Aha! Solved the mystery of my grumpy computer…the hard drive died today and the computer would no longer boot up. I freaked out because I thought the whole of My Documents was lost- along with the 40 page third manuscript I’ve been working on but had no hard copies of – until I remembered I’d backed up two weeks ago. Then I stopped hyperventilating. I took it to a computer repair wizard (or as I call it, the PC Whisperer) and he said, yes, the hard drive is dying, lifted it to his ear and shook it, and got it to boot up one last time so I could copy the files over to a new laptop (goodbye, majority of grant money!) On the plus side, the new laptop is pink and superspeedy. If anyone wants a nice, three-year-old laptop with a dead hard drive, give me a whistle! Selling for cheap….
PS The PC Whisperer says the most common thing for 2-3 year old laptops to go is the hard drive. So remember your backups, all ye who bought laptops in 2004!

On the plus side, my father and brother made it through their respective eye surgeries swimmingly. Hoorah!

And, may tomorrow may be a less stressful day. Health and happiness to all!

PS May go see Hairspray tonight. Need an escape from reality for a bit…