Gaah... can't record

[fuzzyface73]

I took vacation from Xmas to the Friday after New Year's, figuring lots of time to record / mix. But...

I forgot about family obligations. Three parties / get-togethers in three days. Then...

1. The internet went down. We are having some electrical work done and the electricians must have broken the fiber. We were offline for half of Monday, the Verizon guy didn't show up until 7:00 Tuesday night, and then informed us that he needed a part and would be back in the morning.
2. My computer refused to boot Tuesday afternoon, even from the installation DVD, so I took it to the Apple Store, but was informed that the Genius bar had no room for appointments that evening.
3. I came down with a nasty cold/flu (no puking, at least), so wouldn't be able to record even if my computer worked.

That was the low point. Then...

1. One of the Apple geniuses offered to take me without an appointment and verified that my hard drive worked, even if I couldn't boot from it - and showed me a trick to boot from the installation DVD. Since I have a full backup (other than my downloaded animes, that is), I wouldn't lose too much data. 
2. The Verizon guy found an open store that had the part and came back on his own time after hours and fixed the internet.
3. Apple Care helped my find a way to re-install my OS without losing anything on my drive.
4. I still had the cold.

So I enter the new year with a working internet, working computer, and a cold.

Oh, and a chandelier in my bathroom. But that's another story.

Happy new year to anybody reading!