Chaotic, Semi

Things have been a bit chaotic around here. Mostly that's due to the guys working on the roof and siding. Being inside a house that's being resided is not fun. Many, many WHAM WHAM WHAM interruptions. Pictures shifting on the wall, ceiling lights vibrating in their sockets. Plus, its a little weird to be sitting in the kitchen, doing stuff on the laptop, and look up to see three guys staring in at you. Actually, they're more interested in the siding they're cutting, but it feels almost effete -- I'm in here, warm and casual, they're out there, shivering and working hard. They were supposed to be done today, but not -- probably at about 90%. With luck, tomorrow.

Which is when the two of us will be gone all day, taking a bus trip up to New York while the offspring spends the day doing color guard stuff. Not expecting much, and almost certainly not going to be buying anything -- feeling the normal pre-Christmas sense of impoverishment, which sense not helped by having to buy a replacement laptop for the daughteroid. Her Dell got all frakked up, to the point where even the 'reload from the protected partitition' didn't help. We're convinced she downloaded something lethal. I just can't get the partition to start, either from the restart partition or the Vista reinstallation CD. Apparently, I really shouldn't have told it to wipe that partition-- it keeps telling me it either a) can't find a Boot program, or b) on reinstallation, can't find its drivers -- sometimes, can't even read all of it its own files. If I were more tech-savvy, I'd play with the BIOS and such, but I'm not. If I want to frustrate myself, there's always my attempts to get a decent French accent.

Speaking of French, I'm in the depressive stage of Will we ever see that French kid again, let alone, her family? Right this moment, I'm thinking not. I want them to be giddy with the possibility of meeting us, you see; I want the kid to light right up at the sight of us at the door. Ten, fifteen years from now, keeping in touch, visiting each other.... Don't hold your breath. But I sent them such a nice Christmas card! With a note!!! In French, yet!!! I know, I expect too much. Perhaps the trip will distract me. I'll get a decent New York City hot dog, for sure. Maybe some pizza, too. An egg cream? Not out of the realm of possibility. Distractions. Because when I think about studying French now, my reaction is why bother? (This post speaks to me, on that whole topic.)

I did get the kitchen Christmas tree up. Cat likes it. A lot. Get out of there, dammit!