When we built the house and had them install the custom office desks and shelving, we designated five separate computer stations: one each for our regular computers, one each for work laptops, and the fifth for the file and web server we someday knew we would have.

As I write this, Richard is seated at the fifth station, happily poking away at Linux and configuring whatever it is he’s configuring to turn my old computer into a server. This is because once we got the new laptops, I quickly realized that Hermione was infinitely better than the old desk top, and decided it made more sense to just make her my main computer. This left us with an extra computer with no apparent use – until I suggested that Richard take it, give it a brain wipe, and do whatever it is he wants to do to make it our server.

I did a quick transfer of all my files and then while I was chatting with my mom on the phone, he took apart the old computer, set it up on the fifth desk, and then zipped off to an electronics store with vague mumblings about power strips and surge protectors and cat5 cabling.

I escaped to the bedroom to do more knitting (I’ve already done 7 inches on the sweater – almost at the arms!) while he did the initial install, figuring that I probably didn’t want to be around in case things didn’t work out. While I sat two rooms away, he kept me informed of the antics of his ’assistant’. Apparently, during the entire install process, Azzie sat on the desk, staring intently at the computer while it made all sorts of odd noises as the install proceeded. Occasionally he would ‘help’ by reaching up to bap at the tower, sitting on Richard’s books while he was trying to read them, and jumping up to stare excitedly whenever the CD drive opened, because he was sure something exciting was just bound to come out.

After the install was complete and he’d done some initial setup, he sent me my login information for our ‘new’ server. Naturally, to fit with the naming theme of the laptops (Hermione and Dumbledore), the server’s name is Hagrid.