snafu

Oh dear. We've had another computer snafu. Sugar Daddy decided to install some new gadget for windows and we can't run the computer anymore. Luckily, because Sugar Daddy insisted on keeping the old dinosaur around, we've hooked it up to the dial-up connection, so we at least have some connection to the real world. Hopefully he'll figure out how to fix it before our trip, because we need our address book and some other stuff that is only on the computer. And Sugar Daddy has agreed not to install extra stuff on the operating system again. (At least I hope he has. He has a bad habit of always wanting more more more faster faster faster. And he's always so optimistic about how easy and fast these things will be, which they almost never are.)

However, there's been some good good stuff to counteract most of the bad stuff lately.

The good part of the computer breaking -- AGAIN -- last night was that I finished Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, by Vincent Lam. It's been a while since I've read real literature, so I've probably lost my vocabulary for it, but it is a really fantastic book. The writing is phenomenal, and it's a bit more like House than Grey's Anatomy, if you can really compare it to network television. I highly highly recommend it. The characters are engaging, the stories are fascinating if a bit dark, and there are many gems: things like "the day has collapsed into a violet glow," and "the sun pulled sweat out of them, and there was a humid adhesion of skin on skin." Probably the most haunting story of the book involves the SARS outbreak in Toronto. At the time, I didn't think too much of the outbreak; I thought it was just more overblown media sensationalism. But this story shows how real it was for the patients and healthcare workers.

Bad: Swee'pea woke up pretty much every hour last night, and thrashed around in his sleep in between, and was awake and thrashing from about 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.

Good: Swee'pea went to bed at 8ish last night for the THIRD NIGHT IN A ROW. Granted, he needed some assistance a couple times before I finally gave up and went to bed, but still...

Bad: The calendars we ordered for various loved ones didn't arrive in time for Christmas, OR New Years, and still have not arrived within the 14 business-day turnaround Kodak advises. We also had a few we wanted to take for family in South Africa, which it appears we won't be able to do.

Good: After a half-hour phone call to Kodak, they have re-issued the order and split it into three parts, one of which will be mailed directly to South Africa. I didn't even have to get grumpy or uppity, they just did it. I have to say, I am very impressed with their customer service. Hopefully our loved ones will be able to use their 2007 calendars starring Swee'pea as his adorable, leopard-print and tie-dye clad self by about March.

Bad: Sugar Daddy and I both look like criminals in our Canadian passports.

Good: Swee'pea's passport is SO adorable! AND we all have valid Canadian passports, in our hot little hands (well ok our little folder of very important documents).

Bad: Despite our many many phone calls and messages, we still haven't heard a thing from the South African consulate about whether Sugar Daddy will get a South African passport in time for our trip, whether he even really needs one officially, or what will happen if he just travels on his Canadian passport. I guess if we never hear from them, we will just go and hope he doesn't get turned around at the Cape Town airport.

Good: Well, there really isn't anything good about this, except that I've heard lots of lovely South African accents over the telephone each time I call.

Bad: the muffin top cosy is very disappointing. I think perhaps my muffin top may just be too much for the poor little elastic fibres. Whenever I bend over or move around the it just flops over on itself so that I would have to spend a lot of time being paranoid while in public and readjusting it. Luckily I discovered this before I left the house. But bring on the long tank tops!

Good: this purchase made Sugar Daddy learn what a muffin top actually is, and me laugh. When I showed him this new invention, he said, "Ooohhh, so that's a muffin top." Me: "Yeah. What the heck did you think it was?!?" He blushed and laughed, and said, "Well, I thought it was when, you know, a bit of muff peaks out over your underwear," and giggled some more.

And, speaking of giggles, someone from Singapore just came to my blog looking for "madonna site sex hairy armpits." What is it with all the armpit googlers coming here?!? I don't talk armpits THAT much do I?