Monday, Monday

Been checked out for a while since my computer crashed Friday night.  I thought I was going to have to move it out to another room and I wasn't looking forward to that with the thing down, but as it turned out, that wasn't necessary.

Talked to Wendy Saturday morning and found out that we will only have TWO sets of guests at any one time this month.  And why is that good news?  Well, it isn't, actually, but on the other hand, now I won't have to move our office, and that IS a relief.  I can't physically move the furniture myself, and Buddy's back isn't in good shape either.  Truthfully, I think his back may be in worse condition than mine!  And second, since my computer crashed on Friday, if I had moved everything out of the office before restoring it, I wouldn't have been able to tell whether I had things plugged back in correctly or not -- it's hard enough to hook everything up when everything IS working!  

As a matter of fact, I spent most of the weekend restoring the computer.  Fortunately, when you get a computer with Windows 7, you can record disks that will return the disk to the original format.  I tried first to just replace parts of it, but nothing worked and in the end, I DID have to go all the way back to the original disk set-up, i.e. NO personal info left on there any longer.  Fortunately, I do have not just one but TWO online backups.  One would think that it would be extremely simple to replace the missing files in that case, but in fact, it's not.  I didn't want to replace all the programs because I had just ordered new software - MS Office 2010 AND WordPerfect X5.  So I just wanted to download the related files.  Fortunately, most of my files are stored on an external drive, NOT on the "C" drive, but there were some that I needed to replace.  Let me just say that the Mozy online backup is useless for that.  Since they were the outfit that I've had saving my data for several years, I went there first and tried to replace my missing data until about 3 AM Saturday morning, but never managed to get it done.  So I went over to MyPC.com -- the company I enlisted just a couple weeks ago.  I was planning to switch to them because you can access documents from anywhere from them and even allow others to access things.  I haven't tried that yet, but I had no trouble downloading the docs I needed from them.  So Mozy is history from now on!

I definitely recommend MyPCbackup.com for online backup instead of Mozy.  No doubt about it.  For one thing, MyPCbackup.com will store ANY amount of data for one reasonable price, and second, when you go to the website and look at your data, it's arranged just as it is on your computer so you can actually FIND anything you need to replace.   You have to notify Mozy that you need a backup and they send you a file key to allow you to download "ONE" document containing everything.  And it takes forever to do it.  The only way you can see the individual files is to have them send them to you on DVD . . . for a "mere" $170!!  NO THANKS!  Soooo glad I had signed up for MyPCbackup.com when I did!!

So other than dealing with my computer, there's really very little I will HAVE to do before company comes next weekend.  Thankfully, Lisa is going to come help me clean the whole place on Friday before Vickie and John get here Saturday.   
  

As for this weekend, while they were here Saturday, Buddy ran that leaf vacuum all afternoon and REALLY cleared up the pasture.  Now the leaves are all gone, the grass back there is visible again, and the horses will actually be able to graze safely again. 

Oh - and speaking of "grazing safely," he also cut all those bushes along the front fence line all the way to the ground so Duke won't be eating holly (and stretching out that fence while he does it) anymore.  And by the time they grow back (and this is Louisiana -- they WILL grow back), Mark will have moved that fence back far enough that Duke can't reach them anymore.

So the place is in pretty good shape now.  I really enjoy seeing the horses out grazing in the pasture again now. 

Oh - on Saturday I went over to Petsmart to pick up some dog food.  Now I did notice that there was all kinds of traffic out there, but I drove in and parked near the store without much trouble, and it only took about 20 minutes to get the dog food and get ready to head home.  Ha!  THAT is when it got complicated.  It took well over an HOUR just to get out of the mall parking lot!!!  I could not BELIEVE it!!  I'll tell you what - I will NOT be going out to buy anything until at least February!   If I need something, it's going to be coming from Amazon via UPS, and NOT from the mall!!


Today when I came in to work I expected to have the new computer in place but nope -- not yet.  I'm told it will happen tonight.  I hope so.  When I bought that new Office 2010, they e-mailed me a code so I could download it without waiting on the disks to arrive so I've been using it at home since yesterday.  Have to say, I have always HATED Word, but the new one isn't bad.  In fact, I actually LIKE it.  I'm really looking forward to having it on my office computer.  I do prefer WordPerfect and use that for documents I originate, but I have to use Word for documents we get from inventors over at LSU since that's what they use and it tends to screw the documents up when you convert them back and forth.  So I'll be happy to have that new version here soon.


I hope.


Well, today's short lunch is over so I better get back to work.


Tomorrow will be a nice looong lunch - the Paralegal Association Christmas luncheon.  Looking forward to that one!