We had high hopes of not only organizing the storage unit (well, *I* did) but maybe even EMPTYING it.  So far I have been very focused on buying out the stock of 2 Thrifttowns and 1/2 of Ebay and 1/2 of Amazon.com.  I’m so sick of buying stuff I have to MAKE myself go online and shop!  Most of the online stuff is books and I think I finished with the last one today.  Some of the “iffy” books I really needed to see in person before I decided to purchase so I couldn’t line them up awaiting our arrival.  I sniped my last auction yesterday and I’m SO GLAD to have it over.  Actually, there is one more, but I think I can get it at Amazon (and honestly, I’m so DONE I don’t really care).

We decided not to go back to Merida to close on the house, but it is looking like we might be able to do it afterall.  We just need to get someone in Mexico to get our van to our mechanic, hope he is able to fix whatever is wrong with it and then drive direct from the airport to Merida (4 hours) so we can close early the next morning after we arrive.  Either that or go home and then get up at dawn to drive to Merida and close.

I was, however, able to get the boys their Christmas laptops and they are loving them.  They are loving them so much that Aunt Chrissy decided to get one for herself.  They have the flexview screens so they are able to tilt the screen in any direction and the display stays perfect.  Unfortunately, this means nothing under the tree for them this year and I’m not sure how that will go over.  If nothing else, Santa will have to leave a pathetic little gift as the girls would DEFINITELY notice the lack of a Santa gift for the boys.  So MORE shopping!  YEAH!

We decided to stay as long as we are (20 days) to enjoy family visits and to allow the boys to visit with their best friend, Andrew.  Unfortunately, Andrew recently decided to start school and the boys have few opportunities to get together.  We’re trying though.

I love the library system here – when the girls were down with sickness I was able to get all kinds of animal DVDs from the library and sate them so that the next day they didn’t even want to hear the word “movie”.  My sister and her family have been so amazing to be with though, that it all evens out.  Well, maybe all except the cold.

So, Cliff Notes version: sick, f’ing COLD, sick, consumerism UGH!, sick, family .

When I first started noticing problems with my T30 (IBM Thinkpad) I setup both Jamie’s Mac and Pike’s Toshiba with my files and programs so I could use either as a backup.  I also made sure that all the programs I’d need were on the external drive as well as frequently backedup my files.  So, I’m pretty good to go, but this keyboard is really very different and the display is really wonky (as it is permanently set to one position).

I’m looking at replacing both Pike’s and mine with either another T30 (for me – I can get what I need for $179 and use my existing HD and RAM) or two T60’s (but now I’m worried about ATI chip issues with those) or two T40’s (T43’s probably as the T41’s and T40’s are known for GPU issues and I can’t remember what the deal is with T42’s).  I have to say that I am LOVING the USB 2.0 on Pike’s Toshiba and might not go back to the T30 (Pentium M, USB 1.0) and might go right to two T60’s (core duo).  But then I wonder about Core 2 Duo and wonder if I shouldn’t pursue that…  We’re a Thinkpad family – I’m really convinced with the durability and smarts of those machines.

On the medical front, we’ll probably head to Merida on Tuesday or Wednesday and start the process.  Jamie does NOT want to stay at the trailer park so we’re looking at hotels.  Specifically those with a pool.

It has been raining here for about 72 days straight and we’re hoping this little system will move off to Florida where they need the rain.  I don’t think I actually complained about not having rain, but I must have, as it hasn’t let up for about 89 days straight.

Oh, one thing I did lose was my Inbox (of mail) and honestly, I have to consider that a plus.    I’ve been AWFUL about responding to email, so please resend any emails (except those damn forwards ) that need my attention.  In the meanwhile I’ll answer comments directly on the blog instead of via email.

I downloaded OpenOffice 2.4.1 last night and LOVE the program.  If you’re using MS’s Office, this is a wonderful alternative.  MS Word has been looping, hitting 100% CPU utilization on my computer and while this is a known bug, I’m loathe to update old software.  If you’re a Hughes customer, be aware that it is a 127mb download; I used Free Download Manager and scheduled it for the FAP-free hour of 2am (CST).  I also upgraded to Firefox 3 and am not yet sure if I’m glad about that or not.  You’ll need to uninstall FDM (if you had it with your previous version of FF) and re-download and re-install (but it will then work flawlessly with FF3.)  My Thinkpad forum won’t work at all with FF3 and I have to use the IE tab add-on (which is sweet) but FF keeps blowing up on me for no discernable reason.  Jonna, if you’re reading this, I think the IEtab add-on might fix the old MI forum problem but I haven’t been there since I upgraded FF so I can’t say for certain.  FF3 has been working fine for quite a few hours, but blew up last night and again this morning.  I’ve fixed my computer fan problem by never turning the beast off.    I also downloaded NHC 2.0 to watch my CPU temp (that is how I found the MS Word 97 problem).  I think I’ve thrown in enough acronyms there for the rest of the year.  Suffice to say I’ve been really freaquing bizzy with hardware and software challenges.  Oh, and if anyone knows where to get Arctic Silver here in Mexico, I’d be forever grateful.

Man, I’m beat today.  The last two days I’ve woken at 6:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep.  (someone please catch Jonna as she faints dead away)  This morning I was able to go back to sleep at 9:30 and sleep for 2 hours but I’m still beat.  Jamie dragged my ass out for a walk after he’d already cycled an hour so I think he will soon be the king of Kicking Ass.

So, did you SEE all those LINKS above?  I’m so impressed with myself! 

Right now rain is coming in; the sky has clouded over and the wind has picked up. The wind always picks up pretty well just before the water dumps. We’re back in the wet season and the mozzies are living each and every drop.

We’re very seriously thinking about taking a short trip to the US – to get a different landscape around us, to pick up stuff we can’t get here, to visit with friends and family – but can’t exactly decide when. I had thought we’d go after the biggest months of hurricane season (July and August) but we might go up for only August. That early we may even be able to partake of some of New Mexico and check out the Silver City area that we’ve always wanted to visit. Yes, you can get a little jaded with the perfect turquoise, the brilliant blue, the puffy white and the crystal clear seas. Jamie needs him some mountains.

I have upgraded to Firefox 3 and I have to say I’m not very happy. Or maybe it doesn’t play well with Hughes, but I have had the slowest machine in the world (irregardless of the fact that it is slowly dying) and can only point the finger at FF. And on a very personal nature, let’s just say that Jamie has been a Very Happy Boy lately. And we intend to keep it that way.

We didn’t get to Bead Beach on Sunday as Jesse, Jamie and Sissy were all under-the-weather, but hope to find time this week to visit. Otherwise, we’ll head out next Sunday. So no pictures for the near future.

I’ve also removed ALL users who registered on the site (it never was required) and did everything that the article I linked to yesterday from Holy Schmoly recommended. The hardest thing was to change the database table prefixes and while I found a script that would have done that, I decided to do it manually, just for the doubt. I forgot to change wp-config.php afterwards and WP thought I was doing a new install and I think that is what hosed the database. If you’re doing this, make SURE you backup your database (I did it with phpadmin instead of the WP plugin because I wanted to be absolutely certain of it).

If wordpress.com hosts your database I don’t think you’ll have any problem.

In other news, it was grey and overcast and so incredibly muggy yesterday and all the rain has created super-colonies of mosquitos. I’d forgotten how bad they could be after much rainfall. It is simply awful out there unless you are immediately on the beach and enjoying a strong offshore breeze. Otherwise you’re totally screwed and fresh meat for the hungry mozzies. I’ve been trying to ensure our vacant neighbor palapas are either free of standing water or I drop detergent in the standing water to make it inhospitable to mozzies looking to grow the family.

I’ve dropped 6 kilos so far and am very proud of myself. I have never set out to lose weight before and (who knew!) that limiting intake while increasing burning would make such a profound difference? Go figure! I’ll probably play with this theme more later and might add other themes that you can switch to but right now I have a LOT of studying to catch up on. If you run WordPress, please make sure to upgrade and visit the link above. Sigh. Oh, I thought I’d add a pretty picture to take my mind off the mozzies, hackers and lack of studying. It is COMPLETELY unrelated to current events (as I post, I don’t even know what pic I’ll choose! )

Oh, and Jamie would like everyone to know he is a crackpot driver. Um, maybe just a crackpot. Hmm… I don’t think that’s the message he wanted to impart. Maybe a race-car diver in-training? Nope, I’m pretty sure that’s not it either. Hmmmm….maybe a cracker-jack driver? A crappy driver? NO! I KNOW he wouldn’t have wanted that message sent. Would he???? Oh, and he is TOTALLY all about the journey too! Except when he’s driving. And then there is no journey. But back to the driving. He is a really really really good driver. Except when he’s driving to Punta Allen. (i’m not sure I was able to convey the message he had in mind)

Now, that is THREE posts in ONE day!   I think I’m done for the month.