I'm back. It's only been a couple weeks since my computer hasn't been working, but I have barely noticed since we've been crazy busy at home. And, I just used Chad's computer if I needed to do something.
This post should really be titled "Why I love Apple" (the computer company, not the fruit, although apples are tasty too). Care for a story?
It was the last full day of 6th session. If you are at all familiar with Camp Blue Haven, you know that the last full day consists of lots of things: banquet, slideshow of all the session's pictures shown at banquet, many baptisms, closing campfire, people crying, etc. My story focuses on two things: the slideshow and the baptisms. When Chad and I got this job, a few things that fell into our job description were taking most of the pictures during a session (around 5-700 usually), putting together the slideshow, and making all the baptism DVDs to send home with kids whose parents didn't get to attend the baptism. Oh, and making CDs of all the pictures that appear on the slideshow. So, lots of technology going on.
Maybe I should back up even further. A couple weeks before this, due to circumstances completely under my control (i.e. clumsiness), I dropped my computer (which is really Blue Haven's computer that we use to do all this technology stuff) on the very hard surface of our tile in our living room. It worked just fine until the last full day of 6th session, specifically until one hour before the slideshow that Chad had been working on for 3 days was to be shown at the banquet. Back to the story.
As a teacher, I always thought that my students who told me that their computer crashed or that their printer ran out of ink or whatever the day before the paper was due were totally full of it. Maybe the majority of them were. But for the record, those of you who were being honest, I TOTALLY BELIEVE YOU NOW. Because that is exactly what happened to us. Right before I took the computer up to the dining hall so Chad could set it up for the slideshow, it froze. And then it wouldn't do anything. And then I forced it to shut off, and when it came back on, it wouldn't open any programs or files or anything. I spent the next hour online with Apple tech support, who helped me try everything in their arsenal except re-installing the operating system because I didn't have my CDs with me at camp. So I waited a few days and when we got back home, called them back, we tried what they wanted to try with the CDs, and nothing worked. Hard drive was inoperable. Meanwhile during that hour or so I was on the phone with Apple that day, Chad re-created the slideshow on his computer using the pictures that I had backed up on camp's external hard drive earlier in the day, along with all the other sessions of pictures. Whew! Glad I did that.
So, here is why I love having a Mac. You get to talk to a person--a NICE, KNOWLEDGEABLE person--on the phone every time you need help with your computer (one night, in our pre-Mac days, I spent TWO HOURS on computer chat with someone from McAfee on our Dell desktop whose first language was clearly not English, telling me over and over again that "I can help you with your problem." They couldn't, and I was so frustrated I was in tears by the end). We buy the apple care protection plan, which gives you as much access to tech support as you need, but the best part is that when they realized my hard drive was not going to get fixed, they sent me a box to pack my computer in, paid for overnight fedex shipping to Apple, switched out the hard drives, and sent it back. Then, when I got my computer back today (all of the mailing and repair lasted only 4 days including Saturday and Sunday), the computer took me through a few steps to recover ALL my hard drive information from our external hard drive (which is also our wireless router at home, called a time machine--it backs up wirelessly and automatically as often as I want it to). So I had this brand new hard drive, and all of a sudden it had all my pictures, my whole itunes library, all my documents, everything. People say they don't want to pay the extra money for an Apple computer, but I will gladly pay the extra money for a real person on the phone to help me and none of my data lost, especially pictures and videos...every time. Oh, and my sister told me that the other day they got a new computer, and Apple gave them a few hundred dollars credit for her husbands few-years-old computer that they traded in. So this is my unsponsored, unpaid advertisement for Apple. It's just technology, material stuff, but boy am I glad I didn't lose any of that stuff--especially my pictures.
Wow, are you still reading? That's amazing. Tonight I'll be posting a couple more entries, since I spent all day long cleaning our house, so I'll need to put my feet up so they don't start swelling. :)
After. The color was picked based on the new windows that we ordered which will be installed in the next couple weeks we hope. Once we get those in the house will look a bit different. The shutters are just black in case you can't tell from the picture. 
And a lot less interesting: we replaced our entry hallway and hallway to the bedroom light fixtures. I don't know when these are from, but probably the 80s.
This is just a fluorescent lightbulb. Anything would have been a vast improvement.
After.
I think up next will be the windows and then probably the kitchen counters & oven. It will be a while before the bathrooms are finished considering they haven't even started.
