An Hour on the Phone with Dell

I have made a few attemps to update my blog over the last few days, each ending with it being deleted and lost in cyberspace. I hope Blogger is more user-friendly than this or I may abandon all hope.

We have a new computer. It's smarter than I am. No, really. Fortunately with said new computer I purchased the 'New Computers for Dummies' package, otherwise known as a year of tech support. I even bought the 'New Computers for Super-Dummies' package which means if I really screw it up, someone from Dell will actually come to my house and save my computer from me. Anyway, all I wanted to do is upload some photos from my nify Nikon D-70s but Vista has hijacked my media card reader - apparently because of operator error. (See what I go through for you, Denise?)

So I decide to try the live chat with a techie option. I explain the problem to the tech support guy. He gives me a big list of necessary operations needed to get my computer to recognize the media card reader, ending with having to reboot the computer and thus disconnecting the chat. He then expects for me to figure out how to resume the chat. When I fail to find it, he calls me at home to chastize me for my inabilty to follow directions.

Hearing his name and accent, and the accents of everyone in the noisy backround he was in, I gathered he was in India. I decided to imagine I was talking to Mohinder Suresh so I wouldn't get angry. It worked. Somehow getting a stern 'talking to' from a Dell techie was enjoyable.

MMM MMMM MMMMMohinder explains how to make sure my media card reader is working and I thoughtfully write it all down. I then manage to upload a set from one card before the darn thing disables itself again. Seriously?! I am almost tempted to call back because 1- I'm a glutton for punishment and 2- I just liked hearing the sexy Indian accent and Heroes is on hiatus right now. Fortunately, I've written down all of Mohinder's advice and manage to fix it myself. Yaaaaaayyyy me.

Turns out you have to give the OS permission to eject prior to pulling the media card reader out of the slot or it decides that you ought not have the privelege to use it. Lesson learned.

So after all that hard work, 3 attempts at a blog... somehow posting the pics feels anticlimactic. But, here they are anyway.

Meet the Boybarians

I feel obligated to do some sort of introduction. This blog is about my family. We're city folk recently transplanted into a rural forest. I have a smart, funny, work-a-holic hubby, "Handy Man" and three wildly exuberant boys who have earned their boybarian moniker. To save them from elimination of some super corporate job offer in 30 years I'll call them "Einstein", "Picasso" and "Trouble". Einstein is 6 1/2 going on 35. He's smart, stubborn and a little nerdy. Picasso is 5. He's a clothes-horse, loves jelly bagels and our cat, Lucy. Picasso is pleased as punch with a new box of crayons and stack of bright white paper. Trouble is 3. Like his name suggests, he's been trouble from the beginning. Troublesome pregnancy, trouble at birth, trouble ever since. I'm sure there'll be a lot more of him to come. Despite the negative connotation with the name "Trouble", he's the cutest, sweetest, tiniest, bespectacled 3 year old on the planet. I love them all.

I mostly do mundane things like fold socks and wipe smudgy faces. Occasionally I do something mildly interesting, and when I do I hope to share it with either my dear readers or the vast oblivion known as cyberspace. I guess only time will tell on that one.

We homeschool. The reactions we get from that vary so widely. Some people assume we hug trees or do mission work in Africa. And while I am known to love a scenic view and would love to climb Kilimanjaro in some alter-life, that's just not us at all. We're pretty much a regular ol' family who just decided not to outsource our kids' educations. Trouble had a lot to do with that decision, too... see what I mean about always causing trouble? He's a fragile one. We can't risk the germs that kids love to share in school.

So I guess this blog will mostly be about my crazy boys, the joys of homeschool, forest life, how Einstein, Picasso and Trouble earned their names and all the things that happen here in the Boybarian Forest. Since I like photography, charity volunteering and scrapbooks, I'm known to ramble about those, too.