Monday, Monday

What a great weekend it was. We had our wonderful family get together Saturday night and then Sunday I almost finished 5 clocks for the show. I'm waiting on some new hands from the clock shop and then I can finish them up. I don't even think I will get them listed in my etsy shop, FourDogDay. No time!

I made a few more of the cell phone cases too, so things are going well.

I got my new external hard drive back from the techie guy. Now I just have to find out how to get my pictures and stuff off of it and into my new computer. There is a lot of stuff I don't want in the new computer that is on there though, and I have no idea how to do that. I had a lot of bugs in the old one and I sure don't want to transfer those to my new computer. UGH!

Sorry this is short this morning, but I still have to get my lunch and snacks ready for the today. Did you have a nice weekend?

Have an awesome day today and be sure to do something nice for yourself.

Dum Da Dum Dum........

I am SOOOO nervous!!!!

I am headed off to the grocery store first thing this morning and then..............guess what came yesterday?

My new laptop!!!!! It is so pretty...if a computer can be pretty.

So, when I get back from the store, I will be disconnecting this old borrowed Dell and attempting to get the new laptop up and running. Irv "thinks" he understands what needs to be done and there is a disc that will help us set up the wireless and a disc that will help us set up the printer.

Wish us non-techie people luck. We will need it!

On Monday I should also have the new external hard drive back from the tech guy that is getting all of my stuff off my dead Dell. I will be so happy to have all of my pictures and things back. It's been awful not having pictures to use and no scanner to scan any.

Make it a fantastic day for yourselves, and I expect each and every one of you to get outside (if it's nice enough) and take a little walk today, or get on that treadmill for a little while. Cherin of Lanyard Lady said she parked as far from work as she could yesterday and "enjoyed" a nice walk to work. That's all it takes my friends. You can do it!

UGH!!!

Irv and I went out looking at laptops yesterday. UGH! What a confusing and depressing task. I kind of knew what I wanted and then we got to the stores and no one really had exactly what I wanted. It was overwhelming to look at all of those little laptops sitting there and read the little cards about what they have in them....for me those little cards could have been in Latin and they would have made about the same amount of sense. I tried to stay cool and calm, but I really don't like not understanding things.

My plan was to go look at them, buy one if we found something good and be done with it. Oh no, we looked at Office Depot and at Best Buy....then went home and got on line and looked at the HP site and the CDW site and the Dell site and by the time I was done I was 1000 times more confused than when we had left in the morning.

I don't know why I can't just go out and buy a friggin' laptop. Why is this such a project for me?

I guess it's because it's a heck of a lot of money, I don't want a junky one and I just don't know what to get.

I can come really close to what I wanted to spend if I sacrifice my 17 inch screen and go with the 15 inch, but that is the one place I really don't want to sacrifice.

They all start out at a nice price, but then when you add the better processor, wireless, Microsoft Office, some kind of extended warranty, a wireless router and a printer...it's not a nice price anymore.

I am so glad I have Michael's old computer for now so I don't have to rush and make a decision on this right now. I know I can't rely on his old one for long, so I have to make a decision and bite the bullet and buy the laptop.

I'm pretty sure I am going to get the big HP, but I'm going to sleep on it for a day or two. What do you do when you have a big decision hanging over your head. Do you think about it for a while, or just "do it"? I usually just "do it", but I can't seem to pull the switch on this...and there has to be a reason for that.

Pre-Planned Family Time

Well our first pre-planned family get together is now history. We had Tresa, Chris, Michael and Bernadette over for a late breakfast this morning. It was wonderful to just be able to spend some time together. Breakfast was great and everyone ate a lot.

Michael and Bernadette brought Teagan with them and there were a lot of dirty dog looks and only one fight. There was a little bit of blood shed, but then they all went out and played. If only humans could learn to get mad, say what they need to say, move on and still be friends....what a peaceful place our earth would be.

Everyone helped in the attempt to get Michael's old Dell working for Irv in the basement and no go. Such a bummer. Irv is going to take back all of the stuff they sold him at Best Buy and we are going to try to get someone who knows computers come and give us a hand with it. We don't think they are selling us the right things to make the proper connection.

We were able to sit and chat and it was decided that Bernadette and Michael will take the next get together at then end of February. Michael said they will come up with something good. I'm hoping that we really do keep this going. It is so nice to see the kids together and to just be able to chill out, chat and laugh together!

Just a little side note....I am reading and reading and reading everything I can on osteoporosis and the drugs and natural methods used to treat it. Scroll down to yesterday's post if you missed it. I plan to call the doctor's office today to get a copy of my last two bone density reports so I know exactly what my numbers are. I will keep you informed as to what I decide to do.

Make it a great day and do not forget to do something nice for yourself today!

There Is A Virus In The House

and no....it isn't me or Irv. It was my computer on Tuesday! I got home from work, sat down at the computer and things started popping up warning me that my computer was unprotected, that my computer was infected, that I needed to immediately download this, and then I needed to click here and do this and on and on and on....it was awful.

I didn't touch anything and called a friend of mine that understands this stuff. She turned me over to her hubby and he had me do a complete scan of my entire computer which took 3 hours and still didn't get rid of it...but first I had to reactivated my anti-virus which it had apparently deactivated. It was called Internet Security 2010....ever heard of them or it or whatever it was?

My computer would barely move so trying to do anything was almost impossible. It had Task Manager Blocked as well as other sites. Once I was able to google it I started reading what everyone else had to say about "it". It didn't sound very good so I knew I needed to do something. I kept reading people's suggestions and many of them were in computer lingo and I had no idea what they were talking about. Then I came across one that said they used Windows Defender. I decided to give that a try.

I downloaded Defender, had it do another scan and presto!!!!! Gone!!!! Chee Hoo!

Let me tell you I was sweating bullets all evening. It's hard when you don't understand computers in the first place and then to have something like this happen.....I had visions of running out and charging that new computer the next day. Thank goodness I did not have to do that!

All is well right now, but I still don't get how you get infected by something like that when you have virus protection so that doesn't happen. Can anyone explain that to me?

Let's Talk Computers

I need a new computer. Well, I should say I want a new computer. Mine is an eight year old Dell desktop and it's still working, but it makes me very nervous sometimes. I could go from want to need in a big hurry! I worry that one day it's going to clunk out and then I'll be running out to buy "whatever" and I'll end up paying top dollar for it. Right now I am doing some research and talking to what I call "computer people". I want to know exactly what I need and then I can keep an eye out for sales while I save as much money as I can, as fast as I possibly can....which probably won't be very fast.

I know I will get a laptop because I hate being chained to my computer desk. I would love to be able to curl up in bed or on the couch and write my blog or answer e-mails or even list items for my etsy shop. I could even bring it to work and use it during lunch. Yes, I will get a laptop.

Ah, now the fun starts. Every time I mention getting a laptop, people from all over the country start screaming MAC! MAC! MAC!MAC!

I know Mac is all the rage right now, and I know they are really nice machines that rarely get viruses, however there are a couple of drawbacks for me. I need a large screen. I do not want to sit and squint at a 13 inch screen! I have a 15 inch now and it isn't really big enough for my old eyes. The cost of a large screen Mac is out of this world and I will never pay that for a computer.

The other thing is.....I talked to our tech guy at work. He said that a Mac would be nice for me because I use it for business and it is great for virus protection, but besides that...unless I would use it for all of it's graphic capabilities....he thought I would be just as happy with an HP or a Dell.

I went on the Dell and HP websites and sent him the link for an HP I liked, and sure enough, he thought I found a good HP machine for what I use it for. He also suggested I go to Best Buy or CDW and sit and use it to be sure I like it. I plan to do that this weekend. Now that I kind of know what I'm looking for I do feel a little better about the whole process. At least it is a starting point.

So tell me....what kind of computer do you have? Do you like it....and if all of you say MAC I'm going to scream.