Computer Saga-Part 2: It Works! We Did It! (Writer's Workshop)

We got a new all-in-one ACER computer that arrived Tuesday and we love it!  After a lot of delays and disappointments with the Dell I ordered (see previous post for details), I found one online at Best Buy.  It was between the ACER windows 7 all-in-one built in or an HP  windows 7 tower and monitor.  The salesman at Best Buy recommended the ACER because the tower and monitors are on the way out.

Best Buy had a on-line order area where they even ordered it for me.  (The guy (Andres) was amazing at multi-tasker who really impressed me.  While he handled my ordering, he was also talking on the phone with other customers and assisting another customer with a pick-up of a big TV.)  This time we had it shipped to my husband's place of employment so we would avoid the delivery problems we had with the Dell and wouldn't have to have it sitting on our porch until we got home from work if UPS just dropped it off.    

Although I was excited to get it set up, I was also a bit doubtful in my abilities so tried making an appointment for a Geek Squad agent to come and set it up for us.  Fortunately, I kept getting the run around with instructions to call different numbers.  When I tried the 800 number, there was a 20 minute hold time so I gave up and tried again later.  This time, there was a 40 minute hold time.  I couldn't resist taking a peek so I opened the box and looked it over.  Then I went to bed.

The next morning (Wednesday), Gerard assisted with getting the stand for the monitor pulled out and I started plugging in the cords.  I had to leave for work before trying to turn it on so yesterday evening, I tried it when I got home and it worked!  I went through the registration stuff and we came up with a password for it that we could both remember easily.  The first thing I did was get the Firefox browser downloaded to use.

It is so much faster than our old one and the screen is almost twice as wide!  This one has the USB port on the side of the monitor where it's easy to use (not in back like the Dell had).  I am so happy that we don't have to fuss with the brightness every time we turn it on like we had to do with our old AOC monitor and am glad we were able to get it to work without spending the $100 for the Geek Squad's assistance.  This morning I was able to get our printer connected but still have some more software to load for my pictures and word processing and must decide if I should keep using the McAffee anti-virus that came with it or switch to the AVG that I just renewed for another year.

Even though it was a stressful week without a computer, I was thankful I could use the library computers.  It was worth the wait!  Romans 8:28 comes to mind that applies to our computer saga which says:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.     

Linking up with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop using the prompt:  Something you bought this month that you love.

What anti-virus do you suggest I use?  Do you love your computer?  Has any scripture come to your mind lately?

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7 Things I Learned This Week--Part 31

Tribe Trades

I am very disappointed in the Indians trades: Cliff Lee for minor leaguers and Victor Martinez for minor leaguers. It's obvious the Indians ball club just doesn't want to pay the big bucks to keep their good players. For more of my thoughts, see Zemeks' Updates. I'll be cheering for Boston the rest of this season!

Facial Animation--Crazy Talk

From Daisy the Curly Cat this week, I discovered how people cat get their pets mouths to move with the words they use when talking for them in a video! There's special software available to use for this called Crazy Talk. Be sure to check out Daisy's Monday Riddle post here for a cute demonstration.

Pink Driver's License

Ohio has changed their driver's licenses to pink! Some men aren't happy with that and some people thought the machine messed up and tried giving it back to get it redone. When one lady got her new license and saw it was pink, she wondered if the men got blue ones--but no. Everyone gets pink now because apparently it's a harder color to copy.

Fly Predators

At Red Pine Mountain since horses make lots of poop, they get lots of flies but they have a solution--they actually buy fly predators! I never heard of such a thing before. Visit Red Pine Mountain to read all about it and see her horse dressed up rolling on the ground!

Biopsy

Had a biopsy on Tuesday. Went well in that they were able to get the right area. Actually took pieces of tissue. Wasn't painful at all since they numbed the area and just went into the breast with a needle, just noisy. Every time the technician went for a chunk it sounded like a big stapler. (The results of my aspiration is that the cysts are not cancerous, now have to wait to hear about the biopsy results).

Best Buy Recycles

While stumbling which I don't do often,I found the Woman's Day site that has lots and lots of useful information. One thing I found out there that especially caught my interest is that Best Buy recycles electronics! Check it out here first, they only take certain things but charge $10 but then give you a $10 gift certificate.

Cleaning Vases

At My Library blog I found a good tip for cleaning those narrow vases that are hard to get to the bottom of. Use a couple Alka-Seltzer tablets!

Keep The Ants Away With A Moat and A Use For That Good China

When I got home from work Friday I was greeted by a slew of ants crawling in my cats' food dish and all over the place mat under it. This was very distressing to me. I wish I could have gotten a picture of all those ants that I came home to, but unfortunately, my digital camera battery died that morning when I tried taking a picture of Manny lying in my wardrobe closet. I grabbed up the dish and squished those little tiny ants as they crawled around in the dish. Every time I stirred it up, I saw some more!!! By the time I got them all and went back to the place mat, most of them were gone but I did get some.

I knew I couldn't spray anything like RAID around in the house because it would hurt my cats. I decided to go to my friends on the Internet through Twitter but didn't get any help there. Then I remembered about http://answers.yahoo.com. You can search for a question and if someone has asked it before, chances are there's several answers to it. Sure enough, other people had the same problem and I found a great answer byKatslookup--not suspended yet.

She said to spray Home Defense around the OUTSIDE of the house, windows, doors, down spouts but also place the bowl inside a larger dish filled with water so there is a moat around the cat's food bowl. Ants can't swim so won't be able to get to it! She said after they realize the food source is no longer available, they will leave.

So, I went looking for a slightly bigger bowl I could use and guess where I found one. In the basement storage closet from among some of the good China that belonged to my parents which we never use. Well, I dug out one of the soup bowls and after killing the spider that was in it and cleaning it up, it worked perfectly. The cats food dish is a good China bowl that belonged to Gerard's parents. (Nothing but the best for our cats!) Anyhow, it works! There have been no ants crawling in the food since, just some on the mat around the bowl now and then which I promptly squish with my fingers.

Can you guess where we went first thing Saturday morning? At 8 a.m. we went up to RiteAid for the RAID. Then Gerard went to the gym and library while I learned football drills for coaching sports camp, then we went hunting for a new battery for my digital camera, finally finding one at Best Buy after trying Radio Shack and OfficeMax with no success. Whew, what a relief! What would I do without my camera to take pictures for my blog posts? We ate lunch at Arby's and then played two sets of tennis at Elmwood Park. After all that, I was just too tired to do it so waited until yesterday to spray.

Have you ever used Yahoo Answers find a solution to a problem? You might want to give it a try. What do you use your good China for?

(For Spunky Doodle's post about this, click here.

Ask And Ye Shall Receive . . . Just Not Right Away!

When the Owens-Corning salesman was here, Gerard asked if they were giving away anything if we decided to have them do our basement. Sometimes companies to give little extra things like when we had our sump pump put in, we got free Indians tickets. The salesman asked him what he'd like and suggested a big screen TV. That got my husband's attention and his eyes lit up! So, sure enough, we got $800 worth of gift cards to Best Buy.

We decided it would be wise to get a TV stand for it first so we have a place to set it up when we bring it home so after checking at Best Buy and Staples, we found one that we think will suffice at WalMart. The next day I had every intention of tackling the job of assembling it. According to the instructions, it should only take an hour. HA! The first piece I pulled out of the box was the top and the corner was damaged. I'm not talking about a little nick either. The whole corner was bent! The instructions specifically stated not to return it to the store, but instead to call a number if any parts were damaged or missing, so I called the next day. Now we have to wait 7-14 days for the replacement part to arrive. Phooey!

As it turns out, we may end up using it on a new computer instead. Still waiting to hear what our computer problem is.