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Monday, August 22, 2011

Sober Surfing

Last Thursday after I had completed my last round of taxi service and brought Ben home from band practice, I sat down at my computer with a nice glass of cabernet. I took a big swig of the wine and felt something foreign in my mouth. Fearing it was a fly (been there, done that) I projectilely spat the wine directly at the computer. It immediately shut down and hasn't been heard from since. Searching for good news, I congratulated myself on having backed up 7 gb of photos just a couple of weeks ago. Anything I've taken since then is still in the camera.

The computer was old; maybe I put it out of its misery. The letter A was missing from the keyboard and the battery was completely and permanently dead. It was bloated and sluggish. It was time.
So, here's the replacement. It's an Asus and was just under $500. And, I'll get used to it. So far, I've discovered it has the ability to zoom in and out almost magically. I seem to be doing something with my left hand and the built-in mouse, but whatever it is, it's not under my conscious control yet. In the photo, it's trying to sync my ipod to my itunes. If I have it backwards, I'll end up with an empty ipod. We'll see. These idiot-proof programs aren't equipped to deal with me! (Or vice-versa.) Needless to say I won't be drinking and keyboarding anytime in the near future!
I love these uniforms. The quality of the tailoring is amazing and it makes them a joy to work on. They are built to withstand at least ten seasons of marching band rigor worn by a high school student. I've altered and/or repaired two dozen of them in the last week because even sublime tailoring can't take into account the different sizes and shapes of the kids.

Tomorrow I'm hosting the book club I joined early this summer. It's a nice group of local women, many of them active or retired school teachers. This group shares a "finger-food" dinner and discusses books that have been borrowed via ILL. There's a service that supplies copies of book club worthy titles in quantities that satisfy a good sized group. They aren't the latest in print, but we've read some interesting things I might have otherwise missed.

Last night we had the opportunity to introduce an Italian boy to American pizza. A friend is hosting an exchange student from Rome for the school year. He just arrived in the country on Friday and seemed pretty overwhelmed. He is 16 and will turn 17 at the end of the month. I can't imagine as a parent being brave enough to send my kid off like that for a whole school year. Andrea's command of the spoken English seemed a bit light -- I hope it's because he was tired and overwhelmed. I understand his written language skills as well as his reading are quite good.
We'll see how he's adjusting when we celebrate his birthday at the end of the month.

2 comments:

  1. Melody - Your post made me laugh so hard, I just spit my wine all over my laptop..........!!!! It's a domino effect. It was good to see Logan when he was here visiting Colleen. I did not get a chance to see Ben, but it sounds like they both had a great time.
    Take Care- Jill

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  2. Oh no, Jill! I hope your laptop recovered. If not, I recommend the one I got. I've only had it a couple of days and I'm lovin' it. Also, be careful who else you tell this story to!

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