me, computer tech

Just when life seems to be moving along swimmingly, another little bump in the road appears. Yesterday, this bump took the form of my laptop packing up. It was a good little laptop, my first computer ever. I used it very hard over the past three years, and we knew its days were numbered. Fortunately, one thing I've learned from Big Jim has been to back up, so the only work I lost was the files I edited yesterday morning. I then spent the next nine hours shuffling computer equipment around and installing software so that I can carry on with my work until Big Jim brings my new laptop from Amsterdam next Friday. I like to think the little laptop continued to chug along and held out until she knew we could sort of afford a new one. Sidebar: I read last week a news blurb criticizing John Kerry for using the expression "sort of". According to this report, "sort of" is upper class, affected, elite speak. Has anyone ever heard this before? Anyway, I feel as though I earned my computer tech stripes yesterday. Playing with all those cables....I managed to only get an electric shock once (which is an accomplishment because nothing is grounded in this house). I was wearing shoes (for new readers, if we touch our dishwasher while barefoot, we get a shock), but I had forgotten to unplug the monitor power supply. So I have one computer hooked up to the Internet and a second with Word installed, and between the two I can function as before. Slightly inconvenient, but it's only a temporary measure. Big Jim is starting to feel a bit of the pressures of working in "the Office" again. Half the people wandering around not caring; the other half running around with gazillions of ideas but having no plan as to how to implement them. It's his job to seek a balance. A possible business trip to Poland for next week was just thrown at him yesterday, for example. But we press on. So much new for both of us at the moment; it will certainly take a few months to feel "settled" again. I must be off. I've lost a day in my schedule and need to begin to catch up. :-) hasta luego, mylifeinspain