My new laptop...

[danceswithgary]

...was Gary's - the one I bought him for Xmas. We went to Best Buy to buy one of two Toshiba's I'd decided on and walked out with an HP Mini for him (and a carry case and extra memory and a new mouse for me and the two Stargate movies my daughter's been jonesing for) for the same price. The minute he saw the bitty thing, he knew it'd be perfect for taking with him on his motorcycle trips. He spent the rest of the day configuring it and I spent mine configuring his into what I prefer. I already have three anti-spyware apps installed and configured in addition to Norton and everything backed up.

I'm OK with Vista, although I'm not happy with the Search (will investigate Google's Desktop). The biggest problem is the lack of Microsoft Word on his. Works and Open Office are a step backward with the thesaurus and track changes that I use extensively in writing and beta. As soon as the daughter gets home (tomorrow) I'll have her look for the installation disks for Office which should be somewhere in her room. Fingers crossed they're not lost because I don't need the aggravation of learning to live with a reduced set of functionality or the additional expense of buying Word - again. *grumbles*

In other news, I woke up yesterday from a dream of dancing with Gary. It spawned a bunny for a new sequel to 'Dance With Your Heart' although I have no idea whether 'A Stop At Willoughby' will step aside to let me write it now.

The dream was bittersweet, the memory of being able to move across the dance floor responding to Gary's lead overlaid by spending the remainder of yesterday limping and shuffling around the house after a very few hours shopping. I almost resorted to using my cane to get around, which I've never relied on in the house. *sigh*

Listening to music makes me ache to move as I once did, choreographing routines in my head, so I'm usually surrounded by silence as I read and write. Watching shows like 'Dancing with the Stars' is impossible because I end up analyzing the movement and steps along with the judges and resenting the fact that my days of competing are over. I can still watch my favorite dance movies because they contain the necessary layer of unreality, but they can leave me sad, so I need to be in the right mood. At least I can still write about dancing on occasion, so I haven't lost all of it.

ETA: Office disks found and Vista Search mastered. *twirls*

Comments

[amcnh.livejournal.com]

*comforting hug*

However, I am happy to hear that you have your new laptop almost to where you want it. I kinda wish you were a student so that you could get the Ultimate Steal deal from Microsoft MS Office Ultimate for 59.99. Yeah, I'm a student and I scooped it up.

SQUEE!!!! A sequel! *sigh softly* even if it is bittersweet.

*hugs again*

[danceswithgary]

Thanks. :-D Hopefully, my daughter has the disks stashed somewhere in her room, where I dare not tread.

[ctbn60.livejournal.com]

I am glad you got your new laptop in. That is great news. I know how I felt without mine. The sequel is also good news. Any inspiration to write is good. I am so sorry about the sadness you are feeling. It must be very hard to give up something that was such a big part of you. Writing about it is probably the best way to stay close and your writing is so lovely it shows your passion for the dance.

[danceswithgary]

Thanks - hopefully the writing will perk up soon. :-D

[rosy5000.livejournal.com]

YAY for you getting a 'new' laptop. :)

That HP Mini is about the same thing as my Acer. :D I hope Gary loves his as much as I do mine. :)

[danceswithgary]

He really likes it so far. :-D

[azureavian.livejournal.com]

::hugs::

also, i feel ya on Vista.

[danceswithgary]

It definitely has its quirks. :-/

[lexalicious70.livejournal.com]

That's great that you got a sort-of-new laptop! And yeah, Vista can be a bit of a pain, but there ways to get around it.

The rest of your post just makes me want to hug you. So I will.

*HUG*

Read the laast line you wrote, and never forget it, okay? I don't believe you can ever completely lose it all.

[danceswithgary]

Thanks - I definitely won't lose it all. I can still dream. :-D

[selinamoonfire.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you have a "new" laptop.

What part of Vista search is driving you nuts? I hate Vista in some ways, accept it in others, wish I could have XP back but reformatting it didn't work. LOL Dean still hates me sometimes for trying that. (Yes I do name my computers)

I wish I could do something to make you feel better. I wish I had the words or could wave a magic wand and make it better. :/

[danceswithgary]

I'm getting a little better at the searching - forcing the indexing helped. Other than that, I can live with Vista.

The feel better will have to be mental only. I try not to fall into the doldrums too often. :-D

[gryphtkai.livejournal.com]

I first bought the Student/Home version of Office 2007 then found out about the "Ultimate Steal" for students. Since I'm crazy enought to both work full time and go to school (Hey the state gives us $2500 for school I'm not going to let that sit with everything else they're taking from us) I went ahead and bought it since it was cheaper then buying MS Access by it's self.

SO ...I have this poor neglected copy of Home/Student Office that's good up for three systems. And since I don't have two laptops anymore...I'd be willing to send it off to you if you don't find your copy. Gratis. (and yes I'm a computer slut...at one point I had 5 computers in the house. Just for me...I'm now down to three. Vista HP Tablet laptop, Self built Vista machine and Dell bare bones server upgraded to a XP machine. )

So yell if you need it..
Gryph

[danceswithgary]

Thanks for the offer - the daughter located the disks and I'm back up and running. :-D

[timespirt.livejournal.com]

If you still have your XP disc, you can load that on the laptop and get rid of Vista or have both?

[danceswithgary]

Actually, I'm settling into Vista and learning the ropes, but thanks for the suggestion. :-D

[timespirt.livejournal.com]

I had such a problem with Vista that I had to wipe the hard drive on the laptop like 4 times because I had a virus that came through the camera software. I finally gave up and put the laptop away without the operating system and am working off my desktop computer my brother built for me. I wanted something I could take with me when I went places (can't carry the desktop one with me! LOL)but it didn't work out that way. My brother told me to just put XP on it and go from there. I'll think about it, but I did love Vista's look though but not all the problems and holes they left it with. Think about it, they have been fixing XP since it came out, but with Vista, they are replacing it this year or next with another operating system and I think it's only been out 2 years while XP has been out for many years.