A couple weeks ago, I finally replaced my 99 Gateway computer with a new tower.It will take some months to pay my mom back, but I'm concentrating on the nifty new toy. It came with a keyboard, which I'm using & mouse, which I'm not. I still have my blocky old monitor too. But if I got a flat screen, where would I place my row of beanie babies that now lounge across the top?And I've gone from 6 GB of hard drive space to 120! Getting used to Vista has been taking awhile, as it's quite a bit different than Win98. I still haven't found everything I need, so it's an ongoing process.
It has an Ethernet port built in, which the old one didn't, which is necessary for high speed internet access. I had tried installing an adapter unsuccessfully. However, I still don't have DSL, because there's all sorts of technical problems. I've spent hours & hours communicating with Earthlink trying to resolve the glitches, which are all on their end, such as the modem box not lighting up properly.I've got yet another set of instructions to follow, which I'll try when I'm feeling better.All that frustration is taking some of the joy out of it, but I'm hopeful that I'll eventually get the DSL to work. Someday. lol
Month: June 2008
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new puter
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Greek Festival
A nearby Greek church holds a 4 day festival every summer & I finally got
to it yesterday afternoon. I tried going a few years ago, but the crowds frightened
me & I never got inside the building. This being the 1st day, I figured
there would be fewer people, so I might actually get through the doors.
Happily, I did & it was an
educational experience. The accompanying craft show was disappointing, only a
few tables & not much handmade. I was fascinated at the music CDs &
t-shirts with the Greek alphabet on them, though. And ended up buying a t-shirt
with Greek warriors on, drawn like those on ancient vases.One of my goals was to try a bunch
of Greek food, as long as it fit with my dietary restrictions. The menu on the
wall didn't explain what the items were, so I asked an older lady behind a slow
table to explain what some of them were. She gave me very thorough descriptions,
not only naming ingredients, but the order in which they were added to the
recipe. Armed with that info, I got into the maze-like line for the buffet,
ordering the sample combo to try as much as possible. As I sat down at a
table, I saw a printed menu describing the items, which would've been better
placed up by the line.I liked souzoukakia (meatballs in
a wine & tomato sauce, served over rice pilaf) best. And finally got to try
the grape wrapped dolmades that I'd been curious about for years.The grape
leaves are soft, not tough as I'd imagined they have a tangy taste that was
pleasant. I got some pastries to bring home, including a tasty apricot one. And
got my mom a coconut swirl & baklava, which she said looked
repulsive(?????). Guess she doesn't like ethnic food. Oh well, her loss.
I also looked through part of the
building, including the tiny sanctuary. It would only hold about 2 dozen people,
tops, but was nicely decorated with icons and a ceiling painting. One of the
icons showed a handsome bearded man(not Jesus),I stepped closer to see him
better, but couldn't figure out who he was. And knew it wasn't the place to be
thinking those sorts of thoughts, anyways.Though I didn't spend a long time
at the festival, I enjoyed the food and seeing a different kind of church and
getting a glimpse of an ancient & fascinating culture. -
seahorses
This trio of thorny seahorses was painted in acrylic a couple years ago, but I only recently got a decent photo of it. It's done on Asian paper that is sort of cloth-like, those swirls in the background are fibers in the paper. The segments and ridges on the seahorses reminded me of stained glass when I was painting them. It's one of my favorite paintings for some reason. I put a purple mat and brown frame on it to keep the color theme going. -
bad week
This has been a terrible week! Last week my keyboard took spells of not working at all, I finally learned that if I turned it off, waited awhile & rebooted that it worked again. Then I spent most of Sunday trying to install the Ethernet adapter so I can get DSL internet. I'm on a 99 Gateway running Win98, so it's a bit like attaching an airplane engine to a Model T. After hours of work, my system would not recognize the new part, so it was a complete waste of time.Though it was fun seeing the inside of my computer. A friend sent me driver downloads & further suggestions to try.
However, Monday I developed ear problems, from liquid inside them. Not only were both clogged up, reducing my hearing to about 10%, but the left one had a tremendous earache. The whole side of my head felt like it was on fire and throbbing. This lasted until late Wed. nite, though there was still some shooting pain on Thurs. This morning when I got up, most of my hearing had returned & the pain was gone. Thank goodness! But the whole week has gone with nothing accomplished except some leaves done on my current painting. Now to catch up with computer mechanics & other things that were postponed while my brain was scrambled.
Then, as I suspected, the Cleveland climate went from being jacket weather to tropical in the span of a few days. It became incredibly hot and humid the last few days and there was no air conditioning in my apt. Since there's been some thermostat replacements in our apartment, I didn't know if it was the entire building, or just this unit, until I asked a neighbor. The furnace repairman came out this evening and now I can stop sweating while sitting perfectly still.
So that was my week; sweltering, painful & frustrating. How was yours?
