You’ve got the touch… you’ve got the POWAAAH!

First of all, as promised, here are the pictures from the day the hardwood floors were installed:

Click the picture to see the entire gallery!

So, I didn’t mention it here yet, but Jenn’s computer got fried last week. Her mom was over at her house doing some work on it, and a delivery truck outside snapped a power line and caused an outage on her block. When the power came back on, the computer wouldn’t. 😦 I opened it up and poked and prodded at everything. But since I’ve never really done any hardware removal or installation (I can identify the guts, but I’ve never moved ’em around), I wasn’t sure what to do. Finally, after process of elimination, I figured out that the power supply was receiving power, but it wasn’t sending that power to the components. Which meant, thankfully (cuz they’re cheap), she needed a new power supply.

(By the way, you can click these pics if you wanna see the bigger images)

So, we went to Fry’s Electronics last night… and I made the mistake of talking to an employee. Look, don’t get me wrong. I’m certainly not insulting the intelligence of Fry’s employees, because they most definitely know their stuff. But let’s face it… most of them are real jerks about it. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but many of them have a bad habit of talking down to their customers and making us feel like crap no matter how much we know about what we’re looking for. Seems like every time I walk into a Fry’s and try talking to an employee, I’m left feeling like a big fat dummy when it’s all said and done, when in reality, I should be walking out of the store feeling pretty dang awesome because I just bought myself some sweet new bit of tech. It’s ridiculous! And not only was this first guy we talked to the epitome of what I’m talking about here, but he scared the living daylights out of Jenn by saying that the power surge probably wiped out her entire system, including the hard drive. I thought Jenn was going to faint when she heard that, because all of our wedding plans are on that computer. So, the guy says this, but then says that if we want to try replacing the power supply and see if that works (which he said in a very snarky manner), they’re “right down that aisle.” Yeah, he didn’t offer to help us find the right one. He just basically told us that we were idiots for thinking we could fix this computer, but hey, give it a shot. *sigh* Anyway, I found one that I thought would work, so Jenn bought it and we took it back to her house.

Once we got back, I opened the computer back up and removed the old power supply. Which is kinda hard, by the way. Let me think… there were… at least six different places where that power supply was plugged into something. And each connection had a lovely and colorful bundle of wires accompanying it, which made it hard to separate each connection and make sure everything was unplugged before trying to pull the box out. But anyway, did that, and I opened up the new power supply… only to find that it had the wrong connections. I didn’t even know that power supplies could have different connections! See where the employee could have helped us out here? AUGH.

Now let me digress here for a second. I’m 100% sure that not all Fry’s Electronics stores are staffed with jerks. I’m positive that there are a few out there that are chock full of some of the nicest darn people on the planet. The one in Arlington? Not so much.

BUT, there are a few. And after I brought the power supply back and got a refund (thank goodness Jenn paid with cash), I was fortunate enough to have not one, but two nice employees help me out. Here’s the best part: I told them about what happened to the computer, and one of the guys was like, “Oh, yeah, I’m sure your hard drive is fine. It should just be the power supply, and incidents like this almost never fry the other components. Especially the hard drive, those things are pretty resilient.”

I looked at him, and I could have started to do a jig. Never in my life have I been so happy to talk to a Fry’s employee.

So, once we (yes, WE, because they helped me find one) found one that would work, I took it back to Jenn’s house, popped it in, plugged in the eight billion connections, and hit the power button. The fan whirred to life, and the power button glowed a lovely shade of blue. We had POWAAAHHH! Hallelujah! So I took it back in the computer room and plugged the monitor in, 100% sure that we were going to see the desktop with everything there.

The screen stayed black.

I thought Jenn was going to start crying. We were both like, “What’s wrong? Why won’t it come on? Is the hard drive dead? We’ve lost everything!”

So I’m sitting there just, like, beyond pissed off. I thought I had fixed it, and that I was right the whole time, and that my first “surgery” was a success. I was SO mad at myself for not being able to fix her computer, and that she had lost everything.

Then, the nerd side of my brain kicked in and thought “… I wonder if I really plugged everything in?”

So I unplugged the monitor and took the computer back to the kitchen table where I was working on it. Opened it back up and got my flashlight out. I perused the entire motherboard from every angle. Sure enough, tucked back in behind the CPU fan, there was a little 4-pin connection that I had forgotten about. I plugged that in, took it back to the computer room, plugged in the monitor, and turned it back on. While I was sitting there waiting for it to turn on, I told Jenn to come in there with me.

Just as she walked in, the desktop with all her stuff came up on the monitor, and I turned around and said to her, “Welcome back.” We were both SO happy and relieved that everything was just where she left it. The second guy was right, the hard drive was totally fine. Praise the Lord!

*whew* What a story, huh?

So anyway, this weekend, Jenn’s wanting to go shopping for a new dress for something we have coming up soon. We’re gonna hit the Parks Mall tonight and get some food somewhere out there. Tomorrow, she’s going to a wedding shower for one of the girls at our church, and then we’re gonna drive on up to Frisco so I can go to the LEGO Store and hopefully get my bag o’ goodies for helping out last weekend. She’s gonna look for a dress out there, too. Also, hopefully, we’ll be swinging by North Park Mall to pick up the models for that LEGO Store, because they accidentally got shipped there instead of to my house. … She’s gonna look for a dress out there, too. LOL!

Dunno yet what we’re doing for Memorial Day. What are your plans?

Oh, and one more quote from my coworker. I’m sitting here working on this entry. It’s dead quiet in here. All of a sudden, I hear him tell the chat room he’s in (via microphone):

“ARR! I’m in my pirate suit! ARR!”

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

Uh...

So, how was your weekend?

Oh, it was pretty good. Thanks for asking. Today kinda sucked, though. We had a power outage for about thirty minutes this morning, and when the power came back on, the network was all sorts of wonky. I’m only now able to use the internet in a normal fashion. Lame.

Jenn and I (with Colin and Misty in tow) went out to Frisco on Friday night for the grand opening of the LEGO Store at Stonebriar Centre. From what the managers told me, it was an epic grand opening, to say the least. Apparently it was the best grand opening of any LEGO Store evar, which is pretty freakin’ sweet. Colin and I volunteered to help break apart some bricks that were used to help build the eight foot tall R2-D2 during the day, and we’ll be getting gift cards and some other goodies for our service when we go back up there next Saturday.

On Saturday, Jenn finally got her hardwood floors! The workers from Home Depot came out around 9:00 that morning, and they worked hard until and got everything done by around 1:30. The result is just absolutely stunning. Between the maple floors and the gorgeous tan color we painted the walls with, it’s like a whole new house. Everything feels so much warmer in there, and it’s real easy to just kick back on the couch and take a nice nap. Easier than before, at least! Anyway, I’ll upload some better pictures soon, because these cell phone pictures just don’t do it justice. Though my fiancé looks pretty cute in this one: 😉

How you doin'?

So yep, that’s FINALLY done. Jenn was starting to get antsy having all her furniture stacked in the kitchen for two weeks (between painting and the floors), so it was a tremendous relief (for both of us) to finally get everything back where it belongs.

Oh, and a big pat on the back for Erin S., Jana C., and everyone else who coordinated the absolutely adorable children’s choir performance at church last night. Y’all did an excellent job! “I know a Noah, I knowww a Noooah….” 🙂

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

A g-g-g-ghost! (I think I used this caption before)

A Heavenly Chorus.

That’s what I heard when I went into the stock room of the new LEGO Retail Store in Frisco last night. So… much… LEGO. It was beautiful.

Now, why didn’t I take any pictures? Your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, yeah, Jenn and I went out to Stonebriar Centre last night to drop off the models I had to build for the store displays. Got to see the store in its incomplete form, which was still pretty sweet. All the sets were out on the shelves and the Pick-A-Brick was stocked (same stock as the Houston store, dangit). Basically, the center of the store wasn’t done, and neither was the front window displays. Still a lot of work to be done, but I’m sure it’ll all be ready by the time the store is supposed to open on Thursday. We’re going out there on Friday, and I’m going to volunteer during the big building event they’re gonna have to celebrate the grand opening. Basically, kids who want to participate use bricks to build a single large brick, which is then used to help a LEGO Master Builder build an eight foot tall statue of R2-D2 out in the court in front of Dillard’s. Should be pretty fun.

I just found out that the inventory sheets I’m supposed to do for my computer labs are due tomorrow. So umm… I’ll be right back.

… Apparently pressing “Save Draft” equates to publishing it on the blog. Awesome. Anyway, I gotta few minutes while my laptop brings up my inventory list, so I’ll wrap this up.

So after we hung out at the LEGO Store for a while, Jenn and I walked around the mall a bit and took in the sights. Drove around for a bit after that looking for something Mexican to eat for dinner. Finally found an On The Border, so we had some yum-yums there. And on the way home we got some ice cream from Braums, which was quite the delicious treat.

I’ve got my World Civ final tonight, and my Reformation final tomorrow night. Then I’m done for a couple weeks until summer school starts. I’m definitely looking forward to having a few evenings where I can just sit back and relax immediately after work for once. Yay!

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

My nose is hawt.