sorry...file was too big....do over!  I hit my head on the cement and I haven't been on in a while....I hit my som eye but luckily didn't damage it.

 

Well, juds, you are a computer genius!  I haven't figured out this new computer yet...and might I add, I hate windows vista!  And in case anyone is wondering, I look much better now...not good, but much better!

Oh, Lordy, Kel! Owwwieee!  That looks very very sore.  Dare one ask how that happened?  Wonkers always have pretty interesting stories about doing brutal things to themselves.

 

If it would make your eye feel better, I'd post mine after surgery.  But you might as well just cut out a sunset from some lurid postcard.  Anyway, that was a different category, and it didn't hurt.  Maybe I will try putting it in the "Surgery" thingy at some point. (Good only for sympathy due to appearance--only time SOM ever produced that response, I might add.)

 

I also join you in your hatred for Vista.     

Got so mad at it last week, that I stomped over to Best Buy and consulted with a nice man about upgrading to a downgrade, i.e. Windows XP which worked PERFECTLY on my old computer which I passed on to a family member.  (Sniff.) .  It can be done.  Hard to get the home version anymore, but the office version ($125 more) is available.  When I asked the guy what he used, he sort of looked furtively around and then whispered that he had just installed Windows XP back on his home computer--office version--and he was once again a happy person.  I am trying to save up for other thngs, but am very sorely tempted to just ditch Vista and it's horrid glitches and 47-step procedures for doing something like sending my mom a snapshot of the family, and buy XP back.  Makes me glad that someone else feels the same way.

 

Heal!  Annie 

Ok....I would like to share with you all my face meets cement story.  2 weeks ago tomorrow I was putting out my beagle.  I had to tie her up, since her naughty butt figured out how to dig out from under the fence.  Well, she didn't like being tied up, and ended up tripping me almost immediately upon exiting the house.  Yes, I tripped on the dog!  Although, I have upgraded my story on different occasions:  Altered version #1:  I was trying out for the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and fell from the top of the pyramid.  Altered story #2:  I was auditioning for The Rockettes and kicked myself in the face!  Those are much more entertaining than "I tripped on the dog"....I did go to the e.r.  I called my daughter and my friend and evidently told them I was taking myself.  And of course I went to work....although I barely remember being there!  And the picture is after a week of healing. I'm hoping by next week I am all better because I miss my makeup!  My head still hurts though....I wonder when that will stop.  And I have a little poem:

Give me back my XP

This Vista doesn't work for me!

I always make up stories when I have a visible wound or similarly self-inflicted injury.  When I plunged a steak knife into the fleshy pad between my thumb and hand I told everyone that I was stabbed in a bar fight and that I had won.  When I fell and tore out all of the stuff in my knee last year I said that I had tripped over the dog whilst pulling him out of the well into which he had fallen.  Best part of that one is that I have neither dog nor well.

 

Alrighty.  Vista.  I know that nearly everyone in the Universe hates it, but this isn't much different from the last time that operating systems changed.  Unfortunately, for most people, the learning curve seems to be a bit higher this time.  Me?  I've used it, but simply didn't want to have something new at the time I got my computer; you know,  the devil I know to the devil I don't know.  Like anything new, it was issued with tons of bugs and buggy issues, most of which have been addressed, more or less successfully.  More or less.

 

Even after Microsoft began issuing Vista, you could still easily have XP, either version, installed on your new computer.  You still can, but Microsoft is pulling the plug sometime in June, so if you want your XP back, you have to get your heinnie back to the store in the next few weeks and ante up for a re-install of XP.

 

Until then, you can find lots of decent help online.  One place to go is the source at http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/community/default.mspx.  You can ask a question on that page and if it has been previously asked, you will be taken to that spot.  Also click on Columns, in the left-hand column and noodle around there.  Remember that only the featured columns are listed in the middle of the page, previous ones are on the right-hand side.

 

You know, with such a pretty, pretty eye, you really don't need makeup.

Then I'm going to explain the burn mark across my knuckles from a little stove incident as a very dangerous encounter with broken glass and electric wires when I slugged the screen of my computer in a Vista rage.

 

Thanks for the links.  I will try once again.   My son just got me a copy of Vista for Dummies and maybe that will help.

 

Hower, correct about making the decision ASAP.  I asked the nice man if XP was being phased out so people HAD to put up with Vista and he reluctantly said something close to "yes".  Actually, he rolled his eyes, nodded, and then looked down at the floor.  I am thinking up more of the Vista poem.

 

Kel, How about makeup on ONE eye?  It made me feel half decent and since the other eye looked so grizzly, nobody ever commented on the experiments with a new shade of eye liner. (Sort of a nice eggplant color which picked up the shades of mauve on the other side of the face.)

Well, you know.....eye shadow on one eye may be an option this week.  You know...I just thought of another explanation.  I was offered a modeling job on the runway for Stella McCartney's line of clothing, and the carpet was bunched up, causing me to trip in those high heels and I hit my head on the light by the runway, and was rescued by Dr House.  How's that one? 

Fantastic!  And then you had to use lots and lots of makeup on both eyes because you needed to be photogenic for nationwide counseling about your trauma on the Dr. Phil show!

Annie, I am hoping that your telling of your experience with your nice-man-computer-guy was presented as simple creative license, because even I have known about Vista for more than three years, known that XP's days were numbered, and I am clearly not a 'computer guy', nice or otherwise...mostly otherwise.   If he really did and said or mumbled those things, you may have more serious problems than your issues with your operating system.  Even the most humble and inexperienced electronics sales person would know that a new OS would replace the old OS.  It is only because MS made XP available for a longer than usual period, and that computer businesses made sure that they had a goodly supply, that it is still around, a year and some months past Vista's retail release date.

 

Your Dummies book will help, but please consider some of the online information that is available.  The link in message #8 will help you, but there are many other peer groups available.  If you (or you, Kel) would like some help finding a few, just let me know.

 

Until then, your epic battle with the forces of insidious technology will hold your audience spellbound, in anticipation of the latest triumphant encounter!!!!  Woof-woof!  Or Hoot-Hoot or Woo-woo, or whatever the current huzzah might be.

 

Whilst I am too thick and homely to be a model (even in my fantasies), I would love to be rescued by the comely Dr. House.  Although, my preferred interviewer, post dramatic accident, would be John Stewart.  Phil is too irritatingly confrontational for my taste.  Or perhaps he is just irritating.  Like me...we have that in common, don't we!

 

In my own bit of creative license, I am off to do my own battle with my filthy car.  It is laden with bird seed, books, my new and wonderful reusable shopping bags and a toddler car seat that is still in the box, waiting to be installed.  To be honest, I'm a little frightened to discover what is lurking beneath the seats and all that embarrasing clutter.  To be honest, I have become so lazy that it is only potential humiliation that spurs me to do much of any cleaning these days.  If I survive this job, I plan to tackle a closet or two later this week.  It makes me shudder to just think of it.  How did I come to be such a slob?  More importantly, why am I not feeling more shame about it? 

 

Anyway, let me know if I can help you with your Vista stuff.  I am not currently using it, but I am adept at ferreting out resources.  And, it will help me avoid any more house chores, dangerous as we all know them to be, burned knuckles and all.

Well, thanky, ma'am.  I will doubtless need help--or restraint at the very least as I vent my frustration.  I love puddling around with the computer, finding all of (or at least a few of) its hidden delights.  I think that is why Vista is a nuisance at the very least to those of us who do not require the security of United Nations or programs to run multi-gazillion dollar enterprises.  (Ah, don't I just wish. But there would be all that stress.)

 

Now, had I not been in a hurry--which I was for some reason that I don't remember--it would have occurred to me that the bundling of a very nice (yes I love my HP) computer with a printer/scanner for "free" and the apparently mandatory inclusion of Vista was quite a deal.  And quite possibly it had something to do with the inconvenience of that particular printer/scanner (I may just go back to my old printer and scanner--a suggestion by the nice man) that made it so available to "bundle".   And it also might have occurred to me that Vista was not a magically wonderous program.  Usually I research such stuff and shop armed with downloads and Consumer Reports and all that sort of info.  It causes clerks to pale.  I did not this time.  But there are millions of people who have thwarted Vista, and so will I.  I don't think I want to spend a bunch of money moving back to a program that will shortly be deep-sixed, no matter how nice it was.  Well, that's what I think today.

 

Obviously the helpful people at Best Buy (not my all-time favorite place) are trained to be nice, but to not tell the whole truth about products which are causing many Americans to break out in hives.  Thus, the sideways looks and the furtiveness, I think.

 

I am glad to hear that someone else has trouble keeping their car tidy.  I swear that the moment I enter mine, I make crumbs and fuzz.  Then there are the grandkids and their muddy boots and sandy feet.  And dog drool and bits of Milk Bone. Plus the smudged throw to keep some of the dog hair off the black (not a good choice!) interior and the spills from the potting soil and the Kashi Crunch bars crumbles, and the grime tracked in by the Mister's boots--and my unparalleled skill at hurling coffee around no matter where in the universe I am.  For some reason, I feel I must travel with about 100 CD's, also, and six pounds of left-over quarters and nickles and dimes. I am a PDQ girl.  At least they get 90% of the crud out and I would spend more on cleaning products than the fee they charge.  That's my excuse, anyway.