and other fine moments of insanity...and not all mine.

friday, my youngest came home with a note that she was suspended for 3 days. apparently, she attempted to stop a kid from hitting another kid and in the process of grabbing his arm, scratched the skin deep enough to break it. regardless of intent, this district takes a very dim view of any student laying hands on another student any way, shape, or form. and she knows this. she knows what she should have done was gone to get a teacher.

i seriously have no idea what's going on with my usually sweet tempered girl. the thievery has increased, she's getting sloppier with her chores (and slower!), and her grades are starting the fluctuation dance that will not get her a hope scholarship like she wants.

oh, wait, it's called teenagerhood, and it's hitting in spades. at least she's not turning into a constant, disruptive, every day, pull my hair out and drive me up the wall kind of thing like jewel went through.

as for what she's doing while at home until thursday: work. deep clean house cleaning for starters. when that's all done, she'll be raking the yard. if i get work from her teachers and she has any of her books here (she says no, which pisses me off since we've told her she has to do her homework here at the house), she'll be working on schoolwork. no tv, no treats. and this had better not happen again or i'll have to think of something far worse.

then sunday, my new laptop and the ps3 decided to lose their minds. saturday night, my laptop was fine when i shut down. sunday morning, i start it up, and it has a thin, blue line on the left side of the screen. i try every fix i can think of: trouble shooting, downloading updates all across the board, playing with settings—nothing takes. i think people could hear my rage from blocks away. the machine is only TWO WEEKS OLD! we've only had one machine have issues faster and that's saxy's old dell (which was slow and a complete disaster right out of the box...and no longer our problem; :P). at the same time, the ps3 lost the wireless connection and couldn't find it. i could get it online if i put in my own ip, but of course, that knocked me off-line.

that i was frustrated would be putting it mildly. it was like all the new electronics decided to lose their minds or i somehow annoyed the electronics gods and they found their just revenge.

okay, so maybe that's putting it over the top since saxy's stuff is just fine and the 98 hasn't gone belly up, knock on wood.

yesterday, i took the laptop in. the tech guy asked, "how can i help you?" i tried to diffuse things with humor because i knew i would be far too upset if i didn't, and poor tech guy doesn't deserve me losing it on him over something he didn't do. so i said, "i have a thin, blue line, and i'm not talking police protection."

amazingly, he got the joke.

anyway, he said the line was definitely in the screen itself, and the only option was a swap, which he got approved. unfortunately, they didn't have any more of my laptop type in the store. had a ton in other stores. none in this one. they ordered a new one, which should be here thursday or friday, and in the meantime, i get to work with the blue lined one. now, they were going to charge me to optimize the new machine, but i was so upset (come on, TWO WEEKS!) that the guy i was working with said he'd get it done for free for me. i've put all my most recent files and my software i need on a pen drive to make the transition to the new machine easier.

as for the ps3, i was given a phone number to call for a free "re do" and, after jumping through several crazy hoops, made an appointment for mr. geek guy to come out today. the people i talked to also emailed him to let him know what was up. he called, had time, and came over yesterday. turns out that this is the second ps3 that's had network connection issues in as many weeks, so he thinks a recent upgrade download messed with the settings or something. he set up a dedicated ip in our router just for the ps3 and then manually put the ip into the ps3 and made sure i had the ip numbers in case the ps3 loses its mind in the future.

the beauty of all this? i didn't have to pay one cent. thank god and thank best buy for having a semi-decent warranty even when you don't pay for their in store extended warranty ($300? i think not!).

now, here's hoping no further melting down occurs, especially in the electronics department. we've actually had a pretty good year so far. i'd like to keep it that way. and i suspect there's only so far their regular warranty will go...like, oh, you know, 30 days maybe. the store tech guy said that hp is known for having hardware issues. the guy on the floor, who seemed to really know his business (everyone else was going to him, he knew exactly what to look for where, and so on) said this is the first time he's had my model come back with a problem. it figures it would be me that would be the exception to the rule, right? let's just hope on the floor guy has it right and the new laptop will be problem free for a very long time. i suspect any further meltdowns will require me to just live with it or to cough up money i do not have for repairs.

here's hoping any electronics gods have been appeased.