An update...

I can't believe I haven't blogged since THURSDAY! Oh, my. My reading audience must be missing me.

Hmmm. What have I been doing all these days?

Well, there's been a major push at my house to suddenly reload computers. We started at the beginning of last week with my desktop. Had all kinds of popups that wouldn't go away. So, beat the problem by wiping it clean away.

Then, my laptop started causing windows problems. I think the same error that caused my desktop problems in September, decided to rear its ugly head on the laptop. An update from Windows decided to load as an app instead of HOW it should have been loaded. So, Rob reloaded my laptop Thursday and Friday.

Then, we took Cassi to Pa's for her WONDERFUL weekend away. She has so much fun with him. We setup a wireless router on my grandpa's computer. We're going to try to sell some of his stuff (we'll update everyone once we get things ready to sell). The easiest will be for me to access the internet from his shop which is on the first floor of his building. Even though I REALLY need exercise, I'm not ready for the climbs up and down to use his computer, especially when his computer is SLOW. But, after we added the router, his girlfriend (yes, the man is 80 and has a girlfriend asked what Rob did so she couldn't get on the internet). Everyone told her he didn't do ANYTHING with the computer itself. But, we decided to come back on Sunday, had din-din with mom and dad, and Rob looked at the computer. We both agree that his computer REALLY needs to be reloaded. But, for those of you who don't know my grandpa, he is losing his memory BIG TIME. We don't think he'll be around for much longer, so the stuff that he's got needs to stay the same. That means that his computer needs to stay just the way it is because he's got such a routine with it, even though every night, he goes over to my mom's apartment (there's 2 apartments upstairs and the biz down) to ask computer questions.

With all of this going on, Rob had me call our friend, Patty. Patty has a computer, plus one for each of her kids. She's living in an apartment with said family while her new house is being built. We decided to call her Friday night. Since we had the software with us, we figured we would see if she needed her computer looked at. She was at the IX Center (huge building by airport that holds conventions and shows) for our annual Christmas Connection (just a HUGE place to buy stuff for Christmas). Saturday afternoon, we ended up at her new house, which is almost finished. Boy, is it GORGEOUS. But, as Rob says, don't get an quarter million dollar ideas from seeing her house. I could definitely see some of the ideas she used in her kitchen to go into this one if we ever changed it. But, Rob helped Kevin (Patty's hubby) with the backerboard to go under tiling in the front foyer. When done, we headed to Patty's because she actually did need help with her computer. We stayed at Patty's until about 10pm Saturday night and ended up bringing the computer home with us. Still here now. We started moving her data to our computer Saturday night and took until some time Sunday, while we were at mom's to migrate all her STUFF. Plus, we had to go back to her apartment to get her software, as we forgot to bring it with us. We'll keep it here until they're moved into their new house, which appears to be a week before Christmas.

So, come up to today. The computer is finishing being reloaded and is currently in the process of having all its data migrated back to the computer. This time, Rob setup an image of the drive with just the software. If we have to reload again, all we'll have to do is migrate the data and reload the image.

But, today. From my post last week about my late night. Friday, we discussed with everyone about what happened with my story and the page 1 and 6 problem. Well, the image wasn't the best one that I picked, but at 7pm, Cliff and I both wanted to get the heck out of Dodge. Everyone kept saying it was the computers causing the problems. Well they tested the computers today, which appeared to be working fine. We think we did figure out what happened with my story. Process: we post stories into a DRAFTS folder. What Cliff has been doing is moving the stories into the folders where they would be ready to place, THEN edit them. I think this is where the problem came up. What he should be doing is editing the story in the DRAFTS folder, save the changes and then MOVE them into the folders for placing in InDesign.

But, because I only had one story, for the print edition, I got a B for the grade for the last edition. This is fine with me because, overall, I've still got an A. For each print edition, we have to have at least 2 stories. In the beginning issues, I had 3 or 4 for each edition. So, the extra stories gave me extra credit. Then, for the print edition, we had to get ads to run in two editions, or two ads for one edition, etc. I had 1 half page ad that ran twice and two full page ads that ran once. There, extra points. Plus, writing up the instructions for creating the online news stories and for the last edition, I've got at least 4 news stories. My final grade will be an A. As it stands now, I'm taking the second half of the news class in the spring. This class was COM 426. The one in the spring is COM 427. I'll be listed as an editor at least the first edition.

Plus, I've been acting as co-advisor for the paper because of my desktop publishing experience. If I don't get into technical writing, I can always fall back on desktop publishing, which I also enjoy immensely.

This week isn't going to be a breeze either. My goal is to get both of my news stories done by Wednesday. Tomorrow, I've got to be on campus to interview about the one story. Plus, the other story is about the TV show their producing in the COM department about the Men's basketball team. I've got to be there, at least for a little while, to get pictures of the set and interview the hosts.

Then, I have to zip back to Elyria from Cleveland for a Thanksgiving feast with Cassi and the first graders. Rob is subbing for me at 1pm to help with setup. As soon as I can get there, I'll take over. Plus, in the afternoon is our PTO meeting. The president doesn't realize that I'm taking over as the Treasurer, but it doesn't really matter because she is giving up her post as she is expecting child very soon.

Okay, with all that said, you're probably wondering, could there be more?

Yep. Cassi is going with me to school on Wednesday. She's in her glory. Can't wait. I'll drop her off at Pa's for sleep over and then come home. I'll be coming home to make pies for Thursday.

Thursday is my day to eat turkey until I drop. Plus, the pies. Oh, the pies. They'll be home made. Since I picked so many apples, I've got BAGS of home made apple pie filling. Plus, with all that pumpkin, I'm making pumpkin pie filling from scratch. It just tastes so much better from fresh ingredients!

Then, Friday. I'll talk about Friday after it happens. Won't be a happy day in my house (for me). But, it has to be done.

With that, I'll close for now.

Love to all,
Cathy
8^ )