Really. A lot of driving, but I enjoy driving.
To home, pick up Oldest, then to UAB, drop Oldest in lobby and make sure where she's going to be at the pickup time, back to home, get gas, go to in-laws' house, install computer, leave and go back to UAB, park right in front of building, walk in with five minutes to spare, collect Oldest, listen to her jabber excitedly and complain about being hungry, stop at McDonald's for sustenance for her (but not for me), drive home and listen to her eat, which sounded like a hog at a trough. In fairness to her, I have noticed very few teenaged girls with any sense of table manners, the open-mouthed smackchew seeming to be the default mode.
Heaven knows I've badgered her enough about having some semblance of couthness to her, but she (and other teenaged girls, too) seem to think holding their cutlery like clubs, hunkering over their plates like prison inmates, and devouring their food like ravening kinkajous makes them look mature. ::sigh:: But as I told Reba after we got home, I didn't say anything, because she was excited about how rehearsal went, and further, my resolution for 2006 is to be nice. Nice nice nice. No matter how much my innards seeth in a stew of bile, my outward demeanor will be as sunny as June Cleaver's. Yay me! NICE ME!
Not really.
I just figured it was the wrong place and wrong time to get into the expectations polite society places upon its members. And I was tired and hungry myself, which is never a good way to go into battle.
AS FOR THE COMPUTER--it's a Dell of some sort. I suppose I should have looked on the box so I could tell you all, but you'll have to make do with the description I gave Jonathan and Rebecca--"it's black." It's pretty nice, and has a 17 inch flat screen monitor, and I suppose it must be a higher-end model, because is was more expensive than the HP I bought from Wal-Mart a couple of years ago, and it didn't come with speakers or a printer. WTF!? (I abbreviated to myself); I couldn't believe he'd gotten something without a printer. Speakers are nice to have, but not essential for most of what you do, but you really, REALLY need a printer if you're going to get any use out of the thing.
Anyway, "setup" consisted (as with just about any modern electronic device) of setting it up on his desk. This goes here, this plugs in there, you turn it on. It came with 6 months of AOL, so I got that set up for him, and registered the computer and software, showed him where the icon was for Word and for AOL, and that was it. I imagine the kids will get much more use out of it than he will, which is actually an okay thing, I think. Rebecca wanted to know if she could use it if she had to type any of her homework after school while she's at their house. Sure would cut down on some of the wait time that she has now--we have to get them, get home, eat supper, get baths--all that stuff, and then if she has typing to do, too, it can get late. Of course, for right now at least, she'll have to save it and bring it home to print it, but that's not so bad.
SO, anyway, yet another day gone by without being thrown in the slam for public intoxication or participation in a melee or jaywalking. (One of which I actually DID do last night!)
Posted by Terry Oglesby at January 13, 2006 08:25 AMI'm assuming it was the jaywalking?
Posted by: Diane at January 13, 2006 09:01 AMDoes your niceness resolution mean that the Possumblog snarkiness we have come to love is a thing of the past or does the niceness only apply to your non-virtual self?
Posted by: Larry Anderson at January 13, 2006 09:13 AMWell, Diane, it depends on what will help the book sell more copies.
And Larry, it all depends on whether I'm hungry and/or tired or not.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 13, 2006 09:35 AMmy vote is for public intoxication
Posted by: DaveH at January 13, 2006 10:50 AMThe last two computers I bought make me copy a set of disks/dvd’s that are used to reload the thing. I guess dell’s still come with their own prepackaged recovery disks.
Posted by: jim at January 13, 2006 10:58 AMJust remember--we now live in a time when autobiographies no longer need have any basis in reality. Just like documentaries no longer have to.
So, even if I WAS flying the airplane while drunk last night, the fact that I managed to shoot down an al Queda zeppelin before it crashed into Vulcan Park speaks to the essential truth of what happened, even though some haters might quibble over minor details of time and place.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 13, 2006 11:02 AMMELEE: Why is it pronounced "may-lay" when it's spelled "mee-lee"? Who decided this ... uh-oh, it's derived from Old French (not to be confused with Old Spice), meaning "to mix".
Did you participate in a melee after hearing a mealymouthed politician?
Posted by: MarcV at January 13, 2006 11:03 AMObviously, that comment was directed at Dave and not Jim. As for Jim, the only disks it came with were for AOL, and one with Microsoft Office. No backup anything, that I could tell. I wonder if I threw something away I shouldn't have?
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 13, 2006 11:04 AMDang--obviously that comment got separated from its intended victim as well!
Marc--as you know I speak fluent Malay, and therefore it is not outside the sphere of possibility that I could have been involved in a Freshman Mixer last night.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 13, 2006 11:07 AM