Things are lookin up!
Much has happened since I last wrote on LJ. My one year old laptop crashed and burned, rose from the dead, then crashed again. I took it up with Dell and went through 2 technicians before I found one who was actually patient enough to help me. I knew it was a driver error, but the other techs didn't give me any advice on running diagnostics or on how to get a new driver on the computer short of completely wiping the HD.
I ended up using the old reinstallation CD from my 5 or 6 year old laptop to attempt a split partition/blah blah blah stuff, which worked and I was able to copy an uncorrupted version of the driver onto the original OS. After that, I purchase a 320 external HD to back-up all of my files in case I had to do a complete reinstall of the OS. The laptop ran fine, even after I deleted the extra OS, but I could still tell that it needed to be completely cleaned up. Nothing like having a dead computer for a week or two to make you overly cautious.
I just received the reinstallation CD yesterday, as apparently they never sent one when I originally received the computer. I started working on the reinstall in the evening after I got home from work... and didn't stop fooling around with the settings and updating drivers til 4am. Whoops.
Thing is, after a two month absence I've started going to the gym again, taking another Hot Yoga class, and running three mornings a week with a new friend. I usually go to the gym in the mornings on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then run at 6am with my friend on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Too bad today was Tuesday... so after about 1 1/2 or 2 hours of rest, I arose like a zombie to face our hour long run. I somehow made it through... It was a beautiful sunny day with a slight breeze, and we were able to run along the river near my house.
The run earlier really energized me, but now I'm feeling the lack of sleep, and will probably crash soon, just like my computer did. But I'll leave you with a few pictures from the park near my house... its really lovely!
I was only able to catch a few pictures of blossoms so far this year. The different flowering trees didn't last very long.
There is a lake in the middle of the park, where you can go boating with your sweetheart. I saw one such couple, but I swear the man was rowing the wrong way.
The beautiful dandelions in the park. Unfortunately, they had lots of pollen all over them.
I took these two photos while sunbathing. I was interrupted by a group of older women and their dogs... The Shiba Inu could not stop humping one of the ladies, and the owner didn't even try to pull it away. It was vaguely amusing for the 10 minutes it lasted.
More photos to come, hopefully!