stimulating
as i mentioned before, i came down with the sickness last week. i spent all day wednesday, thursday and friday on the couch watching TV and sleeping. i did manage to make dinner for marshall and i on thursday, but otherwise i didn't do much of anything else. i finally made it out of the house saturday morning for our weekly breakfast. after breakfast we made the nerd trek to fry's to pick up a few things. marshall and liam got new hard drives and i decided to pick up a new processor. before going, i quickly looked up my MB to make sure i could get a new one and i could (or so i thought). we finished there and then parted ways. marshall and i were off to the land of swedish home furnishings: ikea. we wanted to get the living room back to its former glory. since after i had removed the floating shelves, our movies were just stacked up in the corner and that just won't do. we found what we were looking for, except for a few items which were out of stock, and headed home.
we got 3 bookshelves put together, but had to hold off on the fourth since marshall had a raid. i took the time to go to aaron brother's for 2 frames: 1 for our engagement portrait and 1 for a old-time-looking map of paris my mom got me for christmas last year. i had much success and came home to put everything together and hang them up. next, i tackled my computer. swapping processors is an easy job, so i opened my case took out the old and inserted the new. i go to turn it on and it won't boot. it turned on and got power to everything, but there was no boot sequence following the initial start-up. marshall was just as stumped as i was. we thought maybe something was defective. i decided to put in my old processor with the heat sync that came with the new one so i could at least boot up my computer and look to see the possible problems. unknown to me, pentium 4's run much hotter than core 2 duo's and after a few minutes online, i got a warning that my processor was running at 75C and that i probably should turn everything off. so yeah...after that i was fed up and retreated to the living room. at that point, marshall's raid finished and we finished up the living room and putting things away. it looks awesome - i really like how that corner is organized now (i'll post photos later). we rewarded ourselves with popcorn and dark knight. :)
sunday was no less as busy. we liam and paco wanted to check out the campbell farmer's market, so they called us while on their way and we met up with them shortly thereafter. there wasn't much going on, due to the fact that it was freezing and SUPER windy (with rain on and off). we walked around a few times before we parted ways. marshall and i picked up something to eat on our way home, though. :) we got home only to turn around and leave again for fry's and marshall's tuxedo appointment. when we got to fry's, we both weren't sure which way to go for fixing my computer. marshall looked up my MB before leaving and found out the processor i got wasn't compatible, which is why it wouldn't boot up. he also found a list of possible processors which ARE compatible, which we brought with us to the store. we returned my new processor and headed to see what they had available. turns out the processors which ARE compatible aren't very fast and are kinda outdated, so fry's didn't have them. we took a quick inventory of options and figured the best option was to find a new MB, that way eliminating the worry of compatibility issues and finding something that would work with a new processor. we ended up buying the same processor, BUT with a new MB. they had a lot to choose from, so it was a little daunting. i stopped looking at what they had on display and started pulling boxes from the shelves underneath. i found one, which was the same brand as marshall's, and it had a "reduced price" sticker on it, because it was open-box. what at fry's ISN'T an open-box? the price was $113 and it looked like a good MB. i grabbed one of the sales people, turned out to be a really smart woman, and we got the processor (she checked to make sure it was compatible). marshall and i noticed that RAM was super cheap, so i steered her to the RAM and she found me a good deal on a 2x2GB RAM set, making sure it was compatible with the new MB. she also looked up the MB in the system, to see if they had a new one (so i wouldn't have to deal with an open-box item). they didn't BUT she found out that it was listed as $59.99. almost HALF what the reduced price was. SCORE! although i ended up buying more than i had anticipated, i was happy with what i got.
fry's took a little longer than expected, so we got to marshall's appointment a little late, but it ended up being just fine. they measured up marshall and gave him a tester tux in the style we wanted. i loved it. it's a beautiful suit with black-on-black stripes, which dulls the black slightly. it went great with the ivory vest, which marshall would wear, and the plum vest, which the groomsmen will wear. at first i wasn't planning on doing vests, but it definitely lends itself to one. with the discount i got through the bridal fair promotion and the fact that we're ordering 8 tuxes (marshall, groomsmen plus both dads), we got 2 tuxes for free, which we've averaged out the savings to make each tux $40 cheaper than their original price. awesome! the people at this place are really nice and helpful. they knew what they were talking about and they do on-site alterations, so just in case the tux doesn't quite fit, they'll fix it right then and there. so yeah, that's one less thing on our list!
next stop was REI, where i picked up a bike trainer. they had the one i was looking for and after my REI membership discount PLUS putting my dividend from last year towards the price, i paid almost $100 less than the retail price! it, in fact, makes up for the extra i had to put towards my new computer components.
last night i put my new computer parts together. getting the MB set up was easy, although the I/O plate in the box didn't match the MB. i have a feeling the I/O plate in the box belonged to the person who bought the thing in the first place (maybe it was their old one or something). it doesn't matter much. yeah, it doesn't look as pretty, but who looks back there anyway? plus - extra ventilation. :P it was frustrating trying to get everything to boot properly. windows was freaking out before my computer hardware had changed "too dramatically" and that it needed to be re-registered. the thing is both my keyboard and mouse are USB-connected and windows wasn't registering them. i finally went into the initial boot set up and forced USB connection for keyboard and mouse. once this happened, windows finally allowed me to select "no" on the first screen and it finally loaded. of course with all the drivers on the MB, which to this point hadn't been loaded, windows kept saying "we're seeing new hardware - would you like to load the drivers now?" NO! i have a CD here which will take care of everything - just keep your pants on! the software that came with the MB was a little buggy, but everything finally loaded properly and things were running smoothly. i now have a much faster core 2 duo processor and SIX gigabytes of RAM. i tested WoW for a few minutes and there was a noticeable boost to my frame rate, with which i'm definitely happy. i felt accomplished, but severely dehydrated and i went to bed with a horrible headache.
my head is a little fuzzy today and i'm feeling totally worn out. i'm still sore for all the squatting and manual work i did this weekend. i'm still fighting off this stupid cold. it's also super freezing today, even though it's sunny. i have a feeling i'll be ducking out sooner than normal today, just so i can get home and relax for a bit. this week is spring break, so i have some downtown from school. i'll still check-in to my school email, but for the most part i don't have any homework to do. this means i'm on WoW each night this week. i REALLY want to ding 75 at some point. hopefully i can achieve that this week. i also need to get my hands on a video camera so i can do my storytime video for my children programming class. it's due on the 9th, but i also have 2 other assignments due over the course of the 2 weeks following spring break. so not cool...
we got 3 bookshelves put together, but had to hold off on the fourth since marshall had a raid. i took the time to go to aaron brother's for 2 frames: 1 for our engagement portrait and 1 for a old-time-looking map of paris my mom got me for christmas last year. i had much success and came home to put everything together and hang them up. next, i tackled my computer. swapping processors is an easy job, so i opened my case took out the old and inserted the new. i go to turn it on and it won't boot. it turned on and got power to everything, but there was no boot sequence following the initial start-up. marshall was just as stumped as i was. we thought maybe something was defective. i decided to put in my old processor with the heat sync that came with the new one so i could at least boot up my computer and look to see the possible problems. unknown to me, pentium 4's run much hotter than core 2 duo's and after a few minutes online, i got a warning that my processor was running at 75C and that i probably should turn everything off. so yeah...after that i was fed up and retreated to the living room. at that point, marshall's raid finished and we finished up the living room and putting things away. it looks awesome - i really like how that corner is organized now (i'll post photos later). we rewarded ourselves with popcorn and dark knight. :)
sunday was no less as busy. we liam and paco wanted to check out the campbell farmer's market, so they called us while on their way and we met up with them shortly thereafter. there wasn't much going on, due to the fact that it was freezing and SUPER windy (with rain on and off). we walked around a few times before we parted ways. marshall and i picked up something to eat on our way home, though. :) we got home only to turn around and leave again for fry's and marshall's tuxedo appointment. when we got to fry's, we both weren't sure which way to go for fixing my computer. marshall looked up my MB before leaving and found out the processor i got wasn't compatible, which is why it wouldn't boot up. he also found a list of possible processors which ARE compatible, which we brought with us to the store. we returned my new processor and headed to see what they had available. turns out the processors which ARE compatible aren't very fast and are kinda outdated, so fry's didn't have them. we took a quick inventory of options and figured the best option was to find a new MB, that way eliminating the worry of compatibility issues and finding something that would work with a new processor. we ended up buying the same processor, BUT with a new MB. they had a lot to choose from, so it was a little daunting. i stopped looking at what they had on display and started pulling boxes from the shelves underneath. i found one, which was the same brand as marshall's, and it had a "reduced price" sticker on it, because it was open-box. what at fry's ISN'T an open-box? the price was $113 and it looked like a good MB. i grabbed one of the sales people, turned out to be a really smart woman, and we got the processor (she checked to make sure it was compatible). marshall and i noticed that RAM was super cheap, so i steered her to the RAM and she found me a good deal on a 2x2GB RAM set, making sure it was compatible with the new MB. she also looked up the MB in the system, to see if they had a new one (so i wouldn't have to deal with an open-box item). they didn't BUT she found out that it was listed as $59.99. almost HALF what the reduced price was. SCORE! although i ended up buying more than i had anticipated, i was happy with what i got.
fry's took a little longer than expected, so we got to marshall's appointment a little late, but it ended up being just fine. they measured up marshall and gave him a tester tux in the style we wanted. i loved it. it's a beautiful suit with black-on-black stripes, which dulls the black slightly. it went great with the ivory vest, which marshall would wear, and the plum vest, which the groomsmen will wear. at first i wasn't planning on doing vests, but it definitely lends itself to one. with the discount i got through the bridal fair promotion and the fact that we're ordering 8 tuxes (marshall, groomsmen plus both dads), we got 2 tuxes for free, which we've averaged out the savings to make each tux $40 cheaper than their original price. awesome! the people at this place are really nice and helpful. they knew what they were talking about and they do on-site alterations, so just in case the tux doesn't quite fit, they'll fix it right then and there. so yeah, that's one less thing on our list!
next stop was REI, where i picked up a bike trainer. they had the one i was looking for and after my REI membership discount PLUS putting my dividend from last year towards the price, i paid almost $100 less than the retail price! it, in fact, makes up for the extra i had to put towards my new computer components.
last night i put my new computer parts together. getting the MB set up was easy, although the I/O plate in the box didn't match the MB. i have a feeling the I/O plate in the box belonged to the person who bought the thing in the first place (maybe it was their old one or something). it doesn't matter much. yeah, it doesn't look as pretty, but who looks back there anyway? plus - extra ventilation. :P it was frustrating trying to get everything to boot properly. windows was freaking out before my computer hardware had changed "too dramatically" and that it needed to be re-registered. the thing is both my keyboard and mouse are USB-connected and windows wasn't registering them. i finally went into the initial boot set up and forced USB connection for keyboard and mouse. once this happened, windows finally allowed me to select "no" on the first screen and it finally loaded. of course with all the drivers on the MB, which to this point hadn't been loaded, windows kept saying "we're seeing new hardware - would you like to load the drivers now?" NO! i have a CD here which will take care of everything - just keep your pants on! the software that came with the MB was a little buggy, but everything finally loaded properly and things were running smoothly. i now have a much faster core 2 duo processor and SIX gigabytes of RAM. i tested WoW for a few minutes and there was a noticeable boost to my frame rate, with which i'm definitely happy. i felt accomplished, but severely dehydrated and i went to bed with a horrible headache.
my head is a little fuzzy today and i'm feeling totally worn out. i'm still sore for all the squatting and manual work i did this weekend. i'm still fighting off this stupid cold. it's also super freezing today, even though it's sunny. i have a feeling i'll be ducking out sooner than normal today, just so i can get home and relax for a bit. this week is spring break, so i have some downtown from school. i'll still check-in to my school email, but for the most part i don't have any homework to do. this means i'm on WoW each night this week. i REALLY want to ding 75 at some point. hopefully i can achieve that this week. i also need to get my hands on a video camera so i can do my storytime video for my children programming class. it's due on the 9th, but i also have 2 other assignments due over the course of the 2 weeks following spring break. so not cool...