Yeah, I'm Still Breathin'

What's life without having too much to do and no time to do it? I swear, my to-do list has outgrown the post-it it used to reside on. And the index card, the 6x9 legal pad page and just a single sheet of notebook paper. I refuse to write it all down. I know damn well what needs doing around here and I sure as hellfire don't need a list to make me feel guilty about not doing it.

I've hardly turned the computer on lately. Once, maybe twice a week... of course, having to reformat the hard drive (again!) and reload everything did have something to do with that. See, I hate (detest, abhor, find repugnant) Windows XP. That's the main reason I won't buy a newer, faster computer with buckets of memory I'll never need. I'll go as far as WinMe, and that's it. But I digress. Sort of. In early September, Mason (who has his own computer) chose to peruse his system CD on my computer and leave it in the drive. I checked emails and turned it off, never knowing what was lurking in the bay.

Ed turned on the computer the next morning. He got a message on the screen that had the word 'Image' on it. Thinking I'd bought a new photo program, he let it do its thing. Which was reformatting my hard drive in 32-bit NT-style compression. He woke me up shortly before five, wanting to know what he should do next, because the computer was 51% done reformatting and wanted the next disk. I was not a pleasant person when I got out of bed that morning. Picture Medusa with bed-head.

I tried letting it finish, resigned to XP if I didn't want to lose what I hadn't bothered to save in a backup copy. It didn't work. And the only way to get XP/NT-style compression off the drive is to... you guessed it! Wipe the drive with a repartition and reformat, then start the reload. Then download the patches for the drivers and download the service packs (I swear I saved these, but the damn system refuses to acknowledge that what's on the CDs is actually usable material). I took it slow, as I wasn't missing out on much, and it was a nifty way to punish both of them for daring to use this computer as anything more than their internet appliance. Three weeks worth of slow.

Meantime, my ancient car was dying and I was hoping to receive the info about my retirement account from Walgreens, of a mind to spend it instead of reinvesting. I called corporate, wondering where said documentation was. They told me I was still employed. So... I also had to stop in at my former employer and terminate myself in late August. The boss was on vacation and nobody else knew how to do it.

Long story short, papers came, then check came, then Steph car shopped on the nights and weekends she wasn't reloading the computer, and now Steph has a very paid-for and very lovely black 1999 Firebird. Which is not the car we're driving to the Def Leppard concert next week. Don't want any dings, ya know. I only managed to score 16th row, but I'll survive. After all, it's Def Leppard. Time to break out the Joe Elliott coffee mug again (Ed thinks he hid it from me, but I know it's in the very back of the cupboard... heh heh).
- posted by Stephanie @ 7:05 PM