I've been toying with the idea of upgrading my computer for a while. Um. Well. Alright, it's been mostly since I got Richard *his* computer, because since then I've been having 'fancier toy' envy, but really, it had crossed my mind at least a few times prior to the wedding that maybe it was time to give my poor little machine a little boost. After the move, something got bumped just enough that now when I tell the computer to shut down, it thinks I really meant to just reboot it, and so if I want the darn thing to turn off I have to wait through the shutdown process and then hit the 'off' button manually at the exact moment the screen turns black. If I wait too long, it starts the boot process and then next time I turn it on it gives me that frantic little 'This computer shut down unexpectedly oh-my-god-something-went-wrong I have to do a full system check RIGHT NOW or there will be dire consequences' message. And then it refuses to believe me when I tell it I really don't feel the need to do the full system check RIGHT NOW, and keeps demanding I do so for a few more times until it finally gives up in a loud huffy sulk and goes back about the normal rebooting business, with the occasional odd grinding noise thrown in, in a futile attempt to make me feel guilty.

So this afternoon we happened to be in the area of a CompUSA, and Richard said 'hey, while we're here, wanna go in and get your new hard drive and memory chip?', and I told him he didn't need to twist my arm twice, so off we went in search of ways to spend a lot of money. This ended up with us leaving without buying anything (the first trip, that is) because we discovered that if I brought my computer in to the store, the nice little nerds at CompUSA would do all the upgrading type things for free, plus it would end up being cheaper than us doing it ourselves. This may sound odd, but it all has to do with the fact that my little computer currently has Windows 95 on it (I am *so* behind the times, I know), but who knows where the install CD disappeared to, so we could either do the brain wipe and reinstall ourselves and have to purchase a brand new CD (I'm movin' on up to Windows 98, baby! Hold me back!), or they would simply reinstall 95 for me, and do the 98 upgrade (which we would still have to buy). So I signed my name to an agreement wherein I left them my computer (my baby!), and they agreed to do all this stuff and clean it too, and we handed over a credit card that's doing a fair bit of whimpering now, and we were all set. In three or four days I'll get my computer back, all fresh and new and sporting 200% more memory, and 40 GB more of wide-open space to fill with….well….I'm sure I'll find *something* to fill it with.

All this meant, of course, that I had to spend a few frantic hours at home hastily plowing through any and all folders on the old hard drive, stuffing things into zip files to store on another computer on our local network so I wouldn't lose all my important stuff (you know, stuff like all my oh-so-humorous away messages for Instant Messenger, or the database of vet records for the cats). The three or so years I've had this thing and all my worldly (data) possessions don't even amount to 100 MB of file space, unzipped. I think my fanatical cleanliness (on the *computer*. Quit snickering, people who know me. I never claimed this extended outside the computer) was possibly a good thing. I don't like leaving stuff around to clutter my folders. I'm even fanatical about uninstalling programs I don't use.

To take my mind off the fact that I had just handed over my computer and anything I may have forgotten to back up would now be gone forever (well, okay, so it's not as bad as all that because the lovely nerds at CompUSA also agreed to make a folder on the new hard drive with all the data from my old hard drive - isn't that nice of them - but it *sounds* so much better to say that I'd lose everything. Leave me with my delusion, darn it!), I suggested that perhaps while we were there we ought to consider replacing our scanner. When we moved (note - moving does bad things to computer-related equipment…or at least computer-related equipment that belongs to me), something in the scanner got jostled too, so that henceforth everything we tried to scan came out with really lovely wide yellow vertical stripes. A lovely fashion statement it might have been, but not exactly what one has in mind when one is trying to scan in one's wedding photos, for example. So we perused the selection of scanners and tried to figure out which one was better and eventually decided on another Astra (the decision wasn't quite by using the 'Eeny Miny Mo' method, but it was close) and then off we went back home, where Richard spent the next several hours gleefully playing with the new scanner toy.

We also got a new memory chip for his old laptop too, but he's humoring my paranoia (he humors me a lot. He's so cool that way!) in that he agreed to postpone upgrading that laptop until my computer returns and I can get all my backed up stuff off that particular laptop before he mucks with its innards. And for now I get to use one of his computers to check my email and post journal entries and thoroughly confuse myself each and every time I try to find something and forget that it isn't on this computer - sniffle, whine.

And I also get to pine for my own lovely little computer, and eagerly await its return.