Yet Another Journal

Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans,
cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of.


 Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net

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» Sunday, August 29, 2010
The Weekend Update
My weekend action started before the weekend ever did. Friday morning I called Earthlink because the FedEx tracking number that the Earthlink rep had given me was still showing up as "not found" on the FedEx website. I really didn't expect them to ship the modem on Wednesday, but after paying for overnight shipping, I did expect it to be on its way by now.

I was informed by yet another Earthlink representative that I had the wrong FedEx number. Joy. When I plugged that in, it told me the package was enroute. But I had another question for her: did I have to sign for it. No, she said, if there was somewhere to put the package, they would leave it. If not, we would get a note and could go pick up the modem at the FedEx office on Franklin Road, anytime before 8:30, or on Saturday morning.

I got on a roll today and at lunchtime was going so well I just kept going. There is always, in August, a logjam of orders in various states that makes me feel uncomfortable. This morning I spent distributing orders and other paperwork, and printing out new orders and backup material to be submitted for signature. This afternoon I went through my e-mail one by one, printing out pertinent items, and matching them with orders. This has produced a nice tidy pile of orders which are now able to be worked on. It was a relief.

Success! I can finally close the accordion folder I have all my work in! It no longer looks like a stuffed tick and I don't need to use the thick elastic bards that come with the newspaper to keep it shut anymore. Considering how it looked (and weighed!) for the last few weeks, this is a definite plus!

When I got home, there was Mr. Modem sitting in its box at the front door. I took Willow out, then booted up the computer and began. The modem was almost ridiculously easy to set up (which was a good thing, because the instructions which the packing slip insisted were in the box were missing in action). I plugged the telephone line into the modem, and the computer into the modem, then tried to get into a website. Instead of an error message, I was connected with Earthlink. I typed in my user name and password. And I was in.

The router, however, seemed insurmountable. By the time James came home, I had a screaming headache. So we went to supper at Ken's Grill, then came home, completely reset the router, and uninstalled and reinstalled the software.

Now everything is reconnected happily—except for the laptop. The laptop does not work and play well with others—at least wirelessly. Plug a network cable into it and it says hi happily and work its little heart out. But show it wireless and it turns up its little computer nose.

It was not resolved by midnight. We went to bed anyway.

James had to work Saturday, but we still got up to go to the Farmer's Market. We strolled the booths, ate samples, gathered vegetables, chicken salad, and some yummy wine jelly, and when we finished our shopping, we ate breakfast at a newish place called "Old Ephraims," right on a corner of the Square. It is an anamoly for downtown, a place that looks like it belongs about an hour north up in the mountains. The story of the name is on the back of the menu, along with the info that the beautiful wood paneling that lines the inside of the place was originally going to be burned! The owner had cleared some land and didn't want the wood. Yow!

The portions were huge. James had biscuits and gravy, which came with eggs and hash browns. He finished it only because by the time we ate it was almost lunchtime. I had French toast and took half of it home. The bread slices were "Texas toast" size, but light as a feather. The only thing they didn't have was real maple syrup: I made do with Mrs. Butterworth.

After the vegetables were put up, James left for work. I corralled my coupons and went out. I went up to the Barnes & Noble at Town Center to see if any of the fall magazines were out, as they have one of the best magazine collections in town. (Damn, I miss the J. Muggs newstand in Buckhead!) Sadly, nothing out yet but the new Early American Life, but I did get the Hallowe'en issue of Just Cross Stitch because of the fall designs, including one of a chickadee on autumn leaves. I also walked next door and found good copies of the first two Mannheim Steamroller Christmas albums at CD Warehouse. I have these on cassette tape and am trying to get better copies, since the tape is so frangible. Most of my Christmas cassettes are things I can't get anymore, like the three British albums of medieval and pre-19th century music, but when I find inexpensive replacements on CD I replace them.

I also found an unusual gift for James. :-)

By this time the traffic down Barrett Parkway was in epic proportions (read: the usual for a busy shopping area on Saturday afternoon). Emerging from the clot, I went to JoAnn; mostly bought things on clearance and used my coupons for more iron-on patches. I found little decorative stools at half price, and bought a red one and a dirty eggshell colored one (they are "country" and "distressed"—frankly, the lighter one looks more upset than distressed...LOL). The red one can be used in the foyer for Christmas, Valentine's Day, autumn—even Independence Day with the right trim—to hold little figures, but the red wouldn't work for Easter. I may paint the light-colored one a grass green or a sky blue, which would work for Easter and also for summer.

Then I went to Borders. I'd seen a new book about House at Barnes & Noble and hoped I could find it at Borders to use with a coupon. Apparently I was in the only place on this side of town that had one! Also found the fall editions of Yankee and Vermont Life—yay! there is a light at the end of the tunnel of horror called "summer."

Stopped at BJs on the way home for gas. Zowee! 2.349! Made a final stop at the Borders on the East-West Connector to see if they had the astronaut book that I'd also seen at B&N. No dice, but I did find the next book in the "Dog Walker" mystery series.

Came home to a very un-fun afternoon. [neep alert] After a bit of conniving, I managed to connect the laptop to the network. I found the place where you had to enter the new encryption data (James swapped the encryption from WEP to WPA since we now had units all capable of using it), and entered a static IP address because that's the way the laptop likes it. And I had connected!

Unfortunately, I decided to restart the laptop. I wanted to take AVG and Avast virus scanners off and replace them with Microsoft Security Essentials. The minute I rebooted, everything went to that proverbial handbasket. First I had to keep retyping the static IP address in. When you do that it asks you to reboot. Once it rebooted, it had lost all the data. I probably did this ten times before it saved. Then it wouldn't connect because it said the wireless was off. Since I hadn't shut the wireless off, this was maddening. Finally I got that to stay on, but it wouldn't save the encryption. I kept getting a message that I didn't have the correct code when I had just typed the blasted thing in not ten seconds before.

Had leftovers for supper and watched The Spiderwick Chronicles. Haven't read the novels, so I don't know how much it diverged from the original storyline. I remember there was some contention about the young lead actor playing twins. Passable fantasy—were the clueless parents with marital problems in the original book? My reaction was "oh, no, not this again."

James arrived home at 9:30, just about the time I discovered that the DragonCon schedule was finally online. They put it up later each year; it's only five days until the convention starts. So we spent the rest of the evening entering likely-looking panels into our calendars, and, later, talking to Jen, Rodney, Mike, and Emma on chat.

Had a late start this morning, and it was a long grocery shopping trip. This last weekend in August is one of my least favorite weekends, since we have to buy for two weeks. After four days of DragonCon, the last thing I want to do is grocery shop! All we need to do is stop by and get some milk.

After stowing the groceries, we had a varied, but relaxing afternoon. I washed towels and the hall bathroom floor, James rearranged the cupboards, and we listened to a backlog of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" podcasts. Later James grilled boneless pork ribs marinated in Trader Joe's Island Soyaki sauce, which we had along with some rice and salad while watching R5Sons Alaska.

Now catching up on "Headlines" and Futurama.

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