Yesterday was supposed to be my Day Off - a day of errands and cooking, along with some other tasks on my mental agenda. That all came to a screeching halt when Chickie phoned me shortly after 10:00 am with a computer question. It seemed that the Sales Register computer was suddenly not talking to the Host (Main) computer and thus, it was unusable. We tried a couple of things over the phone that didn't work, and I gave up on baking the gluten-free blueberry muffins I had been planning to make and headed over to the shop.
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It wasn't quite the "Blue Screen of Death" that we were getting, but it was a communications error that we couldn't manage to track down. It took Dale and I more than an hour to figure out exactly what was going on, but once we had it figured out, it was an easy fix. He only charged me for an hour. He's SUCH a sweetheart. |
Once I got there, I didn't have any more luck than they did. Chickie was hand-writing sales using receipt books we keep on hand for emergencies (and repair tickets) and DH was grumpy because he couldn't get any of his computer work done. I gave up and phoned Dale, my Computer Guru, leaving him a message on both his mobile and his business phones. I figured he'd get one or the other. Then I headed out to the craft show I had wanted to see and figured I'd get at least some viewing of pretty things in before Dale returned my call.
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I love going to "Peggy's Holiday Craft Boutique" show. She has 150 different artists on display for nine days and it's always crowded and extremely well attended. The quality level is top-level and I've purchased items from artists who exhibit there in the past. This time I only got 1/2-way through the exhibitors before I had to leave and return to the shop to deal with the computer issues. |
About 30-45 minutes later, Dale called, and I hopped in the car and headed back over to the shop. That started about an hour of "try this, OK, now try that" efforts before we finally isolated the problem, double-checked our solution, and went with it. Voila! Success. Dale billed me for an hour of his time (well worth it), I read him a credit card number, and we were set once again. He's a good friend and on my Holiday Card list. He's one of the many who actually save my cards, which I consider such an honor. In pre-Covid days, I used to sit in one of his chairs while he worked on my equipment, and we'd talk theology. He's frightening intelligent, and I'm sure would love me to "come to the dark side" (which means Christianity in his case), but I'm quite happily Pagan and have no intention of changing my beliefs. Still, we discuss innumerable things because we're both fascinated with religion and I have a pretty solid knowledge base in Christianity, although I don't subscribe to it for my personal life.
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The problem turned out to be my Network Switch which had become confused. After tracking down which cable led to what and switching things around, everything worked properly. Then, when we returned all of the cables to their original positions, the 'fix' was already in place and everyone played nice. The computers were once again talking to each other and we were back up and running. |
So, crisis solved, it was already early afternoon and baking would have to be quick. I still had my Ogre Juice to make for the next week, and Aearwen was going to phone at 4:00 pm since our usual Wednesday chat had to be postponed. Instead of making blueberry muffins, I made gluten-free brownies before diving in to make my Alkagizers. Pushing through, I had the last of the dishes washed and put away and had enough time to make a hot cup of tea (to which I added a splash of rum) before Aearwen phoned.
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The brownies are quite tasty. I'll definitely make these again. It's easy - three eggs and the mix in my mixer, then bake. Just about my speed for baking - LOL. I kept eight in the refrigerator and froze the other eight. |
I ate two of the brownies last night (an 8x8 pan made 16 brownies, so they're small). They're actually pretty tasty. I'd do this one again. The mix I was using was from Bob's Red Mill and it's pretty darned good. I'll make the blueberry muffins next week and I hope they'll be equally tasty. The muffin mix makes six muffins.
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I'm looking forward to making the gluten-free muffins next week. I haven't had a muffin in a long time and I rather miss them. If they're as good as the brownies are, I'll be delighted. |
So that was my excitement for the day. I never did get back to the craft show, but I go for inspiration, not really to buy anything. I'll catch them again next year. I hope you have a wonderful Saturday and weekend. I'll start painting my cards tomorrow while I'm watching football and I'll let everyone know when they are in the mail. We're almost there! Peace and Slava Ukraini.
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