Vista and Silliness, or Silliness and Vista.... err... whatever

Today it's story time in Mr Rogert's Neighborhood. As you read, think of the calm setting, with light music in the background, a toy train coming around the corner and a sweater wearing show host, in a calm and soft-spoken voice telling you his experiences with Vista.

Well boy's and girls, I've decided to use a Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop computer for my tale today.
Being that our neighborhood is a business designed to entertain and educate you, we went ahead and accepted Vista Business as our operating system of choice. I know, I know, maybe we should have chosen a MAC, but the package this came in, was deceptively attractive, playing with our imagination was a black encased notebook in well organized white boxes with neatly stacked, color coordinated manuals. The minimalism of the entourage really spoke to what Apple pulls you into in their world.

Well, children, we plugged in and turned on our new Vista Business machine and the setup process began. We were then promptly greeted by a pretty Blue Screen with lots of cool words, like "Please contact your System Administrator".

Somehow those words come across a lot less impressive when you are the "System Administrator". Well, a reboot later and setup seemed to complete successfully. Little did we know that a week later, post Windows Update, the laptop would take yet another dive. This one , this time, into a seemingly unrequitable death.

Well, it all started, innocently on a Tuesday morning. In Mr Rogert's neighborhood, we affectionately call this "Patch Tuesday". We think this name came from the memories of a radical children's doctor, Patch Adams, or possibly from the patched plaid shirts worn by our comrade in sitcom's, Al Borland from Tool Time.

Regardless of origin, we decided that our Windows Vista machine wasn't functioning quite as up to par as we would expect it to on this one Tuesday. So, automatic updates started coming down to it. At their completion, we went out to the Dell website and downloaded the rest of the drivers and started applying all of them. The cute little Inspiron 1720, seemed to be happily winking and smiling at us, as it survived reboot after reboot. So, half an hour after all the reboots were completed, upon finishing our Peanut Butter and jelly sandwiches on wheat bread, we decided to test out the glowing laptop with Lord of the Rings Online.

As we watched in anticipation, getting ourselves ready to send Sauron to his doom (well, really... trying to get our level 12 dwarf champion up another level trying to get ready to take out Sauron and his minion, the evil Witch King,).... "Blue Screen". Oh my, this one actually generated a memory dump and some jibberish about video card failure.

Our stomaches clenched in knots, as suddenly our green, tree lined, Mr Rogert's neighborhood streets turned to Molten Lava, the skies overcast with black and gray rolling clouds, the overcast shadows seemed to shimmer and stand out as if cast by ring wraiths themselves. Ahh, but, no worries, a beam of sunlight shined through the sky for a brief hour, as we attempted every new Windows Vista recovery tool known to man! This will not fail, it will work, we will survive!!!!

Bull-Pucky! Nothing worked. The blue screen continued with it's ominous warning, whether Safe Mode, Recovery Mode or Restore Mode. The Video card had succumbed to the evil Dark Lord and would be tossed into the fires of Mount Doom or tortured in the slave pens under Dol Guldur that none return from.

Then, a bright light came from the North, A Rugged Stranger with a Friend garbed all in white rode up to challenge the flame. As the 1720 booted from the Knoppix CD, hope was restored, the clouds turned back and a bright light shone from the skies.

Customer data, critical applications, e-mail and documents were now recoverable. A beautiful landscape glistened across the screen as data copied to an external USB 2.0 hard drive. After the data backup completed, the only sound that could be heard was the foolish wooshing and spinning of the CD-Rom drive as Vista Business reinstall CD's made their way back onto the now spotless hard drive.

Well, the system now runs everything, and Mr Rogert's neighborhood is back in business. High hopes are that the doors will not shut again or the streets turn to Molten Lava. A great evil has been avoided, lets hope that it stays that way!!

Crazy - Fun Day - getting to dinner

Today was kind of a wild run around town day. It started this morning with kids getting me up before 5am, and then again at 6am and then 7am, I think that's when I gave up and decided I should groggy my way into the day.

I started out catching up on some of my computer and gaming magazines online (hey, it is Saturday, gotta have some fun) in between the steady stream of my two boys coming in and out off my office to "see" me and "ask" me a question, which they forgot by the time they got to my desk.

The kids are all excited because Romeo is throwing it's annual shindig, the 76th Michigan Peach Festival and they want to go to the parade on Monday and then traipse around the fairgrounds sampling tasty things such as elephant ears, funnel cake, corn dogs and then mix it all up riding on the fair rides. Grace is especially happy about it, because she was sick, miserable and puking in the grass on our last trip there. That seriously cramped the visit, requiring that we take the kids home and get the rest of them ice cream on the way.

Now, this parent is probably more excited about the "peach" part of the festival/season because this is the time of year when his lovely wife takes the opportunity to make some very yummy peach freezer jam! I've been to a customer site a couple of times out in Romeo now and had the privilege to visit the wonderful folks at Verellen Orchards and pick up just yummy donuts, sweet corn and (of course) peaches for Jam.

(above picture is with new peaches from Romeo with our last jar of Freezer jam from last year... man, that's just cutting it too close for comfort!)

So, crazy day that it was, the Red Suburban was putzing around Mt Clemens today and took us (via the suggestions of a customer) to the Firehouse on Cass Ave just East of the Railroad Tracks. After a delicious Reuben, giant chicken sandwich, tasty onion rings and a humongous Antipasto salad, we were on our way again.

At that point, the wife and I had to split up, with me taking our 3 year old on adventures with me. And, believe me, anywhere you go with a 3 year old can be an adventure! Stopping at the 23 mile and Van Dyke BoRics for a haircut is always a necessity. The ladies there are professional and give you a good haircut and actually tolerated Aaron investigating everything. They even provided him with a Winnie the Pooh book to read and distract him while I was getting the hairs on my already balding head shortened.

Well, after his hide and seek and sneaking between the shampoo racks (thankfully nothing fell) we were off to Vince & Joes in Shelby Township at 25 mile and Van Dyke. The assignment from Mom was to pick up stuff for dinner. So, salad fixings and burger stuff. Of course, since we were at Vince & Joes, and they have a gelatto shop, (Dolce Gelato Cafe) and Aaron had already been sitting in the car and waiting at other stores beyond the patience level of a 3 year old, we decided to reward that patience with a kiddie cup o' Superman ice-cream, before starting our shopping. (Ever hear the country song, What was I thinking? )

When going into the Gelatto shop, the key is to get a taste or two of the flavors that abound, and then make your purchase. (They also have an ice cream selection, hidden off to the side for when your kid just has to have Superman ice cream!) My pick for the day was a delicious, small cappuccino gelato.



Well, upon completing that, we went to the front of the store (not counting all the 3 year old detours) and started our shopping. After picking up our fresh vegetables for a delicious salad, we then went over to the meat department and got in line for some chicken breasts and hamburger. (When you feed 7, with growing boys, that means 10lbs of hamburger is about two meals, maybe 3 if you mix it with something. Ouch, lol. :-P )

So, after the gentleman at the meat counter patiently waited while I retrieved the shopping list from Aaron, I put my order in, turned my back for a second and Aaron was gone, well not gone really, just about 5 feet from where I left him trying to run our cart into some other poor customer who kindly didn't say anything. (I'm just hoping I stopped him before he actually hit her, and if not, I deeply apologize for any bumps and bruises.) We then picked up some pretzels that Aaron insisted were on the list, but I couldn't find anywhere, go figure!


So, we headed off to home and for dinner. Here are shots of Aaron and Grace awaiting hamburgers and corn on the cob. Too bad, I thought the blue remnants of Superman ice cream around Aaron's lips would show up here. There's no real excuse for Grace's picture, she just likes to be in the limelight.















Do we go into bedtime? Oh probably not, chaos reigned supreme, however it was with full tummies and smiling faces, which always makes for a good ending to a blessed and life filled day! :-)