{Not} Living Vicariously

Computer Jinx

I have decided that you should not let me near your computer . . . at least not if you hope to keep it in working order. Remember how our home computer hard drive crashed a while back? Well I went in to work today to find discover a non-working computer. It was fine yesterday when I left. This morning, kaput. So I called in a heat ticket and they sent the early morning tech on over. She took a look at it and then came the serious question: Do you save a lot of stuff on your hard drive? I said no, most of my stuff goes on the network and she answered good. That was when I knew it was bad. They switched me over to my back up computer (yes I have two computers at my desk at work, because for some reason they think me important) and took my main one away. I got the bad news about an hour later, it was completely fried. Granted a data retrieval service could possibly pull my documents off, but at $760 to do so, I'm not willing to even try. Instead, I'm going to keep saving most of my stuff to the network -- have a thumb drive for the personal stuff I have to keep private (i.e. my reports' reviews) -- and be glad that at least my computer was still under warranty so a new one will arrive on Tuesday. I will be grouchy about the fact that I have lost all my settings though. I'm entitled to a little bit of grouchy!

What a week!

First, thank you one and all for the prayers you have been sending our way. My father in law is still in the hospital, and there is a long road ahead of us, however we have started receiving some good news. There was a successful surgery today, the first of many to come.

Second, why is that all the Irish songs sung at the symphony this past weekend had to be meloncholy/depressing? I could have totally used some upbeat music . . . and the instrumentals were . . . but when the vocals came out, the songs were sad.

Third, the irish jig and step dancing during the instrumentals were amazing! I so love to watch dancing, love to dance as well, but am just as happy to watch others dance. And yay for the Nashville symphony to allow some great dancing to be on stage!

Fourth, I got my wedding album yesterday. Yippee yay yay! I love it. I love my photographer. I love the job my photographer did on my wedding album. I wish each and every one of you could see what a great job she did on it. And actually, in the near future, you might be able to as she will be using it as an example on her website of her work. Because it is just that good.

Fifth, we are househunting. Part of me is excited, the other part scared. However, we have decided that it is time. We want our stuff out of storage and we need a better kitchen. So, we are out there looking. Now we just need to agree on what we want together.

Anyway, I hope this explains why my posts are not so frequent, and a bit scattered these days. Life is busy! Be good . . .

Updates

What a week! Anyhow, my father is home safe from Oregon. Ryan has a place to live and is back to work while sorting out what was salvaged. We have our taxes done, filed, and accepted . . . just waiting for that refund check to be deposited. I had a happy birthday, even though the Eustachian tube in my left ear collapsed and didn't immediately re-open (which made for definitely fuzzy hearing and a slight case of vertigo). That situation has resolved itself with the help of some additional medicines as suggested by my allergist. And the sun is shining which makes me a much nicer person to be around. The three mile walk with the dog this morning helped as well.

My father-in-law had a motorcycle accident though and is in the hospital with two broken legs and various other injuries. So we make it through the last couple of weeks wondering how to help my side of the family and now we are wondering how to help his side of the family. Life is definitely not boring!

And now I'm off to go finish putting together a meal that we are taking over to some friends who just had a baby. Because food deliveries are always fun.

House Fire

So the reason my father is up in Oregon helping my brother is due to the fact that my brother's house burned down. He was home on Thursday night a week ago when someone who had been driving past the house came pounding on the door as he had seen flames coming from the roof. Ryan grabbed the dog and went out, only to never go back in again. Apparently it was pretty bad, the ceiling came down in several places and Ryan lost just about everything. However this isn't a post to whine . . . it is a post to brag on people.

1. The fire chief told Ryan to gather up any clothes he was able to salvage and bring them down to the station where they would wash them in the commercial washers there.

2. He was immediately offered a place to stay until a new house could be found (I should say my brother is living in a very small town working for them on a federal grant) and a new house was available by the next week.

3. They found his laptop and took it to the high school computer lab to see what could be saved from it.

4. AmeriCorp found out about the event and called our parents to see what they could do to assist.

And those are just the few examples I've heard about so far. This town, knowing my brother and each other, has offered nothing but love and support for him in this time of need. Because even though he and the dog are fine . . . Ryan has lost basically all of his material possessions. And while they are only material, they do involve a lot of memories from his travels around the world working on projects such as Habitat for Humanity and Water for People. Not only do I love this town for being there for him . . . I am so proud of him for what he gives to others.

Love you kid!

Taxes . . .

This was not the year to learn how to do taxes myself. My father has always done mine in the past and done a great job on them. Living in TN with no state income tax, he has only to do my federal taxes, which are easy enough to slot in with all the others he does. However, I did not think it fair to ask him to do them now that I'm a married woman. So I said, no daddy, I can do it myself. I got TurboTax and went to work. It was great, and everything was moving along just fine, until it came time to deal with the sale of my house. Now I'm all confused. Because they sure are asking me to pay a lot for making next to nothing on the sale of the house. In fact, I look at the sale of my house as a loss because I put a lot more money into remodeling the house than I saw on the closing. I'm hoping it is just my ignorance in answering some of the questions they asked. And when Daddy gets home from helping out my brother in Oregon, he is going to take a look at what I've done and what I need to do. So, um, I am learning about doing my taxes, however I'm not too proud to admit I need assistance. We love you Daddy!

Oops!

So we missed an event last Wednesday, and we don't even know why. We have season tickets to the Nashville Symphony - Pops series and had purchased tickets to a couple of one time events when we purchased our season. One of them was to see Ballet Folklorico on February 3rd. I was really looking forward to seeing Ballet Folklorico . . . and imagine my surprise when I looked at my date calendar this morning to realize the event was this past week and we forgot to go. I don't even know what we did Wednesday night, however it was probably a quiet night at home. How disappointing to miss something we A. wanted to do and B. paid good money to go to . . . only to forget to go.

I can't blame the symphony for our not remembering, really. However they do send "e-minders" of all our season events the week of so we don't forget those. I guess I sort of expected one for this as well. Anyway, this just proves to me that we need a calendar in the house with both of our activities listed on it so I know when I'm supposed to be where. Then, hopefully, there will be no more "oops!"