Things that bug me

I'm proud to say that I'm writing this post from my laptop. She's not running on all of her memory, but she's plugging along. It was a harrowing day with Dell yesterday and I've just barely recovered from the trauma. Mommy needs a cocktail.

As promised by Dell customer service, the Dell guy came out and replaced my motherboard yesterday afternoon. It booted up fine (or so I thought) and I breathed a sigh of relief. There it was, my desktop with the forty million icons all over it. It truly was a thing of beauty.

I quickly rushed the Dell guy out the door so I could pet and coo over my little buddy. As soon as he was out the door, I carefully caressed the mouse. Nothing. My heart stopped cold. I wiggled and wiggled that mouse for all it was worth. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

"Ok, I'll just reboot", I thought. It didn't even get to the desktop this time. It froze while trying to load Windows.

"Ohhhhh Kayyyyy, let's try booting in safe mode", I said outloud. I hoped that my little buddy would hear all of the trouble I was going through to get her little heart started. Again, it froze up.

Just for good measure, I tried to reboot it again in safe mode. It froze up in the exact same spot. One of the drivers wouldn't load.

I dialed the number to Dell and proceeded to wait for 20 minutes before customer service finally picked up. It was a guy named Alexander who had a headset with a problem and a heavy Russian accent. A recipe for a migraine.

I told him what had happened, mentioning where exactly it was freezing up. He said, "Do you mind if we reformat your hard drive?" Whhhaaaaattttt? He asked me if I backed up, and I replied "of course". Big fat lie. I haven't backed up in like three months. He then tried to get me to reformat my hard drive again. I wouldn't bite.

I was on the phone for just over two hours with Alexander. I think it might of been his first day. Really. There were several times that I wanted to seriously beat the living crap out of him. Mostly it was when I heard him say "interesting...." after telling him what happened when I'd try out another one of his theories.

Finally, at the end of this two hour marathon, he said, "Let's try one last thing". Wouldn't you know it, that 'one last thing' was the winner. One of my memory cards was bad. It's on the way in the mail.

Several things made me believe it was his first day, but I think the last conversation we had confirmed it. He unsuccesfully tried to transfer me to their quality control department. When he couldn't figure it out, he asked me if I would call back and when a customer service rep answered I was to tell them to transfer me to their quality control department. I told him that there was NO way I was going to be on hold for another 20 minutes. He checked with his supervisor and I was let off the hook.

As soon as I got off the phone with Alexander, I backed up every stinking thing on my computer. That, and checked in the mirror for cauliflower ear.

I'm on hold with the Dell folks hoping that there's an easy solution for my plight. It appears that my laptop has died. It won't turn on and it doesn't look as if it's getting any power when the ac adaptor is in. Normally there's a little light on my laptop that shows there is power, even if I have my laptop turned off.

I'm seriously upset. Interestingly, I was watching a rerun of Sex In The City last night; the episode where Carrie loses everything in her laptop and she's scolded by many that she didn't back up. I thought to myself, hmmmm... self, you know it has been a while since you've backed up your laptop. Then I heard, tra-la-la....

I have the day off today, so was looking forward to reading all of my favorite blogs with my feet up on the table and my laptop, well, in my lap.

Now I'm forced to use hubby's desktop. Sitting at a desk... not my style.

So, if you'll all hold your breath and hope that it's something dumb that can be fixed TODAY, I'd very much appreciate it.

.....wimper...

Update: Dell's customer service is FANTASTIC. Sounds like it's the motherboard (figures... it's the *mother* part that always gives me problems.) They're sending me a new one AND a new processor just in case. And coming to my house to do the whole thing Monday afternoon!

I'll not be as active in posting or commenting on my regular boards. Hmmmm, maybe I'll actually go see what the outside world is like.

I am a people watcher by nature, and so while waiting for my train to depart I tend to watch all the people as they get on and take their seats. Not in the lurking stalking kind of way, mind you. Really, I'm quite stealth about the whole thing.

I saw one gal get on last night that looked like death. Her hair looked as though she'd been sweating all day and her face was really pale in some parts, and really red in other parts. Clearly, the woman was sick and I was happy to see her go up to the next level to find a seat.

From that point on, I could hear her hacking all the way from the next level. It was a nasty cough too... the kind that makes me visualize all of the cough particles floating around in slow motion right into my lungs. For the hour trip home, I was imagining what all of the passengers around her were thinking. It would be impossible for them to find a different seat, really. The train is always packed to capacity. But in my head, there were several empty seats and rows around her. A big germ bubble, so to speak.

As we got off the train, I wanted to say, "Lady- go home and get some rest." "Oh, and stay off of public transportation with those germs of yours."

Yuck.

BJ's office holiday party was last night. All of the houses made it to the banquet facility without falling apart. Even the crack house (that was our nickname for one of the houses that had a small crack on one side.)

Ok, sorry, I have to digress for a moment. It's been my holiday tradition for several years to make either gingerbread or candy houses. It's something the boys always enjoyed and it was good, messy, family fun. One year when it was gingerbread houses, one of the houses broke while coming out of the mold. I decided that we could probably hide the fact that it was broken if we covered it with enough candy. We each had houses to decorate and my oldest son decided to take the broken one.

Before you say "oh, what a sweet boy" about it, let me finish my story. It wasn't because he was being nice. It was because the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. He had decided that he was going to make it a crack house. Yup. I'm going to have to find a picture so I can post it at some point, but it was hysterical. He took tires off one of his old toy cars (he was about 18 at the time) and put them on the roof. He put trash all around the outside of the house. All that was missing was a fridge and lazy-boy out in the front yard. It was truly an abomination. This mommy couldn't have been more proud. Seriously. I love it that I have funny kids, it SO makes up for their horrible report cards.

Ok, back to the office party. The plan was that we'd put the houses in the middle of each of the eight tables and then put a sticker under one chair at each table. While giving his holiday speech, hubby was going to tell everyone that we had made the houses, then have people look under their table for the sticker to see who got to take the one from their table home. Fun, huh?

Right before giving his speech, the temporary services admin assistant (who has proven herself to be a complete imbecile on more than one occasion) came up to him and told him not to say anything about the houses and wouldn't tell him the reason. She was so insistant and flustered that hubby decided to keep his yapper shut about it. He just didn't want to deal with her lunacy right then. He gets enough of that at home.

BJ had to leave early for a previous engagement (involving three words: Texas + hold + 'em), and of course I left with him. We left before anything was mentioned about the houses, so I was robbed of the fun of hearing everyone chuckle about the fact that their boss had made these houses. Frankly, I'm mad. The whole time I was making them, I got a lot of joy out of the idea of hearing everyone's reaction. I feel like a spoiled brat because I just can't seem to get over it. I want to stomp my foot and call her bad names.

I think the only thing that will help is if I hear him say, "Off with her head!" ....and then get to witness it.

It's not physical pain though, it's the other kind. The kind I get while sitting in my hairdressers chair, just not as much.

My dentist is just fine. He's gentle, really nice and he's easy on the eyes. It's his receptionist/assistant that sends me spiraling to hell. She's in her late 60's I'm guessing. She's also his mother, so she's not going anywhere anytime soon. He took over the business from his dad, but dad still hangs around. He's pretty cute the way he shuffles around the office with his suit jacket buttoned askew. I don't think I've ever been there and seen his buttons in the right button holes. And he really does shuffle. Kind of a night of the living dead sort of thing. His job, now that he's retired and all, is to ask you if you need a parking stamp. Oh, and he brings the x-rays from the dark room to my dentist.

"Mom" still wears a beehive, but it never looks like she's fresh from the beauty shop. It's a do-it-yourself beehive, complete with the little curls in front of her ears that require wearing hair tape the night before. She has completely drawn on thick eyebrows, and she also never really gets her eyeliner on straight so when she's in your face it can get kind of scary.

But these aren't the things that annoy me. So, what is it that bothers me about this woman you may be wondering. Two things. She asks me questions that require more than a yes or no answer while I have all kinds of dental paraphernalia in my mouth. The second and most annoying thing is her jokes. She tells the same ones EVERY time I go there. They are jokes that maybe a six year old would like. She'll tell them, then stand right up in your face and look all excited that she pulled one over on you while saying, "do you get it? do you get it?"

I play the game because I'm a nice girl. I pretend to never have heard the joke before and do my best to laugh and not roll my eyes. Here are two of my favorites. I share them with you because I know you're just dying to hear them.

Joke 1:
Dentist's Mom (DM): Why is eight afraid of seven?
Me: (thinking I can't believe I hear this one every.time.I.go.to.the.dentist. but I'll play along) I don't know. Why?
DM: Because seven ate (eight) nine.
DM: Do you get it? Do you get it, huh?

Joke 2:
DM: How many reindeers does Santa have?
Me: Ummmm, eight?
DM:Are you including Rudolf?
Me: Oh, ok, nine
DM: No, there are 10.
Me: Oh (thinking here we go again.....)
DM: Do you know how I know?
Me: (thinking, please just tell the freakin' joke already and get this over with...)
DM: Because there was a reindeer named Olive. Think about it!

Then she sings the Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer song and emphasises "Olive (all of) the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names..."

DM: (Laughing as if this is the first time she's heard this joke, much less told it. ) Isn't that funny? Did you get it? Did you get it, huh?
Me: Oh, that's a good one!

But I go back because as painful as it is for me, I can't imagine how my dentist lives through it day after day after day after day (just imagine that to infinity.) Sometimes he lets comments slip that make me giggle. Comments that assure me that I'm not the only one who is feeling pain in the dentist's office. So, I go there to support another person whose mother drives them insane.

My dentist is a saint.