IT'S FIXED!

OK - I can't believe it, but Toshiba has finally fixed my computer! It's a miracle! As you recall, the rocket scientist that worked on it the first time replaced everything internally he could replace (motherboard, dvd drive, hard drive and battery), sent it back to me, only to have it completely crash within minutes. Well, this time a "senior-level repair team specialist" checked out the system and discovered it was.............. are you ready for this ..................... the a/c adapter cord (i.e. cord that plugs into the wall)! So, Toshiba replaced all my computer's internal components for who knows how much $$ - only to discover it was a $20 item - if it cost even that much! You just gotta love it! On the bright side, the computer runs better now than before it crashed - but then it could be because it's got all new insides! So anyway, I shall be posting photos of the kiddos soon - well as soon as I get all my software reloaded onto the computer again. yippee.

Took Katie to her 2nd ballet/tap class yesterday. She had an absolutely ball! She loves doing her tap/ballet and she's pretty good at it for a 3 year old. She can already do 1st position and straighten her leg and point her toes! Woohoo! LOL! Zachary was all embarrassed and was really dreading going to her ballet........until we got there and he saw all the cute girls in leotards! Now HE can't wait until her next class!

Football

Ok - so I have to post about Zachary's Saturday morning football practice. I'd post photos but have no way to do that since that P.O.S. for a computer is back at Toshiba. Anyway, they decided to teach the kids to scrimmage - flag football style. Meaning - no tackling, just "2-handed touch". Yeah right - they are 4-5 year olds - tackling is their hobby. So Zachary being a pretty big 5 year old is set as the (nose) tackle (?) - where he's trying to get to the quarterback through the center. Unfortunately for the center, he's half Zachary's size but says "I can do it - I want HIM!". So Mike and I think "Wow! That kid's another Rudy!" (you know, from the movie "Rudy"). The ball gets snapped, the kid grabs hold of Zachary's shirt (ok, that's holding but tell that to a 4 year old), Zach tries to push him off, so the kid holds on tighter. So my sweet, loving son - in the spirit of football, mind you - grabs hold of the kid by the shoulders and slams him to the ground, jumps over him and runs to get the running back. The center is laying on the ground crying, mom is horrified, dad says "welcome to football", Zachary says "Huh, I got you", and the coach says "get up son - there's no crying in football". I was a bit freaked out - but the dad of the kid told him pretty much the same thing and told me this was "what football was all about". Alrighty then. After that play, the coach decided that Zachary was such a good runner he'd try him at running back. That child ran like he was being chased by a pack of wild animals and scored 2 touchdowns. Of course, it did help that the kids would get mad at one another and tackle each other rather than let the kid in the lead catch him! Zach was so excited though he never did his end-zone dance that he's been perfecting, he just said "Hey Mom! I scored!" - Mike about choked and the guy next to him said (while laughing hysterically) "Yup, looks like it's just inbred into them to thank mom!". I thought about saying (but didn't) "Hey moron - guess it has to do with all that morning sickness, weight gain, swollen hands/feet, labor, breastfeeding for a year, being tinkled/poohed/thrown-up on - not to mention the many times of being up all night when he's sick, countless doctor visits, middle of the night emergency room runs, and on and on and on!". Ah well - Zachary did at least come over and get a "high-five" from dad. And Mike's chest certainly was all puffed up with pride afterwards. Ya gotta love football - the male-bonding experience begins early! LOL!

Toshiba

So the rant continues......... Toshiba sent my computer back to me this week in it's "fully operational" condition.........yeah right! Within 2 minutes - literally - it started screwing up all over again. I thought "surely not!" - they wouldn't have kept this thing for 3 WEEKS, made repairs and not have tested it prior to shipping it back. I figured it might just be that the battery needed to charge, since it was brand new, and might be fouling things up a bit. So, I closed it up and left it to charge overnight. 18 hours later the battery showed it was fully charged, so I turned it on and sure enough - almost instantly - it shut itself down and crashed. You can guess my reaction - I'm pretty sure it started with "Son-of-a-B*#*$!" (but can't quite remember as I seemed to have blacked out due to the lack of oxygen going to my brain from my screaming).......and kept going for at least 10 seconds as I tried to restrain the urge to fling the piece of crap out of the 2nd story window! So, I called Toshiba and they just couldn't understand it because their paperwork showed the tech tested the unit. My rear-end he tested it! Anyway, they told me that they never, under any circumstance, replace a defective unit - they only repair them - and that I'd have to send the unit back to them for repair. I asked the "case manager" (because my case got elevated since I was so ticked) if I send it back to the "repair depot" and they say they can't fix it - then what? She then said that they'd replace it with the exact same type of unit. "Huh? You just said you never, under any circumstance, replace a defective unit?" Her response: "Only if the repair depot says it's not reparable". So I sent it back - but I sit here wondering if the double-talk I got from the "Manager" is rampant throughout the Toshiba company and if they just didn't send me my computer back with the same components it had to begin with.

Ah well, if nothing else, the woman at the UPS store did "ask" if the unit was insured against falling, dropping or other breakage........... uh, come to think of it - yes - as a matter of fact it is.......... hmmmmmmmm......................................... Needless to say, Toshiba is not a company I will recommend to anyone in search of a new computer - their repair/customer service dept. stink.

Anyway, next week is our first parent/teacher conference for Zachary. I somewhat dread this. I've never been a fan of measuring a child's abilities to a scale that has been created by some person or thing - of which you have no clue. Not to mention having to wonder about how "good" my child acts in class and how "helpful" he really is. Ah well, no pink slips or whispered 'Can I have a quick word with you' from the teacher in quite a while - so it can't be that bad - can it?!

Mike and I have been working very hard this week to lose weight. My mom sent me a diabetic cookbook several years back when Mike was labelled a "pre-diabetic" or something like that. The dietician I saw a couple of months ago suggested that maybe I should try some recipes from it and see how we like it as the diet would be a great way to lose weight quickly. Not only that, but her suggested diet for me was very similar to a diabetic's diet approach and it might just be easier than having to try to come up with things on my own. I broached the subject with Mike this past Sunday and was astonished. He was all for trying it! So, as of Tuesday - we hit the book and I am happy to report that this week I have lost 3 pounds and Mike has lost 5 pounds - which puts both of us under a milestone - 159 for me (haven't seen that in over a year) and 269 for Mike (sure it's been about the same time frame for him). Not only that, but the food is really, really good! I can honestly say that I never, in a million years, would have thought that mixing lean ground beef and ground white-meat turkey would actually be better tasting than ground beef alone! I guess you can teach this old dog new tricks! I'm trying out the oven-fried chicken tonight - it's done with Rice Krispies. But hey, I made oven baked Chicken Parmesan that was just as good as my pan-fried version, Old-fashioned Beef, Tomato and Macaroni, and Turkey Cutlets with Cherry sauce - so I'm hoping this falls under the same yummy category. Rice Krispies and Chicken just don't seem like such a good combo - but hey, neither did corn flakes and chicken and that turned out great.

Still In Withdrawal

Ok - so you'd think that after having my computer for 2 weeks Toshiba would have fixed it by now - but like me, you'd be wrong. For some reason, the manufacturer is having to order parts, wait for them to arrive, only to discover that something else is wrong. It's the manufacturer for gosh sakes - and they don't have parts on-hand? What the heck???? Well, after replacing the mother board, cd/dvd drive and the battery pack, the only original thing left is the hard drive - and guess what? The piece of crap still ain't working! Surely by now, they have come to the same conclusion I have - throw the hunk of junk under a bus, jump for joy as it is flattened into oblivion and ship me a new computer already!!! Apparently I have been blessed with the over-achieving computer technician who is trying to save the company money and gain brown-nosing points by repairing this "piece". Arghhh....

Anyway, life has been interesting. Took Katie with me to the grocery store, as usual since I do believe the umbilical cord has never been cut, and while we were walking down the canned soup aisle, a very - shall we say "obese"? - woman came around the corner driving one of those electric ride-on carts. Considering the number of grossly overweight people in this city, it was nothing out of the ordinary..............until she stopped in the middle of the aisle - too far away from the canned soup to easily reach out and grab one. So as she leaned, grunted and stretched, we heard the tell-tale sound of .......the passing of gas. I thought "surely not!" - she's got 5 women around her and she's sitting on a cheap piece of vinyl so it was probably giving way and making woopie-cushion noises as she stretched. Of course, my darling, sweet daughter thought otherwise and immediately grabbed her neon-green shirt and pulled it over her nose and mouth while shouting at the top of her lungs "EWWWWW!! SOMEBODY TOOTED!!". Ah well, at least she didn't use her brother's favorite word "fart". Immediately mortified I quickly said "No Katie, it's just her chair squeaking". The woman drove off and the stench hit us all full in the face and one of the other women quickly said "Nope, your daughter's got it right! We'd better run for it!!". Holy Moly! We all scattered faster than a flock of frightened birds!! I'm beginning to wonder if it really is worth the discount to shop at Walmart!

Withdrawal!!!!

I hate computers - and yet I miss mine terribly!!! My computer died - and I mean dead as a doornail - a couple of weeks ago and I am now without a computer and borrowing Mike's laptop from work - thank you honey!!! I called Toshiba when it died and the service tech within about 2 minutes of trying various avenues to get the computer to turn on, finally said "Uh, oh. You've got a big, big problem." I wanted to say "Ya' think Einstein? Gee, I had an extra 30 minutes to blow while sitting here eating bon bons with my feet propped up, so I thought I'd call your service hotline and sit on hold just to pass the time!" - but I didn't. The tech sent me to Circuit City to see if they could trouble shoot it - because what? they obviously would be able to try something that the person on the phone couldn't do? So, gee with all my spare time - why not?! So, I drove over on a Saturday (because that's when it died) down our main shopping drag in town (and it's a small-town nightmare of stoplights every 30 feet), only to wait in line for the 1 computer tech on duty for 30 minutes (and because it's the weekend before the University of IL starts, they know they will have much more traffic so they scheduled only 1 tech for the store that day? So what they hope to drive off the few customers they have left? Morons.). So anyway, after standing there for what felt like an eternity with all the college kids, (and gee thanks for calling me "Mam" so I can feel a thousand years old) they finally got around to me. Ok, and since I'm ranting here, if you are in college does that mean the manufacturers reduce the amount of fabric in their articles of clothing - because I saw skirts so short you could see the girl's fannies hanging out - ok, actually cheeks here (and by the way - don't wear a thong if you wear a skirt that short - and especially if you would be designated as "overweight" by your personal physician!) and boys whose pants were so tight you could see every bump and bulge. Gross! Ok - so after having my lunch appetite killed by the parade of half-naked kids, the tech spent half a second and said it was a hardware issue and "Circuit City wasn't authorized to repair that and it had to be sent to Toshiba. Next!" Great. Thanks for all your hard work. So, I then got to go out to the car and call Toshiba on my cell phone for them to authorize my computer to be sent to them for repair. Oh and gee, since I had some more spare time I then had the honor of taking the worthless piece of crap to the UPS store, because Circuit City wasn't an authorized shipping destination! At this point, it took all I could do not to stick the laptop under my van and back over it while cackling hysterically!! I've envisioned it every day since - even expanding on the dream to include it as the guest of honor for a party - a "Let's obliterate the computer" party! You know, the party store does have computer themed partyware!! hmmmm..... Anyway, after a few u-turns I finally figured out where the UPS store was and dropped off the hunk of junk for them to ship. It's now been in their hands for a week and they've discovered it has a bad "system board". Whatever the heck that is - but my guess is - it has no brains. Great - I've finally rubbed off on my computer and caused all brain matter to be sucked out - ok, so maybe it wasn't me - maybe it was my kids..........................