Frijoles Repsectos
From the moment the phone rang this morning I had a feeling my day was going to be planned for me… and I wasn't wrong.
Bo failed to get the phone even though it's right next to him so I had to get up and walk downstairs to find out who called. I stress all the time the importance of answering the phone (it could by my grandma in need of serious help), but it gets forgotten a lot. -_- As it turned out it was an emergency but not my grandma and not a rush over right away one. Ingrid's computer wasn't loading.
So I called her back and let her know I would be over as soon as I as dressed for the day. She said that was fine and that she might be sleeping when I came over.
I got ready and headed over to her house to check out the computer. I turned it on and it loaded all the way to the user menu in XP then froze and turned off the monitor. After unplugging it (the only way to turn it off at that point) I tried again and it loaded to the Window's loading screen. The third pass didn't even get that far. Since she said on the phone that the computer wouldn't load at all I had a feeling that it might load further if I let it sit for a while.
So I watched Harry Potter with her (actually she slept) while I waited. After about 20 minutes I tried again and again it loaded to the user screen but still froze. So I decided to wait until the end of the movie and the load it in safe mode. Safe mode loaded but it still froze and turned off the monitor! I tried again after a 10 minute break to load it into text only safe mode but that didn't go at all.
I told Ingrid that I would have to go home and research the problem more before I could decide just how to fix it. The computer is old and replacing parts only staves off the death it doesn't stop it. I had a feeling it might be the video card or something related to that. So I got the time and place of dinner and headed out.
Instead of going home though I picked up grandma. She wanted to go grocery shopping so I decided to do that first. Actually what I decided was that I was just going to buy Ingrid a new CPU and forget about fixing the old one. The hard drive works fine so I know we can pull the pictures and other saved info off it at some point.
We started at Fred Meyers but to my surprise they sell everything but the CPU. They have monitors, keyboards, mice and all kinds of peripherals but no full computers or CPUs. I couldn't believe it. Our next try was at Wal Mart in town. Ingrid and I had been talking about replacing the CPU over Memorial weekend and we had found some good ideas at the Wal Mart in Moses Lake. To my utter disbelief our Wal Mart didn't have computers either (same as Fred Meyer, peripherals but no systems). I was kind of at a loss. I was also getting hungry (I hadn't taken the time to eat yet).
So I dropped off grandma (I hadn't told her why we were going all over the place) and went home to make a decision and grab something small for a late lunch. I asked Bo what he thought about going to Vancouver to the Wal Mart Supercenter there. He said that if that was where we had to go then it was fine. I knew I was running short on time because it was close to 4:30 and dinner was set at 6pm. I would have left right away but I didn't want to go all day without food. So I ate some crackers and a hot dog before we headed out at 4:40.
Traffic was light so the trip went smoothly. Though it was kind of apparent by the time I arrived that I wasn't going to make it back by 6. We were already down in Vancouver and I knew there was no turning back so we checked out what they had. It was a tough decision. I wanted something she could expand if she needed and it had to be on the good side of things. The guy who helped us was gracious enough to run to he back three times to get systems. They have boxes up front but some of them had only minimal information on them. -_-
Ultimately I picked the best system for my budget and we checked out. As I was telling the guy which one we wanted officially Ingrid called my cell. It was 10 minutes to 6 and she wanted to know where we were. I told her that I couldn't tell her but that it was going to be another 45 minutes before we were able to get home. She was pissed and rightfully so. I just had to take it on faith that she would forgive me when she found out why. I told her that I would be able to make it by 6:30 if she let me go right then so she gave up and I finished paying for the computer.
I booked it out of the store. I am sure I could have run through the doors without anyone stopping me but I didn't want any complications later so I stopped to make sure the store employees standing by the door checked me out before leaving. We got in the car and were back on the freeway in no time. Not long after getting on the freeway I decided that it was going to be best if Ingrid brought Grandma to diner so we could just go straight there (the restaurant is right on the freeway). I was almost right on the mark for my predicted arrival time. We got to the restaurant at 6:35.
Dinner was at Azteca which is a pretty good Mexican food restaurant. I usually hate going to Mexican food because I can never find anything on the menu I want to eat and the language barrier makes it hard for me to ask for them to leave things off a dish. I ended up with the Tacitos stuffed with Steak and covered in Cotija cheese (one of my favorites!). What impressed me most about the place was that the waiter got my drink order right the first time. But beyond that he recognized that I didn't use my straw. I never had to remind him about the ice or the straw. It was very nice!
The title of the entry comes from K-dog. He is trying to learn some Spanish and he asked how to say refried beans. The waiter said it was frijoles refritos. When Ingrid asked K-dog a short time later how to say it he said he wanted some more frijoles respectos. Ingrid had to turn away to keep from laughing so hard.
After a very good and filling dinner we headed back to grandmas for gifts and desert. I was going to take grandma but decided that it would be faster if Ingrid brought grandma to the house and I would go and wrap her gifts. I got her two big things and it was going to take me a little bit to get them wrapped. I considered not wrapping them but that would have ruined the surprise for both gifts. ^_^
With Bo's help we had it done in no time and we were quickly on our way back to grandma's house. When we walked in with the gifts Ingrid's eyes went wide. She wasn't sure I was serious. Buttdan joked that one was a kitten. ^_^
We decided to go with gifts first and naturally Ingrid choose the computer first. She opened it just enough to read the box, stopped and looked at me saying "NO really?!" I said "yes". She opened it up all the way and asked if it was from just me or from mom and dad. I told her it was all me and that was why I had taken so long to get to dinner (then I recounted the story to her). I could tell she loved it. ^_^
She then opened the picture frames (my original gift for her) and loved them too. She told me that she had thought it might be a monitor but hoped it wasn't because it was too big for her computer hutch. ^_~
After the gifts we had peach cobbler for Ingrid's "cake". When we were done eating she invited us all over to her house to watch the Reno 911 movie. I agreed to come over and set up her new computer.
I got here around 9pm and we left after 11pm. I got most of it set up, but she is missing some programs that I will still have to install. I did get her back online and to point where she could use it. She was worried about storing things on it and I told her that unless she stored videos she was going to be more than fine. Buttdan can even store his games on there with no problems. The only thing is that the video card may not be up to snuff for some games so we will have to look into that.
I finished up what I could and promised to come back tomorrow to install the rest. I should have her all back together by tomorrow. The only thing I will still have to do is pull the stuff off her old drive.
Even though we went home after 11 I knew Ingrid was going to get online after I left. So at midnight I called up to tell her happy birthday. ^_^
Bo failed to get the phone even though it's right next to him so I had to get up and walk downstairs to find out who called. I stress all the time the importance of answering the phone (it could by my grandma in need of serious help), but it gets forgotten a lot. -_- As it turned out it was an emergency but not my grandma and not a rush over right away one. Ingrid's computer wasn't loading.
So I called her back and let her know I would be over as soon as I as dressed for the day. She said that was fine and that she might be sleeping when I came over.
I got ready and headed over to her house to check out the computer. I turned it on and it loaded all the way to the user menu in XP then froze and turned off the monitor. After unplugging it (the only way to turn it off at that point) I tried again and it loaded to the Window's loading screen. The third pass didn't even get that far. Since she said on the phone that the computer wouldn't load at all I had a feeling that it might load further if I let it sit for a while.
So I watched Harry Potter with her (actually she slept) while I waited. After about 20 minutes I tried again and again it loaded to the user screen but still froze. So I decided to wait until the end of the movie and the load it in safe mode. Safe mode loaded but it still froze and turned off the monitor! I tried again after a 10 minute break to load it into text only safe mode but that didn't go at all.
I told Ingrid that I would have to go home and research the problem more before I could decide just how to fix it. The computer is old and replacing parts only staves off the death it doesn't stop it. I had a feeling it might be the video card or something related to that. So I got the time and place of dinner and headed out.
Instead of going home though I picked up grandma. She wanted to go grocery shopping so I decided to do that first. Actually what I decided was that I was just going to buy Ingrid a new CPU and forget about fixing the old one. The hard drive works fine so I know we can pull the pictures and other saved info off it at some point.
We started at Fred Meyers but to my surprise they sell everything but the CPU. They have monitors, keyboards, mice and all kinds of peripherals but no full computers or CPUs. I couldn't believe it. Our next try was at Wal Mart in town. Ingrid and I had been talking about replacing the CPU over Memorial weekend and we had found some good ideas at the Wal Mart in Moses Lake. To my utter disbelief our Wal Mart didn't have computers either (same as Fred Meyer, peripherals but no systems). I was kind of at a loss. I was also getting hungry (I hadn't taken the time to eat yet).
So I dropped off grandma (I hadn't told her why we were going all over the place) and went home to make a decision and grab something small for a late lunch. I asked Bo what he thought about going to Vancouver to the Wal Mart Supercenter there. He said that if that was where we had to go then it was fine. I knew I was running short on time because it was close to 4:30 and dinner was set at 6pm. I would have left right away but I didn't want to go all day without food. So I ate some crackers and a hot dog before we headed out at 4:40.
Traffic was light so the trip went smoothly. Though it was kind of apparent by the time I arrived that I wasn't going to make it back by 6. We were already down in Vancouver and I knew there was no turning back so we checked out what they had. It was a tough decision. I wanted something she could expand if she needed and it had to be on the good side of things. The guy who helped us was gracious enough to run to he back three times to get systems. They have boxes up front but some of them had only minimal information on them. -_-
Ultimately I picked the best system for my budget and we checked out. As I was telling the guy which one we wanted officially Ingrid called my cell. It was 10 minutes to 6 and she wanted to know where we were. I told her that I couldn't tell her but that it was going to be another 45 minutes before we were able to get home. She was pissed and rightfully so. I just had to take it on faith that she would forgive me when she found out why. I told her that I would be able to make it by 6:30 if she let me go right then so she gave up and I finished paying for the computer.
I booked it out of the store. I am sure I could have run through the doors without anyone stopping me but I didn't want any complications later so I stopped to make sure the store employees standing by the door checked me out before leaving. We got in the car and were back on the freeway in no time. Not long after getting on the freeway I decided that it was going to be best if Ingrid brought Grandma to diner so we could just go straight there (the restaurant is right on the freeway). I was almost right on the mark for my predicted arrival time. We got to the restaurant at 6:35.
Dinner was at Azteca which is a pretty good Mexican food restaurant. I usually hate going to Mexican food because I can never find anything on the menu I want to eat and the language barrier makes it hard for me to ask for them to leave things off a dish. I ended up with the Tacitos stuffed with Steak and covered in Cotija cheese (one of my favorites!). What impressed me most about the place was that the waiter got my drink order right the first time. But beyond that he recognized that I didn't use my straw. I never had to remind him about the ice or the straw. It was very nice!
The title of the entry comes from K-dog. He is trying to learn some Spanish and he asked how to say refried beans. The waiter said it was frijoles refritos. When Ingrid asked K-dog a short time later how to say it he said he wanted some more frijoles respectos. Ingrid had to turn away to keep from laughing so hard.
After a very good and filling dinner we headed back to grandmas for gifts and desert. I was going to take grandma but decided that it would be faster if Ingrid brought grandma to the house and I would go and wrap her gifts. I got her two big things and it was going to take me a little bit to get them wrapped. I considered not wrapping them but that would have ruined the surprise for both gifts. ^_^
With Bo's help we had it done in no time and we were quickly on our way back to grandma's house. When we walked in with the gifts Ingrid's eyes went wide. She wasn't sure I was serious. Buttdan joked that one was a kitten. ^_^
We decided to go with gifts first and naturally Ingrid choose the computer first. She opened it just enough to read the box, stopped and looked at me saying "NO really?!" I said "yes". She opened it up all the way and asked if it was from just me or from mom and dad. I told her it was all me and that was why I had taken so long to get to dinner (then I recounted the story to her). I could tell she loved it. ^_^
She then opened the picture frames (my original gift for her) and loved them too. She told me that she had thought it might be a monitor but hoped it wasn't because it was too big for her computer hutch. ^_~
After the gifts we had peach cobbler for Ingrid's "cake". When we were done eating she invited us all over to her house to watch the Reno 911 movie. I agreed to come over and set up her new computer.
I got here around 9pm and we left after 11pm. I got most of it set up, but she is missing some programs that I will still have to install. I did get her back online and to point where she could use it. She was worried about storing things on it and I told her that unless she stored videos she was going to be more than fine. Buttdan can even store his games on there with no problems. The only thing is that the video card may not be up to snuff for some games so we will have to look into that.
I finished up what I could and promised to come back tomorrow to install the rest. I should have her all back together by tomorrow. The only thing I will still have to do is pull the stuff off her old drive.
Even though we went home after 11 I knew Ingrid was going to get online after I left. So at midnight I called up to tell her happy birthday. ^_^