Holy Hades!

You will never believe my streak of bad luck! A week ago my Dell computer started acting up and giving me a very sour message every time I rebooted the darn machine. It turns out my hard drive was going south on a vacation and did not plan to return in my life time. Lucky for me - my extended warranty had 27, yes - 27, days left on it and covered the replacement.

Unlucky for me - the service did not include reinstalling all my programs. WOW! did I ever undergo a quick crash course in computers. I must sing the praises of Norton Ghost program! It work nicely and was easy to use for a novice like me.

Of course, I have only summarized all the pain - and biting of finger nails - that I actually went through in replacing the new drive with all my programs and data. The hardest was reinstalling my DSL server and Wireless Router. Oh boy, was that a treat that I don't want to taste any time soon. I am seriously considering buying a back up remote drive and keeping a historical copy of my system on it. I'd have paid a million so the $250 price tag of a 240GB hard drive does not sound bad to me.

Okay - enough of my complaints. I wanted you to know that I had not been away on the Riviera or something - rather the Chaos had, in fact - taken over my life in a BIG way.

You will be pleased to see the progress on the house. The interior painting in the second guest bedroom and bath was finished this past weekend. The kitchen has been prepared for painting - less a little sanding that still needs to be completed.

The guest rooms should be completed with the floors being stained and waxed this week. I am still having a difficult time locating a replacement fixture for the guest bathroom. I had hoped to have it before they completed the painting (in case, touch up was needed).

I am off to Washington DC this week so updates will have to wait until I return on Friday. Check back to see the progress (hopefully) that I return to find in the kitchen and guest rooms.