I was going to post a simple “to do today” list for myself here, but as with most things these days, it wasn’t quite so simple. You may remember me telling you we had dial-up internet. It was killing us with the slowness. There was a time when having dial-up wasn’t such a big deal, but the internet is a totally different animal now. Every site is geared toward high speed connections. Plus, we have several other gadgets which use internet that were completely unusable. So, J set about to find the next best alternative. This took much research what with some companies putting caps on how much info you can download per month and other companies having completely unreliable service. We’ve finally settled on NTELOS. It’s a little USB modem thing that plugs into the back of the computer. J even managed to connect it to the router so we can use the laptop and J’s other toys. You can take it with you, hooked to your laptop, and get internet connection most anywhere. Like even driving down the road! It’s more expensive than DSL, nowhere near as fast, and much less reliable. Don’t you just love it when you’re paying more and getting less??? However, it’s much better than dial-up.
Usually.
Except this morning. Let me replay the events for you:
Wake-up the computer
Wait for window to pop-up asking if I will allow something or other
Wait some more
Try connecting and see if it will pop-up
Computer freezes
Restart the computer-Yes, I want to close Safari and all my lovely tabs
Get Little Lamb more cereal
Computer closes everything, bus freezes before restarting
Turn off computer by pressing and holding the power button
Wait a bit
Get Little Bear more cereal
Turn computer back on
Wait for Allow window
Yes! Click Allow
Connect to the internet
Check email-nothing interesting
Check Vienna (my blog reader)-read a couple of sites
Open Safari to write a blog entry
[Feel free to take a potty break here, we’re just getting started…]
Connection strength falls to zero, can’t load page
Disconnect internet
Wait while “Disconnecting” streams across top of screen
Go downstairs to basement to put a load of laundry in the washer, feed cat, and retrieve sewing machine and thread
Still “Disconnecting”
Computer frozen again
Restart computer
Get Little Lamb more milk
Wait for Allow window
Click Allow
Signal strength: 0
Wait for improvement before connecting
Reboot router
Signal strength: 3!!
Connect to internet
Open Safari, begin post
Ok, so now I’m going to stitch up a pair of pants for Little Lamb. I cut them out and pinned them last night. This is the first time I’ve really modified a pattern, so I’m curious to see if they will turn out. It’s a simple pair of pants with a flair/ruffle at the bottom. However, I wanted the flair to be much bigger (a la Portobello Pixie) so I cut the pants shorter and the flair bigger. Ideally I’ll make her a little dress from the same pattern that she can layer over the pants this fall.
Then, I need to clean up the kitchen. Switch out the laundry from washer to dryer. Fold, sort, and put away several loads of laundry. Get kids to clean up their bedrooms. Vacuum bedrooms and office.
Sounds like fun! Wanna come over and help??? 🙂