When It Rains, It Pours

And I'm not just talking about the crappy weather here in Atlanta today. I'm talking about one crash and burn after another around this house.

It started when our internet stopped working. Naturally we blamed Comcast first, because they suck (No, seriously - it's true. I'm not the only one who hates them). After several frustrating calls with customer service and some poor troubleshooting attempts, we figured out that our wireless router was no longer working. So we went to Best Buy, got a new router and hooked ourselves up. Life was good again. We were unhappy people without internet.

A few weeks later, our desktop computer crashed. It caught some nasty virus and it was going to be more expensive to reformat the hard drive than it was to buy a brand new one. Our desktop was Bo's computer from college, and we had managed to get a good 6 years out of it, which is pretty darn good in computer years. So we went back to Best Buy and picked out a new tower.

I got home to set it all up, which I rather enjoy since I am a super-nerd about stuff like that. But of course, the old desktop had the weird, color-coded cords and ports instead of USB, so the old keyboard couldn't connect to the new computer. Turns out not having a keyboard makes the whole computer rather pointless. Since I couldn't do anything at all... I went back to Best Buy again to get a keyboard. On the bright side, this was by far the cheapest trip of the day.

And then we realized we had run out of installations for our previous version of Microsoft Office, which we cannot live without. When I showed up at Best Buy for the third time in about an hour, the sales team knew me by name at this point, so their customer service was superb. I think they could sense my irritation. It's a good thing the store is only 5 minutes away or else I would have been really pissed.

A few weeks after that, my laptop died. No virus. No crash. It just would not turn on. Seems to have been a slow, peaceful death. I had also had it for 6 years, which, as I noted in the previous computer death story, was a good life for a computer. We debated whether or not to get a new one, but given the previous purchases we made that month (which was supposed to be an otherwise inexpensive month aside from the credit card bills we received to pay for our trip to California the month before...), we decided to hold off. And I'm really glad we did. I really only used it to surf the internet, since it couldn't do much else in its old age. So there wasn't much I needed a laptop for that I couldn't already do from my phone. And since we had a brand-new desktop, it just seemed silly. I've also found that I spend more time reading or doing more productive things with my life than wasting hours (and hours and hours) on the internet. RIP, laptop.

Then came the kill. While I was in DC with mom and Leslie, my hair straightener died. This was, by far, the worst of all the previous technology failures. I love my Chi. I use it almost every single day. It turns my hair from a wavy hot mess to straight smoothness in a matter of minutes. And it was gone. Thankfully Leslie brought hers on the trip so my hair looks normal in all our pictures (thinking back on it... wow that would have been tragic for me if she didn't have her Chi). But when I got back home I had to wait a whole week for mine to come, since it was a lot cheaper online than in the stores.  For me, life is just better with straight hair.

Most recently, we discovered that we need to buy a carry-on size suitcase for Bo. We have one set of luggage that my mom got for me a few years ago, and I love it. When I was packing for London a few weeks ago, I managed to get a whole week's worth of stuff into my carry-on bag (yes, I am an expert packer). But Bo wouldn't let me use it because he might have to travel for work that week, and he might need to use the carry-on (don't even get me started on that argument....). I was none too happy, especially after the complete disaster I went through to clear customs in Atlanta with that checked bag. So we agreed to get a new bag for him. We won't be flying separately for at least a few months from now, so I am hoping I can find a good deal during the holiday sales before we will run into this situation again.

I'm hoping it'll be a while before we have any more of these little episodes. While I do love shopping, it's a whole lot more fun when you are actually planning to spend a ton of money and can prepare yourself for it ahead of time.