Life continues.

The R.C. is recovering from her head cold and seemed to enjoy her birthday largesse very much. She's working her way through the new DS game. She hasn’t said much about it, which might mean she's completely absorbed in it or maybe she's not having fun, but whatever. I also got her a couple of new Giant Bug Movies and someday, when we're both home and not busy in the evening, we will watch them.

I've been doing a bit of work from time to time and she's learning Spanish. A second language is always good. I enjoyed both Spanish and French when I studied them, but never learned to do what you might call speak either language. (One year of Spanish in Junior High wasn't really designed to confer that level of confidence.) The R.C. is determined to learn, though, and has been studying hard.

At moments, I feel a bit guilty and slothful because I'm not learning to communicate with the rest of the world, and then I tell myself I learned to speak Computer, and that should be enough.

The new computer is still a sweet dream to play with. Fast and shiny! But.... When I got it operational on Saturday, I generously let it install 32 software updates that it insisted were really, really, really important to its happiness and future well-being. I did understand--it had been in the box for a while and the software world had moved on. It needed to catch up.

I was not at all pleased to sit down at the keyboard four days later, yesterday, and find it demanding to be allowed to download and install eight more updates.

I suspect most PC users just tell the bloody OS to download and install whatever it wants, whenever it wants, so they aren't driven psychotic by the relentless demands for attention. I am not that type.* Updates are allowed to install if I want them. Not otherwise.

My biggest annoyance, so far, is that I can't find any way to tell the stupid OS to stop showing me updates after I've rejected them.* * You used to be able to do that, but I haven't figured out a way with this new system. What I really want, of course, is an option that reads, "shut up and go away" but you never get those.* * *

Oh! I almost forgot!

Today I am wearing a rather drab brown ensemble that it amuses me to refer to as "champagne beige" and which I purchased so I'd have something to wear with my Most Fabulous Shoes, and I got a compliment. From a man who actually noticed the shoes! In fact, he liked the whole outfit and asked if I was dressed up for a special meeting! NewBoss Anais occasionally mentions it if she likes a blouse I have on, the women in the office are pretty much in universal agreement over the fabulousness of the Most Fabulous Shoes, but other than that, no one really comments on what I'm wearing and, okay, I can go six or seven hours in this office and not actually see or be seen by another human being, but still, it's nice to be complimented.

There were other random things happening but it turns out they're all so boring I can't even be bothered to type about them.

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* I will admit to minor fantasies about a room full of M*cr*s*ft programmers and me with an oversized fly-swatter....

* * I have a perfectly good, up-to-date virus program. I don't need M*cr*s*ft deciding what software is "malicious" and removing it for me. Heck will freeze over--or several months will pass, at least--before I download the latest bloody version of blasted IE. The only reason I don't delete the program completely is that I have one site I use for work that won't function with any other browser.

* * * Unless you use Webstrainer, of course. On one of their suggestion pages, if you click, "this isn't relevant at the moment" you get an "oh, drat" sort of image ( :-\ ) and it you click the "this is completely irrelevant to my entire life and always will be" option, the little image is red-faced and shouting. It's so adorable I don't mind at all when 85% of the suggestions are ridiculously off-target.