Category: School

Good news and bad news.

Good news: Mario got the computer working again with the Restore disks. We can get online, obviously, and that’s good.

Bad news: I lost all my digital pictures from the end of May 2005 up until now. Eenan’s 6th birthday, Mary’s birthday, Elda’s, Annie’s, Yazmin’s 13th, the ones I took just last week of Belinda (Ricci’s daughter’s) party. We lost all of our programs. Some we had backed up, others we didn’t. Lost all my site files but I think I’ve got all of those backed up. I haven’t even really started thinking about what we lost. I don’t even want to think about it. I had a nice, silent crying fit this afternoon as Mario placed Restore disk after Restore disk into the CD drive.

I don’t know what went wrong. I followed that little nerd’s instructions. The only thing I did was set my OS to restart in SafeMode and after that, it didn’t restart AT ALL.

I’ll never, ever rely on my computer again.

Stupid viruses.

Stupid dumb “nerd”.

Anyway…

We spent all day at school working on our study guides for PC Hardware. We have our final on Tuesday. Kimberly, Desi, Ricci, Mayra, Rosie, Lucy and I grouped up and worked together to find the answers. Since we had a substitute, the “other side” of the class hardly did anything, which came as no surprise to anyone . We were pretty pissed to find out that we didn’t actually get a grade for the study guide and the ones who didn’t do anything just wrote the answers in when we were “checking” our answers. Grr.

We had a talk with Lucy and I’m so glad she’s back to her old self. It was so…weird not hanging out with her like we usually do. But yes, she’s back, and I’m happy .

We ate at Jack In the Box (our usual) after school and just talked and laughed like we always do. I love my friends . I couldn’t stand it if one of us left the “group”. I haven’t had friends like this in a long time and I appreciate each one of them. Those who’ve visted me for a few years know the issues I’ve had in the past with friends so having friends like this–friends that you can tell anything to, laugh, joke around with and nobody gets offended–it’s so important to me. I’m a much happier person now that they’re in my life.

I’m in a sappy mood, can you tell? I think it’s my cold. And the fact that I’ve lost everything on my computer for the 2nd time. Or the fact that today was the day Ricky took the kittens . I feel over-sensitive, so can you imagine? I feel like crying every 5 minutes!

Since I’m sick and we’re babysitting Sammy and Brandon (and of course are watching our own kids) we rented a few movies: Monster-in-Law, Desperate House Wives Season 1, Fever Pitch and a free movie, Shark Boy and Lava Girl for the boys to watch. I LOVE Monster-In-Law! 2nd time I’ve watched it and it’s still as funny as the first time. Even Mario and John positively loved it. I turned to my left at the end of the movie and saw John almost crouched into a little ball and Mario’s eyes glistening in the corners. I grab my roll of toilet paper (which I was using to wipe my snot) and offer it to John, then Mario and say, “Aww, you’re crying!”

He scowls and says, “No I’m not!”

“Yes you are!”

He rolls his eyes and says, “I’m just sweating!”

I raised my eyebrow. “You’re…sweating from you eyes?”

I’m proud to say my husband’s so comfortable with his sexuality that he’s not afraid to be in touch with his feminine side .

Oh my throat’s really bugging me. I hope I’m healthy enough to take my final on Tuesday. *gasp* Jennifer had her baby today! I hope everything went smoothly for her. I hope she gets lots of rest; she’s planning to go in on Tuesday to take her final!

Going to download my FTP again. And whatever else I got a chance to salvage from previous back-ups . Thanks to all who left helpful and sympathetic comments !

[edit] As per Jaylen’s request, we’re watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. John, having nothing else to watch (supposedly), is very into the movie. During the part where they’re at a Quidditch match and Malfoy falls off his broom John said, “Repairus my nutsackus!”

He should call up J.K. Rowling and give her a few ideas for spells and charms .[/edit]

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My poor computer’s infected with a virus called Trojan.Vundo. It’s a hijacker/trojan and it’s been making my life miserable. First, it would redirect certain sites (or just pop up at random) to download sites for things like WinFixer and crap like that. Norton never detected it before, but the past few days, every time the computer would boot up, it gave us a warning. We’d just have to click on “Ok” and it would delete it, though. (Or so, we thought it was deleting it.)

Last night, however, Norton kept popping up and just wouldn’t stop. I was actually going to update on time for once and lo-and-behold, something had to come along and screw it up for me. I went to Symantec, downloaded the fix for it, ran it and it’s STILL there! My Norton trial’s about to run out in 4 days–all I know is, after bills we BETTER have enough money to buy a new copy. I’ve been looking up tutorials and stuff to help me get rid of it, but most of the ones I’ve seen ask you to remove lines from the Registry and that looks incredibly scary. I’m afraid to mess something up. I need to back up my computer–at least my pictures and website stuff. You know, I had a feeling last week I should back up my stuff since I hadn’t done so in a while, but never had the time. Why don’t I ever listen to myself?? I should have MADE the time!

I guess I’ll update a little since I’m at school and might not get the chance to update again from home *swallows down the lump in her throat*.

Ricky was going to take the three kittens yesterday . Eenan and Jaylen started crying and making a huge fuss about it, so we felt guilty and decided to give them a few more days with the kittens. I wanted to keep all three myself, but Mario wouldn’t let me and well, I guess we do have enough pets . I just hope Brushka won’t be too depressed when she finds out they’re not there anymore.

I also made a very hard decision: I gave Cookie to Ricky. I felt so bad for him, cooped up in his cage all the time. We didn’t let him out anymore because he was becoming really aggressive, he’d pee everywhere and we couldn’t use his leash on him because he’d bite if we’d try and get him into it. I think it’s for the best. He was too big for his cage and had no room to run around. Ricky lives out in the ranch and they already have a rabbit cage so I think he’ll be just fine. Ricky and Big Mario both reassured me that he’d be well taken care of, and I know he will be. They’re even planning on getting him a girlfriend .

As for the teeth dream, nothing bad happened and nobody I know is um, deceased. Ricci and I did almost get hit by a car who ran a stop sign on the way to Target, but other than that nothing bad happened. I kept reading the type of tooth dream I had had to do with receiving money though. I was thinking I was about to win the lottery, or maybe the contest on Wild 104, but then I remembered Mary had given me $15 and Mom had let me keep her $10 .

As for school, we got to disconnect the wires from the hard drive, floppy drive and CD-ROM drive and them put them back together. Lucy and I were paired and of course we got it right . It’s pretty cool; I’m really liking this course (PC Hardware).

Something’s up with a certain friend of ours and we really don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know what to say, what to think. I keep feeling like we did something wrong. I dunno. I don’t really want to say much about this situation in case anyone reads this.

I guess I should wrap this up. I think we’ll be starting the new chapter soon. Wish me luck with the Trojan thing ! If anyone’s got any advice on things like that, PLEASE, give me suggestions!

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A lot’s happened since I last blogged. As always, as soon as I’d sit down in front of the computer to try and update, I’d remember I had to do something else. So, a summary (which will be long anyway):

Wednesday: Took our Final Exam on Access. I think we started it at 9:00 (or was it 8:30?) and I finished by 10:30. I thought I’d done okay, since it was a pretty difficult exam. I pulled my Harry Potter book out of my backpack and waited for the girls. To make a long story short, I heard sniffing coming from behind me, slamming of books, and at around 11, Ricci came up next to me and told me she was done. She wasn’t and was clearly upset. she was having trouble with her exam and so was Mayra. Their Relationships just weren’t working and that’s what makes the queries, reports and forms work. Poor Lucy’s database kept messing up so she lost her report and form, which I’d clearly seen her finish. After Mrs. C-R and I talked to Ricci in the bathroom, she composed herself and came back to the class to try again. After a while, I started panicking because I thought I’d gone through the exam too fast and *had* to have messed up somewhere.

We got our Exams back a few (painstaking) days later and I got a 96. I usually cry and throw fits if my grade’s anything less than a 98, but I thankfully accepted the grade–I thought I was going to do much worse!

We went to pick Mom up after school and then went grocery shopping that afternoon with Ricci. Dropped Ricci off, came home and took Mom to the Housing Authority to get her an application. The lady at the window told us we could fill out the application, but they wouldn’t be helping anyone till next year, maybe, because they were only accepting people from Louisiana. Just our luck. Mario had stayed home to watch Jaylen while John did his observation and picked Eenan up, too. Mario took a nap while I dropped Mom off, which I was really annoyed about since I hate driving over there alone.

John went in for his observation that morning and to his last class that night. He’s officially a substitute teacher now . Next on his list: his driver’s license.

Thursday: Can’t remember much from that day except that by the end of the day I was exhausted. I’d even forgotten an appointment I’d had that afternoon.

Friday: Was falling asleep in class…

(…Cntd. @ 6:42pm from home…)

Anyway, I was falling asleep in class so I really wasn’t “aware” of what we were learning in Chapter 2. Before we left class Mrs. C-R lets us know we’re having a quiz on Monday, so we might like to study. I totally forgot about this during the weekend.

After school Ricci and I met Mary at Target, where she was picking out her and my gift for Belinda, Ricci’s daughter. I got her a little outfit, so we took it with us so Ricci could dress her up before the party. I took Ricci to get a few things for the party (the piñata down Conway, a few more goodies from H-E-B) and then we went to her house where I’d help her with a few things. We ate lunch (menudo that her grandma made, yum!), and then went outside to find a huge jug for the tea they’d be making. We spent so much time looking for it that I didn’t get to help her with anything else since I needed to pick Eenan up. I picked the kids up, came home, ironed all our clothes and then went back to help her a bit. They sent me to the store to get forks and as soon as I’d gotten back with them Mary called that she was home and ready. Came back, picked her and Sammy and Brandon up and we went back to Ricci’s.

It was a nice party. There were lots of kids there and they all got along really well with Eenan and Jaylen, especially Jaclyn and Natasha, Ricci’s sister and cousin, respectively. Mayra went for a little while with her little girl, Sharlyze, and it was the cutest thing when Belinda and Sharlyze held hands and walked into the dining room together. I got to meet Mayra’s sister and mom, who are both really sweet.

The kids hit the piñata, got candies when it broke open, and then they got candy bags. We sang Happy Birthday to Belinda and ate cake and then we came home.

Saturday: Mary treated us (John included) to Peter Piper for lunch. The kids had so much fun. Mary took Eenan and I took Jaylen and they played the usual games. They both really like skee ball, this other one where you slowly roll a ball to a different colored slot each time, and one where they throw ping pong balls into the bucket that lights up. They got a pretty good amount of tickets, got their prizes and then we got there just in time to eat pizza.

We watched Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit, which was totally much cuter and funnier than I thought it would be. John was in a huff and was scowling the whole time because he couldn’t believe that I was making him watch that “stupid cartoon”, but he was laughing his ass off the whole time. The kids loved it; they thought it was hilarious.

We went to pick Mom up after that and then went to JCPenny, where she was taking John shopping for “professional clothing”. He found 3 shirts and 1 pair of slacks; he actually looks pretty decent when he’s not wearing baggy clothes.

We went to see Gramma after that. We spent time joking around with her and talking about our week. Mary was picked up by Tommy and Yadira while we were there since she was tired. Eenan, who isn’t much of a shopper (just like his father), left with Mary. Mom, John, Jaylen and I went to Target after that since we had time to kill before Mario needed to be picked up.

Or so we thought.

As soon as we got to the parking lot of Target, Mario called and said he was out–40 minutes earlier than what he initially thought. I told him we’d just gotten there–that we’d be over there in 20 minutes. We went around looking for storage boxes and a garment rack for John’s stuff (since his crap’s strewn all over my living room) and checked out the Halloween stuff. Mom got Jaylen a Ninja Turtle costume, some sais and a double-ended sword for Eenan’s ninja costume (that Andy’d bought for him). By the time we got in line at the check out, we’d already been there 40 minutes . Needless to say, I was in a hurry to get to Mario’s workplace since I didn’t feel like being yelled at. I even ran one of those “yield on green to oncoming traffic” signals and could have possibly killed us all. I was so tired my heart didn’t even start racing, as it usually does when I encounter a near-death experience (which are usually not brought on by me, surprisingly). Thinking of it now, it was the most irresponsible thing I’ve ever done while driving. John yelled out, “The OTHER time, you didn’t see the stop sign. THIS TIME, you didn’t even CARE!”

It’s funny to me now, but it was so, so wrong of me. .

We hadn’t eaten since before noon, so mom asked if we’d like to get a bite to eat. We went to this taqueria that Mario had been wanting to go to. He ordered what he’d been craving: tripa tacos and a hotdog wrapped in bacon with pico de gallo in it. Mom and I got steak tacos (which they make just like they do in Mexico!), John got a bacon hotdog and the kids got regular hot dogs. The food was delicious—they even gave us complementary beans, which were the best I’ve ever tasted.

We dropped Mom off after that and made the long commute home. When we finally got home, I helped John set up his garment rack. We hung all the clothes on it and what happens? The darn thing falls apart! We took everything off of it, wheeled it into our bedroom and he started hanging all his clothes on it again. Mario and I lay on the bed and watched John have his crisis with the rack. It was the most hilarious thing I’d seen all day–even funnier than Wallace and Grommit. I was so exhausted that night that I fell asleep right there, in the clothes I was wearing. I didn’t even get to go to Ricci’s second party for Belinda, which was at her ex-in-laws’ house. I was hoping we’d be home much earlier, but I sort of had a feeling that with everything we had to do, we wouldn’t make it.

Sunday: Spent the day cleaning and reading. Took a shower mid-afternoon and then went with Mary, Elda, Sammy, Brandon, Angela, Eenan and Jaylen to the Jamaica, which is a festival/fair type thing that was hosted by the church. They have little games and lots of food. The kids got on the moon jump (which took a total of 40 minutes to stand in line and then have them jump in), played a few little games and we ate nachos and grape soda. All in all, it was a fun night. Yazmin was at the sponge throw getting, er, sponged LOL, and I also saw Ricci’s little sister and her cousin.

Spoke to Ricci that night and apologized for not making it to Belinda’s party. She asked if I’d studied for the quiz on Monday and of course I hadn’t. I’d totally forgotten about the quiz!

Monday: Was relieved to find out Mrs. C-R was giving us 30 minutes to study. I read through the chapter (which was really long) really quick and memorized the key terms. When we got the quiz I jotted down the first thing that came to my head and I was certain I’d gotten everything wrong. To my surprise, I managed to get a 98! .

I went to make Mom’s storage unit payment after school (and got $10 back, woo! Gas money!) and then picked up some cough medicine for Eenan and a few things for Mary. I only found one single brand of medicine, which is generic. What ever happened to the Triaminic soft chews and tongue tape? Was that forward I received actually true? They really did get rid of all the kids’ cough/cold meds?

And now I’m here, stuffing my face with popcorn and waiting to make dinner (should have waited on the popcorn). I tried winning the 30,000 from Wild 104 today but of course I never got through. Well, I did get through once, and then the operator came on to tell me I hadn’t gotten through after all. Grr.

Maybe next time . Oh the things I could do with that money!

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