Sunday Dinner, March 29, 2009

It's the end of the month so Sunday Dinner this week is going to be a little sparse.

I have one package of ground beef left so I'm going to make some of my TEXAS HASH with the burger, macaroni and tomato sauce. I'm going to cook some more pinto beans, some stewed potatoes with the last of the potatoes, and probably some BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD.

I have a few pork steaks and pork chops in the freezer so I may broil those in the oven if needed. Just depends on how many will be here for the noon meal.

What's in the works for your Sunday Dinner? Share your plans/menu in the comments if you'd like to participate this week.I'm writing this Sunday Dinner post earlier than usual this week. Jason's 21st birthday is tomorrow (Sunday) so he and Jessica asked me if I'd keep Emmy overnight so they can do something special to celebrate Jason's birthday. I want to get my Sunday Dinner post done early so I can devote all my attention to Emmy.

It will take all my attention to make sure she doesn't try to corner the cats for some very unwelcome mauling, or try to stand on the back of the couch to look at herself in the mirror, or any number of other dangerous proclivities.

Last I heard they planned to go eat at a nice restaurant and maybe go see a movie, but other than eating out their plans were flexible. They'll make their plans as they go along.

Meanwhile I'll have Emmy overnight and for most of the day on Sunday. I don't want to lug her toddler car seat back and forth from vehicle to vehicle, so I'm going to stay home from church tomorrow and have more time to cook my Sunday Dinner while I spend time with Emmy.

When Emmy had the smaller car seat it was a little easier to take her to church with me, but now that she has to have the toddler seat with all the tethers and such it's a pain in the rump to move it from one vehicle to another, plus it weighs a ton!

Much simpler to just stay home with her so we don't have to move the car seat multiple times. I'm sure we'll have a good time here at home, and I'll enjoy the Grandma/Emmy time.I was pleasantly surprised to receive my replacement router early Wednesday morning. I just sent off the defective router on Friday the 20th, so it was only 5 days turn around time to get the new one. I was amazed at the fast service, considering what a train wreck the trouble shooting over the phone turned out to be.

But...and there always seems to be a "but", doesn't there? It's a little word, but it can cover a lot of ground.....

I have a bit of a dilemma and my procrastination isn't helping the situation one bit.

After I discovered the problem with my router and in the midst of working with it, my desktop computer suddenly won't power up. I turned it off one night and it was fine, no problems at all. The next morning when I tried to turn it on, it wouldn't power up.

I push the power button, it whirs for about 10 seconds like it's going to come on, then it makes a loud and alarming "BEEP!" and immediately shuts down. I've tried unplugging it and plugging it back in a dozen times with the same result.

Now the dilemma: To configure the wireless router I need to access both the desktop and the laptop computer while I'm on the phone with the techie guru from India. I can configure just the laptop, but if I get the desktop working after that I'll have to get on the phone AGAIN with the Indian techie guru and spend another agonizing hour or longer and PLEASE JUST MAKE IT STOP ALREADY!

So.....before I call the Indian techie guru to set up the wireless router I have to get down in the floor and dismantle all the wires from my hard drive, then try to troubleshoot what's wrong with it. If it's beyond my abilities to fix I've got a few options, but not many.

The hard drive is 7 years old and that's ancient for a computer. My brother in law, Johnny, works on computers for himself, family and friends and he may be able to help IF it's nothing too involved and IF he has the parts. My computer is obsolete so it's impossible to find new parts; Johnny will have to see if he has an old computer there that he can salvage parts from or it's hopeless.

I sure can't afford to take it to a computer shop, and besides that, they'd be in the same boat concerning obsolete parts.

So if the desktop is declared officially dead I'll be in the market for a new or used desktop computer. Of course FREE is always good too.

I need a desktop computer for my printer and my scanner. It kind of defeats the purpose to have a laptop and a wireless router if you're still confined to a desk with the laptop.

To complicate matters, my desktop is Windows XP and my printer and scanner are compatible with it, so I'm not sure if they'll even hook up to this laptop which is Vista. I think they will, but I'm hoping I don't have to find out for sure. I do know some of the plugins are different from the desktop to the laptop.

Until I either get the desktop going, replaced or hook up the printer to the laptop, I can't use my printer. Plus I'd have to load the software for the printer drivers, etc.

It's just a big mess, y'all. And the whole situation just makes my head hurt with all the uncertainty and the techie stuff just isn't my cup of tea. *Sigh...............*So that's what's happening in my world. I hope things are a lot less complicated in your world. Now I'm going to go take a shower and decide what to cook for supper tonight, then play with Emmy and forget all this computer stuff for a while. It'll still be there when I get ready to deal with it, I'm sure.

And I want to make it plain that in spite of the computer woes, I know that I'm Blessed Beyond Measure, to quote a dear blogging friend of mine who used that as her blog title for a long time. If my computer problems are the worst thing I have to deal with anytime soon, I am more than blessed.Y'all have a great Saturday and a blessed Sunday. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share.