Tragedy

So my last post was January 22. JANUARY 22! You may think this little hiatus was planned, but rest assured it was not. Alas, my little helpers were lovingly "helping" me make dinner a few days after my last blog post was written when tragedy struck. Ok, maybe tragedy is a tad bit too strong (us MacLaggan girls are known for our "MacLaggan exaggeration" skills--Nathan would be the very first to verify this little factoid, should you choose to question it). Anyway, it felt like tragedy to me, in the full sense of the word.

I often use my laptop for recipes and whatnot during dinner hour and the night the boys were helping me was no exception. So there I am cooking away, when I hear, "Uh oh! Uh oh! Mom, I spilled some water". I think to myself, "No big deal, water spills in our house all the time". But when I turn around....what to my wondering eyes should appear? A glass...and a very full glass at that...of water that had been tipped perfectly over the keyboard of my Mac laptop. Have I mentioned that this is my very favorite electronic toy (or more like my only electronic toy)? I don't often have a love affair with electronics. Actually, before this, I don't think it has ever happened. I just don't relate. Nathan on the other hand, loves all things electronic. Truly. In his hierarchy of life it's me and the boys, and then the latest and greatest electronic gizmo. My love for this little laptop of mine is the closest I have ever been to understanding Nathan's obsession. Anyway, this little laptop is the very same laptop I received a year ago (only a year! ONE year ago!) for Christmas that started this blog. With its user friendly-speak-the-language-of-non-techno-Lauren everything, it only seemed natural (and easy!) to start a blog and keep my family in the loop on life at the Sloan house.

But I digress. Anyway, cooking away, I hear the boys, turn around, water. all. over. beloved. laptop. It took all my effort not to cry. Instead I took that lovely deep breath that I think you inherit the moment you become a mom, reassured Drew that it was just an accident and that it was ok (it was ok! it was ok! it was ok! Things like this dry out when you put them in rice, right? Isn't that what all those things on the internet say??). I grabbed the nearest dishtowel, mopped up what I could and turned my computer off as quickly as possible in hopes of saving whatever I could. I then called that little electronic loving husband of mine at work (surely, he would know what to do!) only to find out he was in a meeting. Panic! I need some electronic wisdom here! Insert next phone call to little electronic loving brother-in-law at work. Yep, both at work. I was desperate. Burke did some research for me, told me what to do, and for a good two weeks I let my computer sit, drying out upside down, in hopes that when I turned it back on things would magically be running correctly again. Water can't be that bad, right? Right??

Well, a month and a half later the new keyboard Nathan ordered for me finally (!!) arrived from the slow boat from China (Hong Kong to be exact). Nathan sat down that night, plugged into the grounder in the wall (literally, he was plugged in by a bracelet to a wall outlet. Wish I had taken a picture), to replace my keyboard since we knew for sure it was a goner. Two hours and a million microscopic keyboard screws later (seriously! have you ever seen those tiny things?? Similar to the screws that hold the hinges of eyeglasses together but smaller), my new keyboard was in and it was time for the make it or break it moment. He turned it on and I think I honestly held my breathe hoping, hoping, all would be well. The screen blinked on and for point two seconds I thought we were in the clear. For point. two. seconds. Then, like I said before, tragedy. Random written explanations of what we were doing with the mouse written out on the screen (some option that was obviously available buried deep in the controls of my computer...and also something I most definitely did not turn on), number keys adjusting volume and brightness and other such shennanagins they shouldn't have been controlling, programs randomly opening. Problem. Big, big, problem. Needless to say, we shut the computer back down as quickly as possible to save whatever was on it (like my photos!) and made an appointment with those "geniuses" at Apple.

The next day I packed the boys in the car and hoped that if I shed enough tears with my cute boys batting their big brown eyes, that some poor soul might feel sorry for me and fix my computer for free. Dream on. I sat down with my lovely genius, who plugged a cord into my computer and told me my dreaded Macbook fate. In the world of Macs, there are 5 tiers of damage: tier 1, fairly minor to tier 5...so much damage they send it back to you and say just start over, it'll be cheaper. Water damage is an automatic entry into tier 4. (I'm an adult, this is an electronic device. Hold yourself together!). Ok, tell me my damages. So they guy explains to me that it is going to cost just shy of what we payed to buy it new in order to fix it. I told him at that price point I would rather upgrade. He told me to backup my computer while it was still living because the corrosion would spread and I may wake up to it not working one day. And I packed up my lost love, headed home to tuck it away in the office, and dusted off the good old PC to use while I think out what I want to do with all of this info.

So here I sit. On a PC that is painful...honest to goodnessly PAIN. FULL. to use after getting so used to a Mac. So I'm sorry for the major delay in blogging, but I had just been hoping for a happier ending, you know? More of a "Hey, sorry it's been so long, the craziest thing happened, but it's all fine now and we can go back to our regularly scheduled programming" sort of a story. No such luck. So tomorrow Nathan has a date with my laptop to download all of my photos and whatnot, so that hopefully the next post will at least have pictures once again.

On a much happier note, the boys will be getting a new baby brother or sister somewhere around October 7, 2012! I'm 11 weeks along...