Some Assembly Required ...

Christmas morning started early at our house ... Jessie showed up in our bedroom at 4:47am stating that Christmas had come! Dad said that no, it hadn't and I took her back up to her bedroom. She was super jazzed, and I was wondering how I was going to keep her in bed for at least another hour.

We talked a bit, then, all of a sudden - she fell asleep! So Christmas THEN began at 7:15am - much more to all our liking.

Jessie did her 'I'm going to start unwrapping and not stop until I run out of presents' as much as she could while we tried to maintain a semblance of control and take turns ...

And then it began ...

The 'Great Day of Assembling' with nothing going well at all.

I cleaned off my desk in preparation to moving my old computer off and moving my new Super Duper Pimped Out Computer into its place. Had to take a photo ... have you ever seen a cleaner desk? It lasted about 5 minutes:

And look at my baby!!! She is SO TINY!!

We couldn't get the Internet to detect our wireless router and I was worried that they had not installed my wireless card in it - so we called Dell. Yes, we did. On Christmas day.

Oh, don't feel sorry for them - I believe we got India and someone who doesn't even celebrate it - but it sort of felt like maybe Slumdog had sat down and taken over the headset ...

After multiple tries and various attempts, the technician said - is the antenna on the back of the computer?

I roll my eyes and crawl back behind the computer.

Lori: "What does it look like?"

Tech: "It is shaped like a V"

Lori: "There is nothing like that here"

Tech: "Could you look in the box and see if it is there?"

I roll my eyes at Ryan and whisper - "He thinks that it is in the box - like we are dumber than dirt ..."

Lori: "Nope not in the box" Whisper to Ryan (while casually moving some bags of cables on my desk out of the way ...) "The idiots didn't install my wireless - I am SO PISSED"

... as I spy what looks like a 'V' shaped antenna just sitting there ... plain as day on my desk (in my defense ... RYAN PUT IT THERE!!!)

Lori: "Um, sir, we are idiots - it is sitting right here" to Ryan through clenched teeth - "PUT THIS ON THE BACK"

.

.

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Lori: "Thanks ... seems to be working fine now - SO SORRY WE ARE IDIOTS"

Tech: "Do not apologize, you have been very patient with me and very kind" (Like I needed the SUPER nice Slumdog ...)

Lori: "Also - while I have you on the phone - I ordered and it shows that there are dual 1.5 terabyte hard drives - but when I look in Explorer - there is only one."

Tech: "They are RAID1 drives and are mirroring each other - so one is a backup."

Lori: "Um, that is not what I wanted - I wanted 3 terabytes of data - I have an external 3 terabyte drive to backup onto."

Tech: "Technical blah, blah, blah ... and anyways ma'am, NO ONE needs 3 terabytes of data."

SO NOT THE THING TO SAY TO ME.

I kindly explain that I already have a full 500 GB of photos and 500 GB of Graphics (well, almost ...) and so that leaves only 500GB left - so DON'T talk to me about how much memory I need ...

... he actually agrees then proceeds to tell me that to turn it into RAID0 memory, it would take 3 hours and I would need to blow off my operating system and all my programs and talk to someone else.

Great, I tell him, I don't have any programs installed, bought the Operating System disk just in case I ever needed to blow it off and I really, really want my memory ... any way - why didn't the guy I ordered it from MENTION THIS TO ME?

Get on the phone with the new guy and it begins:

Blowing off your operating system, then finding out you CANNOT install it on a 3 terabyte RAID0 disk is not the best feeling in the world ...

ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY THREE MINUTES of phone conversation later - I was installing my operating system on a 2 terabyte partition (THAT will work) and I get to hang up and rescue my saint of a husband for keeping Jessie away from me and the technician.

The technician then got on (after we installed the drivers for wireless) and 'drove' my computer for a couple of hours reinstalling all the crap that we blew off ... Merry Christmas to ME!!

At this point, Ryan and Gary go out to put together Ryan's 'New Belgium Brewery' bike. My sister works there and each year they can get one absolutely fabulous bike - and Ryan mentioned he wanted one. Of course, my sisters was spoken for - but she found a friend who hadn't 'given' theirs away and we snapped it up.

They got to install it without a manual and were a bit frustrated:

This was after Ryan had programmed Gary's All In One remote TWICE. It programs all your remotes onto it so that it is the only remote you need (one push of a button to do things ... a serious improvement over what we needed to do to watch a movie ...). This was great - until Gary decided to swap some hardware and Ryan needed to start over ...

Bike got finished:

Jessie calmed down and watched a FULL 10 MINUTES of a show - the most she sat still all day - we are trying to figure out how we accomplished anything when she was living here! I am thinking that I really DIDN'T get anything accomplished ... and we tagged teamed a lot between the three of us ...

Ryan was happy with his other gift - he is weird - he wanted a turn table and vinyl records ... go figure - this was also his way of getting a break from Jessie ...

So - a working computer, a working bike, a working remote (a non working PC 'tablet' - but that is another post ...) and my other computer is acting hinkey ... I had better get all my stuff off of it fast. I will be a busy bee this week getting my system up and running with all the stuff I cannot live without ...

And my 'Special Christmas Present'? This photo of Ryan - with sheer joy on his face

We must have done something right today ...