Unexpected radio silence

I know most of you are used to me not blogging with any regularity or frequency, but I swear, this time it was NOT MY FAULT.


RIP Dell Latitude D620 #2. 1/16/07-8/4/2007

My hard drive crashed and burned. Apparently, I leave my computer on too long. Hmph.
what's this you ask? here's a snippet of my convo with the computer geeks (I do not use the term geek pejoratively... I like geeks. I am a geek... just not a computer geek)


Me: Any idea what might have caused this?
Geek 1: Do you carry your laptop around while it's still on?
Me: no, I always shut down
Geek 2: What about on standby, do you carry it around on standby?
Me: NO, i turn it all the way off. i shut it down before I carry it anywhere.
Geek 2: oh. Well. how long do you leave your computer on for? at a time?
Me: (silence....) Um... I turn it on when I get up, and turn it off when i go to bed?
Geek 1: Oh.
Geek 2: Oh. um. These laptops are kind of fragile. You probably burned your hard drive.
Me: <-- puzzled look on face? wha?
Geek 2: You should only have your laptop on for 7 hours max, then turn it off for 30min to an hour to let it cool off.
Me: Oh. Okay. (thinking... did they write this in the instruction manual? I mean, dang. who knew?)

When i took a closer look at my computer later, I saw this...



probably not a good sign. I think I have some sort of aura that tells technology to hate me. My first laptop died on the move out here (fine fine, it was 2-3 yrs old), the second got stolen from my apartment, and then the hard drive on the second died. As far as I can discern, the hard drive IS the computer. All the important bits anyway. So, all my pictures are gone gone gone. Sniff.


The day after I found out my computer's hard drive needed replacing, I was futzing around on my desktop, trying to get it connected to the internets, when I glanced over at my alarm clock. 12:00. Eh? It's 5:48pm! Wha? Ra-row. I unplug the clock, plug it back in, try shaking it, tapping it (smacking it with my hand). Nada. It's stuck on 12:00. Effers.

However, I have been extraordinarily productive in the fiber world over the last few days. I finished the fifth section of babette, and have been seaming the pieces together as I go (thanks to advice from Maryse. I've managed to get up to the increase section of Hourglass, and start the heel on my sandal sock.

Babette:

"zzzzzzzzzzzzz.... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... eh? wha?"

"damn. what's a guy gotta do for some shut eye here? SHEESH!"

Here's everything I've got seamed together. I'm working on section VI.



I told Stacey that there was a square that was BRIGHT, but that I liked it. I think the brown edging really helps tone it down though (but I still like it)





I have found that I left my Hourglass in the car, so you get a pic of Madli. She's minus 1 border right now.



Here we have the sandal socks. I have the finished one here too, as proof that i'm not just recycling old pics (b/c I wouldn't put it past me)