Technological Carnage

1. So the latest crisis is that our wonderful, magnificent, does-everything-in-the-universe-home-made DVR exploded early yesterday morning (about 1 am). On the day before the children are off from school and home for vacation, we have no access to any of our videos, recordings or even live TV. Almost a terrabyte of data is inaccessible and may be completely gone. Needless to say, we are a little down about this.

We do have a lot of DVD's in the shed that can be brought inside and I'm sure I can find the DVD drive that's somewhere in the laundry room and hook it up to a laptop or two so we can watch a few movies (currently, my mother's laptop is serving as a DVD player for Miranda) but this is a little disheartening. The crises are starting to stack up on each other; we don't quite have a chance to recover from one when the next one knocks us flat.

So, on this weekend of Christmas when we're supposed to be celebrating the birth of Christ and enjoying our time with family, Marshall will be trying to resurrect Borg (the name of the server) and I will be trying to help while distracting the children. If you think of us, pray for patience and that new hardware and software will speed up the process considerably.

2. On a lighter note, I have started playing Words with Friends on Facebook. Apparently, I'm having a hard time amusing myself in the evening hours without all those television shows to watch so I have opened 12 different games, at present, looking for someone to help me pass the time and do something slightly intellectual. Of course, I'm also working my way through all the FreeCell games, starting at 1 and am now on game #530. I haven't beat all of them without help, though. Apparently, someone has the time to post all of the solutions to every single FreeCell game online. And I thought I had too much free time.

3. I picked up a great book at the library this week and read the first half on Wednesday night, Flirting with Pride & Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick Lit Masterpiece, edited by Jennifer Crusie and Glenn Yeffeth. It's just scholarly enough to be interesting without being dry and boring.

4. There were a whole bunch of new movie trailers released this week, and all of them look good:

• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Wrath of the Titans (although some people are commenting on how much of the story they stole from Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief)
• Prometheus
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation
• The Amazing Spider Man (somehow this photo gives me chills every time I look at it)
• John Carter (well, it was a few weeks ago but we're still very excited to see it)

5. Somehow, in the next few weeks, I would really like to go to the movies, but with my sprained ankle, the most uncomfortable position is sitting. I need to have my leg extended and my foot up to be comfortable. I would prefer not to wait for video for all of these:

• Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Jeremy Renner and Brad Bird--what's not to like?)
• The Adventures of Tintin
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
• The Muppets
• Hugo
• Arthur Christmas

No Dragon tattoos for me; I watched the Swedish movie earlier this year and that was a enough Stieg Larsson-induced trauma for my life, thank you very much.

6. If you have access to a television tonight, and the BBC America channel, you can watch the debut of my favorite Radio Show, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. I'm sure I will find a way to watch it online over the weekend, somehow.

7. I have pretty much been in a bad mood since I sprained my ankle. Even though my physical therapist told me on Wednesday that I am making good progress with my ankle, driving is still pretty painful, so I'm planning not to do that all weekend. It feels like a catastrophe avalanche on our household. So, please, pray for us and pray especially for my attitude. I've not been the best person to be around lately.

And here's Jen. Merry Christmas!