About two months back I think I mentioned I had installed Google’s taskbar, primarily to keep tabs of my site’s page ranking. It was around the same time I was having issues with my firewall. Well, shortly after I had installed it, I started having issues with my computer stalling while it booted up. At least once a day I had to reboot, pull the keyboard out of it USB port and plug it into the keyboard port in back, and tell my computer to load the last working configuration of XP.

At first I thought it was the taskbar, but the problem continued even after I uninstalled the program and used System Restore. Frantically I’ve been saving up for a new hard drive assuming that this one is about ready to die.

Then, last week, I did my monthly update of XP. Would you believe I haven’t had a problem since? That’s when I remembered I had done an update right about the time the problem first started.

Thank you Microsoft for fucking up my computer (and taking two months to send out a fix)!

In other news, I’m sitting here, watching my arms turn pink. The Light Brigade did it’s first of two Memorial Day parades today, and guess who forgot to apply sunscreen? The Motrin/Tylenol cocktail I took just before the parade wore off dometime during the three hours I was passed out on the bed, so I’m sore, yet well rested.

Tomorrow we march in Cambridge. I’m hoping my alma mater still marches in that parade. Better yet, I hope my old band instructor hasn’t been driven insane by the students and is still teaching.

Today is my official weigh in day, to see how much weight I’ve lost since February, and to figure out if I still need to lose more. I definately need to lose because not only did I not loose any weight, but I gained 4 pounds. *cringes* Actually I did lose some weight, I just put it back on.

Needless to say, I’m bummed about this. It’s not like I have this unrealistic goal. I don’t want to be the weight I was before I had kids! I just want my fat/lean ratio to be at a healthy level. But to do that I need to lose a good chunk of fat.

On a positive note, after remeasuring and recalculating, my new goal is 10 pounds heavier than the old one. Which means not only do I not have as far to go this time, but that while I haven’t lost any weight I did manage to convert some fat into muscle.

I’ll let you know what happens in four months.

You know you’re accident prone when you go to the emergancy room, a doctor there recognizes you, but you have to go through a long list of trips to the emergancy room to remember which was the one they first met you. *glares at Ben*

I want a chibi Chewy and 3PO from Burger King dammit!

I hate my “cousin”, who just won a 2006 Avalance courtesy of that GMC contest.

Why am I on your friends list? Comment and tell me. Then post this in your journal.

For the last month or so I’ve been trying to figure out why sometimes our bathroom sink stops up and other times it doesn’t. Some days the basin will fill, I’ll give the sink three or four plunges, and viola! it’s completely free flowing again. This will last anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days before I have to do it all over again. Well, during this morning’s unplugging, I acquired a black checker piece. Hmmm… I wonder if that could have anything to do with my funky clogged drain problem?

Alas, I still have other mysteries to solve. Like “why the fuck does my knee look and feel like someone whacked it with a bat when I have absolutely no recollection of banging, or twisting, it?”

And “davensjournal, did you mean to send me the email about the Daven’s Journal T-shirt?” )

Last, but not least: “Why does my computer keep rebooting whenever I play the Sims 2?” I’m thinking possible RAM overload, but that’s just a theory.

Well, the Light Brigade’s open house happened, despite a handful of hitches. The first was the website/email account getting suspended for non-payment Sunday morning. The problem was I was never made aware that we owed Hosting Matters (our space provider) any money. It would’ve been nice if they had actually sent out an invoice! It would’ve also been nice if they didn’t send their responses to my emails to the suspended account address. *face palm*

Anyhow, thanks to the corps.’s drum major, who sacrificed her CC number, the account was paid and things were finally up and running by Wednesday.

Friday, the day of the open house I arrived to find everyone camping out in front of the hall. It turned out it was double booked! We ended up cramming ourselves into the bar below, trying to talk over the booming bass of the latest hip hop tunes playing above. At some point Sandy (the colorguard captain), Donna, and myself ended up back outside. I have been entrusted to care for Donna’s sabre until she is able to return and will be taking Ellie’s place (who is taking Donna’s place) in Irish Party. Did I mention I have three practices to master a routine that I had never officially been taught because it was originally going to be pulled from our show? Good thing the folks at Wildwood are mostly going to be pretty drunk!

We spent the rest of the night performing for our guests. It wasn’t too bad, but we probably could’ve done better. I managed to take home about a half dozen of the cookies I had b aked for the occasion. Ben and Jarret were happy about that.

Spent the first half of Saturday at the Arlington Food Pantry, volunteering for the annual letter carriers food drive. My job, as it was last year, was to check expiration dates. To those of you who also volunteered, thank you. To the postal workers who loaded and unloaded the donations, thank you. To those who donated food, thank you. To those who saw the drive as a way to rid themselves of expired food, may the world’s largest cat yak up a juicy hairball on your most prized possesion! This year’s oldest expiration date? April 1996. There may have been stuff even older. When did they implement the food pyramid? *cringes*

Spent 6 hours there before leaving during a lull. Luckily the lull was due to lack of staff (the Confirmation kids had left and Girls Scouts weren’t due for another half an hour) and not from lack of donations (when I left they had a 8×15 foot space on the floor covered with bags and boxes piled two to three layers high! If I have time I’ll be back early Monday evening to sort more.

I’m currently trying to relax, though Glenn wants to go out and get some bread. I’ve had a cold for the latter part of the week and I’m now in the final (and grossest) part: the hacking up of phlegm. Yuck! I used to think that allowing a cold to run its course naturally was the best thing to do. Now I’ve decided that Nyquil and Dayquil are my best friends. *nods* I’ve got to get some things together for tomorrow, while I’m thinking about it. I owe $6 on an overdue book that I keep forgetting to return. Sad thing is I haven’t even had a chance to read it. Oh well.

I’ve also got to get myself in shape in order to rip one of Ben’s teachers a new hole. Ms. Chertoff is the 8th liason to the Ottoson SpEd department. As I may have mentioned before Ben was supposed to have been maintreamed this past year on a trial basis, but if his grades dropped dramatically he would have to be put back in SpEd. Well they did, and she came up with excuses as to why Ben couldn’t be put back, thus resulting in Cs, Ds and Fs, instead of his usual Bs and Cs. This, in turn, was responsible for his not geting accepted to Minuteman, which, quite frankly is his only hope fof getting a usable education. A fellow SpEd mom suggested filing a law suit against the School Department (it wouldn’t be the first!). I might look into that possiblity.