Back on track

My dance with Windows 8 was fun but wow am I ever glad to be back to Windows 7. I think this is the first time I have ever retreated from a Windows update. I can see how Windows 8 would be great with a touch screen, and probably even good on a non-touch screen native install. But the upgrade was just one cluster fuck too many. And, when it started messing with my wifi, I knew the band had stopped playing.

The revert was a bit of a twiddle. ASUS has a lovely F9 reset to factory. It's kind of fiddly to get going but I remembered from an old EEEPC how to get it going. It takes about 65 minutes and you are out of the box ready to go again. Except this time not so much. It looked fine but nothing would work.

I downloaded Microsoft Essentials and it wouldn't open at all. Nor would a chrome download. The MS Updates wouldn't update. Clearly there was trouble in River City. So I called ASUS. I was already pissed off and frustrated. I got a very nice guy who listen 'very sorry to hear..' 'i will help you with [a very garbled repeat of what i said my problem was]' and then he told me to do the reset again - that very possibly going from Windows 8 to Windows 7 might have missed a file. Ok.

I did and this time it took only 40 minutes and it worked perfectly. I had the windows updates updated and stuff put back to right before I went to bed. This morning it is so nice to have my old machine back. Plus, I have kind of a little system now for setting up a new machine - meets my requirements and is easy to remember even after a long time. So yeah.

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Laundry is laundrying and the kitchen needs a cleanup - I usually try to clean it up before bed but I would rather go to sleep with a dirty kitchen than a fucked up computer. That tells a tale, yes? Swim class at noon today.

Tree sweaters!!!

Tija just called "the tree sweater lady is starting right now!!! she said she was coming tomorrow but decided to come today!!" She was very excited. I grabbed my camera.

The explain is on Google +.



She said she knits up the pieces on the machine and then wraps the trees and sews them in by hand. She said that most of the sweaters she'll be using this time are from last year's installation in the park. These trees are smaller so she had to do some tailoring but she washed them and is able to re-use. She said she had unraveled some already thinking she'd never need them again. Happily she hadn't gotten to all of them.

Tomorrow she hopes to have elves to help.

LOVE it!

What day is it??

When calendar integrity was critical, I was on it. When it didn't matter, I was cool. Now it's biting me in the ass. I need to find my calendar brain.

For years I worked jobs 24/7 and was the calendar's bitch. Very few minutes were unchoreographed. Then I spent a lot of years working regular hours with Saturday and Sunday off. I always had a feeling of what day it was and for those years alone, it didn't matter. Now I'm not working and I've totally lost it. Totally.

I have very little going on. Swim classes Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Chef Anita comes on the first Tuesday. Amira cleans on the second Wednesday. Seriously, it's really not that much to keep track of.

And so my calendar brain just died.

machupicchu is getting the brunt of it. He's Mr. Calendar and it's not like I ask. I don't need to. I have it written down. On my calendar. I just don't look. We're doing dinner a week from Friday. I spent all day today thinking it was tomorrow.

I asked him about the movies on Saturday and spent a long time trying to noodle if I could take the tree sweater photos I need to tomorrow and still get to both the swim class and the movie. Tomorrow is Friday.

He's very patient but it's driving me nuts.