, and our lawn looks fantastic! I'm not even kidding...super thick and green and beautiful. I know, I know, there's no way it's going to look that good for long in this lawn-hating climate, but it's pretty nice for right now. It's being watered as we speak...errr, type.

  • After we finished the yardwork, we helped Drake make his butterfly house. What a blast! I didn't expect it would be nearly as enjoyable as it was. Adam helped him with the nailing part, and then I helped him paint. He really and truly painted the whole thing by himself - and it turned out great! - but I helped him get the paints ready, showed him how to wash the brushes out, made sure he didn't paint the patio, etc. I took a lot of pictures, so once I get our computer up and running, I'll post some. (Gosh, I have promised a lot of pictures now...baseball and this butterfly house for sure, but I'll have to check over them once I get them off the camera and hope it jogs my memory!)
Well, I'm off to do a couple of other things on the library computer, and then head home to my guys. Happy weekend, everyone!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about your external hard drive? Aren't there pictures on there- and movies- and documents?
Did it get corrupted also?
I'm so sorry that you have to have the headache of a bum computer.
That sound like a very fun day with all the machines and fun things to do.
Yes, I'd like to have a copy when you get it from Karisa.

Kendra Lee said...

WOW! I would be lost without my computer...

Construction Junction sounds AWESOME - my kiddos would love something like that1

Red Gate said...

It may be too late to post this, but if you are able to view and download things on your pc still, get the software "Webroot Antivirus with Spyware." When our pc went on the fritz, a computer specialist recommended it to us, so we got it. I could not believe how many "bugs" were found on our computer! It is well worth the annual fee! Just be sure to disable all other anti-viruses and anti-spyware on your pc, or you may get false readings. I think they might even give you a free pc diagnostic scan to check for things to see if you even need to download. We have used other programs, including Norton, Spyware Doctor, and others, but this is by far the most up-to-date, and has worked well for us!

KyrieEleison said...

Wow - that construction junction thing sounds really cool! That's awesome that they were giving out aprons and kits to all the kiddos! Sorry about your computer, I know it's kind of a pain when it's not working . . . but it's also true in our house too that a lot more gets accomplished when the computer is out of commission!

matt n karisa said...

Sounds like so much fun! We've had a crazy week, and I haven't been on much...but I'll get you that weekly schedule STAT! ;) Glad you're finding it helpful.