So, yesterday I started to head out to shop for a new laptop, and my car died before I even got out of the driveway. Well, crap. This morning I finally got through to AAA to get her towed to the garage, where they told me she was out of oil and things looked grim. It would be expensive to fix, and at her age and mileage, wouldn't be worth it. "Time to go car shopping," he said. Double crap. I was hoping to be able to save up a bit more before I had to do that.

*sigh*

They're doing an oil change, which will get me home, but he advised me not to drive her. I've arranged for rides with coworkers until I can get new(er) wheels, and I'll have to go car shopping. I've already found a couple places on the BBB website that look promising, and are fairly close by. Wish me luck!

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, but I was hoping it would be later. We've had a good run: 14 years and 189,000 miles. I'll miss the old gal. She's been the best car I've ever owned. I had her longer than the previous three put together!

On the laptop front, however, things look rather rosier. My fairy godparents offered me their spare, backup MacBook, which is the exact one I wanted but couldn't afford, even a used one. It's a heckuva lot newer than the old G5, so it'll be able to run the latest software. Yay! That makes me very happy. And relieved. And hey, I can use the money I would've spent on a laptop towards the new wheels.

The buds on the trees look like they're ready for some action. We just need a little warm, sunny weather!

( Also, )

And I heard peepers in the swamp behind the parking lot when I left work today! Yay, peepers!

I got a new computer at work today. I didn't get it until the end of the day, so there was no time to play with it and customize it. It's going to take a little getting used to, as it's Windows 7 (I had XP before). The first thing I noticed about it was that it looks suspiciously like Mac OS X. They're not even pretending they're not stealing from Mac anymore! *g*

In case you missed it yesterday, my computer died. Iz ded. It's gone to the great Mac beyond. I fired up my even older iMac, from which I was able to post to (but not read) LJ, and look at my email, but that was about it. I was crushed.

Well, this morning I asked our Mac guru if there were any extra Macs laying around that I could take, and he thought he had an extra tower that they wanted to get rid of. I said that I'd also need a monitor, and he said that there were extra monitors around. So I may have a new(er) computer by the end of today, which would make me oh so very happy. Really, anything would be better than what I have. As I said, it's ancient in computer years, about 11 years old.

So cross your fingers for me!

I'm having another one of those days. Two in one week is just not fair! At least this time it's not grouchy customers. Though, come to think of it, I might prefer that to my morning: at least the grouchy customers eventually hang up or go away.

Mercury retrograde is biting me in the ass today, and not in a fun way. My work computer has a virus, and won't do anything I want it to while dire popups tell me I need virus protection. Well, duh, but I wouldn't buy it from someone who gave me the virus to begin with!

(This, BTW, is one of the main reasons why I remain a staunch Mac grrl)

Meanwhile back at the ranch, boss man was not here this morning to deal with it. Our Mac expert came out an hooked up a spare computer despite the fact that my work computer is not a Mac, and did a pretty good job of getting it set up. Then boss man called and said to do just that. Huh. So at least I can access my email and the program we use to enter ads. But my documents, pictures, and bookmarks are not here, and it's driving me nuts. I had to ask our web diva to send me the login and password to retrieve the online ads, because that's stored on my nonfunctioning computer as well.

So it's been a grry-arghy kind of day. At least I have chocolate.

I went down to Stanley Park expecting a wildflower walk, but as it turns out, the walk was in the wildlife sanctuary (where I was yesterday). The reason I know this is because there were other people there who were also in the wrong place. Since the forest garden was what I wanted to see anyway, I didn't make the trek over to the sanctuary, but stayed where I was and snapped a bunch of photos.

After about twenty minutes, it started to rain. Just a little, and I was in the woods, so I wandered around some more and took more pictures.

As I was leaving the park, it started to rain more steadily (not quite cats & dogs; more like kittens). It got steadily heavier as I walked, and by the time I got home I was quite damp. A change of clothes and some hot cocoa took care of that, and I settled in to process & upload my pix.

Well. My @#$%& software was fighting with me again, and Flickr wasn't liking me very much, so I resorted to booting up my old computer and trying from there. I managed to get six of my pix uploaded; the rest I will have to do from work tomorrow.

I'd forgotten how clunky OS9 is, and how much I hate Internet Explorer for the Mac.

I so need a new computer!

Why does everything have to be so hard?

*sigh*

Ah well, at least I got this lovely photo to share with y'all. Enjoy!

I got a new computer tower at work today. Dan decided that mine was old enough to be replaced (even though it's a baby compared to my home machine!), so I have a spanking new, glowing blue, DVD-enabled 'puter. Woo! I even got a new keyboard & mouse, which are both whisper-quiet. Whee!

Of course, this means I have to start from scratch on the customizing front. I have to toggle all the settings until I get it the way I want it, and reconstruct all my bookmarks. I guess that'll give me something to do while I'm waiting for the proof tomorrow!

Tonight is the grand reopening reception at the photo center. Should be a good time! A couple of local friends said they would try to be there. Poor ami_1 is sick, though. Take care of yourself!

Heh, two of my coworkers are getting arrested by MDA this year. It's about time someone else took a turn! I did it two years in a row.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. It's supposed to be dangerously cold, which makes for an unhappy kitty cat. I guess we dodged the bullet long enough! Oh, which reminds me, I need to get Weatherbug on this machine. Gotta know the temperature! *g*