2008 January

Jan 22, 2008

Dude! Dell made me get a Mac. Kind of.

I’m sure most of you have been anxiously awaiting a continuation of my “my-laptop-died” saga. Well, I am happy to tell you that the situation is officially resolved.

It didn’t go very smoothly though…

First, I ordered a Dell laptop. They’re supposed to make things to my specifications, ship them out quickly, and make my blogging life easier. In the past, they have done just that. We have, in fact, bought 2 Dells previously and both times, the process was painless. So I placed my order, saw that the laptop should arrive within about 10 days, and sat back to wait. As the old commercial said (though I paraphrase), “Dude, I was getting a Dell.”

Then came what I can only refer to as, The Disheartening Emails of Delay. Dell told me that due to an “unexpected delay,” my laptop would not arrive as scheduled, but would instead come a week later. That’s okay, I told myself. I can be patient. After all, I’m not that spoiled. One more week? No problem.

Then came the next email, which arrived just as I was waiting to get a “your computer has shipped” notice. Not entirely surprisingly, there was another “unexpected delay” and my laptop would be delayed at least an additional 10 days. This was putting us at over one month from the day I ordered to the day it might possibly arrive.

I may be patient, but my patience still has its limits.

My husband, who is sometimes an enabler, took me out to the mall that night and told me to go check out the Apple store. While he pushed L. in his stroller around the mall, I asked one of the very young Mac-workers to give me his best pitch.

My brother-in-law has been trying to talk me into getting a Mac for years, but I never listened. I like the cute little Mac vs. PC commercials, but always dismissed them as mere entertainment. But I suppose I was an easy target that night. Maybe it was the fact that I was in severe blog-withdrawal. Maybe it was because I was seething at Dell and wanted to teach them a lesson. Whatever it was, the bottom line is that I had a Macbook by the end of the night.

Now I’m in the Mac Learning Curve. I’ve gone through the little tutorials on Switch 101. I’ve downloaded by beloved Firefox browser. I’ve transferred photos, files, and other assorted things onto the Mac, pleasantly surprised that compatibility is not as big of an issue as I thought it might be.

There are a few things that are a bit frustrating: One or two programs that I use don’t have a Mac version; the fact that I don’t have a page-up or page-down key, and need to now use two hands to do those actions; getting used to the idea that the Delete key actually does a Backspace. But those are little things, and I’m adjusting. I like the sleek look (both the outside and the desktop); I like how it recognized and joined our wireless network without me having to tell it anything; and I especially like that when I said, “I’ll take it,” they didn’t give me a runaround about unexpected delays.

So, I’m sorry Dell. But your delays led me to the Apple store, which led me back to blogging. On my nifty new Mac.

Filed Under: Purely Random 29 Comments

Jan 16, 2008

Hardware Store Love

written by katrina · 19 Comments

Chad and I don’t go on many dates. Between work, kids, volunteering, other random obligations, and plain old exhaustion…we simply don’t have it in us to try to pull off a weekly (or even monthly, usually) date night. But we recently celebrated our 14th anniversary, and figured we should try to do something other than stick the kids in bed, pull out the Klondike bars and watch the most recent episode of Criminal Minds (which, by the way is our typical date-night-at-home routine).

So, we arranged for a babysitter (thanks, Mom!) and actually got in a car and went out on a date. We started our evening with a yummy dinner at a new Max & Erma’s that just opened nearby. Unlike the only other Max & Erma’s that we’d been in, this new one actually used cloth napkins, which is as close to a fancy dinner as either one of us usually prefers to get. (The whole dressing up thing? Not for us.) Anyway, it was delightful. We both thoroughly enjoyed the dinner, the conversation, and the time together.

After dinner, the fact that we have been married for over a decade became obvious. Our date suddenly became rather…practical. First, we stopped by Chad’s office in order to hang some framed antique maps on the wall (my anniversary gifts to him last year and this year). We also decided to swing by the hardware store. I wanted some ice-melt to keep on hand, and we suddenly remembered that we were in need of furnace filters.

We ended our date by sipping a Cappuccino (Chad) and Peppermint Mocha (me) at the closest Starbucks.

Quite honestly, the date was wonderful. A fancy dinner requiring dressy clothes and driving into the city? Not my cup of tea. A delicious dinner followed by practical errands, and topped off with a coffee? Perfect. Especially because I was with the greatest guy I know.

(We’re not the only ones who end up at locales not often associated with dating when on a date night, by the way. I recently saw that Shannon and her husband ended a date night with a stop at Wal-Mart.)

Maybe I’m a little strange for preferring a comfortable, casual evening with my husband over some grand “event.” But there’s something about the lived-in comfort of years together…the fact that a trip to the hardware store seems to fit in perfectly with a night out…the delightful truth that time together is precious, no matter what we’re doing… I like that kind of love. That “Hey, let’s stop at the hardware store” kind of love.

Filed Under: Family 19 Comments

Jan 15, 2008

A Milestone

written by katrina · 15 Comments

Last summer, I mentioned that L. was not fond of the church nursery. And by “not fond,” I meant that he screamed bloody murder every time we so much as entered the nursery hallway. That was six months ago and I’ve not blogged about it anymore, but the screaming continued. And continued. And continued. He added running away to his don’t-make-me-go-in-there strategy — taking off in the opposite direction as soon as he realized where we were heading. He added pathetic-sounding, desperate, whining pleas to the noises he would make. Once at the nursery counter, he attempted to hold on to whatever I was wearing so tightly that the nursery workers would be unable to pry him loose and deposit him in the toddler room.

Every time I came to pick him up, the nursery staff was more than happy to return him to me. Oh, they always said something encouraging, like, “Um…yeah, he was okay…after a while.” But it did not take a mind-reader to see that L. was on the top of their “I Hope This Child’s Mother Is On Time” list.

But yesterday, something happened. Something that I had dared not hope for.

L. did not cry — at all — when I dropped him off at the nursery. He did not scream in the hallway. He did not cling to my clothing. He did not glare at the nursery people.

We pulled into the church parking lot and he gave a gleeful “Eh!” and kick — the kind he usually only gives when we pull into the grocery store parking lot, since riding in a grocery cart is even better than throwing toys at the cat. I thought surely, he must be confused. After all this was church… the place of much dread for separation-anxiety-plagued little boys. But as we walked through the parking lot, I asked him if he was going to go play with the fun toys in the nursery and he smiled — smiled! — and said “Eh!” in the way that means “Yes.” (One word, many meanings.) And then, as I handed him over the counter in the nursery, he actually reached for the lady on the other side.

I couldn’t believe it. Not one tear, not one screech. Just…happiness. Anticipation, even.

Yes, dear blog readers, we have reached a milestone.

There is a teeny, tiny part of me that recognizes the bittersweet in this grand accomplishment. I know that this happy “Bye, Mom!” attitude — the one I’d been waiting for, for many months — is only the first in what will be a long series of “Bye, Mom!” moments. There will be the first day of preschool, the first day of kindergarten, the first bike ride on the trails with just Dad and C….college, marriage…need I go on? And I admit that I get a little misty when I dwell too long on the “bye”s that are part of being a Mom.

But for now, I’m just focusing on how wonderful it felt to leave him in capable hands, knowing that he was enjoying himself. Who knows? He might cry again next week. Or he might not. But I’m pretty sure we’ve turned a corner. He’s growing up quickly.

Filed Under: Family 15 Comments

Jan 12, 2008

Remind me — What is this thing you call blogging?

written by katrina · 15 Comments

Um…blogging. Right. That’s where I sit down and type something, hit Publish, and share it with the world, right?

Oh yeah.

I was shocked to discover, when I finally sat down tonight and opened Blogger, that this is actually my first post of 2008. Clearly, I am a slacker. I know it’s getting bad when family members email me or call to mention that they haven’t seen a blog post in a while, and therefore they have no idea what’s going on in my life.

The truth is, I am lazy and spoiled. See, we have a desktop computer that I refer to as “Chad’s computer.” And we ~~have~~ had a laptop that I referred to as “My computer.” Well, “my computer” is now referred to as “the utterly and completely dead computer.” Sadly, it never recovered from its crisis. And as a result, I have fallen completely out of the blogging habit.

I know, I know. We still have the desktop, right? Right. And I could theoretically use that to blog, right? Well, technically, yes. But that takes considerable effort. Consider:

A. In the evenings, when I was known to do my best blogging, Chad is often on that computer (ergo, the whole “Chad’s computer” thing). He’s very gracious and would certainly let me use it, but he’s got ~~cycling websites to read~~ projects to work on, and so I usually just read a book (not a bad thing at all, of course).

B. There’s this little one-year-old who lives here — L. — and he makes desktop computer usage trying, to say the least. Pushing buttons, pulling cords, moving the mouse, clicking things, printing test pages, sending emails before I’ve finished them. Any time I attempt to use the computer when he is awake and present, I find myself stuck in a cycle of: type one word, say “No buttons!,” remove child from vicinity, type one word, say “No cords!,” swat small hand, type one word, wonder if that noise I just heard was L. pulling the glass table over (it was), etc. It gets old very quickly. And the thought of trying to type an actual blog post is simply daunting. I suppose I could post very short posts, such as “Hi!” or “Still Alive!” but to me, that approach just doesn’t capture the true spirit of blogging.

C. That one-year-old does indeed take a nap, but alas, I have been attempting to be somewhat productive during that time. In addition to keeping bills paid and bathrooms somewhat clean, we’re getting ready to do some work in our basement (read: create more living space — hooray!) and I have found myself knee-deep in remodeling details. I’m tempted to bore all of you with the minutiae relating to windows of egress, carpet tiles, and ceiling options. I’ve resisted to this point. But it still could happen. Anyway, naptime is usually absorbed with, you know, getting stuff done.

SO, the bottom line is, I hop on the desktop about once per day to reply to emails, and that’s about it. I try to visit a blog or two every day, maybe even leave a comment here and there, but I’ve not been very successful at that either.

It’s true — I could find a solution. I could get up at 5 a.m. and blog. I could completely abandon all housework and remodeling duties and blog during naptime. I could stay up until my husband goes to bed and then blog. But that’s where the lazy part comes in. So I don’t.

Another “my computer” has been arranged for, but sadly, there’s been a delay and it could be a while longer before it is truly mine. So I’ll have to figure something out. Tonight, I figured that I would quick sit at the computer while Chad wasn’t looking and then type a long, boring post about why I can’t type daily long, boring posts. At least this way, my family knows I am alive.

So until I manage to set aside some blogging time again, here are some potential post ideas running around in my head, just to give you a taste of what may or may not be to come:

Considering 2008 (based in part on my friend Dianne’s post about having a word of the year)
When friends disappoint — a 9-year-old boy’s perspective, and a grown woman’s perspective
The two languages spoken in our house
The post-good-book letdown