Most of my friends who read here know I work at the deep end of technical support, so not much in the tech world fazes me. Busted server? Ha! I’ve hot-swapped hard drives, build machines from scratch, installed umpteen versions of Windows, managed a hardware RAID array setup during a Windows Server Edition upgrade that didn’t have the proper drivers for the RAID array, setup a network on DOS, etc., etc. Nowadays I do more analysis on the software ends of things – done that in the past, just not to the same extent as my day job.
Suffice to say, I’m reasonably tech savvy. So it irked the living daylights out of me to open a document only to get an error message on my paid version of MS Office saying I was using it unlicensed.
Digging took me all of about 30 seconds to come up with the logical answer. This computer was new for Christmas. It had a 30-day trial of MS Office attached to it, and that’s what was setup INSTEAD of the version I paid for. So the geek in me decided, “I can fix this, no problem!” The self-same article prescribed a command-line fix to remove the outdated license so the new could be activated. Voilà!
Except not voilà. The fix was full of fail. I hate when that happens.
Before it was all over, it needed a fix from Microsoft to actually uninstall the expired license, and then re-install of the new one. Well into the new setup (again), I realized I am re-installing the wrong version. Isn’t that special? It’ll run on my machine, and it’s the right version in that I have the right license, I just wanted to use the 64-bit for a number of reasons and I’m installing the 32 bit. Rather than spending all night to lather, rinse, repeat, I’ll deal with it.
We’ve made a number of respectable yard sale runs lately. Nothing huge, though we’ve made a couple of what I consider to be excellent scores. One is the laptop desk I’m now using. It’s the first one I’ve had that actually WORKS for the way I use my laptop. Another is a faux-leather storage bench we’re using as a coffee table. Having a toddler in the house means nothing’s safe from little climbers/dancers/etc. He’s pretty lightweight, but so was the trunk it replaced. When we installed the new bench in the living room, Little Guy informed us that he loves his new chair. (He assumed from the time it appeared that it was his, naturally.) The rest of us also love his new “chair”, though it looks so good it emphasizes how tacky the rest of our furniture really is. Oh well.
Keep your fingers crossed. We’re hoping G can get his CDL again this year (those things cost a frigging fortune for what he does, in the thousands of dollars.) With a valid CDL, he’s pretty much guaranteed steady work. I might even be able to retire at 65 if we sock away as much as humanly possible into our retirement accounts. He’s already been trying to work out a way I can retire earlier.
Who knows? Maybe my writing will take off.
Oh hush. It could happen.
I guess I should call it a night. My body tells me it isn’t liking this late-night crap, regardless that I slept about 4 hours later than usual this morning.