success at last

I’m back, didja miss me? I re-reinstalled XP and this time followed the very excellent suggestions of TweakHound , which made all the difference.
In summary, the very erratic performance problems I was having with my new Dell Vostro laptop turned out to be caused by a phantom keyboard event, once per second, which was easily [...]

fixed, and yet so broken

So, after badmouthing Dell support, I decided to just email them. Carlos answered overnight. He told me to run the diagnostics utility, which found nothing, and then to try re-seating the keyboard cable. This involved taking a few things apart and I was feeling so dumb by Sunday morning that I asked T. to do [...]

the aftermath

The aftermath of Thanksgiving runs in a hundred directions.
My daughter announces her engagement. That’s a good one. And I love Kevin, so no argument there.
The gluten-free pie crust was such a success (and I am thinking here of g/f bread which is not a success, no matter what I try) that I had to make [...]

bring it on

The air conditioner is on. Does that suck or what? It was on last night, and several nights before that, and obviously several days as well. We have been in the grip of a humid, mosquito-ridden southern air mass. But not for long now. The wind is blowing. There’s a Canadian front on its way.
Bring [...]

floor accompli

We have floor! Bob came back on Friday with extra helpers and worked them hard through Saturday. He finished up today by himself. Despite being ready to bite his head off last Thursday, I am happier with this job than any of the other few I’ve contracted out. (There’s always something.)
I’m getting off on picking [...]

contracted anger

So yesterday the guys finally came, and Roberto and friend made a good start at our floor:
and assured me they’d be back today at 8:30 a.m., and completely out of here by Saturday. Sure enough, this morning….nothing. Nobody showed. Nobody called. I left two phone messages that were not returned. I tried to sound [...]

waiting for Pergot

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the title.
Actually I am waiting for Armstrong laminate, though that’s not the reason my blog has gone silent. I’ve been feuding with my computer and unwilling to sit down with it on friendly terms. That’s part of the reason. Somehow it has gone whacko in the way it activates windows, and [...]