Just when I thought I might, you know, get chapter 6 done, my computer got completely trashed by a virus a few hours ago. *sigh* At least I'd backed things up as recently as last night, so I'll only have lost what I did today, but the worst problem is how damaged my poor baby is. (I'm borrowing a computer to write this, btw.) The anti-virus program apparently was the target of the virus because it immediately shut down and wouldn't restart, even after rebooting, just kept telling me the program encountered an error and had to shut down. :( I'd just gotten a message to update to the current version so I thought, ah-hah, that would solve things. Went and updated, had to remove my firewall to get the update, everything installed fine, I put the firewall back up and... now the computer can't even boot up, it hangs completely. O_O

*sigh* Uninstalled the firewall through safe mode and that got the computer to come back up but oh my poor baby is so screwed up! Automatic updates have been disabled and can't be turned back on. System Restore doesn't work. Obviously this stupid thing did a serious number on some very important things and I have no idea how to fix it! I don't even have a computer repair place to take it to!

So, bottom line of my sad tale here is that I have no idea how long I'll be down, how long it'll be before I can be back online regularly and I really don't know how long it'll be before I can post the final chapter. I'm going to finish it by good ol' paper and pencil but I don't know when I'll be able to combine that back with what I had already written on the computer and be able to have it beta'd and posted. :S *sighs again and wishes a pox on all virus-creators*

Anyway, so sorry for all the delays. I honestly have had the worst month or so of my life that didn't involve a death in my family or anything like that. Just computer problems and monster viruses, both of the computer kind and of the "making me sick" variety. :S I will get that bloody chapter posted eventually, though, even if I have to write it completely over by hand!

*clingy hugs* Hope to see you all again soon! ♥

Just a quick note to let y'all know that I'm having computer problems, which is why I haven't been able to finish answering my last comments (I will ASAP, I promise! :D ) and haven't been able to check in with my flist very much, etc. >:[ Keep your fingers crossed for me that my poor baby here will be able to be fixed by the rather incompetent IT girl who does all of the computer work for me (that would be, uh, me ;) ). I'm seriously contemplating running out and marrying a computer supergenius, just so I won't have to do my own repair work anymore. ;)

Anyway, hope I'll have everything up and running correctly again soon! Wish me luck and hope to see you all again soon! *hugs* ♥!

( In a past life, I was apparently a very evil person )

( Or skip the emo crap and go right to the pretteh pics ;) )

Now I'm going to go to bed and hopefully have some sweet dreams that don't involve house repairs. Anybody have any favorite pretteh pics of your own that you'd like to share? Post 'em in your comments if you do! All fandoms welcome! *hugs flist then crawls away* ♥!

Dude. I just found out that they put in the wrong electrical panel. So that long day I had a few weeks ago with no electricity while they put in the new panel? I get to have another of them. And it's even HOTTER now than it was then. :S

*sigh* Somebody shoot me now, eh? Pretty please? :(

2 days ago, one of the trades that's been here working on the house had to come back and redo some stuff because the city inspector didn't pass their work. Part of this involved them having to install a new electrical outlet (instead of just stringing an attractive extension cord around the garage -- gee, who knew? *eyeroll*). Anyway, they put the new outlet in and everything seemed fine.

Yesterday, the power company had the power off for 3 hours to our neighborhood, not to replace our electrical meter like I thought (they still have to come and do that so that'll be more time with the power off in the future *sigh* ) but to fix the problem that caused the blackout that happened last week -- you know, the one that fried my router? o_O Anyway, they got the power back on at noon and everything seemed fine. I went out to get something out of the freezer in the garage and noticed that things seemed a little more "damp" than they should've been but figured it was from the power being off for 3 hours and now that it was back on, everything would be fine.

Today I see a huge puddle of water under the freezer and finally discovered that, when they were changing the outlets, they didn't just turn the power off to the garage by the main panel, they shut down the outlets individually in the garage. For 2 days, the freezer has been SWITCHED OFF.

Everything in it is a loss. Of course, the trash was picked up today before I knew about this, so now I'll have a freezers' worth of spoiled food to keep for a whole week.

I understand that this was my fault for not checking both days that the freezer was actually on and instead just assuming that it was. (It's hard to tell because there's no light in it or anything... :S ) I'm just so tired of having one disaster after another with this thing. I'm just so tired of it ALL and there's still so much more let to do. I wish I could just run away and forget about all of it. :(

The real kicker? That same trade that started this whole mess? Just added $2000 dollars to their bill! O_O Was that the thoughtful "defrosting the freezer" charge, you think??? (Okay so it was an unrelated thing, but still... How lovely it came in on the same day, you know? :S )