Uhoh... Computer Woes...

So my Mac is apparently dying a very slow and painful death.

First symptom: iTunes and iPhoto started having trouble loading (and would freeze rather than load the databases... which happened to be stored on the external drive).

Second symptom: the external drive fell into an existential depression. That's right, it decided it didn't exist anymore. While the fan keeps running, it shows no other sign of life.

Third symptom: tonight, the Mac took about 20 minutes to start up, during which it asked me no fewer than twice to log in (initial log in, not the kind of log in prompt you get after being idle for a while).

Fourth and most recent symptom: the dock, on load, had reverted to the default dock, with no apparent means of restoring my old preferences.

I think it's time to lay this machine to rest and get a new one. The question then becomes:

Do I buy a replacement that's simply the current model of what I had (Mac Mini)?
Do I invest a little more in a regular desktop model?
Do I splurge for a notebook model?
...
or do I go bargain basement and get a cheap PC?

I'm thinking the Mac Mini is probably the right option... but I really should consider whether I can afford better (cuz if I can, it does sometimes pay to spend a little more to get a machine that'll do more and be reliable for longer... or be portable...)

I hate decisions.

DMV Bureaucracy Sucks.

Ok, so when I got married, I changed my name on my license. I took on my maiden name as a second middle name. The DMV was fine with that.

I tried to change my name on my vehicle registration, but because I'm not the title holder (that'd be my bank), they wouldn't allow me to change it. I had to go through the bank. So when I went through the bank, gave them the forms already filled out (along with the address change cuz I'd moved to northern california by then), the DMV sent me a new registration with my new name.

But they didn't put my maiden name as a second middle name. Instead, they squished it together with my last name.

I went in to the DMV to request this be corrected. They said the issue was merely a spacing one, and that they were unwilling to fix it because of that. I growled, went back to the bank, tried to get it fixed through them, and the response back was that the vehicle registration system apparently wasn't set up to handle multiple middle names.

So I let it go. Until DH and I moved and bought a new-to-us car and registered it in person. As the title holders, we could do that. The lady behind the counter was so nice and when I told her about the annoyance of the last attempt to get my name right, she explained about the Only 3 Name thing again, and I understood but was still frustrated -- but she was happy to squish the two middle names together. I much preferred that.

Because of the move, I changed my address with the DMV again (as required). I thought I also changed it on the registration via the bank.

The other day, I received my registration renewal notice 3 days after we received the one for our owned car. They're both due the same day (what a stroke of luck! feh), so likely were both sent on the same day.

The problem? Mine had been sent to our old address. It had my second middle name and my last name squished together, and I'm sure the post office didn't have fun trying to figure out whether I really was the person they were supposed to be forwarding mail for.

So now I get to try to deal with the bank and the DMV to update my name and my address on my vehicle registration, all cuz the car's not paid off yet (and won't be for a few more years yet). As proven with our owned car, if I could do this all at the DMV myself, it would work beautifully. But because I'm required to go through a third party, and they merely fax the forms in to the DMV (maybe the DMV would let me walk in with notarized forms? I'd be ok with that...), so any errors aren't discovered until way too late...

And to top it off, I'm feeling like I've been run over by a ton of bricks today. I no wanna deal.

Fun times.

Quick Update

Tuesday night I experienced a wonderful manic episode in which I made the living room in our house presentable to the guests who were going to be visiting on Wednesday while I was at work. As a result, we now feel we can be ready to have an actual housewarming gathering within the next couple weeks.

Wednesday night, after getting home from knitting and having the house to myself (with DH being out and social with those friends who'd visited earlier), I spent nearly an hour catching up on financial stuff that desperately needed doing. I didn't finish on Wednesday, but it sure felt good to get through so much of it.

Tonight, I finished entering all of our receipts and making sure we had records of everything my credit cards were saying we had spent. Still more work to do to reach the level of completion that makes me giddy, but I've reached happy.

I'm beginning to think that lots of stuff might actually be "put away" before our tentative housewarming (on August 8), as opposed to merely "hidden away". This makes me contentedly satisfied. :)

Now if I could just get myself organized enough that I feel like knitting again...

I'm Back!

That's right, I'm back online. We've moved, and all our utilities have been connected (internet and TV were the last, and those came in today), and most of the boxes have been unpacked... all that's left is reorganizing, moving around some furniture, and settling into a groove. It feels like home. Even the kitties love it. ... though Graham has found it difficult to smell or hear dinnertime approaching. I had to call him no less than 5 times for dinner tonight, and usually the sound of the dishes clinking will bring him. Once he made it to the kitchen, I had to direct him to his food dish -- it took at least 3 attempts! Poor guy. He'll get used to it. He's just not used to having such a big, soundproof house. :)

My knitting has been put on hold -- haven't knit anything since Wednesday -- not even a single stitch! And my new 'craft room' is completely in disarray right now... all the yarn shoved into the closet, with the exception of a couple large boxes filled with yarn that wouldn't fit into the closet... the floor is covered with magazines and patterns and books... and I have no shelves or any sort of organizing stuff in that room. I'm going to get to claim a bookshelf from Silas' Game Room / Office, but that's really only going to take care of the books. I have no idea what will become of my yarn... but at least I've been emptying binders recently so I should be able to organize loose patterns better than I had been...

I've suddenly discovered an ability to toss out some of my old magazines and newsletters! It's amazing how much space I'm gaining by recycling old periodicals from bar associations I'm no longer part of or that don't have articles of interest to me. Amazing. Don't worry, I'm not getting rid of any of my (very limited collection of) knitting magazines yet. I have yet to actually knit anything from any of them that I can recall (I'd have to check my ravelry project page to be certain of that, though... I'm so disorganized without my external organizational tools!), but the reason I bought each of them was because I wanted to knit at LEAST one pattern from each... so I'm definitely holding on to them all for now. And if I do get rid of them, it'll be by letting them go to someone else who'll appreciate them -- NOT recycling. ;)

OK... enough typing... back to organizing. Moving is oh so much fun. ... la la la

Can't Sleep

... so tomorrow we're moving. It's really happening. It's been confirmed with the movers and everything.

I'm freaking out that important stuff will likely be lost (cuz we left lots of the important stuff to pack absolutely last, due to needing it in the meanwhile), and that I won't be able to sleep at the new place due to the toilet in the master bathroom constantly running at an astonishing decibel level, and that we'll never be able to use our new garage because the owner and the property management company still haven't managed to cut the padlock off the outer door (the key they gave us didn't fit the lock)...

Not to mention all the other numerous problems with the place discovered after we signed the lease... or all the problems we knew about BEFORE signing the lease that we were assured the owner would take care of within a couple days (this was weeks ago) and that are still problems...

But we'll figure it out. It'll work out. It's got to.

DH now has books on DIY plumbing and electrical stuff, so things like the exposed outlet in the closet should be easy to remedy, and maybe he can learn how to stop the toilet from constantly running as well. Or at least how to fix the water shut-off valve to stop the water from getting to the toilet in the first place...

Oh, the joys of home ownership without the benefits of actually owning. Sigh. If we owned, we wouldn't be hesitating about fixing this stuff at all... but because we don't own, we're not authorized to make the fixes (or hire someone to make the fixes even), so we're having to put up with them and it really really really .... yeah.

Anyway, maybe I can get back to sleep now that I've done a little more packing of the "I need that tonight, but I'll need it tomorrow night too..." stuff... And stopped the TiVo from recording a random Paid Program that it hadn't been told to record and wasn't listing among the "now playing" items, even though it was actively recording and the receiver even listed the name of it on its display (which it only does when it's recording something we told it to -- the suggestions being recorded merely have the red-light dot thingie... no name...)... but anyway...

Yeah... Anxiety... causing mania... causing anxiety... deadly cycle.

Pre-emptive Registration?

Apparently Babies-R-Us knows something I don't, and has decided to begin a baby registry for me.

Either that, or there's another person with my maiden name (first and last) who is currently expecting and thinks that my email address is hers.

But imagine my shock when I woke up this morning to emails congratulating me.

In case of any confusion: I'm NOT pregnant. I've never been pregnant. I'm not trying to become pregnant. I'm still taking pills to prevent such a disaster (timing is truly Not Right at the moment), and have been for many years. If this situation ever changes, I hope I'll be the first to know (or at least suspect) rather than having Big Brother at Babies-R-Us somehow knowing before I do, and setting up an account for me... ...

Though I do have to wonder whether I'm registered for anything particularly cool... :)

Considering Stash

I've decided I need a new outlook in regards to handling my stash. This whole embargo thing, while it may sound good on the surface, and may be well-intended... well, it's not really making me happy.

I've found the big problem with the embargo is that I have a whole ton of yarn taking up space that doesn't make me happy and doesn't inspire me to knit. I've only got a little yarn that inspires me. Of course, I was good with the embargo conditions, that it doesn't require me to use up my stash before restashing... but it has gotten me into a mindset that's not helping my overall feeling toward my stash.

A couple threads on Ravelry pointed me toward this article on "Slow Stashing". I've already started reviewing my stash as listed on Ravelry and moving a few more items over to the Trade page (for trades only, not for sale) that otherwise I'd be keeping in my stash simply because I didn't feel like I could ask dollar amounts that'd make the shipping cost worthwhile.

This in part came about because I just completed my first BIG trade. Or, rather, I just delivered a huge box of yarn to the post office and I expect to receive one in return in about one week's time. I'm getting rid of around 8 pounds of mostly acrylics (as well some cotton blends and one wool) that I was probably never going to get around to knitting, and getting in return a bunch of alpaca and a skein of superwash wool. Doing this made me happy in ways I never would have expected. So the ideas brought forth in the "Slow Stashing" article just made absolute perfect sense to me.

When I get home, I'm going to physically sort my stash and make sure I've got everything listed (and listed accurately) and sorted into "happy" and "unhappy". I'm also actively looking into Yarn Wanted listings, peoples' wishlists, etc, to see about re-homing some of my yarn to people more likely to appreciate it. Over the weekend I'll probably also try to look into trades (which are more complicated to get started)...

I think I'm also going to try to overcome the sweater anxiety and actually cast on a cardigan or pullover. Just have to decide which of my (already planned) projects to do... :)

Thinking on Gifts...

It's holiday season, and Silas and I have come to an understanding.

1. we've bought everything we're going to buy for each other this holiday season. We just haven't wrapped it yet... don't worry, we picked up a bunch of stuff during the big shopping specials on Friday, so we're not going to be disappointed with our unwrapping options on the 25th. :)

2. Looking into the future, I've made Silas promise he will never buy me yarn (without an explicit shopping list from me, I guess) cuz too much is reliant on how much I need/want for a given project, what colors I'd prefer, and all that fun stuff. Of course, an exception could be made for sock yarn (would just need ~400yds of one colorway in a fingering / sock-weight) or for interesting other yarns that could have usages for a single skein... likewise, I won't be purchasing gaming supplies (books, etc) for him without an explicit shopping list, primarily because I have no clue what he'd like or what he already has. ;)

As for other family, I'm trying to do hand-knit gifts this year -- possibly combined with other small goodies. We're running a bit short on time for making stuff for our overseas family members, but I hope we'll be able to send stuff in time. :)

If anyone is wondering what to get for me, I have a few wish lists set up on amazon.com... one with knitting books/patterns/etc, and a couple others. Using these wishlists could help prevent duplicating a gift someone else gives. Then again, I very much enjoy hand-made stuff, or something personally selected. Heck, I very much like receiving cards. ;)

I think Silas and I are going to be a bit bad about sending out holiday cards this year. We haven't even chosen cards or anything yet (except one set of cards that's been ordered but we don't know when we'll receive them)... let alone determined a mailing list. Plus the fact that we only sent thank-you notes to about half our wedding attendees... ... heh. Oops. We'll get ourselves organized at some point, but if we're completely disorganized this year, please don't feel it was intentional!

Anyway, enough rambling. On to knitting.
I'm having a LOT of fun with the stuff I'm knitting right now. I'll post photos and updates once I've made a little more progress. I really want to show off this shawl, but it's still on the needles and I think it'll look MUCH better once it's blocked. :)