Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

The objective I was trying to achieve during my recent tragic loss of data has been achieved, meaning that working from home just got a whole lot easier. (Tip: if you're using remote desktop over a VPN, you need to join a domain if you want it to work. This may be true only of clients running Vista.) As for the data loss itself, Nibs says she has "made it right". I still feel bad about it, though.

Second iPod reload in as many months of about 20 GB. It got nice and warm. I wonder how much data you can pump into one before it bursts into flames.

Needed: sleep, sewing time, and socializing. Three S's.

Still not going to Burning Man this year. No half-naked fairy coated in alkaline dust gave me a ticket, ride, and time. Le sigh. I guess I'll have to be my own fairy next year.

I may have mentioned a time or two here lately that the Wendling is having real trouble focusing in school or even long enough to pee into the toilet. So, as of this morning, we've obtained from our autism specialist a scrip for ritalin. To say I'm ambivalent about this is a huge understatement. Our dude Dr. Cowan at Children's said that yes, we could try behavioral therapy, but its record is poor enough that doctors are backing away from it. I was under the impression that ritalin didn't do jack for Aspies, but our doc says that while it's less effective with them than with classic ADHD kids, it could help. Nibs knows the mother of one more severely affected autistic-spectrum kid who swears by it, and at least they're more conservative with dosage than they would be with an ADHDer. M'boy's OK with it; he asked, "Will it make me less annoying?" I feel like I've failed at something, and I'm not even sure what.

Here's why Home Depot makes me want drugs: after talking to three different people and spending a couple of hours in the store, I've finally learned that they can't replace my water heater. (Happily, this isn't an emergency; I've just been leaking hot water for months into the back yard.) My current water heater was made by A.O. Smith, and Home Depot sells only GE. Making the latter fit a vent system for the former may be possible, but not if you go through Home Depot. Punch line: we loaded up on $300 worth of stuff to take advantage of the deal on our new Home Depot card before we found out about the water heater. Rather than put it all back on the shelves, I thought we'd save time and just buy the stuff. They screwed up ringing up our order twice. I laughed hysterically as we drove out of the parking lot.

Oh yeah: MyCo is being forced to switch to crappier health insurance. Nibs is even more thrilled than I am.

One last thing: For the second time in a month, I've made my iPod silent and unresponsive to the controls by skipping tracks quickly in shuffle mode. When that happens, the only thing I can do is let the battery drain, recharge, and reboot.

My present to myself: an iPod armband. With the warmer weather approaching, I don't want to have to put my iPod in my underwear anymore while I sew and do housework.

Hey, I used the side, not the front or the back.

Edited to add: Nibs got me one too. D'oh!

I can't stop playing with my iPod.

Much of it is because many of my MP3s are lovingly hand-tagged -- I was too paranoid to use a database. By the way, re-ripping fixed my little skipping problem. Same hardware & software. Go figure.