Greg is wildly busy these days. The Holyoke Symphony has requested his orchestral piece Arkadia to perform this season. Up until now he's been self-publishing, but it's time to get a bigger company to handle the process of cranking out all those parts (50-80 at a time).
He's also working on the CD of sax quartets with four other composers and the New Hudson Sax Quartet from New York. They'll record it sometime this summer at Town Hall in NYC, and it'll probably be on the market early next year.
He also has other performances of his pieces coming up, and I've lost count as to what is being done where. He took a leave of absence from BU this semester so he could get all the work done, plus finish up a brass quintet and another piece that have ensembles waiting to play it. The brass quintet will be premiered at Carnegie Recital Hall -- I forget when.
Shout Out!
A shout out to Sarah and Storm, who came by to visit the blog this week. Storm is one of Dinah Moe's buddies on Dogster. He and Sarah were lucky to find each other after Storm was left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. They romp together out in San Berdoo, CA, where there are no hurricanes to scare poor innocent Beardies.
Wish Us Luck!
Geez, it seemed like such a long ways away, but... Seamus and I are shooting for our very first Rally Advanced leg at the Collie Club of Maine's trial this coming Friday. Advanced is performed all off-lead, which makes it a particular challenge after doing Novice all on-lead. I'm hoping very hard that our cross-training in agility helps us with this part, and that the judge might accidentally forget to put an offset figure 8 on the course. Keep your fingers crossed for us, won't you?
Congratulations to Sampson and his mom Dale for persevering through the CGC course and passing the test!
Mitten-O-Mania Continues
Shortly after I posted about my newfound fascination with mittens, Sue dropped by the blog. One thing led to another, and now not only am I about to start making a pair of mittens from natural undyed wool for Sue, but she herself has taken up mitten knittin'. Way to go, Sue -- we want pictures of your first finished pair!
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Wintertime Blues (and Purples, and Pinks...)
Aren't they pretty? These are my very-first-ever mittens, made from Peace Fleece yarn and using their Simple Mittens pattern. I can already feel my fingers itching to knit another pair... but more on that later. (Yes, they're the same size -- but they still need to be blocked.)
This past weekend, my friend Fran and I decided to check out the Spa Knit & Spin event up at the Doubletree in Portland. I'd only found out about it when I received an email from Central Yarn Shop talking about the shuttle they were running from the hotel to their shop and back. I saw the word "yarn" and dashed off an email to Fran: "Want to do something naughty?"
Anyway, we didn't know a soul there, but we had a blast! There were knitters and spinners all over the lobby, in the halls, in the rooms... everywhere. We missed the greeting table on the way in, but we sure didn't miss the vendors' area!
I swear I went into complete yarn overload. I can walk into a big yarn shop and still keep my wits about me, but this area carried hand-dyed and -painted yarns and fibers that you don't usually stumble across in a store or online. It was truly nice to be able to support New England fiber artists and to be able to bring home things you wouldn't see just anyplace. I was good, though -- I only brought home one skein of sock yarn, but it's a doozy. Go take a look at Amy's Spunky Eclectic site and The Woolen Rabbit. If these colorways don't make your fingers itch to knit, then you surely must be dead.
Remember when I said I was looking around for my next pair of mittens? They found me. One of Amy's thrummed mitten kits followed me home, as did a skein of Skinny Sock yarn. (No, it wasn't one in the Dinah colorway, but it should have been!)
Fran brought home a lovely Lantern Moon knitting bag in multicolored brocade. I found the size 5 shortie dpns I'd been looking for. All in all, it was a successful hunting trip.
They're Not Dogs, They're Pupsicles
We got dumped on again last week, on Valentine's Day. (I'm sure at least half the guys in the county were silently thanking Mother Nature for getting them out of Valentine's Day dinners...) This time, we ended up with about 18-20" of snow. The pups, of course, were thrilled to bits.
Seamus couldn't be happier about having nice fresh snow to break-dance in.
Charlie thinks the world is his snow-cone.
Dinah spent the morning at the beauty parlor, and came home to greet her adoring public.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Warm Hands, Hot Needles
Dale can crank out mittens like nobody's business. She always seems to have a pair in progress somewhere, or one just finished. Since I don't tend to wear mittens much (I'm really more a glove kind of gal), I've never really had the burning desire to make them in the same way as I did socks. I couldn't wait to learn how to make socks, and there's always at least one pair in some stage of construction in my knitting "bucket."
That has changed a little bit since my friend Fran and I took a mitten-knitting class up at Rosemary's a couple of weeks ago. We had ourselves a grand old time (aside from the snowstorm we had to drive through on the way home). Mittens work up quickly and they're wicked easy to make. I may not wear them much myself (though the dark peacock blue shade of Peace Fleece I chose for my class pair is so beautiful you can taste it), but now I envision myself spewing forth pairs upon pairs of mittens from my blazing needles. My niece and nephew each need pairs (plus extras in case of loss), for sure. So does everyone else in my family, and in the neighborhood, and... If I were a faster knitter, I'd be leaving pairs of mittens on doorsteps, ringing the bell, and running away.
Not only that, but the basic mitten pattern looks awfully plain in just one color. I've caught myself scanning the available worsted-weight wool in the house and thinking about how nice some patterned mittens might look. Oh, and flip-top mittens at that, since I still want the use of my fingers at times, in ways that wearing mittens just won't permit. Extra-long cuffs? Yeah, those too...
I'll shoot a picture of my first pair and post them sometime soon. You can see where this mania got started.
It's not that I need more yarn, in worsted weight or any other. My current stash is almost embarrassing. After I counted enough balls/skeins of sock yarn in my collection to make an easy 78 pairs, I missed the additional bag of yarn that was hiding under a couple of other projects. Although I haven't had the nerve to make an exact tally yet, my guess is that the discovery of this additional stash will put me above to 100-pair mark without every trying too hard.
I'm not saying I need to go completely cold turkey in the yarn-buying department, but at least the next dozen pairs have to come straight from my stash before I can even make room for any more yarn. Sure, I know people (many of whom are reading this blog) whose personal stashes make mine look like Charlie Brown's bag of Hallowe'en candy ("I got a rock"), but I've amassed more of the stuff than anyone who has only been knitting for 3-odd years should have collected. I was able to adopt out a cone and a half of Brown Sheep Bulky to Dale, but that barely made an open spot in the Brown Sheep collection.
Greg has asked me to make him a pair of socks, which is a pretty neat thing. I typically make the first of any type of knitted article for myself, so I can live with whatever mistakes I've made during the learning process. Now that I've made several pairs of socks and even given a couple of pairs as gifts, I feel confident that I can create a pair for Greg that he'll actually be seen wearing. I showed him the two balls of dark-gray Jawoll I'd acquired, and he didn't wince much.
Gregory Hall Does Carnegie Hall
Speaking of Greg, he's been hard at work on the Brass Quintet of late, while he's waiting to hear what shakes out in the schedule for the upcoming CD of sax quartets. A trumpeter he's been corresponding with has mentioned possibly playing the piece at Carnegie Recital Hall this spring. Sounds like an auspicious place for a debut to me.
A Training Breakthrough
Seamus and I have been taking three classes a week for the past month and a half or so. Things just happened to have worked out that way -- we got into the competitive agility class in Portland that we'd been hoping to join, plus we have the Saturday class we enjoy, and Sunday is Rally Day. If it seems as though I've been spending half my time at one dog class or another, it's because... well... I have.
The work is paying off, though. Seamus's attention and my handling skills have both sustained a sudden increase, probably due to the fact that we're in class three nights out of every seven. Even though each class is distinct, they all have one main thing in common: they require teamwork. Seamus and I have been becoming a better team in the past few weeks. I'm very proud of the little guy, and I hope the additional work is helping me become the kind of handler who can help him be his best. I'm beginning to relax, and I'm even enjoying the competition class. Some of the other handlers are even talking to me now.
That has changed a little bit since my friend Fran and I took a mitten-knitting class up at Rosemary's a couple of weeks ago. We had ourselves a grand old time (aside from the snowstorm we had to drive through on the way home). Mittens work up quickly and they're wicked easy to make. I may not wear them much myself (though the dark peacock blue shade of Peace Fleece I chose for my class pair is so beautiful you can taste it), but now I envision myself spewing forth pairs upon pairs of mittens from my blazing needles. My niece and nephew each need pairs (plus extras in case of loss), for sure. So does everyone else in my family, and in the neighborhood, and... If I were a faster knitter, I'd be leaving pairs of mittens on doorsteps, ringing the bell, and running away.
Not only that, but the basic mitten pattern looks awfully plain in just one color. I've caught myself scanning the available worsted-weight wool in the house and thinking about how nice some patterned mittens might look. Oh, and flip-top mittens at that, since I still want the use of my fingers at times, in ways that wearing mittens just won't permit. Extra-long cuffs? Yeah, those too...
I'll shoot a picture of my first pair and post them sometime soon. You can see where this mania got started.
It's not that I need more yarn, in worsted weight or any other. My current stash is almost embarrassing. After I counted enough balls/skeins of sock yarn in my collection to make an easy 78 pairs, I missed the additional bag of yarn that was hiding under a couple of other projects. Although I haven't had the nerve to make an exact tally yet, my guess is that the discovery of this additional stash will put me above to 100-pair mark without every trying too hard.
I'm not saying I need to go completely cold turkey in the yarn-buying department, but at least the next dozen pairs have to come straight from my stash before I can even make room for any more yarn. Sure, I know people (many of whom are reading this blog) whose personal stashes make mine look like Charlie Brown's bag of Hallowe'en candy ("I got a rock"), but I've amassed more of the stuff than anyone who has only been knitting for 3-odd years should have collected. I was able to adopt out a cone and a half of Brown Sheep Bulky to Dale, but that barely made an open spot in the Brown Sheep collection.
Greg has asked me to make him a pair of socks, which is a pretty neat thing. I typically make the first of any type of knitted article for myself, so I can live with whatever mistakes I've made during the learning process. Now that I've made several pairs of socks and even given a couple of pairs as gifts, I feel confident that I can create a pair for Greg that he'll actually be seen wearing. I showed him the two balls of dark-gray Jawoll I'd acquired, and he didn't wince much.
Gregory Hall Does Carnegie Hall
Speaking of Greg, he's been hard at work on the Brass Quintet of late, while he's waiting to hear what shakes out in the schedule for the upcoming CD of sax quartets. A trumpeter he's been corresponding with has mentioned possibly playing the piece at Carnegie Recital Hall this spring. Sounds like an auspicious place for a debut to me.
A Training Breakthrough
Seamus and I have been taking three classes a week for the past month and a half or so. Things just happened to have worked out that way -- we got into the competitive agility class in Portland that we'd been hoping to join, plus we have the Saturday class we enjoy, and Sunday is Rally Day. If it seems as though I've been spending half my time at one dog class or another, it's because... well... I have.
The work is paying off, though. Seamus's attention and my handling skills have both sustained a sudden increase, probably due to the fact that we're in class three nights out of every seven. Even though each class is distinct, they all have one main thing in common: they require teamwork. Seamus and I have been becoming a better team in the past few weeks. I'm very proud of the little guy, and I hope the additional work is helping me become the kind of handler who can help him be his best. I'm beginning to relax, and I'm even enjoying the competition class. Some of the other handlers are even talking to me now.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Sometimes the Smallest Things are Luxury Enough
I've been a total miscreant this past week. Except for my Saturday morning agility class with Seamus, I cut all my classes just to have more time to myself. Don't get me wrong -- I love my classes -- but the one thing I really wanted more than anything was just to sleep late, slowly reviving myself over a nice big steaming mug of coffee, and reveling in the relative quiet.
Greg's hiking Mt. Abbot in the snow and ice this afternoon. I have my giant mug of coffee, and all the pups are napping. Ahhhhhhh.
Wednesday was my 50th birthday, and I can't quite tell whether I'm more relieved or disappointed that it wasn't a very big deal. I got more mail from AARP than anybody else. When I turned 40, I was so horrified at the 40th-birthday parties some of my friends were throwing with Depends and Dentu-Creme as gifts that I couldn't wait to get out of Dodge. I spent that birthday on a business trip to Sarasota, driving around Longboat Key in a co-worker's rented Mustang convertible.
If I'd had the time and the available funds, I probably would have hied myself off to someplace warm, where I could sit on the beach with an umbrella drink in one hand and a book in the other, and with no interruptions. Greg says he has no interest in going to Hawaii or any other such place, but I remember his having said that about New Orleans once, too -- and now I think he wants to get back there worse than I do.
The Dogs of Winter
Now that we're experiencing actual winter in this latitude, it's mostly been too frickin' cold to snow. We did get about 5 inches earlier in the week, though, and the puppies couldn't wait to get out and play in it...
To Dinah, the world is her snow cone...
Charlie has always enjoyed romping in the snow...
And Seamus, our little Canadian guy, is pretty happy in this weather... eh?
Music News (Such As There Is)
Greg's been so busy coordinating the various people, pieces, and papers associated with the upcoming CD that he hasn't really had much time to do extensive work on his own pieces. Now that the initial work is done, he's been able to go back and do some work on his own compositions.
Following in Bach's tradition, he borrowed one of his own themes (the brass chorale from Niagara) and expanded it into a theme and variations for brass quintet. A friend of mine plays with a few different bands around the Portland area, and one of the groups was interested in playing it when Greg's ready for a performance. My friend listened to it and said that it was beyond the abilities of most of the folks she plays with, but that the first trumpet in the band that requested the piece could certainly find brass players who were up to the challenge.
It's a big, full, colorful piece with many shifting moods -- I'm really looking forward to hearing the finished piece.
I'm a sucker for big brass sounds, anyway. No matter how many times I hear it, Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man still gives me the chills. (I had it as a ringtone for my phone a while ago, but got tired of people saying, "Oh, the Olympics!" I now have the Blues Brothers' rendition of Curtis Mayfield's "I Can't Turn You Loose" -- come to think of it, that piece is another brass showcase. If you're a fan of the movie, this is the song they play during the big cop-car-chase scene.)
Who, Me?
I'm not usually the kind of person who gets singled out for recognition, which is why I've never been a big one for awards. It's nice to be able to do stuff with my dogs that earns them recognition, but their achievements are theirs. In general, when it's time for the glory to be given out, I'm not the one people generally see.
Imagine my complete surprise, then, when the rest of the BCCME Board presented me with a certificate naming me Member of the Year 2006, plus an accompanying gift certificate for one of the local restaurants. I was so surprised I almost looked behind me to see who else might be standing there. That was just so nice of them, and so unexpected -- plus it's a rare pleasure to be that surprised. All I can say is, "Wow!"
Falling in Love Again
Since my PC committed seppuku, I've been forced to spend more time getting re-acquainted with my Mac -- and I must tell you, this computer makes me wonder where I've been all these years. I seriously LOVE this machine. Every day I find another nifty built-in function of OS X that I hadn't taken the time to discover before, each one makes me want to create something. I'm happiest when I'm creating, so this little machine has just been a complete delight since I started really using it. It's so nicely integrated, and everything talks to everything else. It just makes me want to MAKE STUFF all day long.
Dedicated Windows types generally regard Macophiles as belonging to some sort of cult. How can anyone be THAT crazy about a frickin' computer? I used to take that kind of abuse from the bigger Windows types at my former job (though the UNIX folks were pretty cool) -- but I was the first one they came to see when their PCs couldn't read one another's file formats. I use Windows, UNIX, and MacOS every day -- and I just don't get that fired up about Windows. I don't hate it, I don't regard it as the enemy, but there's just nothing about it that I can find compelling. Not so the Mac. I could play with this thing all day -- and it even has UNIX, so I can play with that too if I really want to.
Greg bought me a copy of Parallels Desktop for my birthday. I know the real gearheads out there are all talking about VMWare, but Parallels is pretty damn cool. It allows me to bring up a Windows XP window using my XP Boot Camp partition while running Mac OS. Like most virtual machines, it's not exactly high-performance. If I want to run Photoshop or another resource hog, I still need to boot into Windows for real -- but now I can easily find stuff on my other partition without having to drop everything I'm doing on this one.
My latest find is MacGourmet. How much freakin' fun can you have?! It not only functions as a recipe database that helps you figure out what you can cook with what you have, but it converts from metric to US and back, clips recipes from Web sites and emails, and even enables you to publish your recipe collection on iWeb so you can share it with other MacGourmet users and access it yourself. (Anyone who has ever saved piles of stuff cut out from the daily newspaper will appreciate this feature. Web pages never get yellow and brittle with age.)
Best of all, the company is located in Lewiston, Maine. Maybe it's because I've had to spend my entire career working out of state, but it never fails to delight me to hear that other folks are actually doing high tech in Maine. You go, guys!
Just a Little Knitting
I haven't really had much time to take up the needles of late, but I'm working on a few things. Susannah bought a couple of skeins of Manos cotton yarn in a sweet shade of lavender, and I'm knitting a simple-but-satisfying 1x1 rib scarf for her. This yarn is so soft and so nice to handle that I might just be sad to be finished with it.
The Seacolors sweater has progressed to the point where the back is done, and I've started a few rows of the front. This is my current favorite "dumb knitting" project, since I have to put out about 29" of simple stockinette before I really have to pay attention to what I'm supposed to be doing. Works for me. I have a lot of TiVo to catch up on.
This coming Friday, Fran and I are taking a mitten class at Rosemary's. I can probably figure out how to make them on my own, but it's good for the soul to spend an afternoon over there with Fran and some other folks, working with our local Peace Fleece yarn and having a good old time. It's just plain nice to get out of the routine sometimes. Even if it's not a real trip to someplace warm, it's a mini-vacation where I get to go someplace and make something warm. Close enough.
Greg's hiking Mt. Abbot in the snow and ice this afternoon. I have my giant mug of coffee, and all the pups are napping. Ahhhhhhh.
Wednesday was my 50th birthday, and I can't quite tell whether I'm more relieved or disappointed that it wasn't a very big deal. I got more mail from AARP than anybody else. When I turned 40, I was so horrified at the 40th-birthday parties some of my friends were throwing with Depends and Dentu-Creme as gifts that I couldn't wait to get out of Dodge. I spent that birthday on a business trip to Sarasota, driving around Longboat Key in a co-worker's rented Mustang convertible.
If I'd had the time and the available funds, I probably would have hied myself off to someplace warm, where I could sit on the beach with an umbrella drink in one hand and a book in the other, and with no interruptions. Greg says he has no interest in going to Hawaii or any other such place, but I remember his having said that about New Orleans once, too -- and now I think he wants to get back there worse than I do.
The Dogs of Winter
Now that we're experiencing actual winter in this latitude, it's mostly been too frickin' cold to snow. We did get about 5 inches earlier in the week, though, and the puppies couldn't wait to get out and play in it...
To Dinah, the world is her snow cone...
Charlie has always enjoyed romping in the snow...
And Seamus, our little Canadian guy, is pretty happy in this weather... eh?
Music News (Such As There Is)
Greg's been so busy coordinating the various people, pieces, and papers associated with the upcoming CD that he hasn't really had much time to do extensive work on his own pieces. Now that the initial work is done, he's been able to go back and do some work on his own compositions.
Following in Bach's tradition, he borrowed one of his own themes (the brass chorale from Niagara) and expanded it into a theme and variations for brass quintet. A friend of mine plays with a few different bands around the Portland area, and one of the groups was interested in playing it when Greg's ready for a performance. My friend listened to it and said that it was beyond the abilities of most of the folks she plays with, but that the first trumpet in the band that requested the piece could certainly find brass players who were up to the challenge.
It's a big, full, colorful piece with many shifting moods -- I'm really looking forward to hearing the finished piece.
I'm a sucker for big brass sounds, anyway. No matter how many times I hear it, Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man still gives me the chills. (I had it as a ringtone for my phone a while ago, but got tired of people saying, "Oh, the Olympics!" I now have the Blues Brothers' rendition of Curtis Mayfield's "I Can't Turn You Loose" -- come to think of it, that piece is another brass showcase. If you're a fan of the movie, this is the song they play during the big cop-car-chase scene.)
Who, Me?
I'm not usually the kind of person who gets singled out for recognition, which is why I've never been a big one for awards. It's nice to be able to do stuff with my dogs that earns them recognition, but their achievements are theirs. In general, when it's time for the glory to be given out, I'm not the one people generally see.
Imagine my complete surprise, then, when the rest of the BCCME Board presented me with a certificate naming me Member of the Year 2006, plus an accompanying gift certificate for one of the local restaurants. I was so surprised I almost looked behind me to see who else might be standing there. That was just so nice of them, and so unexpected -- plus it's a rare pleasure to be that surprised. All I can say is, "Wow!"
Falling in Love Again
Since my PC committed seppuku, I've been forced to spend more time getting re-acquainted with my Mac -- and I must tell you, this computer makes me wonder where I've been all these years. I seriously LOVE this machine. Every day I find another nifty built-in function of OS X that I hadn't taken the time to discover before, each one makes me want to create something. I'm happiest when I'm creating, so this little machine has just been a complete delight since I started really using it. It's so nicely integrated, and everything talks to everything else. It just makes me want to MAKE STUFF all day long.
Dedicated Windows types generally regard Macophiles as belonging to some sort of cult. How can anyone be THAT crazy about a frickin' computer? I used to take that kind of abuse from the bigger Windows types at my former job (though the UNIX folks were pretty cool) -- but I was the first one they came to see when their PCs couldn't read one another's file formats. I use Windows, UNIX, and MacOS every day -- and I just don't get that fired up about Windows. I don't hate it, I don't regard it as the enemy, but there's just nothing about it that I can find compelling. Not so the Mac. I could play with this thing all day -- and it even has UNIX, so I can play with that too if I really want to.
Greg bought me a copy of Parallels Desktop for my birthday. I know the real gearheads out there are all talking about VMWare, but Parallels is pretty damn cool. It allows me to bring up a Windows XP window using my XP Boot Camp partition while running Mac OS. Like most virtual machines, it's not exactly high-performance. If I want to run Photoshop or another resource hog, I still need to boot into Windows for real -- but now I can easily find stuff on my other partition without having to drop everything I'm doing on this one.
My latest find is MacGourmet. How much freakin' fun can you have?! It not only functions as a recipe database that helps you figure out what you can cook with what you have, but it converts from metric to US and back, clips recipes from Web sites and emails, and even enables you to publish your recipe collection on iWeb so you can share it with other MacGourmet users and access it yourself. (Anyone who has ever saved piles of stuff cut out from the daily newspaper will appreciate this feature. Web pages never get yellow and brittle with age.)
Best of all, the company is located in Lewiston, Maine. Maybe it's because I've had to spend my entire career working out of state, but it never fails to delight me to hear that other folks are actually doing high tech in Maine. You go, guys!
Just a Little Knitting
I haven't really had much time to take up the needles of late, but I'm working on a few things. Susannah bought a couple of skeins of Manos cotton yarn in a sweet shade of lavender, and I'm knitting a simple-but-satisfying 1x1 rib scarf for her. This yarn is so soft and so nice to handle that I might just be sad to be finished with it.
The Seacolors sweater has progressed to the point where the back is done, and I've started a few rows of the front. This is my current favorite "dumb knitting" project, since I have to put out about 29" of simple stockinette before I really have to pay attention to what I'm supposed to be doing. Works for me. I have a lot of TiVo to catch up on.
This coming Friday, Fran and I are taking a mitten class at Rosemary's. I can probably figure out how to make them on my own, but it's good for the soul to spend an afternoon over there with Fran and some other folks, working with our local Peace Fleece yarn and having a good old time. It's just plain nice to get out of the routine sometimes. Even if it's not a real trip to someplace warm, it's a mini-vacation where I get to go someplace and make something warm. Close enough.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Snow Dogs
Dinah Moe enjoying the winter weather
Seamus relaxing in his "thinking spot" in the corner of the dog yard.
When Bad Things Happen for Good Reasons
Don't be alarmed -- we're all okay. My car didn't crash this past weekend, but my formerly-trusty Toshiba laptop did. There I was, innocently reading my Yahoo email, when all of a sudden the poor thing went into a sort of infinite loop. It shut down, then booted as far as the initial Windows screen, then shut down again, then started over.
The restore disc that came with the laptop seems to have disappeared into a black hole, so I'm awaiting a new one from Toshiba. I did try to do a clean install of XP from my other full copy, but it didn't work.
What's the worst that could happen? I don't think my hard drive is shot -- the boot sectors have been corrupted somehow, and I'll lose my installed programs and settings when I do a restore operation. Most of my data is on the external drive, and the rest is online and recoverable (such as the files for my Web site). Sucks, though. It will takes ages to reinstall all those applications.
What's the good news in all of this? Well, I've been forced by circumstance to make better friends with my lovely new MacBook Pro. I never quite "moved in" to the new machine after I bought it last summer -- I had planned to move all of the stuff from my Toshiba onto its Windows partition eventually -- but now I'm living on the MacBook and discovering all of the Massively Cool things OS X has to offer. I've been a Mac fan since the mid-'80s, but four years of PC and UNIX only caused me to forget how much fun the Mac really is.
I've been playing with iWeb, created my very first photocast, and in general having a pretty rockin' time of it.
The restore disc that came with the laptop seems to have disappeared into a black hole, so I'm awaiting a new one from Toshiba. I did try to do a clean install of XP from my other full copy, but it didn't work.
What's the worst that could happen? I don't think my hard drive is shot -- the boot sectors have been corrupted somehow, and I'll lose my installed programs and settings when I do a restore operation. Most of my data is on the external drive, and the rest is online and recoverable (such as the files for my Web site). Sucks, though. It will takes ages to reinstall all those applications.
What's the good news in all of this? Well, I've been forced by circumstance to make better friends with my lovely new MacBook Pro. I never quite "moved in" to the new machine after I bought it last summer -- I had planned to move all of the stuff from my Toshiba onto its Windows partition eventually -- but now I'm living on the MacBook and discovering all of the Massively Cool things OS X has to offer. I've been a Mac fan since the mid-'80s, but four years of PC and UNIX only caused me to forget how much fun the Mac really is.
I've been playing with iWeb, created my very first photocast, and in general having a pretty rockin' time of it.
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