it's been quite a week...

...in which i've learned many interesting facts. for example: did you know that a high-pressure fuel pump costs $900 and is not covered under a powertrain warranty? nope, me neither! something i *DID* know from past experience is how important it is to regularly back up everything on your computer, especially photos and your itunes library. sadly, i did not follow that wise advice recently enough; i shall be throwing myself on the mercy of the geek squad later today in hopes they can retrieve at least some of the stuff from the hard-drive of my now sadly unplugged desktop computer. most of yesterday evening was composed of my attempts to right the situation myself, via several "hard" reboots, thwarted attempts to run my anti-malware program in safe mode with networking, and two "blue screens of death". since the latter constitutes my official limit as amateur computer repair person, i'm off to seek repair or replacement of said machine from professionals. i hope to be blogging and emailing uninterrupted from my laptop, but if you don't hear from me for a few days, i'll be down at best buy, pacing the tech-center lobby like an expectant parent. :0

and now i'll leave you to back up your hard-drive and run anti-virus + malware scans, darlings!!!  (seriously, GO, DO THAT!!!)

ETA thursday night: the car is back in action, the new computer is up and running, the old computer is in capable hands with hopes of data retrieval; we are reminding ourselves that all of the above were merely *INCONVENIENCES* and how lucky we are to have such fix-able problems! :)