Winter 2011, destroying your hard drive, blah blah...

Harry helping out during "Snowpocalypse 2011" when we got about 12 feet of snow. I love a good snow storm, especially (only) when I don't have to be on the road . Seth didn't go to work, and spent a good portion of the day shoveling out a 5X5 little square of snow in our driveway. Of course, he had no shoes on, no gloves and no hat. Oh, the unfortunate things that get lost in a move! Thankfully our neighbors came and helped us out later on.

This is Brice and his "bestie" Evelyn. Evelyn's mom is one of my best friends. Brice and Evie are 9 months apart. And Harry and Luke (her son) are 9 days apart. We forced friendship upon them and they are mainly okay with that. Brice and Evie are both strong-willed, stubborn, leadership types (super fun as toddlers, lemme tell you!) and don't always get along. But this was a good day.

This is Harry. I love this picture. He is playing a pink piano in the kid's section of Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas. The boys had never "seen" Santa Claus, so when we were in Dallas we took them (with their cousin, Luke) to see the NM Santa. And, oh my goodness. What an orgiastic display of the Christmas Spirit. Harrison was terrified of Santa, as was his ever-so-slightly younger cousin Luke. So they hung out in the toy section and pretended not to notice the goings-on one floor below.
This is Brice and Luke in Dallas. We wish that they were closer, but as is the case with most Texans, their parents have no interest in leaving Texas. Even for Chicago. Gasp! I guess our great weather couldn't woo them. Luke is a lovely little guy. When he wants a toy, he'll tackle the kid with a half-nelson until he gives up the goods. He fits right in with our family.

So, about that hard drive.

I've been yearning for a laptop for years. So when we bought this house, we decided we'd splurge on a laptop, too. That way I could actually read/write/surf/waste time in bed, as opposed to hunching over in a tiny corner of our unused dining room into the wee hours. The Apple Man told me I could bring in my desktop and my laptop and they would switch over all the info for me. Great. So I dropped it off and went to pick it up a few days later.

It's NEVER a good sign when they whisper, look at me, and say "ohhh, could you hold on a sec, we need to go over some things with you."

(flashback: this past winter I was at a church retreat for women (I know, shocking) and took a photography class. I laughingly mentioned that I had 6000 pics that I didn't know what to do with. The teacher was a little surprised when I said I didn't back them up, had heard about this procedure, but didn't actually know how to do it. So she told me. Then I forgot and never did it.)

Apple Man comes out with my desktop and a padded baggy and hands me "my hard drive." Why is my hard drive not in my computer? Oh, well it died. Oh, it died. Ok.

He gave me the card of a company in CA who could retrieve it all for me. I called the company. Yes, they could probably do it. For over twice the price I paid for the computer.

So, now my hard drive sits in my desk drawer, wrapped tightly in plastic padded baggy, awaiting next year's tax return.

Sigh...