Monday, December 28, 2009

Broken Dreams

My sweet Christmas laptop broke!

The mouse pad just stopped working this morning while Lou was fooling around adding an account for himself on my machine. Lou tried everything he could think of to get the mouse working. It is really hard in Windows 7 to use keyboard shortcuts, I'll tell ya. Old Windows standby key combinations just do not work, grrrr.

Anyway, we eventually broke down and called Tech Support for an outrageous $3 per minute... and $45 later, the technician gave up and agreed that it must be a mouse pad hardware failure.

We bought the laptop at Costco so we called the closest Costco to our hotel... They were fabulous! If we had the box, they would have let us return it for a full refund even though we bought it in North Carolina and even though we did not have the receipt!  But we did not bring the box on vacation with us.

So, my economical idea was to run out and purchase a mouse. I was sure that if we plugged in a normal mouse, I could use the laptop just fine during vacation and then deal with replacing it when we got home.

But Lou thinks big.

His idea was to run out to Best Buy and get me another new laptop. We would ship the broken laptop home (in the new laptop box) and then return it to Costco after our vacation. Awesome! Fabulous!

We went to the Best Buy where Brian works and got to say hello to him. It took awhile, but we finally found a laptop that I just completely fell in love with. (It's a Sony Vaio.) Lou bent over and grabbed the laptop box from under the display and ALL THE LIGHTS WENT OUT! The entire store went dark. The laptops around us continued to twinkle away on battery power though.

The employees started herding us all to the front, and then the lights came back on. Whew! So we decided to go look at camera batteries and talk to someone about the return policy and then I had to visit the ladies room and then ALL THE LIGHTS WENT OUT AGAIN! Ooooh, it was totally pitch dark in that ladies room.

So the lights started going on and off. We got in line, hoping that the lights would stay on long enuff for us to check out. But it was not to be. Eventually they announced that the lights would be off for a couple of hours, and everyone in line had to turn in their as yet unmade purchases and leave. We had been laughing and joking around. We're on vacation, so who cares if we're in the dark at Best Buy.

We decided to go to another Best Buy. When we got there, we found the laptop that I fell in love with, and it was sitting right next to a delicate pale pink laptop. "Oh yes," said the salesman, "that one is exactly the same model, except for the color."

Clearly my borrowed guardian angels were the ones who knocked out the electricity to that first Best Buy!  I was meant to get the pink one.

And so you must have guessed, I am sitting here in my PJs in our hotel room, typing away on my awesome pink Sony Vaio while Lou watches Monday Night Football and drinks beer, which he certainly deserves because he is, as I have often said, the best husband in the world.

Oh yeah, and tomorrow is his birthday!

8 comments:

Doane said...

Happy Birthday Lou !!!
Sounds like your trip is going the way vacations go, at least mine do. I love it when even Best Buy is working the cosmic flow for you. If anybody should have a pink computer, it should be you.
Glad your Drugs made it thru the airport w/ice.
Love to you both. Keeping you in my T's & P's, even if I am jealous.
BTW, Does Lou(ie) have a taller brother?

Unknown said...

Are you absolutely sure that you don't want to write another book? You have plenty of material!!
Happy birthday to our best son-in-law.
Love you both,
Mom and Dad

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to Lou!
The way you write your adventures they actually sound like fun...but I imagine the dark bathroom trip wasn't so much fun. Congrats on the way cooler laptop. Enjoy your vacation.

My power was out this morning so I got ready by flashlight. I love my electricity and miss it when it is out.

Kathy
A from Kent

Anonymous said...

Pink! LOVE IT. Thank You for the Laughter! Hugs, Sharon

Anonymous said...

Hi Karen,

Happy Birthday Lou!!!!!

And a pink computer Yay!!

LOve you, Debbie P.

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday Lou. What a great birthday present, going on a cruise with your sweetie.

Love Gloria and Tom

Robyn said...

Happy New Year to you and Lou!

Hope the vacation is all that you hoped for.

Love the laptop story!

Just wanted to let you know I was thinking of you, sending my love, and wising you continued success on your journey this year!

Unknown said...

Happy 2010 - hope that it is an easier year! (for all of us!)....many hugsm susan and dick too!