Not much going on here...

Haven't had much time to use the computer. I spent much of the past few days reimaging my hard drive because I just couldn't use the computer with the brightness cranked all the way up. I thought I could get used to it, but it was just too painful on my eyes. I tend to like my LCD on the dimmer side. So I spent some time backing up my data, because by this time I had already saved new files all over the place, so I couldn't just use the data from the old laptop. This took a while over USB1. Then I went through the process of reimaging using the Sony Recovery CDs, this took a long time. Then I had to go through Windows Update to get all the updated patches, almost 100 of them, I think, and of course this meant lots of reboots. Spent time transfering data to the reimaged hard drive. Had to get my wireless nic configured, I don't know why this is always a hit or miss kind of thing. And I've installed some apps (MS Office, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Palm PDA software, Colins French/English dictionary, Norton Antivirus, Mozilla Firefox). Still have a few more misc apps to install when I get around to it. Although this is the same size hard drive as in my old laptop, I have tons more space now... probably because I haven't reinstalled some big apps like Adobe Photoshop and The Sims (base game & all the expansion packs), and I'm not sure if I had MS MapPoint and the Webster unabridged dictionary on there because I stopped using them at some point in time. I won't be reinstalling Le Robert French dictionary because it requires the CD to be in the drive, which is a major pain for me because I usually have some other CD in there, and I hate having to swap CDs whenever I want to run something. I still need to tweak stuff on the computer, that's always fun...

The upside to fiddling with the computer is that I was able to spend more time knitting. I made good progress on the scarf. The cable pattern is slow going because it takes more time to work the cables. I'm averaging 2 inches per hour of knitting, and that's when I don't have to stop to fix mistakes. Right now it's about 24 inches long ... that's roughly 9,200 stitches knit, and 500 cable crossings so far. I really love this pattern, and I will be sharing it with y'all when I get around to typing it up. Yeah, typing patterns up is always the hard part, especially when I'm trying to decipher my notes, which is usually in a combination of pen and crayon. Crayon?! Yes, crayon. When I make notes in front of M, I grab a crayon cuz it's a relatively clean writing instrument for her to get her hands on. If I grabbed a rollerball pen, she will definitely want to get her hands on it, and then she'll make a mess of things (on herself, or on everything else in the room).

I received my MDKAL exchange package from Linda, a beautiful cloth of the Eiffel Tower, pattern, stitch markers, & yarn. What a nice surprise. This was my very first exchange, and I have a much better idea of how these exchanges work now. This gives me a few months to put together a nice package for the next exchange, if I remember to sign up for it!

Still working on a hat for myself. I haven't knit myself something and it's time that I did! And I could use a hat this winter. I am looking for toddler mitten patterns so I can knit a pair for my little girl M who has cold hands when we go out for our walks now. She likes to nibble on stuff (usually goldfish crackers) while we're out. I'm not sure how this would work out while she's wearing mittens.

Teatime... I'm drinking Bigelow Mint Medley, my usualy before bedtime tea because it has no caffeine. Of course the sugar from the pumpkin cheesecake I just ate isn't going to help my sleep. I'm an insomniac. I have a hard time falling asleep, and a hard time staying asleep. Hmmm... I guess that's where M's sleep trouble comes from, lol. Last night was a doozy for me. M woke up before midnight and cried. Maybe a bit of teething pain cuz she wanted some Orajel. Then she rested on my shoulder as I held & walked her around. I tried to put her back in her crib around 1am, but she cried about it. I gave her some time to try to sort it out on her own, but she didn't, so I ended up picking her back up and holding/walking her around. She was restless, wouldn't go back to sleep. I didn't put her down in her playpen until 2:30am, she cried a bit for a few minutes before settling back down to sleep. Now the bad part is that I climbed back into bed and could not fall asleep. I was tired, but I just couldn't sleep! I hate when that happens. I was awake for 2-ish hours, and then I was in and out of sleep until 10am. So it was not a restful night for me. I'm hoping she will sleep through the night tonight, so that I won't be somnabulistic all day tomorrow.

Oh, so while fiddling with my computer these past few days, there was a period when I'd use Internet Explorer because I hadn't yet installed Mozilla Firefox (my usual browser). I noticed something odd. When I load up Cap Karma, the sidebar stuff which usually shows up from the top was not there ... I scrolled down and found it near the bottom. Very strange. When I eventually reinstalled Firefox and loaded up the Cap Karma page, it looked fine. Strange ... usually most webpages look normal using IE, and sometimes a bit off in Firefox.

Have I bored you guys yet? I realize this is a bit prolix, and boring without any photos. Well, here's a pic of M, taken at the SF Auto Show.

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