Wednesday, February 21, 2007

An Eventful Week

Meg had a pretty rough day Sunday. Her medication hadn't really started to work yet, and every time the poor little thing moved, she yelped. I felt so sorry for her. Monday was much better, thank goodness, and she was moving around really well last night. I hope to find her as much improved when I get home from work today.

I stayed in Sunday and Monday (a holiday for me). The weather was icky, and I was worried about Meggie, so I just read, rested, and watched some TV with her snuggled up on my lap. My wireless adapter for TiVo arrived on Friday, but I didn't receive my wireless router until yesterday, so I couldn't even get my TiVo set up over the weekend.

However, I was delighted to find my router waiting at my door for me when I got home yesterday. I hooked it up, got it configured, and hooked up the TiVo adapter with no problem at all. I initially had a little problem getting TiVo to connect to the TiVo servers, but that didn't take long to fix. Because I'd been disconnected from the computer for so long, it took a little while to get the updates loaded, but not too long.

I'm delighted with the signal strength and was very happy with the transfer rate when I was moving some CSI episodes to the computer. So far, so good!

Tonight I need to burn some CSI episodes to DVD so I can take them to Lesa when I go visit. (Mom, Dad and I are going down Sunday for a few days.) I also need to start working on doing some packing for the trip. I hate to pack. I probably wouldn't mind it so much if I was better at it. I checked weather.com yesterday to see what the weather prediction says for our time in Mississippi. It looks like it's going to be sunny and warm, compared to what we've had lately. Having said that, though, I'll have to say that today is unusually warm compared to what we had Saturday and Sunday! Right now it's in the high 50's....that about 35 degrees warmer than it was Saturday!

Eeek....lunch break's over.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A Trip to the Vet


A snowy cold Saturday was a good excuse to light a fire. *aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh* MeggieDog and I had a rough Friday night. She was limping badly and yelped a bit everytime she moved her left front leg. She'd had a big lump right behind that leg for some time, and I was concerned that the lump had developed into a real problem.

I called the vet's office, and they told me to bring her in this morning at 9:15. Naturally, we spent a fairly sleepless night. By bedtime, she couldn't walk, sit, stand, or lie still comfortably. When the vet saw her this morning, he said that the lump was (thankfully) a lipoma; just a fatty tumor that's not an immediate problem. The pain in her leg was caused by osteoarthritis. So, she's on a course of anti-inflammatories for a few days. *whew*

After I got back from the vet's office, I went to visit Mom and Dad for a bit. We were visiting after lunch when a light snow started. It quickly developed into a fast-falling, fine snow. I came on home earlier than I'd planned and was surprised to find that the road was already covered in several places. I didn't have any problems getting home, though. I just heard a snow plow in the parking lot, so it must still be snowing. Figures. We finally get a measurable snow, and it's on the Saturday of a three-day-weekend for me. *sheesh*

Friday, February 16, 2007

TGIF

I'm always glad to see Friday roll around, but today I'm especially glad. It's sunny outside but awfully cold (22 deg. F right now). My office, as always when it's cold outside, is really uncomfortably cool. I have faith that it will warm up about June.

This is a three-day weekend for me. The office will be closed Monday for President's Day. I'm hoping I'll have my wireless router and adapter in time to spend Monday connecting TiVo to my computer again. I have several episodes of CSI (and the movie "The Elephant Man") on TiVo that I need to transfer to the computer so I can burn DVD's. I've recorded all of them at a high-quality resolution, so they use up a lot of my TiVo drive space if I don't transfer them to the computer pretty often. I should probably get a bigger TiVo, but the one I have works fine, and I rarely run into space issues. I already record more stuff than I have time to watch anyway. *L*

Ah, lunch break is over. Guess I'd better get back to posting leave records. Whee.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

I've Had About Enough of February

Remember my last post, when I said I needed to make a Wal-Mart run to get a new adapter for my TiVo? That Wal-Mart run was an exercise in futility!!!

First things first. On Sunday, I was down all day with a migraine. Miserable, grumpy, and IN PAIN. When I woke up Monday morning, I still didn't feel well, but I was able to go to work, at least.

While I was doing nothing on Sunday I began thinking about the adapter for my TiVo. From window-shopping on the internet, I knew that I was going to wind up spending about $30 for a replacement for the ethernet adapter I'd broken. Why not treat myself to a wireless router and wireless adapter? That way, I could move the TiVo into the living room (where I've wanted it for a long time) without having to figure out how to run an ethernet cable to connect it to my computer. I did a little more window-shopping and found that I should be able to set myself up with a wireless connection for $100 or so.

After work on Monday, I went to Wal-Mart, fully expecting to be able to buy a wireless router and wireless USB adapter. Imagine my surprise when I found that they only had two models of routers and both were at least $20 more than I'd priced them for on Amazon.com. They didn't even HAVE a wireless USB adapter. In desperation I thought that maybe I'd replace the ethernet adapter for the time being, and go wireless later. They didn't even have an ethernet adapter!

That Wal-Mart used to be my main one-stop-shopping source. They recently "reorganized" their stock. Now no one, including the employees, can find ANYTHING. *grrrrrrrrrrrrrr* Their computer accessories department (in which I've spent a LOT of money in the past) is now down to a few pathetic items and a lot of overpriced ink cartridges.

I left Wal-Mart and went to Office Depot. They had a much better selection of routers and adapters, but were still pricier than Amazon.com. I stopped by K-Mart; believe it or not, our local K-Mart's computer accessories consisted of a few packages of paper and a few outdated printers. Sad. Just plain sad. I can hardly wait for them to open the now-being-constructed Target in our area.

So, to make a long story short (tooooooo late!!), I came home, got on the internet, and ordered the router and adapter from Amazon. I'll have to wait a few days for it, but overall I wound up saving $35. For that kind of savings, I can wait.

Tuesday, the migraine was back in full force. I took a couple of Tylenol PM's and spent the day sleeping to try to get back to normal. It worked, thank goodness. I was able to go back to work Wednesday.

After work Wednesday, I decided that since TiVo isn't connected to my computer now, I'd go ahead and move it to the living room. I moved it and my newer DVD/VCR combination unit to the living room and moved the older DVD player and VCR back to the bedroom. What with unplugging, dusting, and replugging, it took me awhile to get it all set up.

Now I'm just waiting for my wireless equipment to arrive. I adore TiVo and wish I could justify the expense of having a second unit for the bedroom.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

A Clumsy Saturday


Why do I say it's been a "clumsy" Saturday? Well, for starters, I decided that today was the day I was going to move my stereo from my bedroom to the living room. So, I unplugged the components and removed them from the glass-doored stereo cabinet and moved them into the living room.

I'd been using the top of the stereo cabinet as a stand for my TiVo and DVD/VCR combination in the bedroom. Rather than unplug those units, I decided to just slide them over onto an adjacent chest of drawers. Bad move. I didn't allow enough room behind the TiVo unit for the ethernet adapter to clear the wall. Crunch. *grrrrrrrrrrrrrr* Now my TiVo is without a connection to my computer until I make a WalMart run to buy a new adapter.

So, mentally kicking myself, I went into the living room to clean the stereo cabinet and reconnect the components, cleaning as I went. When I connected the turntable and began cleaning it, I managed to ruin the stylus.

In total disgust with myself, I came to the computer to find out what my day's damage will wind up costing me. It looks like a $50 will cover the bill. Still, $50 seems pretty steep to spend a Saturday at home!

So, I felt better after talking with Kris on Skype; she'd had a rough morning, too, though. So now it's nearly 9:00 pm and I just realized I've not stopped yet for dinner. Dumb. I think I'll eat dinner, take a warm, relaxing bath, and call it a night!