written last week

The Laptop crash
Bob has some movies and TV shows he got from a guy at work on my external hard drive. (I’m pretty sure the grammar is wrong on that one – somebody let me know.) So we’d got in the habit of watching something on his laptop as we fall asleep. Last week (Thusday? The days all run together when Bob’s off work) he turned it on for Smallville and the computer turned stripey. Uh oh. At that point he just turned it off and went to sleep. The next day he took it all apart and did what could be done. No go. Turns out the video card is fried, and as it’s a laptop the whole thing is integrated so you can’t just go get a new card like you can on a desktop. Then, just for fun, we thought of trying to put the hard drive into the old laptop (the one the children use) – after all, they are both HP and only a year or two apart. Well, in that year HP changed their hard drive – it wouldn’t fit. So we go to plug the old one back in, and it wouldn’t. We’ve had issues with the power supply before, so we fiddled and pushed and pulled, to no avail. Bob took the power supply apart and tested that it was still working. So then he took that computer apart to check the other end. Finally got the power to work, but then the “on” button doesn’t work. So we’re down two laptops in one day.

We bought a hard drive reader when out on Cedwryck’s birthday, so at least Bob’s info isn’t lost. We’ll probably end up getting the children a cheap desktop. That poor laptop was on its last leg long ago.
Do you blame me for not even turning my laptop on that day?

talking to myself

I'm getting fewer comments than ever, but I feel like I need to blog anyway for my own memory's sake.

So LAST Saturday, while we were supposed to be cleaning our old house, getting ready to move, we woke up feeling like NOT cleaning. So we took off to the largest mall I've been to, Bluewater. It was cold but clear that day and we were glad to be inside. We went first to the food court for pizza and Chinese, and then continued around the bottom floor.

BAH, I should have done this a week ago.

Anyway, we made it all the way around both levels, and then went back a bit. I got some new shoes - Nike's - on sale and in my size! Don't find that often, as I'm in a US 12 now (that's a UK 9.5) - the first shoe store we went in didn't even carry women's shoes in a 9. Ella took something from the toy store and we didn't notice for several minutes, so had to go back and return it.

After we finished there we started back toward home (it's about an hour away), stopping at a services exit for dinner. We ordered at KFC, but they couldn't swipe our card. Heads up for any American planning a trip to the UK! The banks here issue cards with a chip in it, and the stores increasingly don't have the magnetic stripe readers. No problem, there were 5 ATMs in the complex. We tried every one of them and none would give us money. So we told the nice folks at KFC sorry, maybe next time, and left. In the leaving, Taryn lost her purse.
So we stopped at the next services exit (we didn't know it was there). This was a little different setup - just a stand alone gas station and a Little Chef. Bob doesn't like Little Chef, but there were no choices, so we parked and headed in. As Naysha pulled the door open for us, Taryn noticed a sign on it - the cooker is broken and so all they have is cold sandwiches. So back in the car.
So the next stop was Newmarket, and by now Bob knew he wanted fish and chips. We'd been to the one pub there and thought we'd try one of the others. There was a sign in the window that said children couldn't be served at the bar, and must be supervised. Okay, we can handle that, so we started in. Several men sitting by the door looked up and said, "No children." Ooooookay. It was noisy in there anyway. So back out again, and beginning to wonder if we'd ever get something to eat.
We walked on down the road to the pub we'd been to before (it has a "family room" in the back for people who want to eat) and finally got some dinner. Phew.

I'm glad I got some shoes - my old ones were over a year old and pretty worn in the cushion department.

An Award

Well my good friend Ganeida (or Ganieda?) gave me this award. I think it's just to make up a number, but I'm still pretty happy about it. My first blogging award. Now if I can just figure out what to do with it...

PS. Okay peoples.... I would like to pass this award along to Jenny and Dawn. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. :-)
Just in case I'm not the only one who didn't know, you right click on the picture, save it to your computer, and then upload to your own blog. If you like, also put it on your sidebar. And apparently you MUST pick another blogger to award. ;-) I thought of you girls right away.

I wrote this yesterday.

Today first, I suppose…

Today is it; the big moving day. We were awake and fed and ready to tumble by 7. Well, the first thing to do was take a load to the Newmarket recycle center – Bob tried last night but they were already closed at 4:30, so the stuff was still in the back of the van. We figured they wouldn’t be open til 9, so we twiddled until then, expecting the movers any minute. Bob and the children finally left to take that stuff (an old ironing board and a couple of broken bicycles), then came back to load up to take to the new house. His appt there was 10:45, so he was early again, but what else is there to do? So we loaded up some things we wanted/needed to carry ourselves, and they took off. SO I was alone in the house for the first time ever, waiting.

The moving van arrived at 11. With ONE guy to pack. He’d been stuck in traffic for 3 hours. I believe it. There’s one main road across the country at this point – it’s 2 lane – and there was an accident. So everyone sits there until the cops get the road cleared. No frontage roads or anything. Sometimes they manage to route traffic through Newmarket, but its main road is under construction so that wouldn’t have helped anything. Anyway, he’s here now. I guess/hope someone will come later to help. No way one guy will get it all done in one afternoon.

PS. The guy did it. Well, he left the kitchen and the outside stuff (just a few toys and a rake), but he got all 4 bedrooms, the living room and dining room done in 5 hours, including a lunch break. Wow. When we left Abilene there were 5 packers and they didn’t get so far in 8 hours. But they were packing for an overseas move, not a local one. But they sat and talked a lot more than they packed – not this guy.

After he left at 4, we took another load to the new house, ate dinner at the BX, and got gas and candy. I went in the gas station to see if they had windshield washer fluid (they didn’t) and saw a big bag of bit size Snickers left from Christmas. It was 47cents. I was going to get two bags, but the cashier was so impressed with the price that she grabbed the other two for herself while I looked at the ice cream.

I took one load in after Bob got home at 1pm, and let the children see the house while I hooked up the phone. Bob felt funny about having me in the house with just me and the one guy.

So tomorrow we’ll finish up and take it all over to the new place, where the fun begins.

Ah, when Bob was going through the house with the housing office lady, she told him that we got a new heater (the old one was ancient). It’s an economy thingy that soaks up heat in the night and blows in the day. Hello?? At night is when it gets cold! I’d heard about those, and apparently lots of people program their heaters to turn off at night… I guess William will get used to his blanket sleeper again. Also, she said there is some fence available at an old housing area that is being torn down. Cool! Will save us a couple thousand $$ if we get to it in time. … Seems like there was something else, too, but I don’t remember now. Anyway… J

here, I think

Well, we and most of our stuff is in the "new" house. Surprisingly enough, the internet is, too. Maybe I'll talk about that sometime. For now it is cold and stinky and we have boxes to the ceiling. But we're here. Tomorrow we get to go back to Cheveley and hope it isn't frozen over, as we left the heat off today and didn't go back tonight because the fog was too thick to drive in, and clean it up for the inspection Monday.

This heater over here is something else. My fingers are too cold to type.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH

I don't have time for this right now...

Bob was off work from Christmas day until today. Actually, he got off early Christmas Eve. His first day home, he was on the computer and I was on the computer and the children were getting into trouble and I realized this was bad. So, I turned off my computer and said I wouldn't turn it back on except in necessity as long as Bob was home. It was a long two weeks. And now I have no time to catch up.

Things I want to blog about when we are settled:

1. Saturday - up and left - can't get supper.

2. Ced's birthday - NOT a playplace.

3. The Laptop crash

4. the car crash

5. Moving out

6. moving in (hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it'll be fun)

7. the beard

So there's a little teaser for you and a reminder for me in the days to come.
Today all I have to do is get everything sorted out and put away so it can be packed properly (such as all the books on the book shelf so they won't end up with the shoes). I've already filled out the moving forms online for electric and water (hope it worked). Tomorrow all I have to do is finish what I didn't do today, plus have all the dishes clean. Then Thursday I get to relax and watch movers pack up all my junk while Bob carts the children and the hand-carry stuff back and forth to the new house. When the movers leave, my work begins - take the cold food to the new house, eat out on base, go to the commissary for milk and whatnot, and move everything that Bob already put somewhere in the new house. ;-) Friday they put everything on the truck and take it to the new house. And we get to unpack again. Saturday and Sunday we get to clean the old house top to bottom, inside and out. Monday we are done here and start up there. phew.

Oh, and the dryer left Friday, so I will have quite the laundry day when we move in. (Bob cleaned it out with a leaf blower!). Okay, I have to stop now and get to work.

For my Nutty Celtic friend

I'm gonna try to put in a few pictures.

Okay, the picture is above the text... This is my new Pennanular brooch.

Next... Hmm, that one is above the last! No wonder I don't do pictures in my blog. The label from the box.

Also I have the pennanular that Bob made for me when he took a blacksmithing class while we were in Iceland.

And just for fun, the ring Bob bought me while he was in Iceland TDY earlier this year.

Oy! I was able to move one picture to its proper place, but the others stubbornly remained where they appeared. So from top to bottom:
the ring, the one Bob made, the label, the new one. :-)