In case I haven't been cranky enough lately...

Allow me to spend a moment bitching about the lovely piece of shit, er, I mean, piece of hardware I like to think of as my iBook.

Earlier this week, I was trying to fix my fonts. I bought some new ones and was trying to remove some old ones. Yummy.

Instead of installing fonts, I wound up reinstalling my entire operating system. And downloading all the updates. That I'd already downloaded and installed.

Whatever I did, the computer wouldn't freakin' start. Literally it wouldn't run the finder. God bless Mac OS X for coming with a system restore disc. So all I really lost was time.

Eight freakin' hours. Midnight to 8 a.m. Then off to work on three hours' sleep. I almost fell asleep driving to work. I almost fell asleep at work. I almost fell asleep driving home.

If you were in the car next to me, I apologize for the dreadful, loud singing. Beats swerving into your lane, snoring.

Anyway, just when that crisis passes - and I get the fonts I want up and running (yay!) - tonight, my Entourage e-mail program bombs.

Totally. Not loading.

So I've been fucked by Apple AND Microsoft this week. I haven't gotten this much action in years.

This time, there were casualties.

I wound up reinstalling my entire Microsoft Office suite. Which wouldn't really matter much, in fact, would amount to only redoing my Word toolbars, which I customize like crazy, except...

I lost all of my saved e-mail.

Fortunately, I'm not one to keep every e-mail ever written to me. In fact, I delete about 90% of what I get after I read and/or reply, and that's not including the spam.

But I did lose my archive. And that's sad.

Not because most of my mail-order receipts were in there. I can get my order status online from places like Amazon.

Not because I lost a few shareware password codes from actually paying and registering. I'm sure I can track those down, too, if push comes to shove.

Not because I lost my goofy quotes for my sig files and had to type them back in.

But because I lost the notes and jokes from people I'd carefully saved, sometimes for years.

There were notes of congratulations, nice notes from my parents, some of my father's reminiscences. A lot of nice remarks from the cast and crew of "Dead Hunt," to me and in general. Those hurt.

But I have the memories - it's not like I didn't read them or cherish them. And it's not like I've never lost anything before.

Just one more frustration in a frustrating week. Another bad end to a good weekend.

Since Morgan died, I've been kind of sad to begin with, so maybe I'm taking this a little harder than I should.

And of course I know this is a teeny-tiny problem compared to so many other people's. But you know how it is - when something bad happens to YOU, no matter how small, you get frustrated or aggravated. And it's been an aggravating week.

I mean, this week's Thanksgiving, and I do have a lot to be thankful for.

It's just right now, I could use a hug. And a nap. And some ice cream.

Sigh. I guess it was just my turn to be Charlie Brown this week.

Links:
• Apple.com; I sure got the worm in the Apple this week, didn't I?
• Typography and design, which might explain my font addiction
• Wayne Fontes, just because
• Damn you, Entourage, you betrayer!
• Timewarp Films - "Dead Hunt" is coming soon!
• Lastly, Charlie Brown and his football

Why the good weekend, you ask? Well, Ed and I got a jump-start on our yearly tradition of spending an entire weekend learning and playing the latest "Smackdown" video game, this year dubbed "Smackdown vs. Raw 2006." We both happened to be free this weekend - our big weekend is scheduled for next month, so we got a lot done (the create-a-wrestler is tough), plus we watched a bunch of movies and ate some bad-for-us food.

Plus, the Raiders won! So at least some things are well in the world.