Bad balanced by good

Well, I haven't written about my personal life since Thanksgiving, and there is a very good reason for that: it has been a disaster. There are little disasters and then there are DISASTERS. Yesterday was one of those DISASTERS.

The kids had been playing a new learning game on the computer. When they were done, I tried to shut down the computer, but the stubborn thing wouldn't budge. I tried the Start, Turn Off Computer, Turn Off sequence and I tried the ctrl+alt+delete sequence. I tried going into the Task Manager and turning it off from there. NADA! I finally just shut off the power. That was probably my first mistake. When I tried to restart the computer, it wouldn't even boot. It said something was missing, and I was clueless. After much frustration, I reloaded Windows XP and was able to start the computer only to find out that our user accounts were no longer being accessed and programs that were still on the computer were no longer registering as having been installed. ARGHHHHHHHH! I don't know enough about computers to fix what I think is most likely a fairly simple problem so I have been spending hours upon hours (insert gentle sarcasm) reinstalling programs and setting everything back up. I'm aggravated because I can find all the old files and programs but I don't know how to get them where they need to be now. So I'm dealing with that lovely issue.

Just before I began writing this rant, Pookie Bear and Miss Muffet were taking a bath. I went in to check on them only to find that they (I couldn't determine whether it was one or both of them) had emptied a brand new bottle of body wash into the tub "to make bubbles." That's the third bottle in a week! Needless to say, they are in trouble. Oh, and before that, Baby Bear threw up all over her crib for no apparent reason. I am VERY thankful it was only in her crib!

On the bright side, I received an e-mail informing me that my chocolate-substitute article (an edited version of my Guilt-free Chocolate post) has been accepted by Ezine @rticles. No, there's no pay associated with this particular honor, but it should increase traffic here. At the bottom of the submission form is a place for you to write whatever you would like, and I gently plugged my blog. Hey, it was fun. *grin* I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that post!

Also, Mr. Incredible just purchased a car charger for our cell phone. We (I) left our regular charger at his grandparents' place where we spent Thanksgiving night. Now I am suffering from cell phone withdrawal! We use it for our long-distance calling, and I have not been able to talk with most of my family this week. Thank you for your thoughtfulness, honey! I really appreciate your buying that.