What a day to begin
It's been a busy day. Josh had preschool this morning--at our house. We do a "Mother Goose Time" preschool, where the moms take turns teaching preschool at their own homes. So about 9:00 this morning five of Josh's four and five year old friends came over to join Josh (and Peter) for an exciting morning of learning about things that fly. We went for a walk, made bats, colored ducks, played games, had snacks, and had fun. By the time 11:30 rolled around and the kids' parents came to pick them up and take them home I was exhausted.
That was when it was time to feed my own kids some lunch and go visiting teaching. This was our first visit to a new girl on our route, so I wanted to check the address online really quick before I left. So I turned on the computer, logged on to our brand new computer (bought with our tax refund this year) and after the welcome screen, it faded to black and I was left with a black screen with a white cursor. I could move the cursor around, but I couldn't see anything to click on! Ctrl-Alt-Delete brought up the normal screen where I could check task manager or log out, there was nothing unusual there, but I ended up logging out and logging on Steven's account. Same thing--black screen, white cursor. Frustrated and running out of time I shut the computer down and went to find a real paper map to figure out where I needed to go. When we returned a little while ago it started up and is working just fine now. Which leaves me wondering, "What was up with that?"
I mentioned that this is a brand new computer. We have had it about three weeks now, and I'm starting to suspect that it is either possessed, or just plain doesn't like me. First of all, when we transferred our software and files from the old computer to the new, a few things didn't transfer very well: Microsoft Money, where I have kept all our data files for the last four years or so, FrontPage, which I have used to create our family website for the last several years, and Photoshop, which I use to make all the graphics for the website, and also to make personalized calendars for the grandparents every Christmas. We have since purchased Quicken to manage our finances, but haven't been able to transfer our old data and have had to start all over again. We downloaded trial versions of various webdesign software but I'm still struggling to figure out how to use them. And we have yet to figure out what to do about Photoshop. It's too expensive for us to purchase now, but having used it exclusively for the last several years, I'm not sure I'm willing to settle for anything less. On top of the program problems, apparently Vista has a problem when it comes to copying or moving files, and sometimes even renaming and deleting files. At first it was just once in a while it would freeze while trying to do something, but now? I can't copy or move anything without it "Calculating time Remaining" forever...for a 6kb file! We've tried to download a couple of hotfixes that were supposed to fix the problem but neither one seemed to work.
Steven was a sweetheart and arranged for us to get a DSL line set up to replace our incredibly slow dial-up connection. It is wonderful to be able to watch movie clips, download 2MB files without it taking hours (literally) and navigate the internet without needing a book to read while each page loads! But getting rid of our old dial-up connection also means saying goodbye to our old webpage and email address... and transferring our webpages to the new site has been a trial as well. To upload pages, we are supposed to copy and paste them to a "website folder" on a network. However, that doesn't work for me right now (see previous paragraph). So I've had to email all the files to Steven at work with instructions of where to put them. And yesterday he claimed that all the "images" folders had mysteriously disappeared! I don't know what's up with that. During preschool this morning someone called from the webhosting company asking for Steven and I only told them he wasn't here right now; I didn't have time to talk to her while trying to entertain seven preschoolers.
Anyway, the new computer is great. I love the faster internet connection. Preschool leaves me exhausted and life is good.
That was when it was time to feed my own kids some lunch and go visiting teaching. This was our first visit to a new girl on our route, so I wanted to check the address online really quick before I left. So I turned on the computer, logged on to our brand new computer (bought with our tax refund this year) and after the welcome screen, it faded to black and I was left with a black screen with a white cursor. I could move the cursor around, but I couldn't see anything to click on! Ctrl-Alt-Delete brought up the normal screen where I could check task manager or log out, there was nothing unusual there, but I ended up logging out and logging on Steven's account. Same thing--black screen, white cursor. Frustrated and running out of time I shut the computer down and went to find a real paper map to figure out where I needed to go. When we returned a little while ago it started up and is working just fine now. Which leaves me wondering, "What was up with that?"
I mentioned that this is a brand new computer. We have had it about three weeks now, and I'm starting to suspect that it is either possessed, or just plain doesn't like me. First of all, when we transferred our software and files from the old computer to the new, a few things didn't transfer very well: Microsoft Money, where I have kept all our data files for the last four years or so, FrontPage, which I have used to create our family website for the last several years, and Photoshop, which I use to make all the graphics for the website, and also to make personalized calendars for the grandparents every Christmas. We have since purchased Quicken to manage our finances, but haven't been able to transfer our old data and have had to start all over again. We downloaded trial versions of various webdesign software but I'm still struggling to figure out how to use them. And we have yet to figure out what to do about Photoshop. It's too expensive for us to purchase now, but having used it exclusively for the last several years, I'm not sure I'm willing to settle for anything less. On top of the program problems, apparently Vista has a problem when it comes to copying or moving files, and sometimes even renaming and deleting files. At first it was just once in a while it would freeze while trying to do something, but now? I can't copy or move anything without it "Calculating time Remaining" forever...for a 6kb file! We've tried to download a couple of hotfixes that were supposed to fix the problem but neither one seemed to work.
Steven was a sweetheart and arranged for us to get a DSL line set up to replace our incredibly slow dial-up connection. It is wonderful to be able to watch movie clips, download 2MB files without it taking hours (literally) and navigate the internet without needing a book to read while each page loads! But getting rid of our old dial-up connection also means saying goodbye to our old webpage and email address... and transferring our webpages to the new site has been a trial as well. To upload pages, we are supposed to copy and paste them to a "website folder" on a network. However, that doesn't work for me right now (see previous paragraph). So I've had to email all the files to Steven at work with instructions of where to put them. And yesterday he claimed that all the "images" folders had mysteriously disappeared! I don't know what's up with that. During preschool this morning someone called from the webhosting company asking for Steven and I only told them he wasn't here right now; I didn't have time to talk to her while trying to entertain seven preschoolers.
Anyway, the new computer is great. I love the faster internet connection. Preschool leaves me exhausted and life is good.
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