Dang zappers.

We came home Sunday night from church to find that our computer had been attacked by the random zapper. Amazing what a little rain can do, but there you have it. The computer works fine, but won't connect to the internet. We have been troubleshooting since then and have replaced the modem, the ethernet cable, and are stuck at the ethernet card. Some geek decided it would be a really good idea to make an integrated ethernet card. Doesn't that sound like a grand idea?

It's stupid.

Because now I can't just take the old one out and slap a new one in (sound familiar, honey?). It's actually part of the motherboard.

Can you hear the lady on the Guinness commercial saying Brilliant? *sigh*

But I have an ace up my sleeve. It's called MIKE. Last night my truly brilliant son suggested putting his computer here and seeing if it would connect, which it obviously does because here I am and all. Why I didn't think of that myself is beyond me, except that I am clearly not brilliant like Mike. All that money paid for tuition was SO worth it. So here we are using Mike's computer, and running back and forth to the Geek Squad for help with mine.

Today I'm going to try sticking a card in there and see if it will automatically bypass the integrated one. It probably won't and I'll have to learn HTML and write six miles of code to tell my computer not to pay attention to that nasty little toasted thing in the corner. But I'll get Mike in there and things will be happy again.

In the meantime, here's what's happening:

Monday Elijah and I went shopping for a few things he needs for his missions trip to Romania next week. We went in Penney's and picked out two pairs of shorts, two dress shirts and a polo and, while he was trying them on, he said, "I hope this stuff all fits because I'm EXHAUSTED!"

A shopper, he is not.

Tuesday was Abbie's turn. She is a much better shopper, and got a bathing suit and two cute tops, and wasn't even remotely tired yet. She wanted to go to the shoe store. I love that girl. Then we drove down to Richmond to see the oral surgeon who took her wisdom teeth out last week. She is still numb from her lower lip to her chin on the right side in the front. He says it's fairly common, because that main nerve gets bruised during surgery and just takes forever to heal. That was not a comforting diagnosis for Ab, because she is going to Romania next week and still talks funny because of the numbness. But it's good for the rest of us because it provides comic relief. Then last night Abbie's friend Noelle arrived from Texas. She's driving home from college (Texas Christian Univ.) to New Jersey where she lives.

And that brings us to today. We're going to cook for the teens tonight, get some groceries, pay some bills, catch up on reading a few blogs, and fight over the computer. We all need a cyber-fix.

Be thankful ~

Karen