Why is it that every time I buy a new piece of computer hardware I have problems? (It’s a rhetorical question, really… I’m surprised I haven’t had more problems with what I have to work with.)

But anyway. Today we went to Sam’s Club, where I had heard they had a jump drive for $50. I expected it to be a 128mb jump drive or some manufacturer I’ve never heard of, but it was a Lexar Media Secure 256mb jump drive. It was one of the ones that needed a downloaded driver for Win98, which I am using. So I bought it.

I got home, downloaded the driver to this computer, and then realized I had a problem. (Why do they make drivers so damned big?!?) Because of the fact that I had only a floppy disk to transfer between computers, and the fact that the driver was over 5mb, I couldn’t transfer the driver between computers.

I mean, this is the reason why I wanted a jump drive to begin with!

So I fiddled for a while trying to make it work, and when I failed, tried to think of what else I could do. After I emailed Vicki with a request for a burned CD, Jessica got home and I asked her if any of her friends had a CD/R drive. One did, and he was home and agreed to burn the driver to a disk for me.

Well, I got the disk (and gave him the rest of the pack of CD/R CDs that came with my old computer whose CD/R drive never did work right) and fiddled with it for a bit (accidentally crashing my poor computer twice.) The actual device is a big big for the USB ports, but if I unplug my mouse and then stick it in, everything works just fine.

So it’s there. And I’m just about to transfer something I’ve always wanted on my upstairs computer–Dreamweaver.

Yes. I am happy. It took a bit of doing, but I have achieved transferability! (If that’s a word…)

Graduation went well, I think. It ended up being just over two hours long. Not too shabby, considering there were over 140 people graduating. We went out to eat afterwards, and then I came home and finished cleaning my room.

Yes, finished. As in completely. It looks nice.

It stormed last night. That seems to be normal nowadays.

And this morning I wrote a bit on TER, too. I still have hope of finishing it by the 17th.

My desk is nicely organized and very clean. So that’s one thing down. Now I move on to my bedside table and surroundings, which is mostly books that need to be put away and jewelry that needs to be hung up. Then I put a couple of things away under my bed, get the stuff on the other side of my bed put away, and then I’m done!

So I might get completely finished with my room today. That would be nice. Depending on graduation, that is.

I reread TER yesterday as well, and added a little bit. Not much yet, since I started late. But it looks promising. I am still hoping to get it finished by June 17.

And it looks like Bekah, Ethan, and I might be driving to Florida separately (which was my original suggestion.) It’s cheaper to drive than to fly, after all, since we’d have to come up with close to $500 for two round-trip tickets. So we’ll see how Ethan does on long trips if we do decide to go this route.

Oh, speaking of Ethan… he can say (very clearly, I might add) ‘hedgehog’ now.

Cleaning today. My desk is just about done, I just have to dust everything. It looks nice! And I found about 40 blank disks, so I won’t have to buy any for graduation tomorrow. Yay!

Bing cherries are in season. They taste wonderful. I brought home 3 1/2 lbs. yesterday, and we’re already through one whole bag.

I’m definitely getting a jump drive. I’m going to check out the ones they have at Sam’s when we go, because evidently they’re reasonably priced. And that will solve my problem! Thanks for the advice, everyone.

If anyone needs a GoType keyboard for a Handspring Visor, let me know, because I’m going to put it on ebay if I can’t sell it privately. I also have a nice case that fits a GoType keyboard and has two pockets for your Visor plus another pocket, so if anyone is interested, drop me a line.

That’s it for now.

Well, we had storms last night, so I was unable to post when I finished the revision of TSoR. However, I did finish it, with an ending wordcount of 20,200. Ha. This evening I will hotsync and ship it to Vicki, who will look it over and let me know how I did on the extended ending, and then I’ll send it to Jintsu and we’ll see.

Whew. That was a long sentence.

I thought we had stuff going on for two days this weekend, but it turns out we have stuff going on both days next weekend. Which kind of sucks, but bodes well for this weekend. Argh. I will never keep these things straight. However, I will be writing TER this weekend, and hopefully getting somewhere with it. I also have to cross some more stuff off on my list of things to do before Florida.

Oh, and I discovered something cool earlier this week. I started rearranging my desk because the only place I could think of to put my new printer was on top of my desk (which would look stupid, but I’m really squished for space.) So I took some of the things off the top of my desk when I brought the shelves in from storage. While doing that, I realized that I might have perfect space for my printer already… under my desk where your feet are supposed to go. At the moment, it’s empty wasted space (my chair doesn’t fit under my desk, and I sit sideways anyway, so my feet don’t go anywhere near that space.) Well, I measured it and it fits! now I just have to figure out some sort of wheeled stand (I already have an idea for this as well) and I’ll be set.

Can a person be allergic to cicadas? Because I swear this cold of mine feels worse when I’m at work. When I come home, I can breath, and since we have only one cicada here… Hmm.

Budget Cuts has slipped to #9 on the Fantasy Bestseller list at Fictionwise. However, it’s standing firm at #16 for Highest Rated–Recent, which is a couple of numbers above Van Helsing. I am vindicated.

While it would be nice to see BC jump up and eclipse Van Helsing as well as SpiderMan, not to mention the fact that it would give me a lot of satisfaction to see that, a high of #4 is good enough for me.

Unless you all want to go buy copies right now. Not that I’m twisting your arms or anything…

I’m almost done with the reworking of TSoR, and over 19k. I’m not sure I’ll make it to 20k, but maybe I can squeak it through.

And then, back to TER. Really. Jacob is starting to bug me.

Let’s see. I really have to get done with the stuff on my list-of-things-to-do-before-Florida, because I’m running out of time. It’s nice, though, that Em will be staying at the house while we’re in Florida. (She’s using my car (eep!) and getting paid for staying there and taking care of everything. So at least Hildy will be in good hands.

Um. Anything else? I think I stared at my computer screen for too long last night. My left eye is still scratchy this morning. And I haven’t gotten over this cold still.

I got a story idea, sort of an alternate Beth-Hill story while at lunch today:

What if the Hunt was never bound?

(This question actually came up in TSoR. Malachi seems to think that the Hunt would still be terrorizing Beth-Hill. I’m not so sure. Even though Council members as well as Hounds died during the binding, if someone screwed that up… (Stefan comes to mind) it could have been disastrous.)

We don’t see the far-reaching results of decisions until it’s too late to go back. Good decisions, of course, are different; you look back and wonder how you could have been so afraid to proceed. (Me getting divorced and moving back home, for example.)

But bad decisions (getting married in the first place) aren’t as easy to spot. (Although I had my concerns, and should have acted on those concerns, I didn’t.) But what if I had?

It’s neat to be able to take a decision or an action (the binding of the Hunt in the first place) and rewrite ‘history’ to see what might have happened if the Hunt had not been bound.

I know one thing, though… if the binding of the Hunt had failed, more than five Council members would have died that night. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Gabriel would have killed everyone there–and Hunted the ones who fled.

Obviously, though, someone escaped, or else no one would be alive to tell the story. The someone who escaped was probably Peter, who narrates my short story Binding the Hunt.

In desperation, he probably attempts a spell that he doesn’t really understand, and manages to summon someone from this world (but who?) to help. Only, he doesn’t quite get who he intended to summon…

ARGH! I don’t need another story! (Heck, this one’s probably a novel, dammit.)

Can you imagine this-world Gabriel meeting that-world Gabriel? Whoa!!

Well, I decided to try to bring TSoR up to length, but I only got about 300 words added last night.

Yesterday at work we had a meeting in the park, amid flying cicadas. I won’t say whose bright idea that was, but other than the noise and the two cicadas that got stuck in my hair, it was quite nice outside with the breeze.

Oh, speaking of cicadas, we have one. Yes, one. It sounds really weird to hear it calling in the trees. (I want to make a t-shirt that says “I Live in a One-Cicada Town” or something, just to be mean.)

Oh, and the raccoon had babies, and that’s why she was trying to get into the building. She did get in, eventually. And the babies were cute. There are two of them, at least, up in the loft. Which is not a good thing, but there’s no way we can get up there to get them out until they leave on their own.

Um. Anything else? I picked most of the one lettuce plant last night for use at supper. This is one of the two plants that grew back from last spring. And my lemon balm is about three feet across in some areas, and my mint is growing… Mom and Dad planted some tomatoes…

And Jessica is graduating from High School this weekend. We’re having the party next weekend. Which means we’re going to be cleaning the house. I think we have a graduation party to go to on Saturday as well, for Cousin Mindy.

I swear. If there’s one thing that makes me feel old, it’s seeing all these kids I taught in kindergarten CCD graduating from High School. Sheesh!