Category: Gadgets

Thurs., Feb. 5th – I took a break from nesting and literally spent the whole damn day trying to get rid of that gotdamn virus. I wanted to have a nervous breakdown every half hour. I found out the darn thing is a Trojan that sticks itself to media files, which is really annoying. Once you open it in Windows Media player it tries to access bad sites on the web, or something like that. I followed all the steps and even the darn excuse for a “remover” Norton created didn’t work. Instead of freaking out though, I took my time checking and scanning all my folders and getting all my pics and anything non-media onto my 8gig pin drive (thank God for Noey and Andy and their brilliant Christmas present!) and two cds. I had to restore back to the original settings and wipe my hard drive clean *sigh*.

Fri., Feb. 6th – I spent the morning getting some of my programs back onto the laptop. I was feeling apprehensive because all I planned to do since I found out on Thursday that we had the virus was to get caught up on my blog and Flickr. I kept thinking how Emily could be here any minute and I was still super behind on everything! But first the virus happened, and then even after I wiped my hard drive clean I now had to reinstall everything!

Stupid Norton wouldn’t let me activate it because I’d supposedly used it the number of times we’re allowed. I got in one of the chat rooms at the Norton site and chatted with a tech about my problem. I told him this was the exact same computer I’d used it on before and still had 225 days left. It took a while, and he couldn’t access my laptop remotely, but he got everything working. Sanjil, you’re my hero!

We were supposed to have a movie night but then we found out that Mario’s external hard drive (the one where Jorge had transferred a bunch of movies to) also had that darn Trojan in it. I told him all he had to do was back up the non-infected, non-media stuff but we ended up snarling at each other and Mr. No Patience just wiped his whole hard drive clean! Without even checking the picture folders and stuff like that! What if he’d backed up pictures from his SD card that I didn’t have?!

Then I got into an even worse mood when he tells me that he’s going to drink with Adan. I figured I’d just spent time updating then. I got online to check our expenses and find out Mario’s friggin’ paycheck bounced…that wasn’t deposited till 3 days after he gets paid! I couldn’t fucking believe it. We’ve never been negative that bad in our LIVES.

So I stewed in that bad pot of news for a while and then told myself to forget it, I don’t need to stress myself out. I plug my 8gig pin drive into the computer and when I click on the Word file containing my snippets of entries, it tells me it can’t find the file. OMFG…I wanted to kill someone. I took a deep breath, prayed, clicked on it again and there it was. Weird. But at least that worked out for me that evening.

We woke up late again due to being up all night watching movies. Big Mario had already given the boys breakfast, which was awesome and no wonder that they didn’t wake us up for food.

I cleaned some more and did laundry most of the day. Mario washed all the cars and bathed the dog. We all got ready and dropped Mom off at H-E-B so she could do her grocery shopping in peace and we went to Long John Silver’s with the kiddos for a late lunch. Alaethia was a bit moody, but I blame that on the cold that was still sort of lingering. When we were done eating we went to Target and had a mini shopping spree. Very mini, because I didn’t find the curtains I needed another pair of for my bedroom, nor did we get the rug for Alaethia’s room. She still had the boys’ Home Depot City rug they’d play with their Hotwheels on.

We did get the 500gig external for $77.77, but it wasn’t the actual one that was in the ad. I’d called before we’d gone over and asked if they had any available and the girl in electronics said yes, there were plenty. I explained that we lived far away and it would still be a while till we’d get over there, and can one be held for us. She said there was no need, there were plenty. It always happens that when I need to know the name of the person I spoke to, I don’t ask for it. Grr.

Well, when we were looking for the external there were NONE. I was so pissed, but I kept my temper. The guy helping us was actually really sweet and got a manager on the phone and everything. The manager was going to come talk to us, but he was so busy he just told the guy to go ahead and let me pick another harddrive that was the same size, whichever brand I wanted. So we got a thin WD harddrive :).

We picked Mom up and then chilled out at home. I actually got a chance to scrapbook a page at night. I’m almost due to give birth to Emily and I was barely finishing up Alaethia’s page from when I was pregnant with her. I have so much scrapbooking to catch up with, just like Flickr and my blog!

Adan showed up here, drunk as a skunk. He chilled out while Mario and I started moving stuff from my old external (which’ll now be Mario’s) into my new 500gig. Then Mario took him to pick up his ticket, which he’d left at work. I don’t know how on earth he managed to drive himself home in the first place. How dangerous! Mario was supposed to be in bed early since he was dropping Adan off at the airport the next morning, but of course, my husband doesn’t know what “early” means, heh.

What good is technology if it’s only going to mess up and make you feel like you’ll curl up and die? My brand-new hotpink iPod (birthday present from Mario!) froze and lost my music last night. Stayed up downloading songs till midnight for NOTHING. Then today, after almost having a coronary trying to figure out how to split up the bills, I decided to back-up the 500+ pictures I’d been taking with my Centro–and the damn micro SD card FRIED. Nothing’ll read it at all; I’m so depressed. I had all these cute pictures of the kids that I’d take out of the blue when I didn’t have my Kodak with me and now they’re GONE.

At least I figured out how to use my ringer-maker for the Centro *sigh*.

On a lighter note, I was a spoiled, appreciated administrative professional this week. The school gave us all a beautiful plant arrangement (which I left at work! Oh no, I hope it’s still alive when I go back on Monday!!), Mrs. V. gave me an awesome goodie basket, our administrators took us out to eat on Wednesday at Remington at the Embassy Suites (where Vero found a fingernail in her chicken salad, but other than that it was fab!), and today the dance teacher gave us earrings, Mrs. R. gave us a beaded bracelet and earring set, they brought us McDonald’s and Pan Dulce, the diagnostician gave us Ferrero Rocher Chocolates and a huge Symphony bar and Mrs. V. let me leave for 2 hours to make it to the boys’ awards assembly! It was awesome. They got their awards and danced afterwards to the Cha-Cha Slide and the Chicken Dance. I’m so glad my boss is so understanding and totally about parenting. She’s seriously such a great person :).

We had probably the most awesome Pep Rally I’ve ever been to in my life. The teachers had been planning this huge event for the kids, where THEY’D be preforming. Our kiddos (not all, but most) aren’t too enthusiastic about stuff like Pep Rallies, but they were tearing themselves apart with laughter and excitement! Shoot, I was, too! They took video, which I hope they’ll add to the Video Yearbook. It was just too damn awesome.

We’d been swamped with work the past week and I’m actually glad that I made up an extra hour and a half after work (for the 2 hours I’d spent at the assembly) because I got to catch up with all my work. I dread the coming weeks; the internet’s so slow that it stalls everything. Especially during advisory period. Ugh. I hate to even think of it!

Anyway. Alaethia’s talking so much more now! She turned 15 months yesterday. She learned how to say Bimpa properly (before she’d say Bia). And she says the boys’ names clearly and has learned tons of other things. And she calls Mario “Babe”, probably from hearing me all the time LOL. She’s just so smart. She won’t sit down anymore; she’s like a tornado these days. I’m still waiting for her to sleep completely through the night, but I’m thinking it’ll be another 9 months before that happens (when she turns 2 LOL).

Gosh, I’m tired. I think Eenan finally passed out. He’s grounded for “excessive talking” at school and for kicking Jaylen in the balls yesterday, so he didn’t get to sleep over at his Nana’s. He’d been asking me every 5 minutes if he could “sleep over now,” but he hasn’t bothered me in about 10 minutes so he must be asleep. That, or he forgot.

Okay. I’m too tired. I have tons of stuff to do tomorrow but I don’t want to go anywhere. Can you believe the gas?! That’s fucking ridiculous. Gas is $3.44 over here right now, and they’re expecting to rise 20 cents this weekend. Shit. I should have gotten gas tonight!