AUGH!

Just before I left work on Thursday--for doctor's appointment, then to head home, to pack, organize, relax before leaving for RI early Friday morning: the motherboard on my work computer crapped out. Couldn't turn the computer on. No access to hard drive, where oh-so-much of my treasured information lives. Now I'm working from a laptop for 2 weeks until my new computer arrives. Can't load anything on this computer, can't play with it, must leave it as sterile as it was when I got it.

Here's the real downside: I've lost all of my email addresses. ALL of them. So I need to have all of my faithful blog followers (if there are any) send me their email addresses. If you have 2 , please send them. Book groupers please send as many of them as you have. Barb, send me both of yours, please. Even Molly and Jenica need to send me yours. See, I had everything loaded so that all I had to do was type the first letter or two and BINGO! there you'd all be. I never needed to know your addresses, like speedial on a phone. So thanks for your help.

Easter weekend was nice. Weather not so nice--40's with cold wind. I got there mid-afternoon on Friday, plenty of time to relax and visit. Saturday Liza and I ran a few errands but mostly visited. Mark had just returned from a week in the Bahamas, staying on the small island of Eleuthra in a friend of a friend's house where there was a 2-mile long private beach, so we talked a lot about that. Oh, how nice it sounded! We had delicious cold-water lobsters Saturday night and watched The Devil Wears Prada. Much discussion afterward about whether an actor should be nominated for an Oscar if the performance was good but the movie sucked. Determination: probably not, but maybe exceptions could be made. Not in this case, however.

Sunday we lazed around until afternoon, when we did Easter baskets with our cocktails (frozen daiquiries made with newly acquired blender), then Liza's delicious dinner. All very relaxing, companionable and nice. My dogs love going there, couch is nice and big, Tina bullies them but in the end they all like being together. Tina is my mother's dog, of course. This visit Tina spent a lot of time nudging me to pet her. A LOT of time. Basically she's a not very nice, semi-aggressive dog but she does have her moments.

I left Monday at 10:30 and had a fine trip home. I'm listening to an Iris Johansen book. Never read her, don't particularly care for her but it was entertaining enough to keep me awake. Not much traffic or many assholes on the road.

Home to Arctic conditions. About 4" of snow, 30 degrees, house was 53. 2 fish dead. Took a long time to get the house up to 64. Snow still there today. They plowed the road and pushed a bunch of mud around in my driveway. We're supposed to/may get a whole bunch of snow tomorrow. The tips of my optimistic little crocuses are dark brown and sad-looking. They may recover, but even if they don't I think there are enough to come up and bloom still. Heard a red-winged blackbird this morning, which is an absolute sign of spring (how deceiving!). Also have tree sparrows at the feeder, hopping on the ground to scare up some seed. Also house finches. These are all good signs, but reality bites.

Bought replacement fish last night, paper bag over my head so no one would recognize me. One of the rasboras had a rough time in transit, or was damaged when netted at the store because it was dead this morning. Now THERE'S a death I cannot be blamed for. I put it in the freezer and will get a new, free one tomorrow. The male guppies are spectacular colors and swim really fast so I think sometime, after some future deaths I'll get some of those. I think I may have better luck with them. Or maybe I should just get some plastic fish.

Have done very little work yesterday and today because there have been a lot of problems with this computer. Trouble logging into automated system, staying on automated system, logging onto Web, staying on Web, locking up, not being able to logon--oh, the list goes on and on. I've spent a lot of time wandering around the building, visiting with everyone and killing time. Can't catalog without computer and access to automated system. I did weed the paperbacks, though.

Onward and upward.